Cook As You Are: Recipes for Real Life, Hungry Cooks, and Messy Kitchens

Tandoh, Ruby

ISBN 10: 0593321545 ISBN 13: 9780593321546

Verlag: Knopf Publishing Group, 2022

Inhaltsangabe

ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and Bon Appetit • A cookbook for the real world: a beautifully illustrated, inclusive, and inspiring collection of delectable and doable recipes for home cooks of all kinds that shows you don't have to be an aspiring chef to make great food—or for cooking to be a delight. Just cook as you are.

"Not simply a recipe book, but a warm invitation to relax into and enjoy the experience of cooking and eating. Ruby Tandoh offers understanding, encouragement and completely glorious food.” —NIGELLA LAWSON, author of Cook, Eat, Repeat

From last-minute inspiration for feeding an entire family to satisfying meals for just one person, easy one-pot dinners to no-chop recipes, in these pages Ruby Tandoh shares a feast of homey, globally inspired dishes, such as:

•Carrot, Lemon and Tahini Soup
•Smoky Chicken, Okra and Chorizo Casserole
•Gnocchi with Harissa Butter and Broccoli
•Lightning-Quick Asparagus and Chili Linguine
•Tofu and Greens with Hot and Sour Chili Sauce
•Rosemary Baby Buns
•Lemon Mochi Squares

A no-nonsense collection of more than 100 accessible, affordable, achievable—and, most importantly, delicious—recipes (plus countless variations), Cook As You Are is an essential resource for every taste, every kitchen, and every body.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

RUBY TANDOH is an author and journalist who has written for The New Yorker, The Guardian, Vittles and Elle. A finalist on The Great British Bake Off in 2013, she has written Eat Up!, a book about the pleasure of eating, as well as three cookery books, Crumb, Flavour, and Cook As You Are.

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Pearl couscous with anchovies, tomatoes and olives
This is just like a traditional puttanesca but with bouncy pearl couscous in place of the usual pasta. I love the chewiness of pearl couscous and how it releases starch into the sauce, creating something between pasta and risotto in its carby creaminess. Pearl couscous is also sold as giant or Israeli couscous. You can get it from lots of Middle Eastern stores and most larger supermarkets. Don’t be tempted to swap it for regular couscous, or the dish will end up thick and oatmeal-like. There are better alternatives listed below.

The toppings here—crunchy breadcrumbs and bright parsley—are optional, but I think they provide a welcome textural and flavor contrast to the salty, silky pearl couscous underneath.

Serves: 4

Ready in: less than 30 minutes

2–2? cups (300–400g) pearl couscous
4 cups (1 liter) water, freshly boiled
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, crushed or finely grated
6–8 anchovy fillets (from 1 small can)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
14 ounces (400g) cherry tomatoes, halved
½ cup (60g) black olives, pitted (Kalamata olives are particularly good)
3 tablespoons (25g) capers
½–1 teaspoon chili flakes, to taste

To finish:
1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ cup (20g) dried breadcrumbs or fresh breadcrumbs from 1 slice of white bread
Handful of parsley leaves (roughly ½ ounce/10–15g), roughly chopped

If you’re planning on topping the dish with breadcrumbs, it’s best to get these out of the way first. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small frying pan over a medium-low heat and add the breadcrumbs. Toast them for a few minutes, stirring very often, until they’re golden brown and crispy, then tip them into a small bowl and leave to cool.

Pour the pearl couscous into a large mixing bowl and cover with the freshly boiled water. Give it a good stir, then cover with a large plate and leave to sit for 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, set a medium saucepan over a medium-low heat, and add the olive oil, garlic and anchovy fillets. Sauté gently for a couple of minutes, stirring all the time, until the garlic is cooked and the anchovies have dissolved into the fragrant oil. Add the tomato paste and sauté for 30 seconds more, then add the cherry tomatoes, olives, capers and chili flakes. Cook the mixture over a medium heat for 6–8 minutes, or until the tomatoes are collapsed and pulpy.

By now, the couscous should be ready: the grains should have the slightest bite in the middle, but be almost cooked through. Drain it and stir to break up any lumps, then add to the tomato sauce. Mix to combine, then simmer for 2–3 minutes more so that the grains finish cooking and absorb some of the flavor. Once the couscous is springy—neither chewy nor mushily soft—it’s done. The sauce should generously engulf the couscous, creating a risotto-like consistency. Serve straightaway, sprinkled with the toasted breadcrumbs and chopped parsley, if using.

