Customer Reviews

Cooking 1-2-3: 500 Fabulous Three-Ingredient Recipes (1-2-3 Cookbook)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Do not be fooled into thinking that because every one of these 500 recipes has only 3 ingredients, (excluding salt, pepper and water) that the recipes are quick and easy. Some are. What could be simpler than mixing mayo and wasabi, spreading it onto salmon fillets and shoving it in the oven for 10 minutes? However, the 18-hour slow-cooked pork, while very easy, needs 6 hours absorbing its spices, and 18 hours in a very slow oven. Not quick. And the pears Belle Helene need you to poach some pears, make sorbet with the others, stuff the pears with sorbet and top the lot with chocolate. Neither quick nor all that easy. Nor does the book reduce pantry space with its reduced ingredients; you'll want to stock up with garlic oil and hunt down pomegranate molasses, for example.
What the book does well is give you a feel for how ingredients work in a dish. Once you've sautéed asparagus in sesame oil, you'll never look back. If you're a beginner cook, you may find the book less useful, as it assumes you have basic cooking techniques. If you're an innovative and enthusiastic cook, you'll be poring over it for hours and producing some rather spectacular results.

Your first concern must be: "Only three ingredients?! The recipes can't taste that good." Let me assure you that the recipes are absolutely delicious, despite the fact that they contain only three ingredients. (Recipes often contain salt and pepper, which are not considered ingredients.)

However, here's the caveat: While the recipes call for only three ingredients, many of those ingredients are rare indeed. Examples: saffron threads, Thai curry oil, za'atar, pomegranate molasses, rutabaga, Asiago cheese, creme fraiche, fresh tarragon, tandoori paste, mango chutney, etc. You were probably thinking: "Only three ingredients, I'll definitely have all three ingredients in my house." Think again. Unless you have fennel seeds in your house, you can't make the roast pork recipe on page 164. So many recipes call for obscure ingredients, I felt the need to alert potential buyers.

That being disclosed, many recipes call for ingredients that you will probably have. And all the recipes I've tried so far have been delicious and easy to prepare.

Wow,what a gold-mine! Rozanne Gold is a genius and genie when it comes to flavors. I'd recommend this book to aspiring chefs to understand flavor systems as well as home cooks who want a little sophistication in their menus. This is NOT open a can or box and dump cooking---far from it. This is a collection of recipes developed over nearly a decade by a chef who looks at minimalism just as an artist or poet does. My favorite recipes are cornish hen under a brick,wine dark short ribs, and chocolate truffle torte. But with 500 recipes I'll bet I'll find more. She even makes turnips sound good.

I use this book many times each week. It is easily the best book in my busy household. The recipes are easy to follow and they give me a sense of accomplishment when I produce something so delicious. I am going to get all her other books. Home made meals really are the best!

I am unable to eat gluten, and while this cookbook is not entirely composed of gluten free recipes, a majority of the recipes are gluten free and if nothing else it will give you many great ideas on what you can eat that is fairly easy to make.

The only reasy why I didn't rate it 5 stars is because I agree with how some of the ingredients are hard to find (to be honest I am unsure what some of them even are) but please do not pass this book up just because of that. Everyone, including myself who is a graduate student with no time, can use this book to cook a healthy and yummy meal.

I ordered a copy of this book from The Good Cook cook book club. The description sounded really intriguing--only 3 ingredients for each recipe (not including salt, pepper, and water). What a beautifully simple idea! The book is gorgeous, and the recipes sound very fresh and tasty. Can't wait to try them. As a seasoned cook who is also a busy person and has to cook on the fly, I can tell that this is a well-thought-through and elegant approach to cooking--just my cup of tea--using fresh and wholesome recipes rendered very creatively.

I got all excited when I saw her on PBS and thought this was going to be so exciting. It isn't. I never use the book. Kids might like it.

This book has tons of recipes but I was disappointed when I recieved the book because many of the recipes do not have pictures. For me, pictures are essential to cookbooks because I like to see what the dish looks like. Because of the lack of pictures, I don't look at this book much and have not tried many of the recipes. i should add that where there are pictures, they are nicely done. The book would be greatly enhanced if there was a picture for every recipe.