Ummi Abkin, Roger Taylor – Curry Kimchi

This cookbook shows new ways to cook Asian Cuisine. All the recipes are inspired by the Korean, Mexican-American, and Jewish heritage of the author. 
The recipes are easy to understand and follow plus it gives tips how to present them. 
I cooked several of the recipes and one tastes better than the other in their own special way due to small nuances of flavor of spices used in the recipes. 
Now I feel inspired to try out new variations of these recipes by myself as this book showed me how interesting Asian Cuisine can be.

#CurryKimchi #NetGalleyDE

Interesting and informative resource book. It is evident that the author put a lot of effort into educating the readers about this subject. Highly recommend.

Curry & Kimchi cookery book contains 70 recipes with four of the recipes designed for the Instant Pot/Pressure cooker.

This book is divided into three main parts:
- Dressing & Salads
- Sauces & Salsa with Main Dishes
- Condiments, pickles & infused oils
then there is a list of everyday equipment required, and gives you ideas on where to get your everyday ingredients such as spices, sauces and pastes and explains and shows the different types of sauces or noodles in photographs .

The recipes and ingredients list are laid out differently to other cookery books.  This one lists the ingredients required within the step, though they are shown in a different colour to the step text so do stand out.  The measurements are in imperial only and some of the ingredients use American terms.  However at the rear is a calculation table to make the measurements metric.  Each recipe comes with full colour photography.

The only thing that seemed to be missing was how to cook rice - often a recipe suggested cooked jasmine rice but no instructions, though they do suggest a rice cooker in the equipment section.

Each recipe does look rather delicious and to begin with I'd certainly like to try and make some of the sauces - Thai peanut and plum sauce, try the Korean Bolognese and then their Mac n Cheese.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

Another cookbook that as you go through it your mouth starts watering and you immediately want to try each recipe! Gorgeous photographs, clearly written recipes with extra tips, and wonderful stories to inspire you. This is a book that needs a permanent place on your shelf.

Curry & Kimchi by Unmi Abkin is a free NetGalley ebook that I read in late September.

A cookbook format that presents condiments, sauces, and garnishes with the salads and main courses that they accompany (though there’s a few fermented and oil recipes at the very end). It has squared-off photo assembly/placement and overdesigned ArtDeco font choices with the recipe text and images focused around a slate, brown, and orange color palette. The impersonal, cut and dry narration doesn’t frame these flavorful, depthfilled dishes well at all, leading it to feel like a cookbook created to be a lookbook and the recipes treated secondarily.

While not all the recipes are home chef friendly the majority are. The recipes will give anyone who is adventurous in the kitchen ideas on how they can incorporate the style and flavors into their own food.  The photos are great, especially the plating progress photos to go along with the instructions.

A beautiful cookbook by the couple who owns & operates the restaurant Coco & the Cellar Bar in Easthampton, MA.   The book is full of recipes with Asian-inspired flavors.   Most of the recipes have a sauce/dressing followed by a dish that uses that sauce.    I've already tried a couple of recipes and loved them.  We had the Orange, Mango, Avocado Salad with Jalapeno Lime dressing and the East West Rice Bowls (with a fantastic plum sauce).   These recipes will definitely make into my dinner rotation.  They both came together pretty quickly and had clean, bright flavors.   I have a few other recipes bookmarked and plan to try them out soon. 

This book is due to be released next month and I urge my food-loving friends to check it out. 

I also plan to take a road trip out to Easthampton at some point to dine at Coco & the Cellar Bar.  

<b>I received a free digital review copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. </b>

This book has been beautifully written and I love that the whole family has been involved. The recipes are stunningly presented and the instructions easy to follow, anyone could make these beautiful dishes.

Thank you to Storey Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The combination of Korean and Mexican-American called strongly to me, and I loved the breadth of the recipes included - although I did have some issues with how the book was structured. I felt that the "everyday ingredients" should come at the beginning, to set the groundwork. I also noted that quite a few of the recipes included instructions that presupposed knowledge a beginner would not have, e.g. what is "macerated".? What is a neutral oil? 

As someone who does not live in the US, I was very disappointed that the recipes used exclusively US measurements. Yes, there is a conversion table at the back, but in this day and age I would think using US/metric should be a given. And what is an instant pot? Not available here, but again and again in recipes this is referred to. 

In conclusion: The recipes sounded great, the pictures were lovely (I especially liked the idea of showing "plating progression") - but from a practical point of view, I have issues here.

This was a fun cookbook, as they had a bunch of different sauces and made things look so easy to make.

There’s a lot of good explanations for the seasonings/oils in this book; However I feel like all of the information on Everydayingredients would be better served at the beginning of the book.  This book may not be intended for a beginner, but if it is somethings are assumed. And example would be many recipes call for neutral oil which is not really self-explanatory.  Does that mean corn, canola oil?  I am also a cook that does not like to buy seasonings that won’t be used routinely or cannot be obtained locally. There are those seasonings in this book that will be used only when you do this kind of cooking.   An example of this would be the Togarashi  spice blend .  I do like that there are Instant  pot recipes. As I haven’t made recipes yet, I cannot testify to the  tastiness.  This review is merely coming from a pragmatic stance on the ability to begin the recipes .

What a beautifully presented book. The recipes are well presented with a great variety.  The photos show how to put the dishes together and present them beautifully. The recipes are all easy with a limited amount of ingredients making it easy to make although some ingredients may be hard to find for some but the majority of the products are easily available.  There is a great section to explain the different ingredients and tools required..  This book would look lovely sitting on a coffee table but also is a very practical book for those wanting to try something different..  I received this book as an ARC and would have bought if I had seen in it in a book shop.

