CULINARY TECHNIQUES

Review by Barb & Ron Kroll

Cookbook Title:

In the Green Kitchen - Techniques to learn by heart
(Clarkson Potter) ISBN 978-0307336804 0307336808

Theme:

Celebrity chefs, cookbook authors, cooking school teachers and home cooks provide cooking lessons for seasonal, local and natural organic foods.

Each cooking lesson is illustrated with simple healthy recipes that use the culinary technique described, be it braising or making bread.

The chefs, cooking methods and recipes were selected from The Green Kitchen, a Slow Food Nation event which Alice Waters helped organize.

Sample Recipes:

No-knead bread. Raw tomato soup. Rainbow chard with oil and garlic. Roasted pepper salad. Sauteed jalapeno corn. Moroccan-style braised vegetables. Buttered couscous.

Notable Elements:

In the Stocking an Organic Pantry chapter of In the Green Kitchen, Alice Waters explains how to make homemade wine vinegar from unfinished bottles of wine. Making vinegar with good wine results in better tasting vinegar, according to Waters.

In her chapter on Cooking Equipment, Alice Waters says that the best kitchen knives are a paring knife, a chef's knife and a bread knife. She explains how to buy quality kitchen knives and how to sharpen knives with a stone and a sharpening steel.

During their cooking lessons, famous chefs reveal their culinary secrets. For example, cookbook author, Scott Peacock, tells you how to make homemade baking powder in his recipe for buttermilk biscuits (sift together two parts cream of tartar with one part baking soda).

Tone / Style:

Ideal for amateur home cooks, the 151-page organic cook book is organized like a culinary arts school, with 27 cooking lessons, each teaching a specific culinary technique. Alice Waters introduces the cooking instructors below their photos.

Culinary arts instructor, Darina Allen, the founder of Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland, provides a recipe for Irish soda bread in the Making Bread chapter.

Celebrity chef, Lidia Bastianich, recommends removing thin pasta from water while it is undercooked, so it can finish cooking in the sauce.

Some In the Green Kitchen recipes include variations. Fanny Singer (the daughter of Alice Waters) suggests substituting diced shallots for garlic paste in her garlic vinaigrette recipe.

Visuals:

Christopher Hirsheimer & Melissa Hamilton photographed the famous chefs and home cooks, in the Alice Waters cookbook, as well as their cooking techniques. Other photos depict organic ingredients and dishes prepared from In the Green Kitchen recipes.

Contents:

What is the Green Kitchen?
Stocking an Organic Pantry

GREEN KITCHEN TECHNIQUES

• Washing Lettuce
• Dressing a Salad
• Flavoring a Sauce
• Pounding a Sauce
• Whisking Mayonnaise
• Making Bread
• Toasting Bread
• Poaching an Egg
• Simmering a Stock
• Peeling Tomatoes
• Boiling Pasta
• Cooking Rice
• Simmering Beans
• Wilting Greens
• Blanching Greens
• Steaming Vegetables
• Pickling Vegetables
• Skinning Peppers
• Shucking Corn
• Roasting Vegetables
• Filleting a Fish
• Roasting a Chicken
• Braising
• Roasting Meat
• Grilling a Steak
• Baking Fruit
• Seasoning for Flavor
• Cooking Equipment

Index

Author:

Alice Waters

Claim to fame:

Alice Waters promotes sustainable, local and organic cooking.

 
Return to Food & Drink Index

---

More Alice Waters cookbooks:

The Art of Simple Food