Customer Reviews

Cooking From the Hip: Fast, Easy, Phenomenal Meals

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For once - a cookbook living up to it's name! I am a devotee of Rachal Ray, due to the 30 minute phenom - that's about all the time I have to cook on weekdays. I tried this book because I love watching what Cat creates on Iron Chef. I have cooked 15 of the recipes so far, and all of them were extremely easy and quick to put together - and best of all - the tastes are stupendous! She really puts together interesting bold flavors in her dishes. And thankfully - none of the ingredient lists on any of the recipes are too long! My boyfriend's fav so far was the Grilled watermelon and shrimp. Mine was the Prosciutto, Pear and Blue Cheese sushi! (Her non-traditional take offs on sushi are lots of fun!) This is a great cookbook for anyone who wants recipes that look great, taste awesome, and are easy to make!

I have not seen Cat on "IRON CHEF",though I'd heard that she was one of the first women chefs to have won the title. I ordered this book, sight unseen, and I must say that I've been pleasantly surprised.

Here are the plusses and the minusses....

(+)
*Recipes are very easy to follow.
*Photos accompany most of the recipes.
*Recipes are easy to duplicate if a person's skill level is a bit over the "beginner level".
*Most of the recipes are easy to duplicate, such as:
~~Crepes, p.156 and 166
~~Glazed baby carrots and Dill, p. 219
~~Alma's Italian Cream Cake, p. 221
~~Endive & Honeydew & Pear Salad, p. 68
~~Asian Steak and Spinach, p.72
~~Thai Chicken Salad w/Cabbage, p. 83
~~Pasta w/ Roasted Peppers & Tomatoes,p. 88
~~Cherry Clafouti, p.97
~~Bruschetta with 3 toppings, P. 106-108
~~Classic Mojitos, P. 116
~~Chicken PotPie with Puff Pastry, p.140
(-)

The only reason I did not give this book FIVE Stars is because some (not all) of the recipes remind me of Giada's bizarre recipes from her latest book (such as Giada's Cranberry Raviolis) & that seem to have strange taste combinations, such as:
~~Rizolato (strange ingredients)
~~Shrimp and Scallop Coconut Seviche (raw fish combo)
~~Saffron Honey Roasted chicken (too sweet)
~~Over-the-Top Ahi Tuna Salad (once again, raw fish)

All in all though, I give this book 4 stars because MOST of the recipes are do-able and (for me at least) would not be hard to duplicate. Also, I like the introduction Cat gives to each Chapter, and also I liked the very handy STOCK & SAUCE recipes located at the very end.

Cat Cora's "Cooking from the Hip" has recipes for every kind of cook. Iron Chef Cora categorizes her recipes as:fast/easy/phenomenal/good to know. She gives essential tips on stocking the cupboard,making different kinds of vinegars and oils,and so on.

Cora has plenty of picnic-friendly dishes,such as farfalle and herb salad with peas,a parmesan,proscuitto,and arugula sandwich,along with lemonade cookies,and Asian steak&spinach salad. It shows how she lives not far from the Wine Country in a Mediterranean climate. Cora spends an entire section on sushi,making the Zoran sushi recipe in honor of her son. She discusses hashes,using salmon hash as an example. Cora is also a fan of watermelon. In her previous cookbook,she had a creative watermelon/feta salad created by her partner Jennifer. In this book,she has watermelon gazpacho.

Finally,Cora makes creative variations on well-known recipes. Her lettuce "gyros" with spicy halibut are in lettuce leaves instead of pita bread. Her "fried" chicken has crushed cornflakes instead of the usual breading.

"Cooking from the Hip" shows that hips don't lie! Bon appetit!

`Cooking from the Hip' is Food Network Iron Chef, Cat Cora's second cookbook, her first for new publisher, Houghton Mifflin Company, instead of her original trade paperback house, Chronicle Books. I mention this because it coincides with a 50% increase in the price of the book with only a 20% increase in size, plus hard covers.
Since every celebrity chef cookbook needs some hook to distinguish it from all the others on our shelves, Iron Cora has divided her recipes up into `Fast', `Easy', `Fun', and `Phenomenal'. The entrée into the themes is Ms. Cora's experiences on the `Iron Chef America' show. I see relatively little real connection as I am certain Ms. Cora had the chops to do this kind of cooking before becoming an Iron Chef. Otherwise, she would not have been able to rack up a better than 3 to 2 record of wins against credible opponents. Just as with Bobby and Mario and Morimoto, I would actually have liked to see a book of their actual Iron Chef recipes done on the show. It is much more relevant to see that Ms. Cora writes a culinary column entitled `Cooking from the Hip' for a local newspaper.
I rather liked Ms. Cora's first book, `Cat Cora's Kitchen', in that for a very nice price, you got a very nice selection of Greek and Greek / Southern US fusion recipes which would provide excellent material for a themed dinner entertainment. While I find Cat's recipes in this book of an equally high quality, the thread of premise unifying the material is simply not very strong. I find very little difference between the recipes in the first three chapters. The fast recipes are easy and the fun recipes are fast and the easy recipes are fun and fast and so on. So, the value of this book to you, dear reader is heavily dependent on your individual requirements.
If you are simply a Cat Cora fan, the way I happen to be a Jamie Oliver fan, then you must have this book, and you will not be disappointed. If you are a foodie with 500 cookbooks but no special interest in Ms. Cora or `Iron Chef', you will not miss not having this volume on your shelves. If you are a beginning cook, this is definitely not a good place to learn how to cook. If you are somewhere in between, the question is more difficult.
I say this is not a good book for a beginner, as it is written for a `foodie' audience, which is expected to know how to do a lot of things from good, but not excellent descriptions in the recipes. I confess I found Ms. Cora's (or her collaborator, Ann Krueger Spivack) English to be just a bit clumsy. There was more than one sentence where I had to read it over three or four times before I got a good picture in my head of what was being described. And, sometimes, this was because I suspected there was an easier, more conventional method, and was expecting that. For example, in an orange and fennel salad (which on all counts, looked positively delicious), the instruction was to do slices through the diameter of a peeled orange, rather than doing Supremes, a very common citrus prep operation. I also found the distribution of sidebars on, for example, oils and vinegars, out of place. They should have been collected together in the front, for the benefit of those who would not read through the whole book. The Table of Contents was a bit of a Jekyll / Hyde thing. Each of the four recipe chapters had an excellent Table of Contents at the beginning of the chapter, yet there were some important larger divisions which should have also been put in the scant main T of C. I also found the list of sources to be almost entirely unnecessary, as every ingredient is commonly available at everyone's local megamart, and available in spades if you live in a larger city.
The primary problem with this book is that it has so much very good competition. Simply putting out a compilation of good recipes under a celebrity chef's name is not enough to turn a cookbook into a regular helper in your kitchen. It's ironic that Jacques Pepin provides one of the blurbs on the back of the book, since his last two books are exactly the kind of writing both a novice and a dedicated foodie can love and learn from, and not regret the cost. Another stellar new book is Alice Waters' `The Art of Simple Food'.
I agree with the reviewer who said the dishes were very tasty and genuinely easy, just a bit more exotic than RR. So, you will not be disappointed, but you will also not be inspired and educated in being creative on your own. For that, see Miss' Alice's new book.
I am happy to discover in this book why Cat gave up her lordship over a professional restaurant, and took on the title of `Executive Chef' at `Bon Appétit' (Sara Moulton's title at `Gourmet'). Turns out Cat now has a daughter who needed more time and attention than a restaurant chef could afford. Good luck to Cat and Zoran.

