Kopan Cookbook

This small vegetarian gathering was inspired during Jung's two-week course of meditation at the Kopan monastery near Kathmandu, Nepal; a portion of the proceeds from her book will return to its rightful home. Her interesting survey of the monastery's specialties includes momos (steamed or fried vegetable-stuffed dumplings), Tibetan noodle soup and Kopan milk and butter teas. Yet while the cookbook's aims are noble, the recipes suffer from inadequate instructions and little introduction and background information. Vegetables in most recipes are to be ``parboiled,'' without further directions or details on how to do this for different vegetables. Moreover, producing the noodle dishes is difficult: machine and hand directions are missing. Since many dishes are Indian in origin, novice cooks will do best to consult Indian vegetarian cookbooks for guidance on the same or similar dishes. (Sept.)