Showing posts with label french cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label french cooking. Show all posts

Friday, November 9, 2012

Save 22% Off: French Culinary Institute's Salute to Healthy Cooking Review & Ratings

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French Culinary Institute's Salute to Healthy Cooking Review

Here's an original thought - you can't judge a book by its cover. On the surface, "The French Culinary Institute's Salute to Healthy Cooking" would appear to be just what the doctor ordered - a beautiful book of health conscious recipes compiled by perhaps the four most prominent French chefs living in the US. With glossy photographs of many it's 150 recipes and a layout that emphasizes seasonal menu planning over individual dishes, the book gives a wonderful first impression. But things grind to a halt quickly when you start to cook. I'm sure there are many wonderful creations contained in these pages (and low fat versions of all the big hitters in the French lineup are here). And, honest, I promise to keep trying. But even in experienced hands, so many are outright clinkers that one rapidly looses faith in the entire collection. The recipe for asparagus soup (pg.60) illustrates the book's underlying central theme: if you're going to reduce the fat, you'd better concentrate the flavors. The recipe calls for 5 cups of white chicken stock -- not unusual until you look at the book's recipe for white chicken stock (pg.37). Eight pounds of chicken bones plus mirepoix and herbs yields just 4 cups (yes, cups, not quarts) of stock. At that concentration, the soup would require the 10 lbs. of bones just to made the base. That's one concentrated stock. OK, then skip the recipes that call for chicken stock. Unfortunately, in true French style white chicken stock is required for fully 22 recipes. Fortunately, brown stock is required for only four, and the formulation is a little more reasonable. But even this recipe requires hard-to-find veal bones and yields a demi-glace strength stock. Best to own a butcher shop. I won't comment on the health claims except to ask a question. If French cuisine is so inherently healthy, why have all the recipes been changed from their classic origins? Frankly, if it's healthy high cuisine you're looking for, I'd suggest either of Graham Kerr's first two Mini-Max cookbooks before this one. Kerr's recipes are at least executable and often produce astonishing results. If you insist on traditional French, it's difficult to beat Richard Grausman's "At Home with the French Classics."

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Friday, September 7, 2012

Jacques Pepin's Simple and Healthy Cooking Review & Ratings

Jacques Pepin's Simple and Healthy CookingAre you looking to buy Jacques Pepin's Simple and Healthy Cooking? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Jacques Pepin's Simple and Healthy Cooking. Check out the link below:

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Jacques Pepin's Simple and Healthy Cooking Review

Tired of cooking the same old dishes and wanting to serve my family healthy meals, I recently purchased approximately 10 new cookbooks. I was searching for a cookbook with simple recipes that I could prepare on a daily basis. The books that I purchased were either too basic and boring or interesting but too complicated. "Jacques Pepin's Simple and Healthy Cooking" was exactly what I was searching for. His recipes are delicious and interesting, as well as, healthy and simple to prepare. I have used this cookbook every night that I have cooked since I purchased it. I think I have tried at least 1/2 of the main course & accompaniment recipes. My family enjoys eating the meals as much as I enjoy preparing them.
Oh, and don't mistake "healthy" as meaning "dietitic" or "tasteless". He does not sacrifice taste for health. He uses a lot of fresh ingredients that give the dishes a great flavor. He does not omit butter, salt, etc. from his recipes however, not much is needed to achieve a flavorful taste.
I was so excited about his book that I purchased "Cooking with Claudine" last week. The recipes look just as appetizing but, I have to admit that I prefer the layout of "Simple & Healthy", in which the recipes are laid out in courses opposed to being arranged in menus. "Simple & Healthy" is easier to search through, it has a side photo for almost every recipe and has suggested menus listed at the beginning of the book.
Unlike the other books that I purchased...this is a cookbook that you will actually use!

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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Save 32% Off: French Classics Made Easy: More Than 250 Great French Recipes Updated and Simplified for the American Kitchen Review & Ratings

French Classics Made Easy: More Than 250 Great French Recipes Updated and Simplified for the American KitchenAre you looking to buy French Classics Made Easy: More Than 250 Great French Recipes Updated and Simplified for the American Kitchen? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on French Classics Made Easy: More Than 250 Great French Recipes Updated and Simplified for the American Kitchen. Check out the link below:

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French Classics Made Easy: More Than 250 Great French Recipes Updated and Simplified for the American Kitchen Review

