How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart


Pam Anderson - 2000
    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.

Nothing Fancy: Unfussy Food for Having People Over


Alison Roman - 2019
    It’s having people over. The social media star, New York Times columnist, and author of Dining In helps you nail dinner with unfussy food, unstuffy vibes, and the permission to be imperfect.   NAMED ONE OF FALL’S BEST COOKBOOKS BY The New York Times • Vogue • Food & Wine • Eater • Food52 • Bon Appétit • Epicurious • Chowhound • Forbes • Grub Street • A PEOPLE 2019 FOOD FAVORITE“Nothing Fancy delivers what those of hoping to up our dinner party game are looking for: It’s utterly current and distinctly doable.”—Eater   An unexpected weeknight meal with a neighbor or a weekend dinner party with fifteen of your closest friends—either way and everywhere in between, having people over is supposed to be fun, not stressful. This abundant collection of all-new recipes—heavy on the easy-to-execute vegetables and versatile grains, paying lots of close attention to crunchy, salty snacks, and with love for all the meats—is for gatherings big and small, any day of the week.   Alison Roman will give you the food your people want (think DIY martini bar, platters of tomatoes, pots of coconut-braised chicken and chickpeas, pans of lemony turmeric tea cake) plus the tips, sass, and confidence to pull it all off. With Nothing Fancy, any night of the week is worth celebrating.Praise for Nothing Fancy “[Nothing Fancy] is full of the sort of recipes that sound so good, one contemplates switching off any and all phones, calling in sick, and cooking through the bulk of them.”—Food52   “[Nothing Fancy] exemplifies that classic Roman approach to cooking: well-known ingredients rearranged in interesting and compelling ways for young home cooks who want food that looks (and photographs) as good as it tastes.”—Grub Street   “The recipes will provide well for friendly dinner parties, while still being straightforward enough to cook quickly on a midweek evening after work.”—Vogue   “Roman's recipes are elegant but straightforward, impressive but actionable, with an emphasis on easy vegetables (like peppers with yuzu), homespun desserts (like blackberry and cornmeal cake), and show-stopping entrees (like lamb chops for the table).”—Esquire

Old Havana Cookbook: Cuban Recipes in Spanish and English (Bilingual Cookbooks)


Rafael Marcos - 1999
    It was a popular winter destination for North American tourists in the 1950s, and this cookbook recaptures the spirit of Old Havana-- Habana la vieja-- and its celebrated culinary traditions. Cuban cuisine, though derived from its mother country, Spain, has been modified and refined by locally available foods like pork, rice, corn, beans and sugar, and the requirements of a tropical climate. Fine Gulf Stream fish, crabs and lobsters, and an almost infinite variety of vegetables and luscious tropical fruits also have their places on the traditional Cuban table. This cookbook includes over 50 recipes, each in Spanish with side-by-side English translation-- all of them classic Cuban fare and old Havana specialties adapted for the North American kitchen. Among the recipes included are: Ajiaco (famous Cuban Stew), Boiled Pargo with Avocado Sauce, Lobster Havanaise, Tamal en Cazuela (Soft Tamal), Quimbombo (okra), Picadillo, Roast Suckling Pig, and Boniatillo (Sweet Potato Dulce), along with a whole chapter on famous Cuban cocktails and beverages.

Home Cooking with Jean-Georges: My Favorite Simple Recipes


Jean-Georges Vongerichten - 2011
    In Home Cooking with Jean-Georges, he brings readers into his weekend home, where he cooks simple, delicious dishes that leave him plenty of time to enjoy the company of friends and loved ones. A few years ago, Jean-Georges decided to give himself a gift that most of us take for granted: two-day weekends. He and his wife, Marja, and their family retreat to their country home in Waccabuc, New York. There, the renowned chef produces the masterful, fresh flavors for which he is known—but with little effort and few dishes to clean at the end. These quick, seasonal, Vongerichten-family favorites include: Crab Toasts with Sriracha Mayonnaise, Watermelon and Blue Cheese Salad, Herbed Sea Bass and Potatoes in Broth, Lamb Chops with Smoked Chile Glaze and Warm Fava Beans, Parmesan-Crusted Chicken, Fresh Corn Pudding Cake, Tarte Tatin, and Buttermilk Pancakes with Warm Berry Syrup.With 100 recipes and 100 color photographs—all taken at his country house—Home Cooking with Jean-Georges will inspire home cooks with fantastic accessible dishes to add to their repertoires.

