Cooking From the Hip: Fast, Easy, Phenomenal Meals (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: romesco sauce, sushi rice, cooking from the hip, Main Dishes, Cat's Note, Yukon Gold (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cora, the lone woman to be anointed an "Iron Chef" in the Food Network's American version of the series, aims to translate the fast, flashy style of that high-pressure kitchen into recipes that home cooks who have similar time constraints but comparatively modest gadgets and pantries can enjoy. The results are generally pleasing and more accessible than many of the concoctions presented on TV by battling chefs. Four sections break the food into "fast," "easy," "fun," and "phenomenal" categories that are a welcome change from the traditional progression through each course and show Cora's spontaneous, easygoing yet stylish way to its best advantage. Simple variations on classics stand out, as in a Curried Broccoli Salad ("fast") and spiky, flavorful Watermelon Gazpacho ("easy") even when some recipes' placements are questionable: a silky Potato-Celery Root soup is nice, but hardly phenomenal, and beginning or busy cooks may find recipes like hand-rolled Dolmathes or sushi more frustrating and time-intensive than fun, even if friends help. Fortunately, Cora's sunny, can-do attitude and the boxed tips on ingredients and preparation sprinkled throughout will help to dispel many doubts. Home cooks will appreciate the way they expand the repertory of recipes that are upscale enough to impress company, but simple enough to encourage use throughout a busy week. Color photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)
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Review

"With her boundless energy and southern drawl, the kitchen goddess charms audiences and dazzles palates with Mediterranean-inspired dishes." (Vanity Fair )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618729909
• ISBN-13: 978-0618729906
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #200,531 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth in Advertising, July 28, 2007

By	D. Well "Deb_W" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Tasty Cat Cora. Not enough to stand above the pack., October 17, 2007

By	B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

`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.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pleasantly surprised, April 29, 2008

By	Lin "Lin22" (Puget Sound) - See all my reviews

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.