Pecans

July 1, 2012

Purvis (food editor, Charlotte Observer) has an infectious love of pecans. In a concise introduction that details her obsession, she makes an easy transition from charming (often hilarious) anecdotes to lesser-known food history and science. Her recipes offer more than the usual cookies and pies; there are sweet and savory party foods (e.g., Sweet Heat Sriracha Pecans, Tallahassee Cheese Ring), stuffed and crusted mains, Thanksgiving-worthy sides, and--of course--desserts (e.g., Chocolate Praline Cheesecake). VERDICT A book for readers who can't get enough of pecans. For more recipes, try Keith Courrege and Marcelle Bienvenu's Pecans from Soup to Nuts or June Jackson's In Praise of Pecans: Recipes & Recollections.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
The food editor of the Charlotte Observer, Purvis follows a familiar format with 52 recipes, a chatty preface, and conversational notes about every dish. Who could not laugh out loud over her story of a consumer looking for pecan meats, insistent that just plain old pecans wouldn't do? Or her admission of addiction to this Georgia crop? Pecans, with one ounce counting for 200 calories, appear in a wide variety of appetizers, main dishes, salads and sides, and desserts. Among the more unusual of those are pecan-orange bourbon, roasted broccoli with browned butter pecan sauce, and shrimp and farfalle with pecan pesto. About the famed pie, Purvis quotes Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, True Southern pecan pie is one of the richest, most deadly desserts of my knowledge. It is more overpowering than English treacle pie, which it resembles in texture, for to the insult of the cooked-down syrup is added the injury of the rich pecan meats. The decision to serve it is, of course, up to the individual cook.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)