Real Fast Food

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 4 MAR 1996

The quick recipes (e.g., Black Bean Tacos with Tomato-Chili Salsa and Walnut Oil and New Potato Saute in this British import by the innovative Slater (The Crabtree and Evelyn Cookbook) are interesting in themselves, but the true goodies come when he reels off lists of variant possibilities for easy-to-fix meals. "Good Things to Serve with Poached Salmon," for example, includes plain yogurt with tarragon, an herb and mustard sauce, and grated fennel cooked with a little Pernod; the list of Half a Dozen Sublime Chicken Sandwiches has simple, chatty instructions for accompaniments such as basil mayonnaise and for techniques such as spreading blue cheese and walnuts on the bread before toasting it. The fairly slapdash arrangement is part of the appeal-this is a book meant to move readers towards the kitchen, not for following rigidly step by step. Such Briticisms as potted shrimp and the list of rabbits (not the meat but alternatives to "Welsh Rabbit") won't trip up too many American readers. Slater occasionally slips from quirky to cutesy, but he throws out so many smart inspirations in such quick succession that he thoroughly redeems himself.