![]() So many cookbooks now are becoming photographic show ponies rather than culinary work horses. Well done, I say! Though I love my Williams-Sonoma New American Cooking, with its close-up pictures of well presented delectibles, I find the photos can be distracting. ![]() He tells me about different types of beans and their flavors and "behaviors." This makes it an indispensable reference tool.Īnother part of what I like is what has driven many people away from this book: its lack of glossy color pictures. Say I've avoided.oh, maybe.beans for years, but now want to cook them myself he doesn't just throw a bunch of recipes at me, he talks about how to work with beans in general, noting specific exceptions and sticking points. Part of what I like so much is the pedagogic stance Bittman takes. If you want to make it more extravagant, you can but these recipes act as a guide on the route to culinary self sufficiency. ![]() As the Minimalist, Bittman has practice making good food simply. And the fact that the recipes and ideas contained within it are simple food makes it all the better. It has supplanted that venerable old institution, and presents the world of cooking in a way that can both engage the neophyte and interest the adept. This book is the "Joy of Cooking" for a new generation. It is true that I don't always find everything I want (yes, we all know the title is hyperbole), but what I find is just great. It is my standard starting point for any recipe search that I do. This could go on my "reading" shelf because I'm ALWAYS reading it. It's love in the way that you're important and valuable enough to deserve something that tastes fabulous and nourishes you. But it's usually something I love but that the rest of the family is ambivalent about-curry or sushi or pesto (THERE'S GREEN STUFF ON YOUR SPAGHETTI, MOM, WOW THAT'S NASTY.) And most of the time, when I'm dead-tired from work, it's still faster to make soup and muffins than it is to call out for delivery, or stop somewhere and get something.Īnd yeah, I subscribe to the Food Is Love way of life, but not in that psychotic, OMG, if you don't eat 5 helpings of everything she's slaved in the kitchen to make, you hate your mother/grandmother/crazy Aunt Sally way. Brush it off, let it dry and see how many more pages you can get dirty.ĭo I still eat take-out? Oh, hell, yes. Don't worry if the butter splatters on the page or the tomatoes drip. Leave yourself notes that you really can't stand capers but everything else in this recipe rocked. Put a post-it note on the ones that actually do turn out to be yummy. Pick something that sounds too delicious, just one thing, and make it. I read cookbooks for fun, but that's an entirely different post.) (If your mother *did* cook this way? Contact me immediately I'm not too old for adoption.) He's clear and easy to read and he explains things and he generally makes me way less crazy than the Joy of Cooking (I own four copies of three different editions of that one, because people keep buying it for me, and I never use it. One of the good things about Bittman is that he doesn't cook the way your mother cooked. Since I can't come into your kitchens and show you how few steps it takes to make something that tastes fifteen times better than takeout and is so much better for you and costs half as much, I'll point you to Mark Bittman, who wrote the Minimalist column for the New York Times. If I could teach all the people I know and love how easy it is to have real, good, actual food, I'd be a very happy woman. I know so many people who tell me they can't cook, they don't know how, it's too hard, and it's not. Okay, so, October is National Book Month, and there's a meme going around: what book do you want everyone to read, fiction and non-fiction.
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