How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
There’s something to be said for having an appreciative audience for one’s cooking. After all, the most galvanizing culinary force I have is E. I love when, out of nowhere, he will say something like, “ooh, let’s have rice pilaf.” Even though neither of us really knows what rice pilaf is (I am assuming what comes out of a Rice-a-Roni box can’t possibly be an authentic rendition of it), I suddenly have a purpose—a quest. I will search all my recipe books for a recipe for rice pilaf, go to the grocery store just to get the ingredients for the one dish, and spend an extra hour standing by the stove to produce it for him. These are the only moments I truly enjoy cooking.Yesterday morning, E got it into his head that he wanted French toast for breakfast. He probably came up with idea because there has been a stale loaf of French bread sitting on the kitchen counter since Thursday. I was spurred into action. I pulled out my copy of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, and there was indeed a very simple recipe for French toast. It involved only two eggs and a surprisingly large amount of milk—a whole cup. I added a dash of cinnamon and vanilla extract, and I was ready to go.
With the French bread slices, my first completely successful venture in French toast territory was a resounding success. It looked exactly like restaurant French toast. Once again, E and I wondered why we should ever leave our house again.
How to Cook Everything is an amazingly useful cookbook. If you were to only own one cookbook, this would be it. After all, it tells you how to cook everything. So far, there hasn’t been anything E has suddenly decided he wants to eat that I haven’t found in this book. And every recipe I’ve tried has been great. Granted, it covers only basic, fresh cooking, but if you’re learning how to cook something new, this is a great start. Besides the minimalist versions of each dish (which Bittman excels in), he also offers a few variations to change things up. But with almost a thousand pages of recipes, there’s little fear of running out of things to make. I just can’t believe I lived so long without it.
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
posted by Renee at 5:02 PM
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1 Comments:
I was given this book several years back by a neighbor because "You cook and I don't." Like you said, I've found it to be immensely resourceful. The chapters on chicken and fish are interesting, and delicious. I've never had a better roast chicken. :) And we've only barely scratched the surface...
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