LEARN HOW TO COOK WITH RECIPES
FROM FOOD NETWORK CHEF
Review by Barb & Ron Kroll
Cook Like A Rock Star
(Clarkson Potter) ISBN 978-0307886750 0307886751
Anyone can learn to cook with recipes for every meal course from the Food Network cooking show host, Anne Burrell.
Her cooking lessons consist of easy-to-follow recipes, culinary techniques and advice about ingredient substitutions and serving suggestions.
If you follow the recipes from the Food Network's Secrets of a Restaurant Chef's cookbook, Burrell guarantees that the results will make you a rock star in the eyes of your dinner guests.
Culinary secrets
The 125 recipes are organized by meal course, from piccolini (tapas-style appetizers) to desserts. Each chapter of Cook Like A Rock Star begins with an index.
The Food Network chef introduces each chapter and recipe with culinary techniques and cooking tips. For example, Anne Burrell's short ribs recipe includes these culinary secrets: Brown the short ribs in olive oil, then cook them slowly at a low temperature in the oven to make them flavorful and tender.
A few recipes are from her Secrets of a Restaurant Chef Food Network TV show. Many are Italian recipes, based on her experience working in Italy and with Lidia Bastianich in her NYC restaurant.
Chef Burrell lists recipe ingredients and how to prepare them under mise en place. Easy, numbered cooking instructions follow.
Ben Fink Photography illustrates Cook Like A Rock Star with mouthwatering photos of Anne Burrell's recipes. His step-by-step photos show you how to make great gnocchi.
Cooking tips from Food Network show host
Anne Burrell's recipes are fun to make and simple enough for novice home cooks. It is easy to learn from the Food Network chef because she provides cooking advice in colored sidebars (e.g., use canned San Marzano tomatoes from Italy because they are sweet and low in acid).
Cook Like A Rock Star also includes Anne Burrell's hand-written notes with her culinary advice, e.g., use leftover duck fat to make her recipe for duck fat potatoes.
The 256-page cookbook also contains sidebars with ingredient substitutions, such as using celery root for half the Yukon gold potatoes in the garlic mashed potatoes recipe.
Sample Anne Burrell recipes
Figs stuffed with Gorgonzola and walnuts. Parmigiano-crusted cauliflower with garlic dipper. Baked ricotta with rosemary and lemon. Grilled shrimp with chickpea fries, zucchini and pine nut salad. Pumpkin soup with allspice whipped cream and fried leeks. Wild mushroom ragu. Grilled chicken with lemons and Dijon. Braised chicken thighs with mushrooms and almond purée. Rack of lamb crusted with black olives. Super creamy cheesy polenta. Brussels sprouts slaw. Sweet potato and apple hash. Hazelnut cake with Nutella mousse. Dried cherry and almond biscotti.
Contents
- Introduction
- Piccolini
- Firsts
- Pasta
- Seconds
- Sides
- Desserts
- Index
Author
Anne Burrell is a Culinary Institute of America graduate and Food Network host of Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and Worst Cooks in America. She has also competed in the Food Network culinary show, Iron Chef America.