www.cyber-kitchen.com
LYNX AND BETSIE USERS CLICK HERE
 |
Donate Food FREE
MIMI'S FOOD LINKS
Cooking to Beat the Clock
Delicious, inspired meals in 15
minutes
By Sam Gugino
Copyright 1998, Chronicle Books
ISBN: 0811818608
Reviewed by Maxine Wolfson
The title of this book excited me, since I all too often return home at dinnertime, my starving family offering me that plaintive whine, “When’s dinner?” Sam Gugino answers that question by offering organizational recommendations and many excellent shortcuts for bringing interesting and reasonably healthful meals to the table quickly. My only complaint about his title is that “15 minutes” refers just to the food preparation time, not the time involved in gathering all the ingredients and tools.
Mr. Gugino starts out by saying, “This book is based on four principles, which will enable you not just to pick out a recipe here and there, but to develop a lifelong strategy for fast meals, regardless of how long they take.” His four principals are flavor, organization, focus, and creativity. He recommends a pantry full of staples that are rich in flavor, preferring a small quantity of more expensive, but intensely flavored foods like cured proteins and balsamic vinegar, to their generic cousins. He also recommends a number of canned and jarred staples like beans or artichokes.
For organization, he lists the tools necessary for quick preparation: large, heavy pans, food processor, bowls, knives, timers, measuring devices and a sharpening machine for the knives. Surprisingly, he only mentions the microwave as an adjunct to the stove, not a substitute for it. One of his suggestions for speeding things up is to use two pots to heat water for pasta, then dumping the water from the smaller pot into the larger when both are at a boil.
To maintain focus, only one person works in the kitchen. Read the recipe through before you start. (How many times have you heard that simple but necessary step?) This will tell you what ingredients and tools you will need to accomplish the job. Many of the directions start with “Meanwhile” or “While” to let you know that when the water’s heating, or the meat is browning, you will be chopping, or processing, or preparing one or more other parts of the meal. Mr. Gugino states, “Get in there and get it done, then be as leisurely as you want afterward.”
The last principle is creativity. There are 60 very creative recipes in this book. The author hopes that you apply his methods to your favorite meals as well as others that you would like to try.
Some of his ideas for cutting cooking time are obvious, for example: using baby vegetables that cook quicker; buying salads and pre-cut vegetables at the salad bar or as pre-packaged items. One surprising suggestion, using large potatoes, or tomatoes, can save on peeling and cutting time. Unless you are certain of the quality of your hot water, his suggestion to start pasta water with hot tap water is one that this writer finds discomforting.
The recipes circle the globe. There’s a Fifteen-Minute Thanksgiving Dinner or Chicken Fajitas with Mango Salsa, Tuscan Tomato and Bread Salad, Warm Tabbouleh with Feta and Chickpeas, Asian-Spiced Salmon with Braised Bok Choy, plus many others. Including the focusing time to gather the ingredients and tools, most of these meals took 30 to 35 minutes from the moment I walked into the kitchen.
Our favorite meal was the Chicken Fajitas. It was the first one that I tried, and took me 16.5 minutes. Much of the extra time was spent looking for a sharper knife than I started with, and defrosting the lime juice rather than starting with a fresh lime. The meal was colorful, tasty, and even enjoyed by the youngster. There was so much salsa that it made a nice dip for the extra fajita wrappers toasted and broken into pieces for an appetizer the next night.
The Warm Tabbouleh with Feta and Chickpeas only took 15 minutes to prepare. This mild tasting dish served four adults and a teenager. I added some hummous and raw vegetable sticks to the table, and accompanied it with hot mint-flavored tea.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, my last client ran late, and I have to
pick up my daughter at gymnastics. Husband will be home in half an hour
and I have dinner to get on the table. With “Cooking to Beat the Clock,”
it’s a snap!
To order your copy of this cookbook, click here.
