My Perfect Pantry: 150 Easy Recipes from 50 Essential Ingredients


Geoffrey Zakarian - 2014
     Forget exotic condiments and specialty foods. With a working base of 50 readily available ingredients, from oats and honey to almonds and canned chickpeas, you will always have the makings of a delicious home-cooked meal. Whether cooking in his world-class restaurants, on Iron Chef, or judging the offerings on Chopped, Geoffrey knows every great meal starts with a trip to the pantry first for inspiration. In The Perfect Pantry, Geoffrey shows you how to use your pantry to jumpstart any meal. When you bring home your fresh produce and proteins, you’ll have 150 recipes at the ready, and many of these can be made with pantry ingredients alone.   You’ll see a simple can of beans as a Smoky Black Bean Bisque or coconut milk as Spicy Coconut Tempura Shrimp. Standard back-of-the-cupboard fare like almonds become crispy crust on a broiled pork chop; peanut butter lends itself beautifully to a spicy slaw, cider vinegar gives great flavor to a chicken main as well as to donuts, and mustard transforms a a pot roast. Throughout, you’ll find quick but ingenious tips for each of the 50 ingredients, like how to use Earl Grey teabags to infuse ice cubes or a syrup for French toast. The Perfect Pantry makes it so easy for your everyday staples to lead, rather than support, the creation of extraordinary meals. Geoffrey gives you the shopping list you need, as well as the road map for making the most of what you have on hand.

The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook


King Arthur Flour - 2004
    Recipes are enhanced with sidebars providing hints, shortcuts, troubleshooting advice, and recipe lore. And each recipe is accompanied by a complete nutritional analysis. Illustrations throughout the book provide clear step-by-step instructions that take the mystery out of such baking terms as "creaming," "soft-ball stage," and "folding." Finally, a comprehensive illustrated chapter describes the essential line black white illustrations.

Where Cooking Begins: Uncomplicated Recipes to Make You a Great Cook


Carla Lalli Music - 2019
    The food director at Bon Appetit, her intuitive recipes are inspired by the meals she makes at home for her family and friends and the joy she takes in feeding them. Here, too, is her guide to the six essential cooking methods that will show you how to make everything without over-complicating anything--and every recipe includes suggestions for swaps and substitutions, so you'll never feel stuck or stymied.Where Cooking Begins is also the first recent cookbook to connect the way we shop to the way we cook. Music's modern approach--pick up your fresh ingredients a few times a week, and fill your pantry with staples bought online--will make you want to click on a burner and slide out a cutting board the minute you get home.The no-fail techniques, textured recipes, and strategies in Where Cooking Begins will make you a great cook.

"Mums Know Best": The Hairy Bikers' Family Cookbook


Hairy Bikers - 2010
    Yummy mummies, Northern matriarchs, West Indian foster mums and ladies of the manor all come togther with recipes to share, tips to swap and techniques to learn, in a book that contains over 100 different recipes.

The Secrets of Baking: Simple Techniques for Sophisticated Desserts


Sherry Yard - 2003
    At the same time, it advances a radically new understanding of these recipes, one that will give the baker greater flexibility and confidence in the kitchen. Instead of grouping desserts into traditional categories (pies, cakes, cookies), Sherry Yard arranges them around crucial master recipes. Starting with these recipes -- simple, basic guidelines for making caramel, chocolate sauce, lemon curd, pound cake, and brioche, to name just a few -- Yard shows the cook how to create dozens of variations. Knowing how ingredients interact opens the door to a multitude of baking possibilities. For example, cream puff dough forms the foundation for éclairs, profiteroles, and the caramel-coated tower the French call croquembouche, but understanding how and why it behaves the way it does allows the cook to create deep-fried beignets, mascarpone-filled cannolis, or simmering-hot dumplings. This authoritative, friendly bake-shop bible contains fascinating mini-lessons on food science, illuminating bits of baking history, and time-saving tips. Newcomers to the world of baking will feel at ease with such simple, homey desserts as Banana Bread and Mississippi Mud Pie, and elaborate show-stoppers like Chocolate Brioche Sandwich with Espresso Gelato and Blackberry-Lime-Filled Doughnuts with Blackberry Sorbet and Berries will transform amateur bakers into expert pastry chefs.

