How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: sear recipe, turkey cutlets boneless pork chops, piquant black olives, Follow the Steam, The Big Fat Omelet, Follow the Simple Tomato Sauce (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Learn what makes a recipe tick, says How to Cook Without a Book author Pam Anderson, and you'll serve great food fast. Recognizing that most cooks feel challenged in the face of daily meal making, Anderson provides a game plan: prepare dishes based on available ingredients and simple cooking techniques you've mastered--not on recipes you've got to look up and ingredients you'll need to shop for--and you maximize the potential of kitchen ease. Cooks looking for a way to address the what-will-we-have-tonight quandary definitively, or those who feel they lack the energy or know-how to tackle cooking every night, should find the book essential. In chapters such as "Simple Stir-Frys" or "Weeknight Ravioli and Lasagna," Anderson presents a particular cooking procedure, provides a recipe that embodies it in its basic form (the protein-adaptable Weeknight Stir-Fry, for example), then offers simple variations (such as Stir-Fried Chicken with Asparagus and Mushrooms or Stir-Fried Shrimp with Pepper and Scallions). Chapters conclude with an at-a-glance review of key technique points. Following Anderson's tips and innovations, lasagna, for example, becomes a weeknight option (use egg-roll wrappers for the pasta, Anderson advises, and forgo the baking); she also shows how, once mastered, her Big Fat Omelet, which serves four, can become the basis for a wide range of lunch and dinner entrées. With a comprehensive pantry section and a dessert chapter that puts frozen puff pastry to work in imaginative ways, the book is a trove of information that cooks can use and depend on. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly

Former executive editor of Cook's magazine and author of The Perfect Recipe, Anderson wants to teach Americans a new way to cookAwithout relying on recipes. It's somewhat surprising, then, to discover that this book is full of recipes. However, readers may cotton to Anderson's method: each chapter consists of a simple technique, basic recipe, variations, key points and a little mnemonic device used to recall the technique. The techniques are, for the most part, terrific time-savers, such as cutting out the back before roasting a whole chicken or making one giant omelet to serve four people so that everyone can eat together. Variations are good, too, although many are so similar to one another that it seems a little repetitious to include a recipe for each (in turn, many of the recipes refer back to the original, resulting in a lot of page-flipping). A chapter on tomato sauces, for example, includes the basic Simple Tomato Sauce, as well as Tomato Sauce with Dried Porcini, Tomato Sauce with Sweet Onions and Thyme, Tomato Sauce with Shrimp and Red Pepper Flakes and many others. A chapter on pan sauces is a winner, encompassing Red Wine-Dijon Pan Sauce, Port Wine Pan Sauce with Dried Cranberries and Balsamic Pan Sauce with Pine Nuts and Raisins. In the end, this cookbook is a solid collection of simple, quick recipes, but with its sometimes scattered format, it is unlikely to free everyday cooks from the tyranny of recipes. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1 edition (April 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767902793
• ISBN-13: 978-0767902793
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,174 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

141 of 141 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Cookbook You've Always Wanted!, April 8, 2000

By A Customer

I already own a bookshelf of cookbooks, but Pam Anderson's is truly unlike any other out there. It explains, in a concise manner, the basis for the primary forms of cooking (from scratch!) that we all love, but never cook for lack of time: those hearty soups, salads, sauces to go with that ever-present chicken, and how to expand your menu way beyond chicken, and so much more. Unbelievable, she shows us that we *can* cook these on a weeknight (most within 30 minutes).

I love the concept behind this book because, while I enjoy cooking, I often don't have time for all of the recipes that are my family's favorites -- or at least I didn't think I did. This book teaches you that a soup, for example, is a few basic ingredients that you probably already have in your home, and that it can be prepared in 20 minutes! She shows you how this is true for a wide variety of meats, pasta dishes, appetizers, desserts, even stir-fry and pad thai dishes.

While there are also example recipes for every category of food in the book, after reading it, you will be inspired to create your own variations, even if you never thought you could. In addition, there are tips on how to make most of this food sophisticated enough for a dinner party, including example menus.

With the help of Pam Anderson's book, I now have the joy and the option of creating my own recipes, instead of constantly pulling a book from the shelf to find the answer to "What's for dinner?"

It's easy to read, thoroughly enjoyable and best of all, the ideas presented will help end the feeling that cooking the nightly dinner is such a chore!

137 of 144 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book makes weeknight cooking a breeze!, May 1, 2000

By A Customer

"How to Cook without a Book" is the cookbook that I have been hoping to find. It teaches you the mindset and skills neccesary to quickly prepare a healthy meal with what you've got in your fridge and pantry. The weekends are great for trying new recipes and new ingredients, but what do you do on Wednesday night at 6pm when you're tired and hungry and haven't yet given a thought to what you'll cook and whether you have all the ingredients?

"How to Cook without a Recipe" teaches you a few simple techniques which can be used with a variety of ingredient combinations. For example, Ms. Anderson's saute techinique works for chicken, pork, fish, tofu, and more. So, if you have any of these on hand and a few seasonings, you've got your main dish.

So far I've read a few sections of the book, and it has already improved my cooking. What the book boils down to is this: learn a few techniques, stock your pantry, make a weekly trip to the grocery store to buy whatever's in season or on sale, and you'll be able to put a "real meal" on the table anytime.

Excellent for someone setting up a new house or apartment and for those who are tired of take-out and packaged instant meals. Would make a great gift for a college graduate or for a bride and/or groom-to-be.

119 of 125 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I wouldn't have gone to cooking school if I'd read this, September 29, 2000

By	jumpy1 (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

The overall lesson about cooking in this book is THE BEST OUT THERE. She tells you the truth. I can't imagine anyone not knowing what to cook for dinner if they had this book. It breaks everything down, gives you the big picture, so you realize what those recipes you've been following blindly were trying to do. It's true she has you get pre-made sauces and chicken broth (some Asian sauces should be bought pre-made anyway) and if you actually have time to make them you'll have to open up another book for those things if you're a beginner (who has time these days anyway?). On the other hand, I am so sick of reading cookbooks where the cook writes as if they are performing on stage, which has no relevance whatsoever to what I'm doing in the kitchen. This book doesn't waste your time, gets right down to business.