SPECIALTY SHELF
Great Easy Meals - Food Network Magazine (2011)
I will start by saying my kitchen is not stocked full of cheffy ingredients as I am a cooking rookie. I need to get to the store and get some of those special ingredients cooks use. That being said though I do have a lot of staple ingredients like chicken, meat, regular grocery store vegetables, and many spices and seasonings. And I could not with the things in my kitchen make even ONE of these "easy" meals. All meals have at least eight ingredients. Specialty onions, specialty curries, seasonal vegetables (shallots? parsnips?) and many more items that I wouldn't consider kitchen staples. I would expect most cookbooks to make me take a trip or three to the grocery store but a book that's named Great EASY Meals I expected at least one recipe to be fully doable with a well-stocked newbie kitchen. That issue aside, I ended up taking a quick trip and got some fresh parsley and cumin. I made the Moroccan Grilled Salmon (page 224) and it was delicious! I am not a big fish cooker (I am a huge fish orderer at restaurants however) and this came out as good - if not better than - any salmon I have ever eaten at a restaurant. Another plus to this book which has 250 recipes is that every single recipe has a huge picture. The recipes have simple steps, and are easy to follow. The book is separated into different colour-coded sections (chicken recipes, beef recipes, salads, soups, etc) which makes it easy to pinpoint a meal with the ingredients you have handy. Once I acquire more ingredients (once I have the cash to throw around) I know I will enjoy the book more. (AV)
