The other request I had was from a friend who is trying to eat healthier, eat more fresh and local foods, and learn to cook. Oh, and is a big fan of the Pioneer Woman. And Jamie Oliver. Kind of a mashup of the two.
I had to phone a friend on this one, since I was aware of the Pioneer Woman but not familiar. The description I got back was:
A summary of the Pioneer Woman? Hmm, where to start! She’s girly, down-to-earth, with a very, very full life. She wears a lot of hats
(sometimes simultaneously) and has a deep enjoyment of the simple pleasures of life (a sleeping dog, silly, dirty kids, a truly
delicious meal, the pond at sunrise). I think her hobbies really reflect that, too–capturing precious moments in time, and sharing
them with the world. She cooks because she has to, really, but she hasn’t let that stop her from doing the exact same thing with cooking
- capturing her deep enjoyment of creating good food–not fancy food, but good home cooked meals that warm the soul–that other people will enjoy too. AND teaching them how to do it. I identify with that a lot. She’s the genuine article, too, not afraid to admit her flaws and with the enviable ability to laugh at them.
Immediately I think of Alice Waters. She started the whole fresh local foods movement at Chez Panisse in California. I got her book Simple Foods back at my birthday, but have held off from diving in yet. (There’s a stack of books I haven’t read yet waiting, and history shows that if I start too many cookbooks at once, I tend to stop reading all of them. So, one at a time.) The thing about Waters is that she’s really invested in the idea of local and organic. While I have almost exclusively found farmer’s market fare to be better tasting than the supermarkets, keeping a pantry stocked on local and organic alone isn’t always feasible. Go with what you’ve got, cook it yourself, and you’ll be better off than you were.
Same as last post, anything by Mark Bittman should be good to have on hand. There’s a reason he’s known as The Minimalist at the NY Times. Plus, he’s got a great podcast to watch – I’ve gotten more than a few inspirations from it in the past.
Finally, look at Appetite by Nigel Slater. Nigel is a food writer in the UK, and his writing style is very approachable and easy to read. (Side note – same goes for Michael Ruhlman.) The main reason I bought Appetite (almost ten years ago, wow!) is that his measurements are natural and imprecise. Think “a handful of chopped onion” rather than “3/4 cup of diced onion”. That takes the focus away from doing things just right, fretting over exact measurements, and more on what’s actually happening in the pan or pot.
Oh – and an honorable mention to pretty much anything by the Cook’s Illustrated folks. The magazine is excellent, and they have a number of collected “Best Of XYZ” volumes. This falls very much in the “go here and do this” camp – they’ve taken a fairly scientific approach to their recipes and can describe in pretty exact detail what to do and when. It’s not always the simplest of cooking (although sometimes it is), but it’s a good way to get comfortable in the kitchen.
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Good list.
I would add to this: Ratio by Michael Ruhlman. Ratio, Ratio, Ratio. I make all of my pie crusts and cakes and cookies from scratch (still experimenting) and it doesn’t ever occur to me to do otherwise these days. It takes the fear out of baking. Screw recipes!
I’d also recommend that your friend start following some food blogs. I like ones that have regular recipes but I also like the ones that are more along the lines of “I got this ingredient and was wondering, what should I do with it, so I threw some stuff together and it was good.” Those have really helped me get out of the mindset of following recipes and more into the mindset of, “here are foods that might taste good together, let’s do stuff with those.” It’s helped me get a lot more creative.
Nigel Slater is very good. I can recommend his “Kitchen Diaries”. The greatest hit I’ve done from his recipes has to be his Edwardian trifle. There’s a simpler version of the recipe in Kitchen Diaries, but the full Monty is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2004/may/02/foodanddrink.shopping1
I’m surprised Ratio wasn’t on the top of your pile of books, as well as the list.
“Alice’s Restaurant Cookbook” by Alice May Brock is aimed as much as setting the cook free as it is teaching the cook to cook. I know you are thinking, “it was published soooo long ago.” But you can still get it as a used book.
@melissa – I considered Ratio as well – it’s a fantastic book – but didn’t mention it because while it certainly frees you from recipes, I wonder how it would go over if one didn’t have some confidence in the kitchen in the first place. I completely agree with the part about the food blogs – there’s a lot of great material available for free across the web every day.
@Geoff – I seem to recall a blog post or two where you prepared the trifle for a party (or I’m making that up). Thanks for sharing! I’m curious – what would you call out as exemplary for Dutch food or food writing?
@Mom – Funny, I have our old copy of that on the bookshelf at home. I’ll have to pull it down and give it another read, now that I actually cook. (I haven’t read from it in years.)
@Mike – yep, I did blog about the trifle a few years back. I’ve now made it a few times for different groups of friends, and it is always a surefire hit. The difficulty is getting hold of the crystallised violets in the Netherlands – I have to ask for food parcels from friends in the UK!
Ah, exemplary for Dutch food… Er, unkind folks would say that Dutch cuisine is an oxymoron. Traditional Dutch is heavy peasant food. The soups are good, particularly in Winter, e.g. snert (Google it), but all else is best approached with caution. Modern Dutch I think shows the influence of Indonesian cooking, but I leave that to Martin to do, which he just does without a recipe book.
Thank you so much Mike! I confess I am the hapless cook that asked for source material. I am NOT a cook by any means, and about a year ago you would have found me saying I hate to cook, but grew tired of my love/hate relationship with the kitchen and have made a concerted effort to change.
Mike is right that this does not come naturally to me and right now I just need a firm hand that says get this, get that because cooking is still a chore in many ways. I know it is hard for non-cooks to see where I am coming from. I have had many cooks tell me what a relaxing happy place the kitchen is, but for me it is not. I am proud of the progress I have made but it is still a battle every day. Hopefully eventually it will just be a skirmish.
I would gladly take food blog recommendations. I am not a foodie by any means so a lot of food blogs have complicated or exotic ingredients or complicated prep (again try to look at it from a non-cook perspective). I like simple down home food but god love the Pioneer Woman she cooks with lots and lots of cream, butter and cheese. I like those things too but when I’m trying to eat healthier it can’t be an every day resource.
I have come to accept (sadly) that there isn’t a magic cookbook or blog out there for me and I’m just going to have to sift through a lot of stuff to find what works for me.
Anyway, enough backstory. Thank you Mike!
Oops…. that should say for *cooks to see where I’m coming from. Not non-cooks. Eh you guys are smart and will figure out what I meant.
Reading Ratio gave me MORE confidence. The thought of baking without a recipe was filed under “Potential Disasters” in my mind until I read the breakdown of the basic ratios, why different ingredients did what they did, and how learning the basics empowered me to make something that was good without any tweaks, but that I could tweak once I was comfortable with them.
I get a lot more angst out of trying a new recipe these days than a ratio I’ve not tried or experimenting with one I have tried.
Any of the ‘noun’ cookbooks by James Peterson; ‘Fish & Shellfish’, ‘Soups’, ‘Sauces’, etc.
Number one for me has to be Ratio. I grew up on Joy of cooking but thanks to the Web I too am a blog follower for well rendered recipes as well as recipes for knock offs from the professional kitchens of top restaurants. You can’t bake without a good cookbook as baking is part chemistry so for me The Bread Bakers Apprentice has always served well.
The Alice Waters book is one of my favorites. I use it all the time. I’m also quite fond of the memoir-style cook book by Molly Wizenberg (http://orangette.blogspot.com/), A homemade life. There are several great recipes there, mostly vegetarian.
i agree with all on your list here, mike! lately ive really been enjoying radically simple by rozanne gold which sounds up laanba’s alley. definitely a great starting (or simplifying, for me) place.