The Only Cookbooks You Need

Cover via Amazon

This week, as I was developing my weekly menu, I got to thinking about the cookbooks I have versus the cookbooks I use. Like many home cooks, I have acquired more cookbooks than I can ever possibly use on a regular basis. I love to browse through cookbooks, especially those with beautiful photography, even if I don’t make very many recipes from them. I have noticed that I used to buy a lot more cookbooks than I do now, because I used to experiment a lot more. Now, I’ve settled on the kinds of dishes that I like to cook at home and that my family like to eat, which keeps me returning to the same cookbooks again and again.

If I had to ruthlessly pare down my cookbook library, I think I could easily make do with just eight cookbooks and spend a lifetime happily cooking from them. These are the four basic cookbooks I consider essential:

• The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters
• How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
• The Joy of Cooking
• The Foster’s Market Cookbook

The Waters book is essentially a home-cooking course for beginning cooks, and I return to its classic, simple recipes again and again. The other two contain pretty much every recipe I’d ever want to make, and they offer lots of variations so I don’t get bored. However, these all-purpose cookbooks tend to skimp on categories that I consider essential: breakfast, easy entertaining and cookies. Luckily, the Foster’s Market cookbook does a terrific job filling in those gaps (especially cookies).

Every now and then, I like to cook something more elaborate, from one of the four basic food groups: Italian, French, Mexican and Southern. I could buy hundreds of cookbooks in each of these categories, but I really only need one that’s definitive and comprehensive for each style of cooking I want to do. Over the years, I’ve settled on these four:

• Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan
  
• Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells
• Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless
• Sara Foster’s Southern Cookbook

Of course, your favorite regions or types of dishes will be different than mine, so I would suggest researching the cookbook offerings and locating that one definitive cookbook in each category. It’s so much easier cooking out of just a few books and getting to know them very well than it is trying to find that one recipe you want to make from among hundreds of cookbooks.

How to Make Guacamole

Guacamole – avocado-based dip originated in Mexico (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Guacamole is one of my favorite dips to make when guests come over or we just feel like snacking on the weekends, and I think I have perfected my recipe over time. I have posted my recipe for guacamole here before, so in this post, I’ll share some tips I have learned about making a truly great guacamole. Bonus: It’s really easy to make, too!

Guacamole is truly at its best when it is kept very simple, so the flavor of the avocado can shine through. It does not need fillers like sour cream or cream cheese. What it does require are perfectly ripe avocados. Plan on using 1 avocado for every 2-3 diners.

When shopping for avocados, look for those that have a darker green skin, almost black. Squeeze the avocado gently. A ripe avocado should give easily under the pressure, but it shouldn’t feel like you can completely squish it; by that time, it’s probably over-ripe and turning black inside. If you buy avocados that aren’t completely ripened, leave them out on the counter a few days and they will get softer over time. Only put them in the refrigerator when they reach the desired ripeness.

My guacamole recipe originally comes from Rick Bayless’s great cookbook Authentic Mexican. The number of ingredients are kept to a minimum, and there really is no way to improve on Bayless’s recipe, although you can make some substitutions if you like. This recipe serves 4-6 people.

First, chop 1 white onion as finely as you can and put it in a bowl. If you have a really ripe tomato, you may want to chop it and add it to the bowl as well, but it is certainly not necessary and should be omitted when tomatoes are not in season.

You will need 2 ripe avocados. Slice each avocado in half lengthwise, working your knife around the pit. Gently twist the two halves in opposite directions to separate them. Using a large spoon, scoop out the pits and reserve. Then scoop out the avocado flesh and add it to the bowl.

Using a potato masher, roughly mash the avocado with the onion. This is a great alternative use for what is usually a one-function tool. However, if you don’t have a potato masher, you can use a fork, although I don’t feel like it does as good a job. I like a creamy texture with just a little chunkiness.

Add a few drops of Jalapeno Tabasco sauce, 1 teaspoon salt or to taste, and the juice of 1 lime or to taste. I substitute the Tabasco sauce for jalapeno because I always have it on hand, but you can also use 1 jalapeno, finely chopped. Keep tasting your guacamole as you season it. Some avocados will need more help than others.

When you are done, bury the reserved avocado pits in the guacamole and cover the bowl with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap right against the top of the guacamole; this will help prevent browning. Let the flavors develop for a few minutes before serving with tortilla chips.

I do not add cilantro or garlic to my guacamole, but you may want to experiment by adding a few sprigs of cilantro, chopped well, or 1-2 minced garlic cloves. You can also substitute or add other chiles for the jalapeno, such as serrano chiles or even rehydrated chipotles, which will make the guacamole much spicier. For a milder guacamole, try roasting the chiles first.

Just remember that the secret to good guacamole are great avocados, plus onion, salt, lime juice and a little spice. As long as you have those components, you can make a really great guacamole any time.

A Mexican Fiesta

I’m sorry that this update has been so long in coming. I was busy with a project all last week, plus I got a touch of something over the weekend that kept me from blogging and cooking. So I’m taking this past weekend off and playing catch-up. This challenge is actually from one week ago.

The challenge was to make a Mexican meal, but not to fall back on the usual suspects. That means no tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas — basically, nothing wrapped in a tortilla. I immediately decided that I wanted to make several small plates, like a tasting menu. Appetizers are often my favorite dishes in Mexican cooking, anyway, and that would give me a chance to try three or four new dishes.

For help, I turned to Rick Bayless, specifically his cookbooks Authentic Mexican and Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen. You may know Rick Bayless from his stint on Top Chef Masters or from his restaurants in Chicago (which I have yet to visit, although my husband has been several times). I love his cookbooks because they make authentic Mexican cooking accessible to the home cook. He gives lots of helpful advice about ingredients, timing, and varying the recipes, and they usually turn out delicious. I won’t be reprinting any of his recipes here, so I urge you to check out his books for yourself.

Here is the resulting menu:

Jicama sticks with lime and mint.

If you’ve never had jicama before, it’s a very refreshing starter. It’s crisp and cool like a cucumber, but the taste is closer to a very mild radish. Look for jicama in the grocery store; it’s a gigantic, waxy thing that looks like an oversized turnip, but it’s easy to peel and cut up into sticks. Marinate the sticks in a little lime juice and lemon juice, chopped mint leaves and salt. We were crunching on these all week long. This was my toddler’s favorite dish of the night.

Tuna seviche.

Seviche is seafood that is “cooked” by marinating it for several hours in lime juice. I’ve never made seviche at home before, mostly because I was afraid of dealing with the uncooked fish. But we like tuna pretty rare anyway, so that seemed like a good fish to use for my first attempt. This was a very refreshing salad, especially because it’s combined with a fresh, vibrant tomato and avocado salsa. A little chopped serrano chile provides a hint of heat.  My husband and I both enjoyed this one.

Melted queso with chorizo, roasted poblanos and tomatoes, served with corn chips for dipping.

This was my favorite dish of the night. I could probably have eaten it until I burst. I used chihuahua cheese, which has a wonderful mild but cheesy flavor. I melted the cubes of cheese in a metal pie plate to try to retain the heat. To the melted cheese I added roasted poblano pepper, crumbled chorizo, scallions and diced tomato. We just scooped it all up with corn chips. I think this mixture would work very well as a topping for nachos. We had about half left over, and it reheated nicely the next night in the same pie plate.

Baked poblano peppers stuffed with chorizo and potatoes, topped with a tomato-chipotle sauce.

This was an intense, flavorful dish. Sharing one pepper was plenty for my husband and me. I had to modify the original recipe, which called for dried ancho peppers instead of fresh poblanos, so this is closer to a chile relleno. I stuffed it with a mixture of pan-fried chorizo and potatoes and sauced it with a spicy tomato-chipotle sauce. That’s parmesan sprinkled on top. It was hot, but not overwhelmingly so. This was my husband’s favorite dish due to the mouth-popping flavor combination.

And I made a delicious red wine sangria to accompany. I mixed cheap red wine with lemon juice, lime juice, orange juice, and seltzer water over ice, and popped in a sprig of mint leaves. The result was way too drinkable!

My husband said that this was my most successful challenge yet, mainly because I stretched myself and made dishes that I wouldn’t normally cook at home. And because everything came out so deliciously. We stretched our stomachs too, as we ate way more than we should. This would make an awesome menu for a Mexican-themed party, especially held outside on the deck on a warm night.

I’m hoping to tackle the next challenge later this week. The challenge is to make a kid’s favorite dinner at home: chicken nuggets and fries. Since I don’t deep-fry, this will require some creativity. Look for the results next week.

Broiled Chicken with Creamy Spinach

This was a quick and tasty weeknight entree that could be spiced up any number of ways. I used chipotle powder (available from Penzey’s), which is a wonderful way to add a little smoke and heat, but you could substitute any spice or even salsa.

I sprinkled 2 chicken breasts with the chipotle powder and salt, plus a couple of tablespoons of heavy cream. I broiled them for 5 minutes or so, until they had browned on top. Then I removed them from the oven, flipped them and poured over another ½ cup of cream. They went back into the oven to broil until done. (The chicken pieces were thick, so this took about 10 minutes, and I had to flip them another couple of times.) The cream got very bubbly and browned in spots as the chicken cooked.

When the chicken was done, I removed it from the pan and put it in the oven, now turned off, to keep warm. I scraped the cream into a pot, added ½ cup stock and a bunch of spinach leaves, washed and stemmed. I brought the mixture to a boil and cooked, stirring all the while, until the spinach wilted and the liquid thickened. Voila! Creamed spinach. Serve with the chicken and some crusty bread.

The idea for this dish came from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen, although I didn’t follow his recipe exactly.

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• Review: The Cookbooks of Rick Bayless (simplycooking.wordpress.com)

Review: The Cookbooks of Rick Bayless

Cover via Amazon

Authentic Mexican, Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen and Salsas That Cook by Rick Bayless

My husband is fortunate in that he sometimes gets to go to Chicago and when he does, he eats at Rick Bayless’s restaurants Frontera Grill and Topolobampo. I am unfortunate in that I have not done either of those things, although I very much want to. But my husband has brought me back three of Rick Bayless’s cookbooks from his visits, and we have tried several of his recipes at home.

Rick Bayless is pretty much the acknowledged American master of authentic Mexican cooking. Even before I saw him win Top Chef Masters, I was a fan. Mexican cooking is not simple, by any means, but Bayless’s cookbooks convert the difficult cooking methods and long lists of ingredients into something achievable by the home cook. I have not tried a single one of his recipes that was not an instant hit in my household, although I will say that many of them are not intended for quick weeknight cooking.

Authentic Mexican is my favorite of the three cookbooks. The recipes are very detailed and include many notes on techniques and ingredients. The section on timing and advance preparation is extremely helpful for planning my cooking strategy; I wish every cookbook included such thoughtful notes. I also appreciate the many traditional and contemporary variations on each recipe provided, which enable the cook to try the dish multiple ways or easily substitute ingredients.

Favorite recipes: Chile-marinated Vegetable Tostadas; Fresh Green Tomatillo Sauce; Quick-cooked Tomatillo-Chile Sauce; Potatoes with Mexican Sausage; Scrambled Eggs with Mexican Flavors

Salsa That Cook is a fun little cookbook from which I have made several very successful recipes. The cookbook opens with a selection of salsas made from a variety of chiles. The recipes that follow use the salsas as key ingredients to enliven such dishes as macaroni and cheese and baked goat cheese. I usually make the salsa ahead of time and hope that I have enough left over for some good old-fashioned chips and dips.

Favorite Recipes: all of the salsas; Tangy Green Guacamole; Seared Red Chile Enchiladas with Chicken and Aged Cheese; Chiaquiles with Spinach, Zucchini and Aged Cheese; Today’s Macaroni and Cheese; Spicy Vegetable “Stew”; Chipotle Mashed Potatoes; Mexican Fruit Pops

I have cooked the least out of Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen, probably because the recipes are the most advanced of the three cookbooks. Once again, each recipe is long and detailed, with notes on advance preparation, shortcuts and variations. I cannot stress enough how helpful these notes are, and I am surprised more cookbook writers don’t take the same approach. This cookbook also includes mouth-watering photographs.

Favorite Recipes: Guacamole; Essential Chopped Tomato-Serrano Salsa; Essential Roasted Tomato-Jalapeno Salsa; Chilied Tortilla Soup with Shredded Chard

If you would like to tackle true Mexican cooking, I think one of Rick Bayless’s cookbooks would be an excellent place to start. I would most highly recommend Authentic Mexican, but from the recipes I’ve tried, it seems like you can’t go wrong with any of his books.