The Best Recipes in the World
by Mark Bittman
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Book Reviews of The Best Recipes in the World
Book Review: Perfect for the Home Chef with a Day Job
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this book about two months ago because I was bored with my normal cooking routine and wanted to play around with some new recipes. I could not be more pleased with the outcome.
What makes this cookbook great is its approach - it is aimed at making international cuisine practical for those of us who have a day job but still want to eat well on a weeknight. It does this by: (1) outlining the core spices you'll want to add to your spice rack to be able to readily cook various cuisines, and; (2) skipping unnecessary steps in recipes that prolong the time and effort needed to cook well.
The net result is that you can eat fantastic international cuisine any night of the week using the ingredients you have available in your kitchen, and for about the same effort as cooking dull staples.
Purists may complain about the "veracity" of some of these recipes, and that is fine and appropriate. That is not the point of this book. The point is that you can make a Thai or Indian dish for about the same effort it would take to make a lackluster tuna casserole, and it will be better than what you can get at a restaurant (indeed, I cannot sing the priases of the Red-Braised Chicken recipe enough - this is the best north Indian dish I have ever had, and it is incredibly easy).
Also: you will also never, ever, go back to canned pasta sauce again. Once you play around with a few recipes, you will be readily able to concoct heavenly sauce from fresh ingredients in the time it takes to boil pasta.
My only complaint with this book (and this is very, very minor), is that you need to keep an eye on the calories of some of these recipes - they can add up quickly. Coconut rice, for example, is delightful all by itself - which is not something I ever thought rice could be. However I gasped when, after having made this two nights in a row, I learned that each can of coconut milk has 700 calories - and there are two cans of them in this recipe - in addition to whatever calories are added by the rice itself and the dish that accompanies it.
Nevertheless, many of these recipes are very healthy if you are careful, and these recipes will definitely increase your intake of fresh vegetables, since they are loaded with delightful uses for them.
Buy this book, eat well, and be happy.
Book Review: Nobody Does It Better. A Great New Cookbook
Summary: 5 Stars
Years ago I stopped collecting cookbooks and gave most of them away. Except for Mark Bittman.
This book is AWESOME. This man got is all right. The book is uniquely creative, wonderfully conceived, and easily approachable. There is no food snobbery here. The joy of this book, as with Mr. Bittmans columns and his great book "How To Cook Everything" is that it is specifically designed for the home chef. It is for we who really enjoy producing first rate food without being bent out of shape by finding totally esoteric and hard to find ingredients. By the standards set forth in this book it is okay if you want a first rate kitchen and do not own a truffle shaver. Or a caviar chiller. Or a personal killer wine cellar. Or the budget of the former Shah of Iran. But you do have the will to create and experience great food.
There are so many things to commend this book: The description that precedes each recipe is invaluable. The recipes themselves are absolutely wonderful. The well thought out and carefully constructed list of basic and more unusual ingredients for the shelf of the home cook is perfectly constructed with sense and with an organization that gives the cook a real understanding of ingredients used in the recipes. From garam masala to Thai Fish Sauce to fresh and dried herbs and spices, all is explained and de-mystified. And the organization of recipes is unusual and well thought out since they are placed within a category according to the method of cooking (IE Braising, roasting, grilling, et al.)
Not least in the lexicon of commendations to this huge collection is that we are introduced to foods that are not common to the American home cook, the book is heavily laced with mid and far eastern cuisine, as well as the more familiar French and Italian and other ethnic foods, and thus our repertoire of that which we prepare expands with flavors that are just terrific. Mr. Bittman is also an author with a gift for writing clearly and in a self effacing style that belies his great culinary knowledge and talent. I am never intimidated by his recipes. I am always inspired.
Cookbooks just do not get any better than this.
Book Review: convenient book
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this book for convenience: I liked the idea of having recipes from all around the world in one book. Bittman's "mimimalist" style make it easy to capture the essence of the recipes. Bittman can tell you so much about cooking in so few words. This is one of those books where you wonder just how the author did it. Compiling all these recipes from around the world, and presenting such clear and useful information on cooking -- these are impressive feats.
I would not use this book as a replacement for any books that deal with individual cuisines. You still need your Marcella Hazan, Richard Olney, etc. It does not replace your books on individual subjects, such as Thai or French cuisine (or, more specifically, Roman cooking, New Orleans cooking, etc.) I view this book as more of a convenient introductory survey of the world's recipes. You might discover a new technique or national cuisine to investigate further. You may turn to it on a weeknight to use up a few ingredients in the fridge. But it is not, in my opinion, in-depth enough to satisfy the serious cook. How could it be when the subject is so broad?
One point that I do not understand about Bittman's approach is that he does not acknowledge the cooking of the United States. All cuisines have taken influences from other cultures. No cuisine was formed in isolation. Yet Bittman does not include a single recipe from the United States in the book, and he apparently seems to think that the United States does not have a cuisine that is just as legitimate as any other country. This seems to be Bittman's great blind spot and, for all his accomplishments, makes him appear a bit myopic, clinging to an outmoded bias. Perhaps there are Frenchman who think that American food is all about McDonald's hamburgers, but Bittman is an American, and a sophisticated food writer, and ought to know better. Thus he has produced a collection of the world's recipes while ignoring the recipes of an entire country. A strange hang-up indeed from a great writer.
Book Review: Worth The Weight
Summary: 5 Stars
My best friend, Wayne, gave me this cookbook as a gift. My first impression (though I kept this to myself) was: "Ah. Yes. This is the kind of book a man who loves good food, gives a woman who makes good food." In other words, I was not initially impressed with a tomb, by a New York Times food star, claiming to contain the world's best recipes.
Fast forward to a year later. I have made dozens of Bittman's recipes. Okay. Confession. I can't follow recipes. I use them for inspiration. I have read hundreds of Bittman's recipes. He knows food and he knows how to prepare it. Equally important, the man loves food and appreciates the pleasure of food beautifully prepared. I'm impressed. (Thank you, Wayne)
This is a solid cookbook with a recipe for just about anything you might want to whip up, from any region in the world. Bittman knows his stuff and his no-nonsense approach helps you get down to the business of meal preparation with confidence.
If you like to make a huge variety of meals --- but don't have the time, or space, for dozens of cookbooks, this is the book for you.
My only complaint (and it is not Bittman's fault --- but the publisher) why in the world do cookbooks have jacket covers? This is a weighty book. The jacket cover (which I tossed immediately) is like cooking in a pair of high heels. It might look good, but it is bloody uncomfortable.
Book Review: A Thousand Ideas of Things to Cook
Summary: 5 Stars
Mark Bittman cooks like a lot of us do. We start with a recipe and then change this, add a bit more of that, and we come up with favorites that suit our tastes and those of our family. This is probably offensive to some food purists that insist a recipe should be followed exactly, with exactly the same ingredients. If you are the purist type, this is not the book for you. Otherwise:
Here are more than a thousand recipies, ideas where you will start your own cooking. I first turned to Polenta (we southerners call them grits, the Romanians call them mamaliga) and there are four different recipies. Some of these I've seen before but never tried. His explanation is so simple that this weekend I have to try it. There's a southerner coming over to diner. (I wonder what his wife, a Montana girl will think.) The four recipies take up just over a page in the book. There are no pretty pictures, just recipies.
That's the strengths of this book. I don't need the pretty pictures. I want new ideas of things that look like I'd want to cook them and that my friends would want to eat.
Ummm! The book just fell open to a recipie on how to make your own ginger ale, and his comment, 'incredible with run.' Should I do that this weekend, or perhaps wait until the weather gets hot.