After making last week's Roasted Salmon in Butter I decided to seek out Mark Bittman's infamous cookbook How To Cook Everything. I've been contemplating this book for years, but once I flipped through it, I totally geeked out and became elated with all the possibilities this book has to offer. I'd say this cookbook is the closest thing to Everyday Food but obviously its predecessor. It's full of tips, tricks, techniques and stripped-down simple recipes. From what I can tell, most of the recipes contained in this book don't take very long to prepare and that is one of the key decisions that go into how I choose recipes to make on any given week (that, and what's on sale and in season).
The first recipe I chose to make from this book was Couscous with Cauliflower and Almonds (with a rotisserie chicken on the side). This recipe in particular reminded me of Owen because I knew he'd love it. It was very quick, easy and delicious. We all loved it, so much so we were pretty bummed when it was all gone. It almost became a quick, go-to noshing food in our home. So it's a winner and total make-again.
My only initial observation of this book is that the language used is not quite phrased the way I'm used to reading recipes. For example, in this recipe Mark describes the cauliflower as "deep fried". I almost didn't make it because I imagined a pan with half an inch of oil, frying the cauliflower in batches. What it actually meant (to me) was to sautee the cauliflower in olive oil. Kinda strange but just indicated to me that I need to read the entire recipe first before deciding against it.
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