Unprecedented in both scope and clarity, La Varenne Pratique is destined to become the essential culinary reference for both novice cook and expert. Written by the founder and director of Paris's prestigious La Varenne cooking school and compiled using La Varenne's extensive resources, the book brings together a practical understanding of cooking techniques, ingredients, and equipment in an unrivaled guide to classic modern cooking.
Here in one volume is the answer to every cooking question: how to make a hollandaise sauce (and why egg yolks will only absorb so much oil before the sauce self-destructs); the difference between entrecote and porterhouse; what marinades to use for lamb; which herbs will turn bitter if added at the beginning of a recipe; how to bone a chicken; the roasting times for venison, pheasant, and even squirrel; how to fillet a fiat fish; when to use a bain marie; and much more.
La Varenne Pratique is divided into 22 chapters, among them Meat and Charcuterie; Poultry and Game Birds; Milk, Cheese, and Eggs; Pastry and Cookies; Preserving, Stocks, and Soups; and Microwave Cooking. Each chapter offers an overview of the food discussed and then explains how to choose, prepare, store, cook, and present it. Recipes are included wherever an important cooking technique requires a specific example-they are carefully chosen not only to illustrate a particular dish but also to illuminate a way of cooking. In addition, La Varenne Pratique includes a guide to kitchen equipment and a glossary of culinary terms.
The photographic illustrations in La Varenne Pratique are beyond comparison. Throughout the book, techniques are clearly illustrated with specially commissioned step-by-step photo sequences that set new standards for culinary photography. Readers can actually see what texture a sauce should be, exactly where to make the first cut when boning a Chicken, what the "crust" on a clarifying broth will look like, and what larding a roast really entails.
There has never been a book like La Varenne Pratique. Comprehensive, authoritative, and eminently practical, it demands a place in the kitchen of every serious cook.
Showcasing Mark Bittman's signature ease and imagination, The Minimalist Cooks Dinner puts the focus on the center-of-the-plate main dishes. And, in this new volume, he also provides recipes for classic, versatile side dishes as well as recommendations for wine and food pairings. With a majority of its main dish recipes taking less than thirty minutes to prepare, this is truly the book every busy cook has been waiting for. Drawing on the global pantry and international repertoire that sets Bittman apart, each selection in The Minimalist Cooks Dinner is big on flavour and time-saving techniques. The perfect solution for weeknight after-work meals or casual dinner parties, this inventive collection offers a refreshing new take on standards, along with ideas that will inspire both novices and experienced home cooks to branch out. From Steamed Chicken Breasts with Ginger-Scallion Sauce to Korean Beef Wrapped in Lettuce Leaves, to Monkfish with Meat Sauce, Bittman banishes the ordinary with an appetizing range of choices.Also covering hearty pasta dishes, steaks, pork, veal, lamb and a wide range of seafood, The Minimalist Cooks Dinner makes for an invigorating alternative to mundane mains. And as Bittman's profile has never been higher, this is sure to become a kitchen staple for thousands of time-crunched cooks who want to eat well.
The subtitle says it all. One of the biggest challenges for the good home cook is creating delicious, healthy meals using just a few ingredients and simple steps. And good cooks know that Diane Worthington is an expert at finding the one strong flavor component that will turn a ho-hum dish into something memorable-without spending the whole day in the kitchen. In Seriously Simple: Easy Recipes for Creative Cooks she does it again. Here are over 90 recipes for everything from Butternut Squash Soup with Chipotle Creme to Lemon-Lime Pound-cake that come together in a snap. Gorgeously photographed, Seriously Simple is full of practical tips for saving time without sparing the savor, such as advice on developing a busy cooks pantry, making one-pot meals, and creating sauces, rubs, and marinades that will spice up any dish in a flash. Guaranteed to cut down on the prep time, streamline techniques, and pump up the flavor, heres a new kitchen standby thats seriously fast, seriously delicious...Seriously Simple.
The recipes, cookware ratings, and food tastings that entertain American cooks each week on the public television series America's Test Kitchen are now available in a new cookbook. Included are more than 200 recipes and the surprising results of unbiased kitchen tests.
Baking with Julia
Nothing promises pleasure more readily than the words freshly baked. And nothing says magnum opus as definitively as Baking with Julia, which offers the dedicated home cook, whether a novice or seasoned veteran, a unique distillation of the baker's art.
Baking with Julia is not only a book full of glorious recipes but also one that continues Julia's teaching tradition. Here, basic techniques come alive and are made easily comprehensible in recipes that demonstrate the myriad ways of raising dough, glazing cakes, and decorating crusts. This is the resource you'll turn to again and again for all your baking needs. With Baking with Julia in your cookbook library, you can become a master baker.
And there's no better time to be baking than now. Quality baking today is more varied, more exciting, and simply more authentic than ever before. Baking with Julia celebrates this tremendous range with enticing recipes that marry sophisticated European techniques to American tastes and ingredients. With creative flair, napoleons are layered with tropical fruits, pumpkin and cranberries are kneaded into bread doughs, and a tart is topped with sweet stewed onions. Along the way, step-by-step photographs demonstrate the basic building blocks of the pastry and bread baker's repertoire, and from this firm foundation fancy takes flight.
