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Lisa
Messinger's
Cookbook Corner
Charlie
Trotter's Meat & Game
By
Charlie Trotter (Ten Speed)
  If
protein really does help build strong bones and muscles,
you'll need them to lift this dazzling—and heavy—meat-and-game
masterpiece. If you are inclined to think we should
not be eating our two- or four-legged friends, this
is certainly not the book for you: cowhide is splashed
across several pages, a cute lamb is grinning at you
as it trots in a field in a photo next to the title
page, and what at first appears to be a muted color
montage on the book's cover, upon closer inspection,
turns out to be dead feathered game birds.
But
if carnivore is your middle name, there is certainly
a good chance that it is Trotter's as well. He, of
course, is one of the most award-winning chefs in
the country (for Charlie
Trotter's, his Chicago restaurant) and author
of a number of other cookbooks. Along with full-page
color photographs (not all of live animals, but most
of the finished dishes), he gives what will probably
be the best and most sophisticated meat-and-game cooking
class you will ever attend.
In
chapters on "Light Poultry & Other Fowl,"
"Robust Poultry & Other Fowl," "Light
Meat & Game," "Robust Meat & Game"
and "Varietal Meat," Trotter serves up specialties
like quail breast with peppered-pistachio crust, pulped
heirloom tomato and eggplant purée; tea-smoked
Amish chicken with arugula salad and water chestnut-pancetta
vinaigrette; black olive-and-mushroom-stuffed pork
belly with caper berries and garlic chives; and lamb
rack with cumin-scented porcini mushrooms and golden
raisins.
Recipes
are completely gourmet, long and difficult, though
well explained. If you're not a big eater of venison,
rabbit, Scottish hare loin, bison, antelope, wild
boar, grouse and partridge, you might think twice
about this book and look for fields elsewhere to graze.
Following is one of the book's briefest and easiest
recipes (delicious, too).
RECIPES
—Lamb
Rack with Cumin-Scented Porcini Mushrooms and Golden
Raisins
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