Yeah, Stripey lent this and Laurel's Kitchen to me as well. I haven't used them yet as much as Bittman but what I've checked out is really great.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 11:46 (seventeen years ago) link
Bittman is king; Slater's latest (Kitchen Diaries) is fantastic. I just got Rick Stein's new seafood book--it looks fantastic as a guide to buying and preparing fish (extensive info on fish families, tons of pictures, tons of techniques), but I'm not sold on the recipes yet, which have the drawback of having no introductory text at all (I know it's silly, but I like it when a cookbook writer tells me shit like, "this is the best dish ever! Make it!").
― g00blar (gooblar), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 11:48 (seventeen years ago) link
a) incline towards the baking/confectionery/chemistry approach to cooking;
b) have a variety of airy places in your home, of varying temperatures, where your spouse and pets won't interfere with meat hanging around;
c) like meat.
Me, I cure meat a lot, but I don't make sausage, I'm not about to try hot dogs -- to make a hot dog you need approximate temperature control during grinding, or it won't emulsify, and I'm just not that guy -- and I'm down with just making homemade corned beef, pastrami, bacon, lamb ham. You know. But it's a really good book if you're up for that whole trip.
― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 11:53 (seventeen years ago) link
"Mix two teaspoons of spicy paprika with each half-cup of flour you're using, and then some pepper. Whisk an egg RIGHT up to dip your chicken in. If you are mad at anyone, take it out on the chicken. Make sure your chicken pieces are perfectly dry, then stab them over and over again with a fork before dipping them in the egg wash and then the paprika flour. Deep fry them until they're golden and then let them sit awhile in a 200C oven - that lets most of the oil run off the chicken."
― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 14:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 17:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― Porkpie (porkpie), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 22:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 22:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 22:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 22:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 22:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 22:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 22:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 22:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 23:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 23:07 (seventeen years ago) link
What I do have is the 2004 one, formatted for an odd page size -- I don't think it's quite as good (typical sophomore syndrome, I had to cull just from stuff I'd done that year), but it's something.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/0y6a5c
― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 23:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 23:14 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 23:15 (seventeen years ago) link
*(c) McDonald's France; means either "It's everything that I love!" or, more sinisterly, "It's all that I love!"
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 23:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Bearnaise-Stain Bears (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 23:42 (seventeen years ago) link
I also love Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" esp. that pasta with a sauce of sausage w/ red & yellow peppers.
― Collardio Gelatinous (collardio), Thursday, 19 October 2006 02:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― Maria (Maria), Thursday, 19 October 2006 04:03 (seventeen years ago) link
Take this lovely Braised beef redcipe:
Brasato alla Barolo
1kg Topside, Brisket or similaroilbutter25g Proscuitto fat or lardo, choppedpinch of coccoa powdera teaspoon of rum
For the marinade
1 bottle of barolo2 carrots sliced2 onions1 celery stalk4 fresh sage leaves1 small fresh rosemary sprig1 bay leaf10 black peppercornssalt
Tie up the meat and leave in the marinade for 6 or 7 hours. Drain the meat keeping the marinade. In a hevay bottomed pan heat the fats and add the meat and brown over a high heat. Pour in the marinade, deglaze the pan and cook over a low heat for 1 and a half hours. Discard the herbs, blend the stock vegetables into the sauce and add the cocoa and rum. Pour the sauce over the meat and serve.
I'd use grappa or brandy in place of the rum as I hate rum and don't hacve it in the house.
As a vegetable course with that I'd have porcini, Cavolini (brussel sprouts), Cavolo Verza alla Cappucina (savoy Cabbage) or Finocchi alla diavola (Fennel)
― Ed (dali), Thursday, 19 October 2006 05:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ed (dali), Thursday, 19 October 2006 06:07 (seventeen years ago) link
Nigel Slater I used to love: his early books were geared towards making the best from things you could pick up easily from the shops on the way home from work, & he changed the way I thought about food. These days it's for well-off childless people who live within easy reach of Borough Market.
Also his prose style makes me feel queasy, he is irritatingly twee & there is a disingenuousness that gets on my nerves - "the blushing aubergines that found their way into my shopping bag etc".
And I have found that I have sometimes almost to double his cooking times, especially for meat: I like rare beef & lamb, but not chicken & pork.
― bham (bham), Thursday, 19 October 2006 06:45 (seventeen years ago) link
first course: lentil soup with garlicSecond (or sometimes first instead): pasta of some kind. Usually fresh pasta such as strozzapreti, with a wonderful slowcooked ragu, or maybe just plain fresh spaghetti tossed with fried breadcrumbs and garlic/chillimain course: veal scallopine, or involtinis, or chicken fillets, something along those lines - with hot chips and peas simmered in tons of onionsafters: figs and chest-hair-making espressos. Max's dad would always have a shot of brandy in his.
I would always be BURSTING after sunday dinners at theirs. God. I dont know how people can eat like that more than once or twice a week without DYING.
― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 19 October 2006 07:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 19 October 2006 13:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 19 October 2006 13:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 19 October 2006 13:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 19 October 2006 13:47 (seventeen years ago) link
Plus, the Anglo-American bland-favoring influence here discouraged the popularity of spiky Italian flavors like you get from pickled things, brined or salt-preserved things, strong oily fish, olives.
