How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart
by Pam Anderson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Pam AndersonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-04-04
ISBN: 0767902793
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Book Reviews of How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart
Book Review: The no flaw best !
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a cajun and thus was raised within a strong cooking tradition that emphasizes cooking skills as much among men as women (my father and two brothers are professional chefs, another is a pastry chef and still another is a seafood merchant). Although I too began in professional kitchens I am now a college instructor but remain an avid home cook (a little catering on the side) and own over 1500 cookbooks Though this book does not have the homestyle long cooking black pot dishes cajuns are famous for; the details of seasoning and other ingredient proportions offered in this book are so accurately delicious that this information would be of value to any cuisine!Even though I have an extensive cookbook library, I have never written a cookbook review. Why now? Because this is simply the best cookbook I've ever used! Within the stated limitations of the book (ie. quick , midweek night cooking for family; the kind all of us are forced to do.) this cookbook is without flaw. This is the only cookbook my wife and I keep on our kitchen prep table.
Because Ms. Anderson(a former "Cook's Illustrated" magazine editor} has taken the trouble to have each recipe taste tested by a panel before finalizing the selection of the best recipe version (The "Best Recipe" is the title of a previous volume by Ms. Anderson and is also fabulous} success is guranteed. This research is her secret to success and something that you or I or even professional chefs simply will never have access to.
I would call Ms. Anderson a professional cook rather than chef but this is to her advantage since she doesn't have to waste time on food presentation and plating technique. Really good professional chefs can be fine at feeding one (a single order) or an army (buffets and banquets) and so are often lousy cookbook authors for families (2, 4. or 6). But this is precisely where the professional cook comes in and Pam Anderson is simply the best.
So what's in the book? Absolutely delicious quickly prepared dishes that take advantage of the best ingedients available today. I have tried most of the recipes in this book and every one was superb which has led me to revise many of my own tried and true recipes. There are delicious soups, frittatas, stir frys; pan grilled chicken supremes, beef steaks, pork tenderloin, fish and shellfish, and a huge variety of superb accompaning sauces, butters, and salsas, vegatables, salads, appetizers and more. While each dish is complete in itself, once a recipe is learned you can put the book aside; especially when cooking your own improvisations (eg. I use her basic frittata formula, since there's none better, to make cajun style crawfish, eggplant, or chicken liver flat omeletes in addition to using her great selection of frittata recipes).
Another nice thing about the book is that it is just as useful for the accomplished cook (because of the extensive compilation of tasty fare) as the beginner (very clear instructions).
I have often heard ethnic chefs refer to young American chefs as unrooted food "bastardizers".That is they often take a classic recipe (perhaps 500 years old) from a well rooted ethnic cuisine and arrogantly attempt to "improve" it by whim; often destroying the recipes' very essence. Cajun cuisine has been almost completely bastardized outside of Cajun Louisiana ( eg. Emeril may or may not be a good cook but he's not cajun and not qualified to represent cajun cooking but is a god exampl of; but the food channel knows best. I know many genuine cajun chefs, who perfected their art long before cajun was even recognized, and yet are competely passed over by the celebrity chef gestapo). Even when a perfectly good dish is created using an ethnic recipe it is often "bastardized" in name. Bouillabase with black beans and sweet corn may or may not be tasty, but it's no longer honest bouillabase. So why call it that? Is it because the young chef has used some of the classic techniques employed in good seafood soup making in order to create his dish? A smart but dishonest chef.
Ms. Anderson's recipes are very modern indeed but without any attempt to take simple yet tasty classic flavors and map them on to some contrived, forced and unnatural concoction. Any fusion in her recipes is simply an honest reflection of America's melting pot cuisine and are not vain attempts to "bastardize" by forcing conflicting flavors together. She doesn't call her delicious Pork Soup with Hominy and Peppers Pozole (her's has no hogs' head or feet). She doesn't need to. Ditto. her fabulous Gumbo Style Shrimp Soup (which doesn't have okra or dark roux) which she doesn't call Shrimp Gumbo. Her fast and tasty "Chinese" stir frys are named by ingredient not by the classic dishes they closely resemble. She doesn't need to, because her recipes are fast and fantastic American melting pot dishes that stand on their own, made with readily available ingredients with out having to find gumbo file powder and spend an hour making a dark roux or visiting the Oriental shop for obscure ingredients. If you do want to do these things (Saturday or Sunday perhaps) her recipes are perfectly adaptable.