Mug Cakes: 100 Speedy Microwave Treats to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth


Leslie Bilderback - 2013
    It's all here, from basic Buttermilk Cake, Red Velvet, and Carrot Cake to fancy Chocolate Caramel Fleur de Sel. Let the kids try their hand at S'mores and Root Beer Float cakes. Then send them to bed and try the liquor-infused recipes from the Adults Only chapter (Irish Coffee Cake, anyone?). There are recipes for cake lovers with special dietary needs, and even noncake recipes like mug puddings, pies, and cheesecakes, when you get tired of cake (yes...it can happen!).So if you've got five minutes to spare, grab a mug, mix up a mug cake, and satisfy your dessert craving ASAP!

Starter Sourdough: The Step-by-Step Guide to Sourdough Starters, Baking Loaves, Baguettes, Pancakes, and More


Carroll Pellegrinelli - 2019
    Starter Sourdough helps you get the tricky starter process down pat, so you can have mouthwatering loaves, rolls, baguettes—and even cakes and cookies!This guide simplifies the process of making your own starter so it’s accessible to anyone, no matter your skill level. Keep your tasty new creation alive and thriving with the help of clear instructions accompanied by beautiful photographs. Then try your hand at baking Perfect Italian Sourdough, Sourdough Marble Rye Bread, Double Piecrust, Sourdough Pretzels, Sourdough Cinnamon-Sugar Doughnuts, and more.Inside Starter Sourdough, you’ll find: Great start—Master the secret to a good sourdough bread using this basic starter recipe: just flour, water, and a little attention. Creative variations—Craft whole grain breads, pizza dough, biscuits, and cake—there’s a huge variety of recipes to explore, all from your starter. Nonstop starter—Sustain a hearty, long-lasting starter with a simple weekly feeding schedule, so it will repay you in baked goods for years to come. Put a unique twist on baked goods with Starter Sourdough!

The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread


Peter Reinhart - 2001
    Never one to be content with yesterday’s baking triumph, however, Peter continues to refine his recipes and techniques in his never-ending quest for extraordinary bread.In The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Peter shares his latest bread breakthroughs, arising from his study in several of France’s famed boulangeries and the always-enlightening time spent in the culinary academy kitchen with his students. Peer over Peter’s shoulder as he learns from Paris’s most esteemed bakers, like Lionel Poilâne and Phillippe Gosselin, whose pain à l’ancienne has revolutionized the art of baguette making. Then stand alongside his students in the kitchen as Peter teaches the classic twelve stages of building bread, his clear instructions accompanied by over 100 step-by-step photographs.You’ll put newfound knowledge into practice with 50 new master formulas for such classic breads as rustic ciabatta, hearty pain de campagne, old-school New York bagels, and the book’s Holy Grail–Peter’s version of the famed pain à l’ancienne. En route, Peter distills hard science, advanced techniques, and food history into a remarkably accessible and engaging resource that is as rich and multitextured as the loaves you’ll turn out. This is original food writing at its most captivating, teaching at its most inspired and inspiring–and the rewards are some of the best breads under the sun.

Weeknight Baking: Time-Saving Recipes to Make Any Night of the Week


Michelle Lopez - 2019
    Over the past several years that she’s been running her blog Hummingbird High, Lopez has kept a crucial aspect of her life hidden from her readers: she has a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. But she’s figured out how to have her cake and eat it too.In Weeknight Baking, Lopez shares recipes for drool-worthy confections, along with charming stories and time-saving tips and tricks. From everyday favorites like “Almost No Mess Shortbread” and “Better-Than-Supernatural Fudge Brownies” to showstoppers like “a Modern Red Velvet Cake” and “Peanut Butter Pretzel Pie” (it’s vegan!), she reveals the secrets to baking on a schedule.With rigorously tested recipes, productivity hacks, and gorgeous photographs, this book is destined to become a busy baker’s go-to. Finally, dessert can be a part of every everyday meal!

More Top Secret Recipies: More Fabulous Kitchen Clones of America's Favourite Brand-Name Foods


Todd Wilbur - 1994
    J&J Super Pretzels... Dunkin' Donuts... Little Caesar's Crazy Bread... These are some of America's greatest food inventions. Now, thanks to intrepid kitchen sleuth Todd Wilbur, you can make home versions of over 50 more of your favorite foods. All of them are shockingly easy to prepare with ingredients from your local supermarket! Wilbur's fabulous clones leave out the preservatives and include suggestions for making high-cholesterol dishes lower in fat without changing the tastes we all love. Included, too, are the fascinating origins of each product; Todd Wilbur's own amazing kitchen adventures, narrow escapes, and near-death experiences; and even his learned-it-the-hard-way cooking tips.

