Andalusian Salade

The salad came out pretty well, but the cookbook is very difficult. The recipes are really only guidelines, and this book is meant for professional chefs who know what they are doing. They aren't laid out the way most cookbook recipes are, with a list of ingredients right up front. It's a little more like The Joy of Cooking but still not easy to follow. An interesting thing is the lay-out of the chapters. Salads are included in the chapter on Roasts and Salads.

Here is the recipe for the salad:

Peel and quarter some small tomatoes; cut some mild peppers julienne-fashion; cook some rice plainly in salted water, keeping each grain separate; add a little crushed garlic and chopped onion and parsley. Season with oil and vinegar.

That's it -- no quantities, no definition of mild peppers (I used some miniature bell peppers I happened to have). No idea how much rice, and how to keep the grains separate. Anyway, I used the little miniature peppers, one tomato (it's all I had), some leftover green onions, and enough rice to serve four, and bottled vinaigrette. It came out good, no leftovers, and my family gave it three stars.

The cookbook is valuable for its sauces and its historical nature, but not a cookbook I would recommend for the casual family chef. I'd give it 3.5 stars overall.