That vinegar chicken Mr Hand mentioned, that's an Italian recipe and the probable precursor to Buffalo wings. Spicy, vinegary, messy, not an herb in sight, nothing we think of as Italian.
― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 19 October 2006 14:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ed (dali), Thursday, 19 October 2006 14:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Thursday, 19 October 2006 14:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ed (dali), Thursday, 19 October 2006 14:59 (seventeen years ago) link
On returning the the UK to live, I went to work for Raymond Blanc at his Manoir aux Quat'Saisons - not as a chef, but as his PR person. He and I used to spend Mondays together in the kitchens, with him trying out new dishes and me running around behind him taking notes and turning them into proper recipes. I learned so much from him, and he is still my favourite chef by far. I almost always use one of his recipes (either from one of his books, or more usually one of his unpublished recipes from his private collection) when cooking for smart dinner parties - his food is infallibly good.
I developed an interest in collecting cookery books of all descriptions as a result of all that, and now have lots. Hundreds probably, from Escoffier to the BBC Masterchef recipes, via Marco Pierre White, Delia, Nigella, and everyone else in between.
For everyday family cooking, if I run short of ideas, I don't think you can go wrong with the cheap'n'cheerful Australian Women's Weekly range of cookbooks ... they're only about a fiver each, they're beautifully laid out with mouthwateringly pretty photographs, and some interesting meal ideas. I like them a lot.
I trawl the BBC Food website for ideas, too. It's often my starting-point over a cup of coffee on a Friday morning when planning the following week's family menu and shopping list. My word, my life's exciting :)
― C J (C J), Thursday, 19 October 2006 16:38 (seventeen years ago) link
My gf ate there and absolutely loved it. Shestill raves about it and dreams of going there for one of there cooking seminars.
As to what Tep says about Italian cooking, see Big Night about the perils of introducing la cucina italiana into America. There isn't any more an Italian cuisine than there is a solitary French or Chinese or American one. Pasta with sauce is usually the primo of several courses. A typical traditional (though not in all regions) meal looks liie this:
L'antipasto - Appetizers Il primo A hot dish like pasta, risotto, gnocchi, polenta or soup. Il secondo Meat, fish, or game, usually.Il contorno Salad or hot or cold vegetables. When I lived in Italy I acquired a taste for simple contorni like spinach or broccoli or rabe served cold with salt, lemon and olive oil. Il dolce Dessert Il caffè Coffee Digestives or liquers such as grappa, limoncello, amaro, fernet, etc...
― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 19 October 2006 17:00 (seventeen years ago) link
I'm trying to remember how the rice was done last time I went to a Japanese steakhouse...
― milo z (mlp), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:56 (seventeen years ago) link
also today i got the tassajara cookbook! i am sad that most of the tasty main dish recipes have tomatoes or mushrooms, which are both forbidden in my house...maybe i'll cook them if the allergic people are out sometime. the other types of recipes generally look good.
― Maria (Maria), Thursday, 19 October 2006 20:05 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Bearnaise-Stain Bears (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 19 October 2006 20:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 19 October 2006 20:12 (seventeen years ago) link
Laugh at me then. I love multi-course meals and I never understand people who go to a party and get, say, lasagna all over their salad and vinagrette all over their lasagna. Just eat one and get some of the other later and if you're worried that there isn't enough, then the hosts haven't made enough food.
― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 19 October 2006 21:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Bearnaise-Stain Bears (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 19 October 2006 21:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 19 October 2006 21:37 (seventeen years ago) link
Does this mean "I laugh! The milk shoots from my nose"?
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 19 October 2006 21:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Bearnaise-Stain Bears (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 19 October 2006 21:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 19 October 2006 21:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Bearnaise-Stain Bears (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 19 October 2006 22:13 (seventeen years ago) link
Search the Surreal Gourmet's lemon and olive oil grilled salmon wrapped in romaine (?) lettuce leaves (not to be confused with his foil wrapped salmon poached in a dishwasher) from his first book -- Real Food for Pretend Chefs.
― Melinda Mess-injure (Melinda Mess-injure), Friday, 20 October 2006 05:42 (seventeen years ago) link
Hey all I need some help starting my library...If anyone has followed my intermittent posts here, I live in NYC, am between jobs, and am flat broke. I have a good-sized cash infusion coming my way to keep me alive, and I figure I need to take advantage by stocking my kitchen and getting a few books. i have been eating out since i moved up here, albeit very very cheaply. my hope is that after the initial large investment (i dont have any oils, salt, pepper, etc.), my costs will go down or at least stay the same and i wont be eating unhealthy stuff all the time.
my favorite food is from italy, southeast asia and anywhere in the middle east and india. i lean towards vegetarian and usually opt for chicken when eating meat, at least at home. i like fish but the good stuff is all i cook and sort of kills my budget. i love steak and will spend a lot of money on one once i have it again. i think i am looking for at least two of the book to be more general, and one more focused.
so far my list is "how to cook everything" and possibly "saved by soup", which is one i heartily advise others to check out, but i dunno if there are enough recipes to consider that a primary book.
thanx
― Shh! It's NOT Me!, Sunday, 28 December 2008 16:00 (fifteen years ago) link
every kitchen should have a joy of cooking.
― s1ocki, Sunday, 28 December 2008 17:15 (fifteen years ago) link