112 of 115 people found the following review helpful:
Quick, Easy and Delicious!
I love cookbooks and cooking. When my husband and I decided to get on an Asian kick, we chose this book because it eases you into Thai cooking. With no outrageous ingredients, octopus or black squid ink, this cookbook offers the lover of this type of cuisine an easy and very delicious alternative to some of the more authentic recipes offered in other cookbooks. By...
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
style over substance
This is the last time I buy a cookbook without cracking it open first. It was a real disappointment. This book is for beginners only. The dishes are easy, but not necessarily tasty or authentic. One recipe has fish sauce as its only seasoning, and I could figure that out myself. I found 2 recipes that used canned tuna - yuck!
This review is from: Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes (Paperback)
I love cookbooks and cooking. When my husband and I decided to get on an Asian kick, we chose this book because it eases you into Thai cooking. With no outrageous ingredients, octopus or black squid ink, this cookbook offers the lover of this type of cuisine an easy and very delicious alternative to some of the more authentic recipes offered in other cookbooks. By authentic I mean the strange ingredients. The Chiang Mai Curry Noodles is excellent and depeding on which curry you try, panaeng or red curry, can be hot and spicy, delicious. The Paht Thai Noodles were made in our household two nights in a row they were so good. The chicken coconut soup is a very refreshing dish and the Green Curry Chicken with Zucchini and Jasmine Rice was something even my three year old enjoyed.
In the beginning there is a small investment to be made in ingredients the average American does not have in their pantry. There is a fish sauce,(which is used in practically every asian recipe and in this book), soy sauce, and sri rachaa which is an Asian hot sauce and various curries and a couple other spices. But, once this book hits your life they will be as common and familiar to you as ketchup or mustard. Excellent pictures for those, like myself, who love pictures. If you are considering this book, go ahead without further reservation.
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This review is from: Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes (Paperback)
I'm a college student who grew up in a family where the most elaborate meal we had was chili dogs, so needless to say I didn't pick up a lot of culinary skills. At first I was worried that the recipes would be too complicated or exotic for me, but my boyfriend and I love asian cuisine so we thought we'd give it a shot. I'm so glad I bought this cookbook! It really lives up to its name - every thing is quick, easy, and delicious! The curries are wonderful and simple to make, and there's even detailed instructions on how to make rice (again, great for the cooking-impaired like myself!) The ingredients are generally inexpensive and easy to find (even at my dumpy little grocery store.) I would definately recommend this cookbook to anyone who is unfamiliar with asian cooking or new to cooking in general. Wonderful book!
Edit: I have to edit my review and say that we recently made the Chiang Mai noodles (the dish featured on the cover) and it was SO wondeful and easy. My boyfriend has been begging me to make it again all week. Another hit from this book!
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This review is from: Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes (Paperback)
With my wife's recent interest in Thailand and a pending trip to boot, I picked up Quick & Easy Thai. I still figure one of the best ways to understand a different culture is through a full belly. Quick & Easy Thai has one of my most important prerequisites for a good cookbook...great pictures. Although I have only made a handful of dishes, the pictures which adorn the pages of this well constructed book beg to have me make more.
The recipes are easy to understand and comprised of ingredients that you should not have to travel off of the beaten path to find. The author gives the reader a good primer on Thai cooking and delves into some of the specialized ingredients and tools that a beginner might need.
A lot of Thai cooking can be quiet spicy. Fine by me...not so fine by the misses...on a few recipes, I have had to back down the heat. Even with different palates...the end result was still fabulous. I looked at a number of different books before settling on Quick& Easy Thai. So far, this appears to be one of the best.
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This review is from: Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes (Paperback)
I buy alot of cook books and many have great sounding recipes but are either very complex, call for exotic ingredients, or just don't deliver the flavour.
Well this book is one that delivers on all counts. The recipes are easy to follow and taste just like the real thing. (after spending alot of time in Thailand its great to be able to recreate the tastes). Every recipe I've tried has been a total success. About the only error is the Spicy cashew salad with chillies, cilantro and lime. The recipe is suspiciously missing the cilantro however a little imagination can quickly correct that.
Nancie McDermott also captures the spirit of fun with the recipes and makes cooking them a pleasure, which is so important for Thai food.
Another great feature of this book is the appendix which advises of the basics you need to re-create Thai food. The list is not huge (nor probably exhaustive), but a great delight is that with this list of basics you can make nearly all the recipes. I took the book and the basics to the remote seaside recently and was thrilled that all we needed to purchase was fish/prawns/chicken/greens etc and then just pick a recipe!
I love this book so much it sits out all the time for quick reference and is recommended to friends. I currently only recommend two books to friends this and Asian Tapas !Asian Tapas: Small Bites, Big Flavors.
Overall a total delight of a cookbook, fun to read, fun to cook with and a total pleasure to eat from
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This review is from: Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes (Paperback)
Quick and Easy Thai is my first sustained foray into Thai cooking, and I couldn't be more pleased. The recipes are easy and delicious! My husband and I eat a lot of Thai food, and now we can make it ourselves thanks to this book. The author is especially good at encouraging readers to try recipes even without some of the more hard-to-find ingredients. Well done!
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This review is from: Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes (Paperback)
I purchased this book in order to make the shrimp curry with pineapple which my wife loves. Although I'm sure it's not the most authentic Thai book out there, the recipes are simple and easy to make and taste enough like the real thing for me. So far we've made the above curry, Spicy Basil Stir-Fry, grilled flank steak with Crying Tiger sauce as well as a few of the noodle dishes. All were great and very quick. An added plus; most of the dishes are quite healthy or can be with a few quick changes. I use light coconut sauce to help lower the calorie content. The recipes are really quick too - once you've chopped the food the cooking times are very short. The book has many great pictures too.
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This review is from: Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes (Paperback)
This is the last time I buy a cookbook without cracking it open first. It was a real disappointment. This book is for beginners only. The dishes are easy, but not necessarily tasty or authentic. One recipe has fish sauce as its only seasoning, and I could figure that out myself. I found 2 recipes that used canned tuna - yuck!
There is a distinct lack of quality control as well. I tried to make one of the curries but the recipe called for so much liquid, it would have been soup if I didn't modify it drastically. The book is designed awkwardly so it won't stay open by itself, a real pain when you are cooking. I only gave 2 stars because the pictures are lovely.
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This review is from: Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes (Paperback)
This is a fabulous cookbook, unlike most ethnic cookbooks I've tried. The best thing about it is that the dishes are made with ingredients you can actually find in your local grocery store (and I don't mean the local gourmet grocery store!). The recipes are easy to put together and turn out tasting great.
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This review is from: Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes (Paperback)
I bought this book because I don't have alot of time to cook dinner. I also happen to like Thai food. I had no idea I would use it as much as I do. Almost everything can be cooked in one wok or pan. Most of the recipes can be made within a half hour. Best of all, it has really opened my mind to using ingredients I have not been accustomed to using, such as fish sauce and chile paste. Although I had to order some of the ingredients, they keep for a long time and the recipes in this book use them so often that there is no wasting money by buying an ingredient I will only use in one or two dishes. I use this cookbook at least twice per week for dinner. Very highly recommended.
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This review is from: Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes (Paperback)
This book has all my favorite Thai food recipes. Easy to follow and not too many hard to find ingerdients. Love the photos too. I shopped on www.importfoods.com to get some of the ready made curry pastes and they taste great in these recipes. It's a wonderful first/only Thai cookbook. It may take a while before I feel I need another one.
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