Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The Minimalist Cooks Dinner or Cocina de la familia

The Minimalist Cooks Dinner: More than 100 Recipes for Fast Weeknight Meals and Casual Entertaining

Author: Mark Bittman

Back with another splendid collection, America’s most popular cooking authority and author of How to Cook Everything, presents more than 100 fast, sophisticated main courses for home cooks of every skill level.

The Minimalist Cooks Dinner showcases Mark Bittman’s signature ease and imagination, and focuses on 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. Every recipe in The Minimalist Cooks Dinner is big on flavor, drawing on the global pantry and international repertoire that sets Bittman apart.

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, making it the perfect solution for weeknight after-work meals or elegant weekend dinner parties. From Steamed Chicken Breasts with Scallion-Ginger Sauce to Korean-Style Beef Wrapped in Lettuce Leaves to Roast Fish with Meat Sauce, Bittman banishes the ordinary with an exciting range of choices. Also covering hearty pasta dishes, steaks, pork, veal, lamb, chicken, and a wide assortment of seafood, The Minimalist Cooks Dinner is the answer when you’re looking for “satisfying dishes with a minimum of effort.”

About the Author: Mark Bittman is the creator and author of the popular weekly New York Times column “The Minimalist,” and a frequent contributor to the newspaper’s Dining InDining Out section. His previous books include The Minimalist Cooks at Home (winner of an IACP Award), How to Cook Everything (a four-time award winner, with more than 400,000 copies in print), Fish (winner of an IACPJulia Child Cookbook Award) and, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef (winner of a James Beard Award) and Simple to Spectacular. He lives in Connecticut.

Publishers Weekly

Recipes from the past two years of "The Minimalist," Bittman's widely read weekly food column in the New York Times, shape this latest collection from the author of the phenomenally popular How to Cook Everything. Cementing his reputation for quick, uncomplicated and rewardingly tasty fare within reach of any cook, Bittman overflows with inspiration in the basic recipes and in the suggestions that can be undertaken "With Minimal Effort" accompanying each one. For example, tinkering with Vichyssoise with Garlic, he proposes adding tomato and basil as one variation. To speed up a pasta meal, why not cook Pasta, Risotto Style? Adding stock a ladle at a time to a cut pasta yields a creamy dish without having to wait for a gallon of water to boil. Black Skillet Mussels couldn't be easier: heat a heavy skillet, add mussels and, when they open, eat. Suggested variations include a side sauce of butter, Tabasco and lemon juice. Combining unusual flavors comes naturally to Bittman, as in Roast Fish with Meat Sauce or Pot Roast with Cranberries, in which the meat quickly caramelizes with its dusting of sugar. Chicken-Mushroom "Cutlets" with Parmesan are basically chickenburgers gussied up temptingly with parmesan, porcini and garlic. The headnotes are much shorter than those in last year's The Minimalist Cooks at Home, but each recipe now brings pointers in the form of "Keys to Success" as well as suggested wines. Cooks with discerning tastes but little time will be very glad to add this to their library. (On-sale Sept. 11) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

The Minimalist Cooks at Home, Bittman's first cookbook from his weekly New York Times column, included recipes for all courses of a meal. This time, he concentrates on easy main courses, but he includes serving suggestions for rounding out the meal, as well as a chapter on salads and side dishes. The recipes are generally sophisticated but undemanding with their trademark short ingredients lists; for those with a bit more time or the inclination to experiment, variations are provided for each recipe under the heading "With Minimal Effort." Wine (or beer) suggestions are also included. Sure to be in demand. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.



Book about: Bad Samaritans or The Girl I Left behind

Cocina de la familia: Mas de 200 recetas autenticas de las cocinas caseras Mexico-Americanas

Author: Marilyn Tausend

For three years, Marilyn Tausend traveled across the United States and Mexico, talking to hundreds of Mexican and Mexican-American cooks. With the help of chef Miguel Ravago, Tausend tells the tale of these cooks, all of whom have adapted the family dishes and traditions they remember to accommodate a life considerably different from the lives of their parents and grandparents. In these pages you will find the real food eaten every day by Mexican-American families, whether they live in cities such as Los Angeles or Chicago, the border towns of Texas and Arizona, the farming communities of the Pacific Northwest, or the isolated villages of New Mexico and Colorado. Now you can re-create the vibrant flavors and rustic textures of this remarkable cuisine in your own kitchen. Most of the recipes are quite simple, and the more complex dishes, like moles and tamales, can be made in stages. So take a savory expedition across borders and generations, and celebrate the spirit and flavor of the Mexican-American table with your own family.

Library Journal

These two excellent new collections featuring contemporary Latin American cooking in the United States complement each other nicely. Tausend, coauthor with Susanna Palazuelos and others of Mexico the Beautiful (LJ 11/15/91), traveled throughout the country seeking the simple, traditional dishes that second- and third-generation Mexican Americans are cooking for everyday meals, recipes from their mothers and grandmothers. With Ravago, former chef/owner of Austin's Fonda San Miguel, she presents a broad selection of mouthwatering recipes, for both more familiar dishes such as Crispy Chicken Tacos and unusual ones like Pork and Purslane Stew. Tausend writes well, and headnotes include background on the various dishes as well as on the contributor. Highly recommended. Novas and Silva's more wide-ranging book draws on the diversity of Latin American cooking from 26 different nationalities in this country. Although the authors include homey, traditional dishes, they offer more sophisticated and elegant recipes from both home cooks and chefs, often in the cross-cultural nuevo style: New Southwestern Gnocchi di Patate, for example. The knowledgeable headnotes give culinary and cultural context for each recipe, often describing similar dishes from other Latin American countries, and more "exotic" ingredients are identified in glossary sections scattered throughout the book. Highly recommended. [There is also a Spanish-language edition, La Cocina Latinomericana en Los Estados Unidos, ISBN 0-679-44803-9.Ed.]



Table of Contents:
Introduction15
Basic Techniques of the Mexican-American Kitchen: Roasting, Toasting, Searing, and Souring19
Everyday Basic Ingredients25
New Mexico Impressions27
Beginnings/Botanas31
California Impressions47
Salads and Seafood Cocktails/Ensaladas y Cocteles de Marisco49
Texas Impressions66
Soups and Meals in a Pot/Sopas, Caldos, Pozoles, y Menudos69
Arizona Impressions103
Quick Bites/Antojitos y Tortas105
Illinois Impressions134
Main Dishes: Fish, Poultry, Meat, and Lighter Fare/Platillos Principales137
Colorado Impressions218
Comfortable Companions: Beans, Lentils, Rice, and Vegetables/Comidas Adicionales: Frijoles, Lentejas, Arroz, y Legumbres221
Washington Impressions256
Finishing Touches: Salsas, Relishes, Condiments/Salsas y Encurtidos259
Michigan Impressions286
Tamales/Tamales289
Florida Impressions307
Bread and Breakfast/Pan, Pan Dulce, y Huevos309
New York Impressions340
Sweet Endings/Postres343
Oregon and Idaho Impressions371
And to Wash It All Down/Bebidas373
Selected Bibliography387
Product Sources391
Permissions Acknowledgments393
Index395
Metric Equivalencies415

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