Synopses & Reviews
"Mark is an important voice in American home cooking, and this new book is essential for anyone wanting tasty, easy, fresh recipes." Jamie Oliver, Celebrity Chef and Activist
Photography by Romulo Yanes
Since its publication in 1998, Mark Bittman's award-winning How to Cook Everything has become an indispensable kitchen staple. This modern classic serves as both an endlessly inspiring recipe collection and comprehensive reference for cooks of all ages and abilities.
Now, with How to Cook Everything: The Basics, Bittman has provided a book for true beginners and perennial students, one that captures the pleasure and simplicity of everyday home cooking and makes it accessible to everyone, in full-color, step-by-step action.
The Basics is the ultimate confidence-builder. Whether you're just learning your way around a stove or are hungry for detailed guidance, Bittman's sensible approach, along with instructive, realistic photography, offers just the encouragement you need.
How to Cook Everything: The Basics is a rare cookbook that teaches by example. Each of the 1,000 gorgeous photographs and 185 recipes has a story to tell and a lesson to share (you'll find a list of them in the back of the book), all in a casual, unfussy way that makes meals as enjoyable to prepare as they are to eat.
The Basics also provides commonsense advice on how to stock your kitchen with equipment and ingredients, while special features scattered throughout offer useful information on general techniques like cooking pasta, choosing and using seafood, making bread, and 26 other skills for identifying and preparing foods from vegetables and beans to meats, soups, and desserts.
Along the way, Bittman's practical tips and variations, descriptive visual cues, and straightforward explanations will help you recognize doneness, taste and adjust seasoning, and learn to trust your instincts. How to Cook Everything: The Basics is the next best thing to having America's favorite home cook right in the kitchen with you.
Synopsis
The next best thing to having Mark Bittman in the kitchen with you.
Mark Bittman's highly acclaimed, bestselling book How to Cook Everything is an indispensable guide for any modern cook. With How to Cook Everything: The Basics he reveals how truly easy it is to learn fundamental techniques and recipes. From dicing vegetables and roasting meat, to cooking building-block meals that include salads, soups, poultry, meats, fish, sides, and desserts, Bittman explains what every home cook, particularly novices, should know.
More than 1,000 beautiful and instructive photographs throughout the book reveal key preparation details that make every dish inviting and accessible. With clear and straightforward directions, Bittman's practical tips and variation ideas, and visual cues that accompany each of the 171 recipes, cooking with The Basics is like having Bittman in the kitchen with you.
- This is the essential how-to cookbook, with more than 1,000 beautiful and helpful photos of step-by-step techniques and finished recipes
- Special "Basics" pages cover essentials like equipping a kitchen and stocking a pantry, what to look for when buying produce, how to tell when food is done, and more
- Tips and variations let home cooks hone their skills and be creative
How to Cook Everything: The Basics is an absolutely essential beginner's cookbook and an irresistible and invaluable guide for accomplished cooks.
About the Author
Mark Bittman is one of the country's best-known, most widely respected food writers. His How to Cook Everything books, with one million copies in print, are a mainstay of the modern kitchen. Bittman writes for the Opinion section of the New York Times on food policy and cooking and is a columnist for the New York Times magazine. He is regularly featured on the Today Show in How To Cook Everything Today cooking segments. For 13 years he wrote "The Minimalist" column and now a "Minimalist" cooking show is featured on the Cooking Channel. The How to Cook Everything series is highly respected: the first edition of the flagship book How to Cook Everything won both the IACP and James Beard Awards, and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian won the 2008 IACP award. He is also the author of Food Matters, Food Matters Cookbook, Fish, and Leafy Greens.
Table of Contents
Why Cook? ix
Getting Started 1
Breakfast 41
Appetizers and Snacks 69
Salads 107
Soups and Stews 135
Pasta and Grains 171
Vegetables and Beans 215
Meat 263
Poultry 305
Seafood 345
Breads 381
Desserts 419
Making Menus 458
List of Lessons 460
Index 464
Converting Measurements 486