Baking with Julia presents an extraordinary assemblage of talent, knowledge, and artistry from the new generation of bakers whose vision is so much a part of this book. The list of contributors reads like a Who's Who of today's master bakers, including Flo Braker, Steve Sullivan, Marcel Desaulniers, Nick Malgieri, Alice Medrich, Nancy Silverton, Martha Stewart, and a host of bright new talents such as Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.
With nearly two hundred recipes, and half as many pages of tantalizing full-color photographs, this incomparable kitchen companion goes far beyond what most cookbooks offer. More than fifty pages of illustrated reference sections define basic terms and techniques, and explain the hows and whys of batters and doughs to take you effortlessly through the essential techniques. If you've never made flaky pie crust, your first no-fail experience is at hand. If you've never baked bread, that most satisfying and sensual pleasure awaits the turn of a page. With recipes for breads, pastries, cookies, and cakes--from chocolate to cheesecake, from miniature gems to multi-tiered masterpieces--this cookbook is a total immersion experience in the wonder of home baking.
During almost two decades of catering everything from the Academy Awards to a fete for Queen Elizabeth to an intimate dinner for Julia Child to a "Roller-Disco" Bat Mitzvah, Nicole Aloni has learned more than a few tricks-of-the-trade. And whether you're planning your umpteenth dinner for twelve, or you've only just figured out that there's a kitchen in your apartment, Secrets From a Caterer's Kitchen is the manual on entertaining.
This comprehensive, accessible and easy-to-use book offers insider tips and guidance about:
Whether it's a candlelight dinner, a kid's birthday party, or a holiday extravaganza, you can put on a show like a pro--and keep your guests guessing--with Secrets from a Caterer's Kitchen
Who's hungry? EVERYONE. Who has time to cook? NO ONE. Dig out the slow cooker. Add a second and a third if you wish. Fill one with main-dish fixins and the others with go-alongs. Do it in the morning--or between work and after-school events. Come home to richly-flavored, ready-to-serve food. Slow cookers are having a comeback. With good reason. They are friends on a day of running errands. They allow easy entertaining with no last-minute preparation. And vegetarians won't find a better way to work with dried beans. Slow cookers are gentle with the food budget--less expensive ingredients flourish in their slow, moist heat. Fix-It and Forget-It offers the range of recipes slow cookers do well: Appetizers and Snacks, Soups and Stews, Main Dishes (with and without meat), Vegetables and Go-Alongs, Desserts and Beverages. Bring an element of simplicity--and quality--to your pressured life Let your slow cooker work for you.
At last, a supremely practical cookbook designed expressly for single people
With more than 350 superb yet simple recipes for all occasions--and loaded with time-and-money-saving strategies for buying, storing, and recycling food in quantities that won't get wasted--Going Solo in the Kitchen is for solo cooks who don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen but who are tired of take-out, and who want to eat food that's delicious, nutritious, and inexpensive. Whether it's a quick one-dish meal of Saut ed Beef with Mushrooms, a satisfying soup supper such as Vegetable Bean Soup with crusty bread, a summer night's dinner of Avocado, Papaya, and Shrimp Salad, or a Sunday splurge of Chicken Breast Baked with Garlic (with enough leftovers for a sandwich at work the next day and a cold chicken salad later in the week), here is food that will lure beginners and seasoned cooks alike into the kitchen, putting a variety of flavors and a wealth of taste into every meal.
Ten years ago, Jonathan King and Jim Stott decided to cook up some homemade jams and sell them for extra money at a farmer's market. Those jams, along with a full line of chutneys, jellies, relishes, and other condiments, have grown into the renowned Stonewall Kitchen, whose products are now available in gift stores and specialty markets everywhere. But what to do with all these flavorful condiments besides spreading them on bread or crackers?
The Stonewall Kitchen Cookbook serves up tantalizing ways to use their ever-expanding line of jams, chutneys, dessert toppings, savory mustards, relishes, and flavored oils. More than a cookbook, it's a new concept in cooking, teaching you how to use quality condiments in your everyday cooking (and you're not limited to Stonewall Kitchen products).
This collection of 75 recipes boosts every cook's standards with a variety of delicious options. Techniques are simple. Ingredient lists are short. For example, weekend entertaining can still be elegant but a lot less complicated. Steamed sea bass is delicious served plain. Pair it with Roasted Red Pepper Sesame Sause and it becomes spectacular. Or simplify a restaurant classic by using Roasted Garlic Mustard to create Rack of Lamb with Mustard-Herb Crust. Dress up bowls of Corn-Crab Chowder with spoonfuls of spicy Corn Relish.
Apply the same concepts to weeknight family fare. Spicy Linguine with Shrimp couldn't taste better or be easier than with Roasted Garlic Oil. Use Blackberry Sage Tea Jam to glaze roast chicken. Need some quick ideas to perk up vegetables? A splash of balsamic vinegar brings out the flavor in roasted beets. A fiery spice rub does wonders for Oven-Roasted Spiced Fries.
And what meal is complete without dessert? Jams and preserves turn old standbys into uique interpretations. Try Stonewall Kitchen's version of Blueberry Ice Cream made with Wild Maine Blueberry Jam. Top Peach Melba Shortcakes with Raspberry Peach Champagne Jam for a new take.
Make your cooking easier and better than ever with The Stonewall Kitchen Cookbook.
