The Minimalist Cooks Dinner (Hardcover)

by Mark Bittman (Author)
Key Phrases: simple green salad, steamed broccoli, crisp potatoes, Minute Bread, Other Vegetable, Easy Rice (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The Minimalist Cooks Dinner collects two years of recipes from Mark Bittman's popular New York Times column, "The Minimalist," which cleverly caters to the modern gourmet whose expectations are high but time is limited. In a hundred-odd recipes that cover the end-of-the-day meal gamut from soups and sides to entrées, Bittman packs strong flavor into a few ingredients so that food lovers can return home from a long day at work and make a meal that's satisfying but not exhausting.

With less introductory text but more side notes than Bittman's previous cookbooks (The Minimalist Cooks at Home and the new classic, How to Cook Everything), The Minimalist Cooks Dinner commences with a section of 12 soups and stews--ranging from a truly spare miso soup to the richer Black-Eyed Pea Soup with Ham and Watercress--and then covers pasta, pizza, entrées (with shellfish, fish, poultry, or meat), salads, and starchy sides. Easy dishes such as Steak with Chimichurri Sauce (simply parsley, raw garlic, lemon juice, crushed red pepper, and olive oil), Fish Simmered in Spicy Soy Sauce (soy, sugar, scallions, and chile), or Scallops with Almonds (cayenne, almonds, white wine, and butter) are startlingly delicious, especially considering they take at most 30 minutes to prepare. But perhaps this cookbook's best asset, particularly for less-experienced cooks, are the crucial "Keys to Success" and the improvisational "With Minimal Effort" side bars, which respectively offer additional instruction and suggestions for quick ways to enhance the original dish. While not as comprehensive as Bittman's bestselling How to Cook Everything or The Minimalist Cooks at Home, this is an expertly refined collection that presents perfect, almost effortless meals for every night of the week. --Rebecca Wright

From Publishers Weekly
Recipes from the past two years of "The Minimalist," Bittman's widely read weekly food column in the New York Times, shape this latest collection from the author of the phenomenally popular How to Cook Everything. Cementing his reputation for quick, uncomplicated and rewardingly tasty fare within reach of any cook, Bittman overflows with inspiration in the basic recipes and in the suggestions that can be undertaken "With Minimal Effort" accompanying each one. For example, tinkering with Vichyssoise with Garlic, he proposes adding tomato and basil as one variation. To speed up a pasta meal, why not cook Pasta, Risotto Style? Adding stock a ladle at a time to a cut pasta yields a creamy dish without having to wait for a gallon of water to boil. Black Skillet Mussels couldn't be easier: heat a heavy skillet, add mussels and, when they open, eat. Suggested variations include a side sauce of butter, Tabasco and lemon juice. Combining unusual flavors comes naturally to Bittman, as in Roast Fish with Meat Sauce or Pot Roast with Cranberries, in which the meat quickly caramelizes with its dusting of sugar. Chicken-Mushroom "Cutlets" with Parmesan are basically chickenburgers gussied up temptingly with parmesan, porcini and garlic. The headnotes are much shorter than those in last year's The Minimalist Cooks at Home, but each recipe now brings pointers in the form of "Keys to Success" as well as suggested wines. Cooks with discerning tastes but little time will be very glad to add this to their library. (On-sale Sept. 11)

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1 edition (September 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767906713
• ISBN-13: 978-0767906715
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #223,772 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The Minimalist Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars beware of overlap recipes from How to Cook Everything (HTCE), November 3, 2001

By	apfb (Pasadena, CA) - See all my reviews

The recipes alone deserve 5 out of 5 stars. However, since I own both HTCE and the two Minimalist volumes, I was chagrined to find overlap between HTCE and each of the Minimalist books. The Minimalist books do not overlap.

Save your money-- I recommend only buying HTCE. If you are interested in the other non-overlapping recipes, borrow the book from friends or libraries.

The Minimalist cooks dinner has a much more user-friendly layout, organization than HTCE and the first Minimalist book. An ideal Bittman cookbook would be all of the recipes from his books together, with the layout and organization of this volume. That would be a truly incredible cookbook, but alas, I keep on dreaming...

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not much work, sophisticated results, October 18, 2001

By A Customer

I have three of Bittman's cookbooks: This one, The Minimalist Cooks at Home, and How to Cook Everything. The two Minimalist books are GREAT. (How to Cook Everything is good, especially if you don't have a basic cookbook.)

I have professional culinary training and cook a lot, but even beginners can use Bittman's recipes because they are simple, and he gives very good instructions. Plus, each recipe has an introduction where the author often gives tips, such as why the dish calls for chicken thighs instead of breasts. And at the end, he gives easy suggestions on how to vary the recipe -- like using different flavorings, or substituting shrimp for chicken.

I love the recipes because they pare things to their essentials without making them boring -- even though all the recipes are quick and easy, they include hints of Thailand, India, China, Italy, etc. I had not made much Thai food before because it seemed to require so many unusual ingredients, but a Minimalist recipe demonstrated that only a few key items are needed to create "Thai-type" flavors. With that foundation, I can now explore Thai food on my own.

One review of The Minimalist Cooks at Home complained that the recipes require things you can only buy in NYC. That's not literally true, but Bittman does use ingredients like fish sauce, balsamic vinegar, and sesame oil (not in the same recipe!). If you've never used such things before, the Minimalist recipes show you how without spending hours on a complicated dish.

The difference between this book and Minimalist at Home? at Home focuses mostly on entrees, with a few vegetable and dessert recipes. Cooks Dinner also focuses on entrees, but then has a back section of starters and side dishes. For each Cooks Dinner entree, Bittman suggests which side dishes would go well with it and recommends a wine. The recipes in the two books don't overlap.

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lives up to its name...and then some, February 2, 2002

By	"hassnick" (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews

We love to cook, but often don't have the time to prepare complex meals. Fortunately, Bittman's _Minimalist_ has allowed us to expand our culinary horizons, without a great deal of effort.

The Roast Salmon Steaks with Pinot Noir syrup was marvelous. The salmon and Pinot sauce worked well together; the easy-to-cook syrup would work well with a variety of meats. The recipie called for only 7 ingredients, and preparation was a snap.

I'm not usually an eggplant fanatic, but the Chicken Breast with Eggplant, Shallots and Ginger was really tasty. Once again, preparation was painless, the list of required ingredients was short, and the results were impressive.

As other reviewers have noted, this is *not* an encyclopedic, Joy of Cooking-replacement, but is rather an excellent way to expand your cooking repertoire with quick, healthful dishes. We haven't been disappointed yet.