MARTH STEWART'S DINNER AT HOME
Review by Barb & Ron Kroll
Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home
(Clarkson Potter) ISBN 978-0307396457 0307396452
This Martha Stewart cookbook answers the question: "What should I make for a quick dinner?" with 52 menus for quick healthy meals. Home cooks will find 200 easy recipes in seasonal menus that you can cook in about one hour.
Seasonal cooking
Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home is well-organized with 13 spring menus, 13 summer menus, 13 fall menus and 13 winter menus. Each seasonal menu consists of an easy appetizer, main course, side dish and dessert.
Martha Stewart introduces each chapter with seasonal cooking tips. As an example, for summer, she suggests quick menu ideas using grilled meats, salads and fruit sorbets. In her introduction to each quick dinner recipe, she describes ingredients and cooking tips. E.g., Martha Stewart recommends toasting bulgur to bring out its nutty flavor before cooking it in chicken stock.
Appetizing color photos depict the healthy and quick meals, individual dishes and ingredients in Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home. Some photo captions include cooking tips and serving suggestions, e.g., how to make quick torrijas (Spanish-style French toast) by cooking bread, brushed with sweetened condensed milk, in butter, until crisp.
Quick dinners
Several fast meals in Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home feature sidebars with ingredient and cooking information. One sidebar, for example, explains how to seed and juice pomegranates to make a blood orange and pomegranate dessert.
Meal assembly is easy with the preparation schedule that Martha Stewart includes with each quick dinner.
The appendix includes basics like how to clean clams. (Under cold running water, scrub with a stiff brush, then place in a bowl of cold water with a handful of cornmeal, for 15 minutes, to draw out the grit. Remove clams from water and rinse, leaving the sediment behind.)
Martha Stewart also indexes appetizers, main courses, side dishes and desserts, by season, so home cooks can take advantage of fresh produce from gardens and markets.
Sample recipes for quick healthy meals
Spring menu: Asparagus parmesan tart. Shrimp in saffron broth. Couscous with golden raisins. Apricot almond ice cream sandwiches. Summer menu: Cantaloupe wedges with feta cheese. Honey glazed chicken skewers. Summer squash with olive phyllo tart. Espresso cream crunch. Fall menu: Pork chops with sauteed apples and onion. Shaved fennel celery salad. Mustard mashed potatoes. Maple custards. Winter menu: Spice rubbed beef filets. Port glazed pearl onions. Golden potato puree. Chocolate truffles.
Contents
- Introduction
- Spring
- Summer
- Fall
- Winter
- Basics
- Menu Lists
- Index
Author
Martha Stewart is the author of dozens of cookbooks.
More Martha Stewart cookbooks:
Martha Stewart's Cooking School - Lessons and Recipes for the Home Cook
The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook - The New Classics