andrew's Reviews
13 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 13Sort by: Title 
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How to Cook Everything: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food
By Mark Bittman
Wiley - 2008
Bean and Tomato Casserole : page 414
A recipe deceptive in its simplicity. Although it only has a few ingredients: beans, tomatoes, onions, cheese and oregano, somehow they all combine to make a substantial and flavourful whole. This is something typical of Italian cooking, where the simplicity of the dish showcases the ingredients; use substandard parts, and the whole suffers.
We made it with our own garden tomatoes, local organic onions, white beans and sharp cheddar. Taking a cue from one of his related recipes (Bean Casserole with Hominy and Tortillas) we added some corn tortillas in a layer between the beans and tomatoes.
It was surprisingly tasty - I didn't expect too much after assembling it (it's not exactly cooking, which means it's an easy quick dinner item), but both my wife and I were very impressed. This is going to go on our list of quick and tasty entrees.
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Black Beans and White Rice, Spanish Style : page 435
Although Bittman calls this 'one of the best rice and bean dishes' I was a bit disappointed with this version. It was lacking a flavour note or two, and turned out fairly blandly. We cooked exactly as directed, using the 'lid on method' in the oven as I didn't want a crust to develop.
This isn't so different from the Joy of Cooking Spanish Rice, except with beans. If I do this again, I'd add paprika, as that seems to give the Joy recipe a nice little boost. And a bit of cayenne for some heat.
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Chicken Pot Pie : page 690
Boy this is a good recipe, and in typical Bittman fashion is very adaptable. We are usually lazy and get a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket (or save some chicken from a roast) and use some commercial stock, but one day I'll do the whole thing from scratch - whole chicken, stock and all.
I've tried it with biscuit crust, puff pastry (from frozen) and potato crust. It's great all three ways, though I found the biscuits to be awfully thick - in future I'd reduce the amount.
Some notes: the sauce isn't very thick, though on refrigeration the leftovers do thicken up somewhat. He calls for 2 tablespoons of flour to almost 3 cups of liquid, which doesn't really do the job. More flour, cornstarch maybe? Secondly, it's very hard to find pearl onions where I live (inexplicably), so this time I used small shallots, and they worked out very well.
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Collards or Kale with Tahini : page 309
I would have never thought of cooking greens with tahini, but this works very well. It's a simple recipe - sautee some garlic and then add your greens (kale in this case) a little stock and some tahini. Finish with a squirt of lemon juice and you have a very tasty side dish. Other variations on the recipe include peanut butter, which at first I thought bizzare, but considering how similar tahini is, makes some sense now.
I ended up using more stock than the recipe suggested - it seemed to vanish quickly.
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This was a truly wonderful way to prepare duck legs, and really simple. We had two small duck legs rather than the 4 in the recipe so I cut back a little on the proportions: used a medium onion and a little less carrot, as well as two celery stalks instead of 3 and only one cup of stock.
The longest part of the prep is chopping the vegetables. The rest is more or less unattended as you brown the duck legs and render out some of the fat while you're chopping, then cook the vegetables in some of the duck fat and chuck the whole thing in the oven with some stock. After an hour the stock was gone (there would likely be some left with the full recipe) and everything was done.
The skin was crispy, the meat was tender and the vegetables in the mixture of reduced stock and a little duck fat were delicious. I will definitely do this one again.
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Everyday Buttermilk Waffles : page 815
A simple, excellent waffle batter with Bittman's usual list of variations you can use to create pretty much any type of waffle experience you want. I made the straightforward version substituting half whole-wheat flour for the white, and they cooked up beautifully in my new waffle iron.
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Lentils and Potatoes with Curry : page 415
This was good, and if I'd programmed in 3 1/2 stars to the site, I'd give it that. I liked his suggestion of using dried coconut to make ad hoc coconut milk, but I probably didn't use enough in the recipe. Nevertheless, it is a pretty fair curry, though there are a lot of dal recipes around and I'm going to keep trying more to see if I can find one that can become a classic.
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Lentils and Rice with Caramelized Onions : page 437
A very satisfying vegetarian main course. As the title suggests, it's primarily lentils and rice, spiced with cumin, cooked in stock. It is quite similar in flavour to Lentil and Rice Casserole from The Good Friends Cookbook. It has a dark, savoury flavour I find very appealing, especially on a cold fall evening.
I cooked it just as written in the recipe. The sole suggestion I'd make is to give extra time. I find lentils usually take longer than recipe authors suggest (perhaps lentils around here are tougher than usual...), so I gave this an extra 15 or 20 minutes at the end.
Oh, and the caramelized onions are a great topping - don't leave them out.
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Meat Sauce, Bolognese Style : page 531
I think this is a fairly authentic version of Bolognese sauce - starting with a sofritto (carrot, celery and onion) and including a small amount of bacon and ground meat, finished with milk or cream.
It does make a lovely sauce - if you take the time to cook it for the full two hours or so, and if you can make it ahead a bit and let the flavours combine, it is a rich and deep sauce - delicious!
I made a tiny adjustment to the recipe - I fried the bacon first, then browned the meat (I used ground pork as that's all I had) in the pan with the bacon and bacon fat and a little olive oil. I then removed the meat while I cooked the sofritto and added tomatoes so they would reduce a bit before I put the meat back in with some stock and then simmered the whole lot. I'm not sure if it made much difference, but hey... tasted good.
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Minestrone : page 123
An excellent version of the Italian classic. In typical Bittman style, there are about 20 possible variations (more if you include ingredient substitutions), so it's possible for 10 people to cook from this recipe and get 10 different soups. Though they'll all have the core soup and process in common.
The version we made had cubed parmesan rind in it, as is common in Minestrone. We used some chopped bacon as the meat (he recommends proscuitto or ham). For the hard vegetable we used acorn squash. For the soft veggies we used a cup or so of white beans and another cup or so of chopped Swiss chard.
It was really, really good. We just had it for dinner with some crusty bread.
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Naan : page 873
Very nice indeed, for homemade. A simple recipe that is fairly quick to make. They puff up nicely in the oven and have a slightly tangy taste from the yogurt in the dough. I might add a little more salt next time, but that's it. We made twelve and froze the leftovers for future curries.
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Rice Pilaf with Currants and Pine Nuts : page 461
This is a pretty good pilaf - the currants, pine nuts, cumin and cinnamon give it a middle-eastern flavour. It didn't cause fireworks of flavour though - I'll try some of his other (seven) variations on pilaf and see if I like them better.
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The Simplest Bean Burgers : page 438
I was quite pleased with how these turned out, and the recipe (like many in this book) has enough variations to serve as a source of future veggie burger explorations. I ended up making these with a little more of the bean-cooking liquid that I should have, and may have pureed them a little too long - they were a little less chunky than I think the recipe specifies - but they had a good flavor and they cooked up quite nicely.
My 8-year-old gobbled hers up and my wife and I agreed that we'd try them again. Though these are definitely frying pan burgers - they would disintegrate on a grill.
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