I have now reviewed cookbooks by two of the Iron Chefs (from Food Network): Mario Batali and Bobby Flay. Cat Cora has two cookbooks out; Morimoto is another Iron Chef with cookbooks on his resume. Cat Cora's recent book, "Cooking from the Hip," begins by noting the central theme (Page xii): "Every time you open the refrigerator and your cupboards and put together a meal. . .you are cooking from the hip. With this book, I'm hoping to expand your options, share a few of my tricks, and take you to a place where you feel comfortable winging it, even when guests are coming to dinner." She also emphasizes that cooking gives one an opportunity (Page xii) ". . .to connect with friends and family." Later in her Introduction, she says that (Page xiv): "These recipes are simple to make and offer lots of ideas for pulling in leftovers." I'm not so sure that some of the recipes herein are "simple to make." But, boy, there are quite a few interesting recipes.

The book is organized into four major parts: fast (for quick to make dishes), easy (recipes that are easy to make), fun (neat recipes that produce fun dishes), and phenomenal (special treats!). Finally, there is a section titled "Good to Know," which provides recipes for basic ingredients, such as chicken stock (both phenomenal and fast!) and other stocks, Aioli, Crème fraiches, balsamic reduction, roasted cherry tomatoes, and the like. Let's take a look at a few examples. . .

"Easy." Thai chicken salad with cabbage. The dressing is comprised of rice wine vinegar, olive oil, sesame oil, Thai peanut sauce, sugar, and black sesame seeds. Chicken is grilled or poached or roasted. Meanwhile, slice cabbage, grate carrots. Slice scallions for garnish. Finally, shred the chicken and toss the chicken and veggies. Pour on the dressing and toss. And enjoy!

"Fast." I am intrigued by the recipe for Greek lamb and olive burgers with garlic `sauce.' Obviously, instead of beef, one uses ground lamb. The lamb is mixed with such elements as kalamata olives, bread crumbs, chopped onion, chopped scallions, salt, pepper, oregano, and feta cheese. The garlic sauce is created separately, including yogurt and garlic. Cook the limburger, put it on top of the bottom half of a bun, spoon on some garlic sauce and then add tomatoes, lettuce or whatever you want to top this dish off. Sounds yummy! In this section, I am also intrigued with a stir fry dish (pretty straightforward--except that chopped peaches are added to the veggies). This sounds quite interesting. I can't resist mentioning one more example--a serviche, in which seafood is "cooked" in a marinade. Tempting for me to try out!

"Fun." Start off by taking a look at her sushi. Even though I look at the photos, I'm not so sure I could pull this off. But it looks like fun (including replacing fish with veggies). "The Zoran Roll" is named after one of her kids. Then, goat cheese fondue. This sounds awfully tasty.

"Phenomenal."Check out Cora's recipe for Porchetta. The meat is pork loin. Other ingredients: fennel, onion, shiitake mushrooms, garlic, rosemary, basil, egg, kosher salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil, and red bliss potatoes. Just reading the recipe and thinking about what the end product would taste like is terrific! Mouth watering. . . .

Anyhow, this is a nice cookbook. There aren't a bazillion recipes, but the ones represented here sound tasty; some appear pretty easy to make. I have already dog-eared certain recipes (mainly, those mentioned here) and look forward to trying them out. Bon appétit!

This book is just great. Buy it for the recipe for Italian Cream Cake alone. Every recipe we've tried has been delicious. Some are easier than others but the phenomenal section is well worth the extra effort.

What a treasure...Cat Cora combines her culinary training, family cooking traditions and a healthy, nutritional approach to produce recipes the home cook can easily replicate to wow friends and family.

I purchased this cookbook recently and am ecstatic with the recipes that are inside. They are unique, tasty, and more importantly, delicious! I am greatly imppressed by what Cat Cora does to make cooking easy for even the most inexperienced of cooks (me!)

My daughters and two of their friends used this book to create a very tasty meal for their parents tonight. Easy recipes, but with a different flair - in other words, not the same old recipes Mom and Dad use. My oldest is ten, and has an autographed copy - thanks, Cora!

Cat Cora is star of the TV marathon chef's cooking show Iron Chief America, and so has much experience preparing exciting dishes at the drop of a hat. Home cooks can now duplicate her efforts through a guide which covers producing such fast and easy fare as Watermelon Gazpacho, Asian Steak and Spinach Salad, and Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes. Add color photos throughout and you have a winning survey.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch