LUCY'S KITCHEN
BY LUCY WAVERMAN

Review by

Lucy's Kitchen
(Random House) ISBN 0679314571

Lucy Waverman's no-fail recipes and techniques make home cooking easy and fun. Alternative ingredients and tips on shopping and cleaning up afterward make Lucy's Kitchen a cooking school in a book.

Just like a school of culinary arts, Lucy's Kitchen motivates readers to try new recipes and provides them with simple techniques and advice to ensure success. Lucy Waverman, a food writer and former cooking school instructor, takes you into her kitchen to learn the secrets of a great chef.

The 288-page cookbook features 250 recipes, with influences from Europe, Asia, India and South America, to help you create memorable meals, even if you are still learning the basics.

Excellent color images by Rob Fiocca tempt appetites with delicious dishes, like pasta with goat cheese and mushrooms. Other photos depict ingredients and techniques, such as using a mandoline.

Besides her simple and mouth-watering recipes, Lucy Waverman explains how to cook specialty ingredients, like Jerusalem artichokes. (She suggests peeling them with a potato peeler and serving them thinly sliced, raw, roasted, fried or mixed with mashed potatoes.)

Lucy's Kitchen includes remedies for cooking problems like undercooked roast. (Place undercooked meat slices in gravy, as it simmers on the stove.)

An excellent cooking instructor, Lucy Waverman gives cooking advice to both beginner and advanced cooks. For example, she explains the differences between flat-leaf Italian parsley and curly parsley. (Flat-leafed parsley has a stronger and sweeter taste and is easier to chop than curly parsley.)

Even amateur cooks can use professional garnishing techniques, according to Lucy. Waverman recommends putting infused oils and syrups, like her soy balsamic syrup, in plastic squeeze bottles to decorate plates with impressive drizzles.

Candied walnuts. Carmelized onion and goat cheese tarts. Savoury cheese stars. Smoked salmon nori rolls. Chili squash soup. Zucchini and red pepper compote. Argentinean grilled beef. Grilled green onions. Shrimp with lemongrass, chili and basil. South African soasatie (meat-on-a-stick). Dried cherry muffins. Marmalade cake. Chocolate mousse with saffron foam.

Lucy's Kitchen by Lucy Waverman

Contents

  • Introduction
  • Appetizers
  • Soups
  • Salads
  • Fish and seafood
  • Poultry
  • Meat
  • Pastas, grains and legumes
  • Vegetables
  • Quick breads, cookies and bars
  • Pastries and cakes
  • Desserts
  • Index

Author

A Cordon Bleu-trained chef and award-winning author of nine cookbooks, Lucy Waverman owned and directed The Cooking School for 18 years.


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