A New Way to Cook - Hardcover

Schneider, Sally

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1579651887 ISBN 13: 9781579651886

Publisher: Artisan, 2001

Synopsis

Sally Schneider was tired of doing what we all do—separating foods into "good" and "bad," into those we crave but can't have and those we can eat freely but don't especially want—so she created A New Way To Cook.

Her book is nothing short of revolutionary, a redefinition of healthy eating, where no food is taboo, where the pleasure principle is essential to well-being, where the concept of self-denial just doesn't exist.

• More than 600 lavishly illustrated recipes result in marvelous, vividly flavored foods. You'll find quintessential American favorites that taste every bit as good as the traditional "full-tilt" versions: macaroni and cheese, rosemary buttermilk biscuits, chocolate malted pudding. You'll find Italian polentas, risottos, focaccias, and pastas, all reinvented without the loss of a single drop of deliciousness. Asian flavors shine through in cold sesame noodles; mussels with lemongrass, ginger, and chiles; and curry-crusted shrimp. Even French food is no longer on the forbidden list, with country-style pâtés and cassoulet.
  
• Hundreds of techniques, radical in their ultimate simplicty, make all the difference in the world: using chestnut puree in place of cream, butter, and pork fat in a duck liver mousse; extending the richness of flavored oils by boiling them with a little broth to dress starchy beans and grains; casserole-roasting baby back ribs to render them of fat, then lacquering them with a pungent maple glaze.
  
• Scores of flavor catalysts—quickly made sauces, rubs, marinades, essences, and vinaigrettes—add instant hits of flavor with little effort. Leek broth dresses pasta; chive oil becomes an instant sauce for broiled salmon; a smoky tea essence imparts a sweet, grilled flavor to steak; balsamic vinegar turns into a luscious dessert sauce.
  
• Variations and improvisations offer infiinite flexibility. Once you learn a basic recipe, it's simple to devise your own version for any part of the meal. "Fried" artichockes with crispy garlic and sage can be an hors d-oeuvre topped with shaved cheeses, part of a composed salad, or as a main course when tossed iwth pasta. It's equally happy on top of pizza or stirred into risotto. And by building dishes from simple elements, turning out complex meals doesn't have to be a complex affair.
  
• A wealth of tips and practical information to make you a more accomplished and self-confident cook: how to rescue ordinary olive oil to give it more flavor, how to make soups creamy without cream, how to freshen less-than-perfect fish.

So here it is, 756 glorious pages of all the deliciousness and joy that food is meant to convey.

About this title

Review:

Want to eat healthful, delicious food without self-deprivation? Sally Schneider's A New Way to Cook shows you how. Schneider's approach is global: not only does she provide 600 recipes for a wide range of truly satisfying, good-for-you dishes, she offers a blueprint for better eating and cooking, no matter the recipe. Her mantra? No need to give up flavorful fats and the pleasures of salt and sugar, which are intrinsically necessary to a satisfying diet, she maintains. No food is excluded in her plan. Applying moderation, portion streamlining, and a number of unusual techniques--for example, you get all the flavor and satisfying mouthfeel of fat without excessive calories if you emulsify it first with water or other liquids--she offers her better way. Those of us caught between the need to eat sensibly and the reasonable desire to derive maximum enjoyment from food, impulses often at odds, will welcome her cookbook.

Proceeding with an enumeration of essential techniques and "strategic" ingredients (for example, buying high quality can help check calories as people tend to eat less when they eat better), Schneider then offers her innovative recipes. These run the gamut from "Fried" Artichokes with Crispy Garlic and Sage to Oven-Steamed Red Snapper with Fennel Leeks and Curry to Chocolate Chestnut Truffles (chestnut purée helps keep calories in check). Many of the recipes include variations and improvisations--a basic roasted vegetable formula, for example, also offers "tutorials" that encourage cooking freedom. Schneider also presents flavor-enhancing component recipes (such as that for roasted garlic), as well as tips, charts, and other useful information that further extend the book's usefulness. With a chapter on "flavor catalysts" like dry rubs and flavored oils; nutritional analysis; and mail-order and other resources listings, the fully color-photo-illustrated book is a sure thing for readers who want to eat healthily and well. --Arthur Boehm

Book Description:

The title says it all. A New Way to Cook is the ultimate guide to cooking for the new century. It is an inspired cookbook that embodies the way we want to cook and feel today.

For more than ten years, Sally Schneider has been experimenting in the kitchen and developing innovative techniques that maximize flavor and satisfaction in food and enhance overall well-being. Sally teaches us how to use the ingredients that were formally thought taboo, including butter, oil, chocolate, and sugar. There's no longer a need to separate foods into those that are bad for you and those that are good, into those you crave but can't have, and those you can eat in abundance but don't especially enjoy. Those categories will cease to exist.

Food is about more than just eating, and likewise, A New Way to Cook is about more than just food. Sally's ideas exemplify a new way of being and a new way of thinking, forging ahead into a new era of living where pleasure is essential to good health. A New Way to Cook is cooking simply, easily, healthfully, and with pleasure to achieve the deliciousness and joy of sharing that food is meant to convey.

About this edition

• Publisher: Artisan
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1579651887
• ISBN 13: 9781579651886
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 756