I believe I have been a secret Francophile for a lot of my adult life as a cook - at least when it comes to French cuisine and culture. Despite my Central Euro roots, and my passion for many other cuisines of the world, I have cooked many of the French classics that Richard Grausman, the author of "French Classics Made Easy" includes in this 'keeper' of a book. The best known classics such as Coq au Vin, Bouillabaisse, Boeuf Bourguignon, Cassoulet, Navarin D'Agneau to name a few of my favorites, are all included in this treasure of a book.
Actually, there are 250 French recipes that Grausman delivers to the home cook using ingredients readily available at your local supermarket. Add to that, the illustrated step-by-step techniques (for example, "How to Line a Tart Pan" as illustrated and described on page 65) and others throughout the book all add to the excellence of this cookbook.
The extent of Grausman's attention to detail in writing this book is to be commended. For ease of recognition to his audience, the recipe titles are in English, followed by the French translation. In addition, a personal favorite feature of any cook book is that the Table of Contents be comprehensive enough to include the page number where the reader can find not only where a particular Chapter can be found, but what page to find a particular category within a Chapter. That may seem like a "nit-picking" feature for me to get excited about, but trust me, when you've read, judged, and used as many cook books as I have in my professional culinary life, that feature is very useful to the reader!
The Chapters
First Courses (Page 14):
Main Courses (Page 86)
Vegetables & Other Accompaniments (Page 170)
Pastries & Desserts (Page 210) (Pastries Page 212 and Desserts Page 260)
Basics (Page 300)

The mystique behind French cuisine was attempted to be de-mystified by Julia Child decades ago through her TV shows and many cookbooks. However, as much as I admire all that she did to introduce the American palate to French cuisine (not an easy task to take folks from the ordinary and sometimes mundane "American" cuisine to Coq au Vin!) I believe that there were many home cooks who were still intimidated by some of the lengthy and complicated steps and some ingredients that may have been difficult to come by decades ago when Julia Child was in her heyday. Do you remember when the only mushrooms you could buy were those that came in a can? I do!
What Richard Grausman has done in writing French Classics Made Easy is to do just that!

French Classics Made Easy: More Than 250 Great French Recipes Updated and Simplified for the American Kitchen Overview



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Sunday, April 8, 2012

Le Cordon Bleu: Quick Classics Review & Ratings

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Le Cordon Bleu: Quick Classics Review

I love to cook but rarely have the time to fix anything really elegant. This book has been a life safer when I've needed to make something special on short notice (ie when the in-laws drop by).
I've even used this book to teach my husband how to cook. He's usually terrified of the kitchen, but found this book so easy to use that we now cook together every Friday.

Le Cordon Bleu: Quick Classics Overview



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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Save 34% Off: The Way to Cook Review & Ratings

The Way to CookAre you looking to buy The Way to Cook? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Way to Cook. Check out the link below:

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The Way to Cook Review

Julia Child's "The Way to Cook" is one of the essential cookbooks every kitchen should have. Julia's straight forward instructions, her outstanding recipes and the quality of the dishes she recommends make this and fantastic cookbook.
While Julia covers a wide range of dishes in this book (Soups, Breads, Eggs, Fish, Poultry, Meat, Vegetables, Salads, Pastry, Desserts, and Cakes & Cookies) her emphasis is definitely on French/European cooking. If you are looking for recipes from different ethnic groups, you will need to find other cookbooks to compliment this one.
In the last five years that I've owned this cookbook, I've made a wide selection of recipes and have never been disappointed. From simple dishes such as crepes to complex day-long affairs such as Lamb Stew Printaniere, her instructions have been complete, straightforward, and detailed. If you follow her steps, you're guaranteed to have incredible results.
The book includes both beautiful and useful photographs. This is important, because one of the big drawbacks with most cookbooks are that they have incredible imagery of the finished dish, but don't actually show you how things should look as they are being prepared. The way to cook does an excellent job at showing you both... which is one of the reasons it is such an outstanding book.
Julia's other books are also excellent. Both "Baking with Julia" and "In Julia's Kitchen With Master Chefs" are outstanding.
One last word of advice... if you ever make A Fast Saute of Beef for Two from this book, use heavy creame instead of cornstarch (she says you can use either). The cream will make the difference between a good meal and a great one!
Enjoy!

The Way to Cook Overview



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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Mexican Light: Exciting, Healthy Dishes From The Border And Beyond Review & Ratings

Mexican Light: Exciting, Healthy Dishes From The Border And BeyondAre you looking to buy Mexican Light: Exciting, Healthy Dishes From The Border And Beyond? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Mexican Light: Exciting, Healthy Dishes From The Border And Beyond. Check out the link below:

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Mexican Light: Exciting, Healthy Dishes From The Border And Beyond Review

Most of the dishes I've cooked in the last few months have been recipes from this excellent book. If you've used Shulman's other cookbooks, you'll recognize the style: chatty writing, bold flavors (e.g., lots of garlic and cilantro), a mixture of vegetarian and meat dishes, careful instructions in the recipes, a nutritional summary for each recipe, and a separate chapter on unusual ingredients. Many of the dishes in this book can be made in 30 minutes to an hour, though some are more complex. And while the food may be good for you, it tastes terrific.
Don't expect this book to be an authoritative survey of Mexican cooking. There's no mole poblano, or even a burrito recipe. Some recipes are fairly authentic, others merely "inspired" by Mexican ingredients. Since the recipes she concocts are often as good as the classics she leaves out, that's a minor drawback.

Mexican Light: Exciting, Healthy Dishes From The Border And Beyond Overview



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