The Pleasures of Cooking for One


Judith Jones - 2009
    It’s a fulfilling and immensely economical process, one perfectly suited for our times—although, as Jones points out, cooking for one also means we can occasionally indulge ourselves in a favorite treat.Throughout, Jones is both our instructor and our mentor, suggesting basic recipes—such as tomato sauce, preserved lemons, pesto, and homemade stock—that all cooks should have on hand; teaching us how to improvise using an ingenious strategy of building meals through the week; and supplying us with a lifetime’s worth of tips and shortcuts. From Child’s advice for buying fresh meat to Beard’s challenge to beginning crêpe-makers and Lidia Bastianich’s tips for cooking perfectly sauced pasta, Jones’s book presents a wealth of acquired knowledge from our finest cooks.The Pleasures of Cooking for One is a vibrant, wise celebration of food and enjoying our own company from one of our most treasured cooking experts.

The Southern Foodie: 100 Places to Eat in the South Before You Die (and the Recipes That Made Them Famous)


Chris Chamberlain - 2012
    Check out the culinary creativity in the Carolinas where you’ll find traditional smoked pork barbecue alongside Southern favorites made with fresh, local produce. Explore the restaurant kitchens of Atlanta and Nashville where the chefs aren’t shy about fusing comfort food standards with international flair and unexpected techniques. Join food and drink writer Chris Chamberlain for access to the South’s best recipes and the kitchens where they were developed. In The Southern Foodie, Chamberlain explores the South’s culinary culture with favorites such as: Jalapeño-and-Cheese-Stuffed Grit Cakes from Mason’s Grill, Baton Rouge, LARoasted Heirloom Pumpkin with Mulled Sorghum Glaze from Capitol Grille, Nashville, TNCountry Ham Fritters from Proof on Main, Louisville, KYBlue Crab Cheesecake from Old Firehouse Restaurant, Hollywood, SCApricot Fried Pies from Penguin Ed’s Bar-B-Q, Fayetteville, AR  The Southern Foodie you where the South eats and how to create those distinct flavors at home. You’re sure to rediscover old favorites and get a closer look at the delicious new traditions in Southern cuisine.

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.

The Southerner's Cookbook: Recipes, Wisdom, and Stories


Garden and Gun - 2014
    With contributions from some of the South’s finest chefs, a glossary of cooking terms, and essays from many of the magazine’s most beloved writers, The Southerner’s Cookbook is much more than simply a collection of recipes: it is a true reflection of the South’s culinary past, present, and future*Named one of Eater’s Best New Cookbooks for Fall 2015**Selected as one of Vanity Fair’s “18 Best New Cookbooks”*

Bobby Flay's Grill It!


Bobby Flay - 2008
    Whether you’ve picked up corn at a local farmstand or chicken breasts at the supermarket, a fantastically flavorful, ridiculously simple grilled feast is right at your fingertips with Bobby Flay’s Grill It! Packed with the innovative marinades, sauces, vinaigrettes, and rubs that have helped make Bobby a celebrity chef and leading restaurateur, this beautiful cookbook will help you transform basic ingredients into grilled masterpieces year-round. Bobby knows how you shop and cook and knows you think “I want burgers tonight”–not “I want to do a main course on the grill.” As a result, the book is conveniently organized by ingredient, with chapters covering juicy beef steaks and succulent shrimp, of course, as well as perhaps less traditional grill fare such as asparagus, fruit, lamb, scallops, potatoes, and squash, so you can expand your backyard repertoire. Bobby teaches you how to grill each staple perfectly while also offering an arsenal of ideas for how to transform your favorite ingredients into something inventive and satisfying such as Grilled Chicken Thighs with Green Olives and Sherry Vinegar-Orange Sauce or Grilled Steak with Balsamic-Rosemary Butter.A truly comprehensive grill guide, Bobby Flay’s Grill It! also includes:    * Bobby’s take on charcoal versus gas grills (and how to pick one whatever your preference and budget)    * A list of indispensable grilling tools     * A guide to stocking the perfect grill pantry    * A resource guide for high-quality ingredients, supplies, and accessoriesSimply put, Bobby Flay’s Grill It! is Bobby at his best. No matter what you choose to grill (or what looks best when you actually get to the store), Bobby helps you create an easy meal that is fresh, flavorful, and fun to cook. This is the new, must-have guide to becoming a grilling guru in your own right.