Because of the time and effort that go into her cookbooks (and I highly recomend any of the three) they are few and far between. Please Ms. Anderson just one more. If it's only half as good as this one I'd still give it five stars.
I routinely give this remarkable cookbook as a gift and I have a spare.
Get this cookbook and place it very near to where you
cook and just see what a good or better cook you'll become.
When I see flowery praise of this type I often wonder whether its' not written by a best freind or a publisher. I can assure the reader that my adulaton for this cookbook is completely honest and sincere. I have never met Pam Anderson or corresponded with her and I don't need a job.
More How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart reviews:
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Summary of How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart
Pam Anderson grew up watching her parents and grandparents make dinner every night by simply taking the ingredients on hand and cooking them with the techniques they knew.Times have changed. Today we have an overwhelming array of ingredients and a fraction of the cooking time, but Anderson believes the secret to getting dinner on the table lies in the past. After a long day, who has the energy to look up a recipe and search for the right ingredients before ever starting to cook? To make dinner night after night, Anderson believes the first two steps--looking for a recipe, then scrambling for the exact ingredients--must be eliminated. Understanding that most recipes are simply "variations on a theme," she innovatively teaches technique, ultimately eliminating the need for recipes.
Once the technique or formula is mastered, Anderson encourages inexperienced as well as veteran cooks to spread their culinary wings. For example, after learning to sear a steak, it's understood that the same method works for scallops, tuna, hamburger, swordfish, salmon, pork tenderloin, and more. You never need to look at a recipe again. Vary the look and flavor of these dishes with interchangeable pan sauces, salsas, relishes, and butters.
Best of all, these recipes rise above the mundane Monday-through-Friday fare. Imagine homemade ravioli and lasagna for weeknight supper, or from-scratch tomato sauce before the pasta water has even boiled. Last-minute guests? Dress up simple tomato sauce with capers and olives or shrimp and red pepper flakes. Drizzle sautéed chicken breasts with a balsamic vinegar pan sauce. Anderson teaches you how to do it--without a recipe. Don't buy exotic ingredients and follow tedious instructions for making hors d'oeuvres. Forage through the pantry and refrigerator for quick appetizers. The ingredients are all there; the method is in your head. Master four simple potato dishes--a bake, a cake, a mash, and a roast--compatible with many meals. Learn how to make the five-minute dinner salad, easily changing its look and flavor depending on the season and occasion. Tuck a few dessert techniques in your back pocket and effortlessly turn any meal into a special occasion.
There's real rhyme and reason to Pam's method at the beginning of every chapter: To dress greens, "Drizzle salad with oil, salt, and pepper, then toss until just slick. Sprinkle in some vinegar to give it a little kick." To make a frittata, "Cook eggs without stirring until set around the edges. Bake until puffy, then cut it into wedges." Each chapter also contains a helpful at-a-glance chart that highlights the key points of every technique, and a master recipe with enough variations to keep you going until you've learned how to cook without a book.
Learn what makes a recipe tick, says How to Cook Without a Book author Pam Anderson, and you'll serve great food fast. Recognizing that most cooks feel challenged in the face of daily meal making, Anderson provides a game plan: prepare dishes based on available ingredients and simple cooking techniques you've mastered--not on recipes you've got to look up and ingredients you'll need to shop for--and you maximize the potential of kitchen ease. Cooks looking for a way to address the what-will-we-have-tonight quandary definitively, or those who feel they lack the energy or know-how to tackle cooking every night, should find the book essential. In chapters such as "Simple Stir-Frys" or "Weeknight Ravioli and Lasagna," Anderson presents a particular cooking procedure, provides a recipe that embodies it in its basic form (the protein-adaptable Weeknight Stir-Fry, for example), then offers simple variations (such as Stir-Fried Chicken with Asparagus and Mushrooms or Stir-Fried Shrimp with Pepper and Scallions). Chapters conclude with an at-a-glance review of key technique points. Following Anderson's tips and innovations, lasagna, for example, becomes a weeknight option (use egg-roll wrappers for the pasta, Anderson advises, and forgo the baking); she also shows how, once mastered, her Big Fat Omelet, which serves four, can become the basis for a wide range of lunch and dinner entrées. With a comprehensive pantry section and a dessert chapter that puts frozen puff pastry to work in imaginative ways, the book is a trove of information that cooks can use and depend on. --Arthur Boehm
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