Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks or Solar Cooking for Home and Camp

Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks

Author: Linda Carucci

When it comes to food, Linda Carucci is at the top of her class. As a cooking instructor with more than 20 years of food industry experience, no one is more qualified than Linda to reveal the indispensable everyday secrets and shortcuts that professional chefs use constantly in their cooking. Each of the more than 100 sensational recipes soups and salads, pasta and risotto, main courses and side dishes, plus indulgent desserts offers truly useful guidelines and tips. What is a chinois and why will this make homemade chicken stock better? Why are Turkish bay leaves preferable to the California variety? What cut of meat will ensure the most flavorful pork chop? Why is a marinade essential when grilling a flank steak? Why should granita be frozen in a square, rather than round, pan? The recipes go from down-home good and simple-to-prepare favorites (Tomato Cheddar Soup, Spaghetti and Meatballs) to guest-worthy, look-what-I-can-do feasts (Double-Crusted Timpano, Rack of Lamb). Clear illustrations show techniques such as how to cut the skin from a salmon fillet and slice basil into a chiffonade (and what is a chiffonade anyway?). Add to that a myriad of user-friendly charts (recommended temperatures for meat doneness; typical cuts of poultry, meat, and pork), menus, and resources, and any new cook as well as the not-so-new ones will quickly find that going back to school is way more fun (and delicious) than they ever remembered.

Publishers Weekly

Carucci has no TV program or series of books to her name. She is, foremost, a teacher who has worked her way through the ranks of culinary America for 20 years. Trained at the California Culinary Academy, she went on to become one of the IACP's Cooking Teachers of the Year. If this first cookbook is any indication, that was a well-deserved honor. There's much to learn here, and Carucci presents the information clearly without dumbing it down, whether she's addressing the crucial roles of salt and butter or the fact that an enzyme in some people's saliva makes cilantro taste, to them, like soap. The first 50 pages cover cooking basics and dig into topics like understanding the palate and using knives. Drawings throughout illustrate such feats as slitting squid and butterflying boneless chicken breasts. Of the 100 recipes offered, the best combine Carucci's formal training with her Italian ancestry. There are cinematic mega-dishes like Double-Crusted Timpano with Fusilli, Ricotta, and Tender Little Meatballs; staples like Chicken Cacciatore, and Braised Calamari in Red Sauce; and four different risottos. Adventuresome dishes include Vietnamese-Style Honey-Glazed Pork Skewers, and Turkey Mole, with over two dozen ingredients. Chocolate appears not only in that mole but also in a handful of rich desserts like Devil's Food Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache. However, the greatest pleasures are the scores of tips and secrets alluded to in the title. "Beware of scallops that look pure white." "Potatoes cook evenly if you start with cold water." Who knew? (July) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

Pt. 1	Cooking basics	13
	Equipment matters	15
	Knife skills and cuts	19
	Mise en place	22
	Do no harm : food safety	23
	Cooking methods	24
	How cooking changes the texture and flavor of foods	35
	Using your senses when you cook	37
	Understanding your palate	38
	Cooking with the seasons	40
	Seasoning to taste	42
	Brining and today's "new" meats and poultry	45
	Attentive tasting	46
	A few words about menu planning	47
	Creative cooking	48
	A few words about plate presentation	49
Pt. 2	Recipes	51
	Guidelines for preparing the recipes in this book	52
	Secrets for successful stocks and broths	56
	Recipes that use homemade chicken stock, chicken broth, or vegetable broth	59
	Secrets for successful soups	65
	Secrets for successful salads	78
	Secrets for successful risotto	95
	Secrets for cooking perfect pasta	107
	Secrets for preparing fish and shellfish successfully	134
	Secrets for selecting and cooking poultry successfully	162
	Secrets for preparing meats successfully	208
	Secrets for pairing side dishes with main dishes	249
	Secrets for choosing an appropriate dessert	287
	Secrets for preparing successful desserts	288
Pt. 3	Seasonal recipes, menus, and sources	314
	Seasonal recipes	316
	Twelve seasonal menus for casual and special occasions	319

Book review: The 90 10 Weight Loss Plan or Thin for Life

Solar Cooking for Home and Camp

Author: Linda Frederick Yaff

Quickly toss together the ingredients for Cashew Curry, place it in the solar cooker, point the cooker to the midday sun, and head to work. You'll come home to a ready-to-eat hot meal. Solar cooking is a simple and easy way to prepare a meal without heating up the kitchen, simply by using the sun's heat. Perfect for dishes requiring delicate cooking like Cheese Strata and Solar Baked Custard, and fish cooks up moist. Eliminate parboiling and marinating—foods cook all in one step.