I have thousands of books. A significant number of them are wine and food related, and I continue to slowly add to the library, which is large enough that it is contained in four different rooms - audio/hifi in my study, the general library in (of all places) the dedicated library, wine in bookshelves in the wine cellar, and cooking/food in the kitchen, pantry and pantry bathroom (that part of the library expands the fastest.
When I get a new cookbook, I peruse it and mark the interesting parts/recipes with little paper bookmarks. An average book gets a half dozen tags, some get almost none and favourites look like a paper hedgehog. I just received a book that falls into the latter category and when I marked three of the first four recipes, I realized that this was a pretty darned good book since I don't think I've ever done that before!
It is "Tapas - a Taste of Spain in the New World" by Jose Andres, who trained early on under Ferran Adria, and has now become quite enthusiastic about molecular gastronomy. The book was published in 2005 but had evaded my attention until now as I had recently become interested in the tapas form as a wine tasting adjunct.
The first three recipes (the ones I marked) are allioli a la Catalana, the Spanish version of the French aioli, a garlic mayo, done traditional method in a large mortar (which I just happen to own) and takes about 20 minutes as you drip olive oil in drop by drop.
Next up is a marinade to turn your common olives into Spanish delights - using orange, lemon, garlic, thyme and olive oil. The third is a confit of wild mushrooms (whatever you have available) in oil and herbs.
The book is only $20 new on Amazon (as little as $5 + shipping used) and you can possibly find it in a local library to see if you'd want to own it. Recommended!
Mini review here: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4000-5359-9
