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How to Cook Everything (or at least most things)
A couple of reasons. First of all, many elements that made the original How to Cook Everything so popular were last-minute additions: A devotion to the basics, and almost nothing but the basics; making the master-recipe-and-variation drill the core of the book; and loads of lists and substitutions. Much as I loved and love all of these, ten years ago some of them were produced in a mad scramble.
Since the new book incorporated these features from the get-go, the results are much more visual, with charts and tables to show how even the simplest recipe can be expanded in many different ways. Almost all of the basic ingredient information has likewise been transformed into at-a-glance graphics. I make use of master recipes and variations at every opportunity, including “Essential Recipes” at the beginning of each chapter. And throughout, I introduce hundreds if not thousands of substitutions (why not use cauliflower and broccoli, or different meat, poultry, or seafood, interchangeably in the same recipe, at least most of the time?). There are also scores of new lists; pretty cool ones I think.
For this edition, I completely ... more
Why, you ask, does a non-vegetarian (me) write a huge book about vegetarian cooking?
Mostly because I saw the need for one. Partly because I wanted to experiment with "lessmeatarianism"—a way of eating that involved fewer animal products. (If I could have called this book "How to Cook Everything without Meat" I would have, because that's more descriptive than "Vegetarian," but it's not exactly a title that sings.) And partly—as I came to believe in the course of writing HTCE Veg (as I call it)—because lessmeatarianism is really the way of the future. (This line of thinking eventually lead directly to Food Matters, which I write about here.)
I cannot tell you how much I learned in the course of putting Veg together, and how much I believe you would learn if you began to cook from it.
If you think, for example, that winter squash is boring, that whole grains take forever to cook (and that they're all the same), that all beans are created equal (and take forever to cook), that you can't be satisfied unless you eat meat, that vegetarian meals ... more