Home on the Range

New Cookbook Provides
More Than Just Recipes

     By Seared Lightly

     "Things Cooks Love" is a delightful answer for every cook's need, be you a beginner or a seasoning veteran.  It includes comprehensive 
advice on origin and use of kitchenware, recipes from the full array of ethnic cuisines and photography that will pulse your palate.  Author Marie Simmons puts a rich background of culinary experience into a tome that deserves a prominent place in any cook's domain.  

It offers 125 recipes from Asian, Mexican, French, Indian, Iberian and Moroccan cuisines and guides one through all their essential tools.  Simmons has an unassailable roster of credentials to accomplish this ambitious task.  Three decades ago she wrote 365 Ways to Cook Pasta, which has more than 500,000 copies in print and went on from there to pen 17 more cookbooks, write a monthly column for Bon Appetit magazine and has earned the prestigious James Beard and Julia Child awards.  

Simmons relates that she personally researched the wealth of material and techniques described in her book..."It became a career in itself, but feel the effort was well worth the result," she opines in an unassuming manner that bespeaks her teaching ability, honed in years of teaching cooking classes.  Her guidance within Things Cooks Love includes acceptable alternatives if you haven't the ideal tool at hand for a given recipe and how to care for any implement, such as the
classic cast iron skillet.  Marie has a pair of ideal and tasteful recipes for this all-American pioneer tool...Corn Bread with smoked Mozzarella & Sun-dried Tomatoes and Stilton cheese-stuffed Burgers with caramelized Onions and Balsamic Vinegar.
                                                                                                                                   
She shows you how to whip up a delicious Portugese standby..Clam, Pork, Sausage and Bacon Stew and if you don't own the traditional Iberian Cataplana, a Dutch oven with cover will do just fine and viewing the mouth-moisturing photo of the finished dish is more than enough
inspiration.  Son't have a stovetop smoker?  A large heavy pot with tight fitting lid, line with foil and using a wire rack will enable you to achieve Smoked Shrimp wrapped with Prosciutto...just be sure you have an overhead exhaust fan above your stove.

A thorough guide to culinary success

You'll be hard put to find any culinary topic Simmons doesn't include.  Knives get a thorough dissertation, She deems as essential appliances beyond stove & refrigerator are a juicer, food processor, coffee grinder, rice cooker, mixer and waffle iron.  Now, if searching for additional items such as a Panini grill, Wok , Tortilla press, Grater, Mortar & Pestle, Pasta machine, Sieve, Mandoline, Meat pounder, Chef's torch, Melon baller, Mezzaluna, Salad spinner, Salt & Pepper mill, Skimmer, Scale, Thermometer and more, all covered by the author, it becomes clear why Sur La Table retail store chain is the sponsor of this noble gastronomic project.  

Starting with the 1972 opening of a cookware shop above Seattle's historic Pike Place Market, Sur le Table has expanded to 68 locations in 23 states and the District of Columbia.  This culinary mecca offers every type of kitchen tool imaginable, plus a cooking class program and an on site catalog at surletable.com.  Things Cooks Love is the opening salvo in n intended library of cookbooks, with The Art & Soul of Baking and Knives Cooks Love scheduled for release this coming fall.  

However, if you acquire Simmons' 342-page treatise, you may not need to enrich your library any further, because Marie, a native New Yorker now living in California, has done a very complete job of covering the culinary basics from A to Z, from Asia, North America, Europe and
Africa..  Publisher is Andrews McMeel.   
                         
© 2008 Oregon Magazine