Fresh & Fast
Inspired Cooking for Every Season and Every Day
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
The James Beard and IACP Award-winning author of Sur La Table shares more than 200 recipes that make fresh food deliciously convenient.
Regularly featured in Bon Appétit, Woman's Day and Ladies' Home Journal, Marie Simmons is dedicated to dispelling the myth that eating fresh food is difficult and time consuming. In Fresh & Fast, she provides more than 200 recipes that show how fresh ingredients can be more convenient than packaged foods.
Whether it's Warm Egg Salad on Whole Wheat Toast or Lemon Basil Chicken, each recipe is surprisingly simple, yet freshly conceived and imaginative. Simmons shows how to vary your menu according to the season with dishes like Crisp-Fried Soft-Shell Crabs in spring, Roasted Tomato and Fresh Corn Soup in summer and Orange Baked Squash in fall.
Each recipe tells exactly how long it will take to prepare and alerts you in advance about any steps that require a little extra time. Most can be made in less than 45 minutes, including: Lemon Basil Chicken, Warm New Potato Salad with Scallions, Penne with Roasted Vegetables, Pork Tenderloin Marinated in Soy and Orange, Sesame Brown Rice Pilaf, Spicy Marinated Shrimp, Easy Oven-Roasted Red Bell Peppers, Black Bean and Vegetable Burrito, Stir-Fry of Cabbages with Asian Flavors, Grandpa's Peaches in Red Wine, and Apple and Ginger Crisp.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Life is too short to waste on a bad meal, suggests Simmons, coauthor (with Richard Sax) of Lighter, Quicker, Better. Drawing from her syndicated weekly newspaper column, she sets about to liberate home cooks from the processed tastes of convenience foods. Some 250 recipes showcase fresh ingredients in such uncomplicated dishes as Quick-Chilled Cumin-Scented Fresh Tomato and Corn Soup, Oven-Roasted Halibut with Herb Citrus Vinaigrette and Crystallized Ginger Ice Cream wtih Red Plum Sauce. Cooking times can run to close to an hour (as in Honey-Glazed Orange and Rosemary Chicken or Sesame Brown Rice Pilaf with Garlic and Vegetables), but preparation times are generally 10 to 15 minutes. The pasta recipes feature streamlined, tried and true combinations (e.g., Penne Rigate with Asparagus, Prosciutto and Mushrooms). The chapter devoted to sandwiches proves that a little attention and ingenuity can lift this common luncheon fare to full dinner status: Pan-Grilled Smoked Turkey, Fontina, Bacon and Avocado; Sliced Pork Loin Sandwich with Fennel, Garlic and Roasted Pepper. Side boxes review basic techniques and suggest recipe variations. Straightforward directions, generally short, affordable ingredient lists and suggestions for staples make this a valuable collection for novice and veteran cooks who want to prepare tasty, preservative-free meals. The Good Cook/BOMC and Better Homes & Gardens Cook Book Club main selection.