The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook: 101 Asian Recipes Simple Enough for Tonight's Dinner


Jaden Hair - 2009
    Whether you're hurrying to get a weekday meal on the table for family or entertaining on the weekend, author and blogger (steamykitchen.com) Jaden Hair will walk you through the steps of creating fresh, delicious Asian meals without fuss. In an accessible style and a good splash of humor, Jaden takes the trauma out of preparing "foreign" Asian recipes. With Jaden's guiding hand, you'll find it both simple and fun to recreate Asian flavors in your own kitchen and to share the excitement of fresh Asian food with your family and friends!Asian recipes include:Firecracker ShrimpPork & Mango PotstickersQuick Vietnamese Chicken PhoBeer Steamed Shrimp with GarlicKorean BBQ-style BurgersMaridel's Chicken AdoboSimple Baby Bok Choy and Snow PeasChinese Sausage Fried RiceGrilled Bananas with Chocolate and Toasted Coconut Flakes

52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust


William Alexander - 2010
    He tasted it long ago, in a restaurant, and has been trying to reproduce it ever since. Without success. Now, on the theory that practice makes perfect, he sets out to bake peasant bread every week until he gets it right. He bakes his loaf from scratch. And because Alexander is nothing if not thorough, he really means from scratch: growing, harvesting, winnowing, threshing, and milling his own wheat.   An original take on the six-thousand-year-old staple of life, 52 Loaves explores the nature of obsession, the meditative quality of ritual, the futility of trying to re-create something perfect, our deep connection to the earth, and the mysterious instinct that makes all of us respond to the aroma of baking bread.

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking


Marcella Hazan - 1992
    Designed as a basic manual for cooks of all levels of expertise—from beginners to accomplished professionals—it offers both an accessible and comprehensive guide to techniques and ingredients and a collection of the most delicious recipes from the Italian repertoire. As home cooks who have used Marcella’s classic books for years (and whose copies are now splattered and worn) know, there is no one more gifted at teaching us just what we need to know about the taste and texture of a dish and how to achieve it, and there is no one more passionate and inspiring about authentic Italian food.

Delia's Happy Christmas


Delia Smith - 2009
    This year, she celebrates 40 years of writing recipes and brings you Delia's Happy Christmas—the definitive guide to all aspects of cooking for Christmas. This cookbook will help you to plan your Christmas festivities to the very last culinary detail, acting as an invaluable Christmas organizer from reminding you to make your Christmas pudding and chutneys in November to giving you a crucial countdown for the last 36 hours. Delia's Happy Christmas will give you 150 recipes, including 100 new recipes and 50 much-loved classics, plus menu plans and shopping lists, illustrated with glorious full-color photography.

The Flavour Thesaurus: Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook


Niki Segnit - 2010
    "Following the instructions in a recipe is like parroting pre-formed sentences from a phrasebook. Forming an understanding of how flavors work together, on the other hand, is like learning the language: it allows you to express yourself freely, to improvise, to cook a dish the way you want to cook it.""The Flavor Thesaurus "is the inquisitive cook's guide to acquiring that understanding--to learning the language of flavor.Breaking the vast universe of ingredients down to 99 essential flavors, Segnit suggests classic and less well-known pairings for each, grouping almost 1,000 entries into flavor families like "Green & Grassy," "Berry & Bush" and "Creamy Fruity." But "The Flavor Thesaurus" is much more than just a reference book, seasoning the mix of culinary science, culture and expert knowledge with the author's own insights and opinions, all presented in her witty, engaging and highly readable style. As appealing to the novice cook as to the experienced professional, "The Flavor Thesaurus "will not only immeasurably improve your cooking--it's the sort of book that might keep you up at night reading.""Cooking is an art, like writing or painting, and great cooks are artists. And although the ultimate source of creativity remains elusive, all painters have their color wheel, all writers their vocabulary. And now, in the form of this beautiful, entertaining and exhaustively researched book, cooks have their own collection of essential knowledge: "The Flavor Thesaurus."