Taste of Home Christmas: 465 Recipes For a Merry Holiday!


Taste of Home - 2013
    Included is classic fare, as well as updated twists on old-time favorites.Let Taste of Home help you plan your holiday parties and menus with this idea-packed cookbook. There are wonderful appetizers and beverages, company-worthy entrees, delectable breads, an array of sides and best of all dazzling, divine sweets—cookies, candies, cakes, pies and more. Included is classic fare, as well as updated twists on old-time favorites. CHAPTERS Intro Festive Appetizers & Beverages Holiday Parties Joyful Brunches Christmas Dinner Menus Merry Entrees Jolly Sides Glorious Breads Yuletide Cookies Heavenly Desserts Candy Sampler Special Gifts of Food Thanksgiving Gathering Indexes Recipes Caramel Cashew Clusters Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles Apple Cider-Glazed Ham Cheese-Topped Roasted Vegetables Colorful Gazpacho Salad Herb-Crusted Prime Rib Old English Trifle Raspberry Lemon Cake Yorkshire Pudding with Bacon and Sage Asiago Chicken Spread Calzone Pinwheels Cherry-Brandy Baked Brie Hot Spiced Wine Shrimp Wrapped in Bacon Warm Pomegranate Punch Cranberry-Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix Orange Pear Jam Cracked Pepper Cheddar Muffins Rustic Pumpkin Bread Almond Pistachio Baklava Caramel Apple Cheesecake Frozen Peppermint Delight Holiday Walnut Torte Au Gratin Potatoes ’n’ Leeks Carrot Cake Doughnuts Overnight Raisin French Toast Golden Roasted Turkey Maple-Oat Dinner Rolls Sausage Raisin Dressing Brown Sugar Cutouts Cherry Kisses Cranberry Shortbread Bars Dark Chocolate Butterscotch Brownies Raspberry Sandwich Spritz 7 WINTER PARTIES The seven winter parties will be organized into 7 themes, with menus and holiday entertaining ideas (e.g. A snowflake invitation) for each. Festive Open House During the busy holiday season, it can be challenging to pick a time and date to get-together with all you friends. An open house allows people to stop by during the day when it’s convenient for them. Let your open house go for 4 to 6 hours and you're sure to enjoy a casual time. Recipes include Roast Beef and Pear Crostini, Apricot Chicken Wings, Grape Juice Sparkler, and Warm Spiced Nuts. Cocktail Party Bring on the bubbly! A spirited evening of festive cocktails and bite-size appetizers awaits. Set up the bar with cranberry mixers and deck the buffet with shrimp and crostini, it’s time to mingle and be jolly with old friends and new. Recipes include Fast Coconut Shrimp, Goat Cheese-Pesto Crostini, Bubbly Cranberry Mixer, and Orange Razzletini. After-Caroling Warm-Up Welcome friends and family inside for a post-caroling meal. This make-ahead feast will be ready to greet you from the cold. Recipes include slow-cooked Round-Up Chili, slow-cooked Tuscan Pork Stew, Rosemary Garlic Focaccia, and Truffle Hot Chocolate Holiday Movie Night Coming to a living room near you, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Story, and more. Gather the gang, pass the pizza and cuddle up with a batch of chocolaty fudge cups for screenings of your favorite holiday classics. Recipes include: Pizza Rusticana, Tijuana Tidbits, and Coconut-Almond Fudge Cups. Tea Party No matter how cold it is outside, a hot cup of Chai or a tangy cranberry tea makes it easy to enjoy the warmth of the season. Guests will be served platters of tea sandwiches and petite pastries, as well as poppy seed scones and Vienna Triangles to add a traditional touch to a memorable and merry tea party. Recipes include Vanilla Chai Tea, Petite Apricot Pastries, and Turkey, Gouda & Apple Tea Sandwiches. Let It Snow Celebration If the flurry of holiday duties has you flustered, and the snow’s a fallin’, call up some friends for an afternoon of skiing, sledding, snowshoeing and ice skating. Let It Snow Celebration If the flurry of holiday duties has you flustered, and the snow’s a fallin’, call up some friends for an afternoon of skiing, sledding, snowshoeing and ice skating. Afterwards, warm your bellies with some hearty fare. Recipes include Shredded Pork Sandwiches and Snowmen Cookies. Lunch with Friends: Let’s do lunch! Because there's no better time to show your appreciation for your closet chums than during the holiday season. You can offer a delicious soup, salad and sandwich with a sophisticated holiday twist. Recipes include: Roasted Red Pepper Bisque, Spinach Festival Salad, and Grilled Cheese Supreme.