I can't resist an Asian cookbook, and the title of this one instantly had me hooked. I love curry. I love kimchi. I was excited about what this cookbook could teach me.

I had never heard of the authors' restaurant, Coco & the Cellar Bar, before even though it turns out I live only a couple of hours away. Their story is inspiring, and I love hearing how the various cultures that both authors come from have influenced their philosophy on cooking. Every recipe is thoughtful and designed to be a more sophisticated, elevated version of Asian food. It's a philosophy that is intriguing, even if I'm not completely sold on it. Coming from a Chinese family and having eaten extensively through China and various Chinatowns, I know that some of the best food comes from the most humble of places and is far from refined. Still, I'm always willing to try new recipes and am always looking for ways to elevate my own cooking.

The recipes are mainly Asian fusion cuisine with influences from China, Japan, and Korea. Recipes include dishes like Honey Miso Noodle Salad, Shoyu Ramen, Hoisin-Glazed Baby Back Ribs, Coriander Shrimp Chow Fun, and Miso-Glazed Cod Rice Bowl. There's a Mexican influence from Roger Taylor with a recipe for Carnitas Tacos, Chili Con Carne, and a salsa recipe. And there's also oddly enough, a recipe for macaroni and cheese. It reflects the multicultural background of the two chefs, and it really makes the cookbook feel personal and special.

I actually tried one of the recipes, that for Claypot Miso Chicken, which is a misnomer since it's made in an Instant Pot (or other slow cooker) rather than a claypot. I don't often jump up and make a recipe from cookbooks that I review, so that just goes to show how compelling the book was. I also realized that I had all the ingredients already in my fridge and pantry, so it was an easy weeknight dinner. My husband enjoyed it, but I felt like it was missing something. I have a lot of similar recipes in my collection that taste better, so unfortunately, I won't be in a hurry to make it again.

My other main gripe with the cookbook is something that plagues a lot of cookbooks written by restaurant chefs. There are a lot of basic components that appear in multiple recipes, so be prepared to make a batch of togarashi oil or spicy miso paste to keep in your fridge. The Korean Bolognese sounded great, but requires me to make Spicy Miso Paste (a recipe located on a different page) and Korean Hot Pepper Sauce (also located on a different page) first, which sounds needlessly complicated.

Despite that flaw, the rest of the cookbook is enjoyable. The design is clean and elegant, which adds to the restaurant style of the book. I wish there were more recipes, as it feels rather small compared to other cookbooks these days. Overall, a good first cookbook from these authors and a compelling reason for me to visit their restaurant next time I'm in western Mass.

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Korean hot pepper dressing on rice, looks so appetising.
Planning, presentation and Joy. By looking at some of the pictures of the recipe progressing, you can see how the food attains its glamour by adding the right things, chopped in right size.
Douban Chili paste
neutral cooking oil

Gorgeous book, amazing photography. The kind of book that makes you want to run to the fridge, find ingredients and start cooking.

I love visiting Unmi and Roger's restaurant COCO, and was thrilled to learn they were working on a cookbook! While I've only made the honey miso noodle salad recipe (plus the seasoned rice wine vinegar and honey miso dressing recipes for the noodle salad) thus far, I can say I found the directions easy to follow and the end results fantastic. I enjoyed the personal anecdotes included throughout the book, as well as the gorgeous presentation and photography. The layout of the cookbook, with its emphasis on the sauces and dressings that add flavor to dishes, was very intuitive, and the introduction of sauces and dressings immediately preceding the full recipes they were utilized in helped make some of the more complicated-seeming dishes feel less overwhelming ("I already know how to make the sauce, so the rest of this will be easy!"). I'm grateful to have had advance access to the cookbook through Netgalley, but also plan to purchase it when it's released this fall. I can already tell it will be one of my most beloved cookbooks!

I'm in love with this book. Layout and design make me want to put it onto the coffee table. The recipes make me want to go out of my comfort zone and actually try ALL of them out (yes, also the sea food recipes).

I've been trying to find a cookbook with a good mix of Thai and Korean cooking and I think I just found it!!! This cookbook also gives me more recipes for my Instant Pot. The way the recipes are written are clear and easy to follow and it gives some helpful tips and other information on the sides of the page. I'm excited to cook even more recipes from this book!

Sometimes you glance through a cookbook and sometimes you read every single word--Curry and Kimchi was the later. I cannot wait to order my copy and add it to my collection. The flavor profiles alone made my mouth water and crave to eat all things.

This is one of the best cookbooks I have ever had the opportunity to review! The authors have three thriving restaurants and it is easy to see why!
The recipes are Asian and American, they use seasoned rice wine vinegar in most of the recipes, along with sesame seeds, fresh broccoli, fish, shrimp, and their homemade sauces and dressings to create culinary masterpieces that any cook can do as the directions are very  specific and easy to follow.
The recipe for pickled broccoli uses broccoli, pine nuts and Togarishi dressing made with rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil and ginger to make a tangy fresh salad. (All of the recipes include the necessary sauces or dressings in another section of the cookbook.)
The Hoisin Baby Back Ribs look so good they pop off of the page - they use a BBQ sauce made with Hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sesame seeds, oranges, honey and ketchup which cook with the ribs in an Instant Pot that only take 32 minutes to cook!
The Plum Sauce is prepared in a food processor and served over the East-West Rice Bowl that has chicken, sesame seeds, rice, bok choy and ginger in it -  which only takes a few minutes to prepare with pre-cooked rice and chicken.
Enjoy preparing tasty restaurant-style meals for your family and friends