The Nimble Cook: New Strategies for Great Meals That Make the Most of Your Ingredients by Ronna Welsh

  • Poached garlic, garlic broth, poached garlic puree, and poached garlic skins (page 20)

    from The Nimble Cook: New Strategies for Great Meals That Make the Most of Your Ingredients The Nimble Cook by Ronna Welsh

    • Categories: Stocks; Cooking ahead; Vegan; Vegetarian
    • Ingredients: garlic; store-cupboard ingredients
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Notes about this book

  • tarae1204 on April 14, 2021

    I’ve long admired this book for featuring new ideas for common ingredients, emphasizing versatility, leftovers, preservation, and waste reduction — and all with a certain elegance and appeal. The book doesn’t have photographs but I don’t feel it lacks as the titles of dishes are very evocative, and everything is really simple. At the same time, months passed and I found myself not making anything from the book. Why? Always missing a certain ingredient, or finding that you needed a sub recipe. Cookbooks like this one hold great promise but can be little worlds unto themselves where you have to “develop your larder” with all the delicious pickles and sauces the author features ahead of time. Well, finally, I made my first recipe from this book last night. Popcorn quinoa. Just the plain “how I prepare quinoa” recipe. Toast the quinoa, remove. Long sauté finely chopped onion, turn off stove. Combine quinoa, onion and hot water and simmer, then steam. Best quinoa ever!!! Yes!!!

Notes about Recipes in this book

  • Roasted cauliflower with maple currants and cumin vinaigrette

    • tarae1204 on December 10, 2021

      Quite good! You are left with extra cumin seed vinaigrette and maple currants, which should be seen as a bonus as they’d go with anything.

  • Summer squash with olives and ground pork

    • tarae1204 on June 21, 2022

      A good warm-weather preparation for ground pork, and another winning recipe from this cookbook. While there were two sub-recipes (one for brine, then one for lightly brined summer squash), it is possible to make these in quick sequential order. I thought it was odd that the recipe didn't call for adding any salt to the ground pork (only garlic), so I added a scant teaspoon and was glad I did. However, the brined squash and olives do provide salt and might've been enough. I also used four tablespoons of jarred kalamata olive salad instead of the chopped individual green olives -- and this added a nice note of color.

  • Watermelon lemonade

    • drew03 on August 26, 2023

      This is so so delightful. Make sure to serve with ice! Grating works or I just blend and strain the melon to get the juice. Then I freeze the strained pulp into cubes for my dog to enjoy on hot summer days :)

    • drew03 on August 26, 2023

      This is so so delightful. Make sure to serve with ice! Grating works or I just blend and strain the melon to get the juice. Then I freeze the strained pulp into cubes for my dog to enjoy on hot summer days :)

  • Potato and sunchoke soup

    • tarae1204 on December 26, 2022

      A very simple recipe that yields delicious results. I was amazed at the richness of flavor, with only potato broth.

  • Spring turnips with anchovy dressing and walnuts

    • mjes on September 03, 2021

      If you have access to Japanese turnips you can use them year around. They stay small and sweet. The combination of anchovy dressing and ras el hanout gives them a Mediterrean flavor. An excellent raw veggie snack or board ingredient.

  • Seared tuna with anchovy butter and oregano

    • tarae1204 on March 03, 2022

      This recipe relies on two sub recipes: a basic seared fish steak and a pan sauce built on a promising anchovy butter. The anchovy butter tastes amazing on its own but the recipe didn’t yield much sauce, and it didn’t stand up to the strong flavor of the tuna. I’d double the sauce if I make it again.

  • White-wine braised duck legs

    • bching on February 05, 2022

      Elegant and easy preparation, well-written recipe. I will make this often, including some of the variations. Another bonus: you can freeze and reheat.

  • Popcorn quinoa

    • tarae1204 on December 10, 2021

      Toast the quinoa, remove. Long sauté finely chopped onion, turn off stove. Combine quinoa, onion and hot water and simmer, then steam. Best quinoa ever!!! Yes!!!

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  • ISBN 10 0544935500
  • ISBN 13 9780544935501
  • Published Apr 16 2019
  • Format Hardcover
  • Page Count 400
  • Language English
  • Countries United States
  • Publisher Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Publishers Text

For more than two decades, Ronna Welsh has been empowering home cooks and chefs with radically simple strategies for cooking creatively and efficiently. In this sweeping masterwork with 400 recipes, she shows how to make varied, impromptu, economical, and delicious meals by coaxing the most flavor from common ingredients.
 
The Nimble Cook teaches optimal prep methods, like the perfect way to dry and store greens—forget the salad spinner—for a salad made in seconds to pair with a vinaigrette composed of refrigerator door condiments. It provides hundreds of “starting point” recipes to transform basic dishes into luxurious ones, like an onion jam for burgers; a cheese stock for decadent risotto; or a mix of salt and whirred bay leaves that takes roasted shrimp or fish from ordinary to extraordinary. Welsh teaches nimble cooks irresistible uses for parts that otherwise go to waste, whether cucumber peels in kimchi or apple cores in a sweet-and-sour syrup for a bourbon cocktail. Graceful illustrations throughout provide further inspiration, making this book an essential addition to any creative cook's kitchen.