Tartine Bread (Artisan Bread Cookbook, Best Bread Recipes, Sourdough Book)


Chad Robertson - 2010
    At 5 P.M., Chad Robertson's rugged, magnificent Tartine loaves are drawn from the oven. The bread at San Francisco's legendary Tartine Bakery sells out within an hour almost every day.Only a handful of bakers have learned the bread science techniques Chad Robertson has developed: To Chad Robertson, bread is the foundation of a meal, the center of daily life, and each loaf tells the story of the baker who shaped it. Chad Robertson developed his unique bread over two decades of apprenticeship with the finest artisan bakers in France and the United States, as well as experimentation in his own ovens. Readers will be astonished at how elemental it is.Bread making the Tartine Way: Now it's your turn to make this bread with your own hands. Clear instructions and hundreds of step-by-step photos put you by Chad's side as he shows you how to make exceptional and elemental bread using just flour, water, and salt.If you liked Tartine All Day by Elisabeth Prueitt and Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish, you'll love Tartine Bread!Additional categories for this book include:Baking BooksBaking Recipe BooksBaking Cook BooksBread Recipe Books

Ancient Grains for Modern Meals: Mediterranean Whole Grain Recipes for Barley, Farro, Kamut, Polenta, Wheat Berries & More


Maria Speck - 2011
    In this inspired and highly personal book, Maria Speck draws on food traditions from across the Mediterranean and northern Europe to reveal how versatile, satisfying, flavorful, and sophisticated whole grains can be.    Rustic but elegant dishes--Creamy Farro with Honey-Roasted Grapes, Barley Salad with Figs and Tarragon-Lemon Dressing, Lamb Stew with Wheat Berries in Red Wine Sauce, and Purple Rice Pudding with Rose Water Dates--are sure to please discerning palates and become favorites in any whole grain repertoire.  Food lovers and health-conscious home chefs alike learn how to integrate whole grains into their busy lives, from quick-cooking quinoa and buckwheat to the slower varieties such as spelt and Kamut. The stunning flavors and lively textures of whole grains are enhanced with natural ingredients such as butter, cream, and prosciutto--in moderation--to create lush Mediterranean-inspired recipes. Maria’s approachable style and generous spirit make this collection of time-honored, updated classics a treasury for today’s cooks.

La Tartine Gourmande: Gluten-Free Recipes for an Inspired Life


Béatrice Peltre - 2012
    Welcome to a world where flavors are collected as souvenirs and shared as heirlooms, and where the dishes we create are expressions of our joie de vivre. With nearly 100 recipes and charming anecdotes, La Tartine Gourmande takes you on a journey, not only through the meals of the day but around the world, as Béa revisits her inspiration for each dish. Though her style is largely inspired by her native France, you’ll find a wide array of influences as she brings creative twists to classic recipes—all while remaining effortlessly healthful and balanced. The gluten-free recipes use whole grains like quinoa, millet, buckwheat, and nut flours, lending surprising depth of flavor and nutrients, even to desserts. You’ll taste the best of her adventures abroad from Denmark to New Zealand, her childhood in the French countryside, and the simple wholesomeness of her charmed life at home in Boston. Your mouth will water as Béa recalls the oeufs en cocotte (“baked eggs”) that she ate as a child after collecting fresh eggs from her grandmother’s hen house. Her recipe for this classic dish now includes leeks, spinach, smoked salmon, and cumin. Or try the buttermilk, lemon, and poppyseed pancakes she made every morning in Crete when she was pregnant—they’re now her little daughter Lulu’s favorite. Warm up with a bowl of celeriac, white sweet potato, and apple soup, a dish inspired by a chilly day of horseback riding in New Zealand. You’ll love sharing the saffron-flavored crab and watercress soufflé, a delicious homage to one of her mother’s best-loved Christmas traditions. And since most would agree that “a meal without dessert is like wearing only one shoe,” try the apple, rhubarb, and strawberry nutty crumble, served with vanilla-flavored custard, just the way her husband’s Irish grandfather preferred. Lush styling and photography combined with sweet stories, foodie tidbits, and fresh and original recipes make La Tartine Gourmande perfect for those who love food and the way our lives play around it. This is not just a book about cooking, but a warm invitation to share in the beauty and simple pleasures of a life with food at the heart of it.

The I Hate to Cook Book


Peg Bracken - 1960
    Today there is an Annual Culinary Olympics, with hundreds of cooks from many countries ardently competing. But we who hate to cook have had our own Olympics for years, seeing who can get out of the kitchen the fastest and stay out the longest." Peg Bracken Philosopher's Chowder. Skinny Meatloaf. Fat Man's Shrimp. Immediate Fudge Cake. These are just a few of the beloved recipes from Peg Bracken's classic I Hate to Cook Book. Written in a time when women were expected to have full, delicious meals on the table for their families every night, Peg Bracken offered women who didn't revel in this obligation an alternative: quick, simple meals that took minimal effort but would still satisfy. 50 years later, times have certainly changed - but the appeal of The I Hate to Cook Book hasn't. This book is for everyone, men and women alike, who wants to get from cooking hour to cocktail hour in as little time as possible.

Mexico One Plate At A Time


Rick Bayless - 2000
    In this companion book to his 26-part Public Television series, he takes us, with boyish enthusiasm, through Mexican markets, street stalls and home kitchens to bring us the great dishes of Mexico, one “plate” at a time.Rick Bayless has been acclaimed widely as America's foremost proponent of Mexico's thrillingly diverse cuisine. In this companion book to his 26-part Public Television series, he takes us, with boyish enthusiasm, through Mexican markets, street stalls and home kitchens to bring us the great dishes of Mexico, one “plate” at a time. And each “plate” Rick presents here is a Mexican classic. Take guacamole, for instance. After teaching us the essentials for a perfect, classic guacamole, Rick shows how to spin contemporary interpretations, like his Roasted Poblano Guacamole with garlic and parsley. Rick's cuisine is always lively, but rooted in strong traditions. Always the teacher, Rick begins each “plate” with some never-before-found features: traditional benchmarks (Rick's idea of the best guacamole), when to think of the recipes (weeknight dinners or casual party food), and advice for American cooks (Rick's insight into the ingredients that make the dish). He rounds out each “plate” with suggestions for working ahead. To complete the journey into the Mexican mindset, Rick, with help from his testers, ends each “plate” with a question-and-answer section detailing just about everything a home cook might want to know: What are the best cuts of beef for grilled tacos? The best cheeses for quesadillas? Is one grill better than another? Rick draws from his years of living in Mexico, pulling us into the Mexican kitchen, to teach us how to create authentic Mexican dishes in our American kitchens. Rick is an Indiana Jones of the stove, a Julia Child of Mexican cuisine in black jeans and a T-shirt. Rick's goal: to enable folks all across the United States to create dishes that weave in the rich tapestry of Mexican flavor with ingredients that are widely available. He always provides ingredients that make the dish authentic, but he also delivers with the right substitute if an ingredient is hard to find. Experience food you can't wait to make in a new and user-friendly cookbook that contains the full range of dishes—Starters, Snacks and Light Meals; Soups, Stews and Sides; Entrées; Desserts and Drinks. Rick serves up such classic Mexican plates as Tomatillo-Braised Pork Loin, Quick-Fried Shrimp with Sweet Toasty Garlic, Chiles Rellenos, Cheesy Enchiladas Suizas, and Mexican Vanilla-Scented Flan. And for an exciting taste of the unexpected, try Rick's contemporary interpretations of the classics—Crispy Potato Sopes with Goat Cheese and Fresh Herbs, Grilled Salmon with Lemon-and-Thyme-Scented Salsa Veracruzana, Broiled Flank Steak with Tomato-Poblano Salsa and Rustic Cajeta Apple Tarts with Berry “Salsa.” Food and friends, food and family. Good cooking, for Rick, is the unspoken animator of friends and family as they gather to share a meal. Rick's recipes lend themselves to weeknight family meals or celebrations. Take part in a tamalada, the tamal-making party before the party, or the ritual of a barbacoa, an earthy experience that Rick has made possible with a kettle grill in the backyard. 24 color photographs of finished dishes Photographs of Mexican location shots throughout