Variations and substitutions:
As I mentioned above, the traditional accompaniment for this sauce is pasta. Just cook your pasta—roughly 4 ounces (100g) per person—according to the instructions on the package and mix with the sauce before serving. Orzo—a pasta shape that looks like little grains of rice (although confusingly it means “barley” in Italian)—is also an option: soak 1? –1¾ cups (300–400g) orzo in plenty of freshly boiled water for 8–10 minutes, until it’s cooked but al dente, then proceed with the recipe.

If you don’t like olives or capers, you can leave these out, though I really love the tangy pop of caper in the midst of what is quite a rich, flavorful sauce. You can make this dish vegan by leaving out the anchovies, but it’ll have a completely different energy. Make sure you add a pinch of salt if you do so.

A can of chopped tomatoes is a good swap for the fresh cherry tomatoes if you struggle with chopping things; just leave out the tomato paste if you make this change. You could also swap the cherry tomatoes for diced larger tomatoes if that’s what you have.

Coconut, plantain and spinach curry with toasted cashews
This is the first of a few plantain recipes in this book, testament to the versatility of this wonderful fruit. You’ll find it in the eden rice with black beans and plantain (page 58), spiced and fried as kelewele (page 238), sugared and wrapped in spring roll pastry (turon, page 312) and shaped into crunchy, savory fritters (green plantain, coconut and chili rösti, page 169). Writer and photographer Yvonne Maxwell discussed the magic of plantain in the online food magazine Vittles. “Its skin is perfectly blemished and, at its finest, darkened with black lines,” she wrote. “Even bruised, its beauty shines through and sweetness prevails.” It has a place in the hearts—and bellies—of people from so many different culinary cultures.

In this recipe, medium-ripe plantain provides bulk to a creamy coconut curry, loosely similar to South Indian kache kele ki sabzi. You should use yellow plantain, which are sweet enough to complement the creamy coconut sauce, but firm enough to hold their shape as they simmer. This won’t be the last time I say this in this book, but I need to be very clear: banana isn’t a good substitute for plantain here. Its flavor is stronger, and it will collapse into mush when cooked.

Serves: 4

Ready in: less than 1 hour

1 cup (100g) unsalted cashews
1? cups (400ml) water, freshly boiled
2 tablespoons coconut or vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
5 tablespoons (75g) tomato paste
1½–inch (4cm) piece of ginger, peeled and grated
4 garlic cloves, crushed or finely grated
1½ teaspoons black or brown mustard seeds
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon cumin
½–1 teaspoon chili powder, to taste
½ teaspoon turmeric
1 x 14 ounce (400ml) can coconut milk, full-fat or “light”
2 yellow plantain
7 ounces (200g) fresh or frozen whole leaf spinach
1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice (from roughly ½ lemon or 1 lime)
Salt, to taste

Serve with: steamed rice

Special equipment: stick blender, food processor or blender (check the variations and substitutions below if you don’t have one)

Start by soaking ¾ cup (75g) cashews in 1? cups (400ml) freshly boiled water. Leave to sit for 10 minutes or so, then blitz the cashews and water together using a blender or food processor.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add the diced onion and sauté for 10–12 minutes, stirring often, until it begins to lightly brown in parts. Add the tomato paste, ginger and garlic and sauté for a couple more minutes, stirring, then add the mustard seeds, garam masala, cumin, chili powder and turmeric and cook for 30 seconds or so, until fragrant. Stir in the coconut milk and blitzed cashew mixture, making sure you scrape the brown bits (known as the fond) off the bottom of the pan from when you fried the onions—this sticky stuff adds a lot of flavor.

Bring the sauce to a simmer, then turn down the heat and cook gently for 10 minutes. While it simmers, peel the plantain (cut off each end, slit the skin lengthways and peel it all around—not down—the fruit) and cut into ½–¾ inch (1.5–2cm) slices.

Add the sliced plantain and spinach to the curry. Simmer for a further 15 minutes, stirring often and adding a little extra water if the sauce catches or browns on the bottom of the pan. It’s ready when the spinach has collapsed and the...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Knopf Publishing Group
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593321545
• ISBN 13: 9780593321546
• Einband: Flexibler Einband
• Anzahl der Seiten: 344
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Knopf; https://knopfdoubleday.com; ; 3 Queen Caroline Street Hammersmith; London; W6 9PE; Vereinigtes Königreich
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland