1001 Four-Ingredient Recipes

by Gregg R. Gillespie

Book Overview

In cooking these days, the trend is toward easy--and nothing could be easier than these fabulous recipes, both everyday and fancy, each made with a maximum of four ingredients plus some simple pantry items. From Hungarian-style Baked Chicken to Savory Spinach Casserole to Almond Custard Tarts, the 1001 dishes in this user-friendly volume provide tasty menus for lunches, dinners, cocktail parties, picnics, potlucks and more. It's the busy cook's dream-come-true...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1579122078
• ISBN13: 9781579122072
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 3.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.6" x 10.5"

Customer Reviews

A lifesaver

My boyfriend usually does all the cooking and I must confess I'm a little lost on what to eat when he isn't around. If, like me, you can't be bothered to cook and are quite incompetent at doing so, but are sick of toast or cheese and crackers, then this book is excellent. If, like me, you've looked for recipes and have been frustrated to find that most of them have long lists of ingredients with complicated instructions, then this is the book you need. It has both basic and original recipes. For instance, it tells you how to make a basic white sauce, but it also has nifty recipes like bacon and cream cheese roll-ups. I think even a competent cook could gain a lot from this if they want to just make something simple once in a while, as this will have plenty of simple ideas they probably hadn't thought of.

For those who absolutely must have a recipe

This is a niche market cookbook excellent for those just learning to cook and for those who compulsively must have a recipe. Thus one gets such complex recipes as "Parsley Leaf Potatoes" (roast russet potatoes and top with flat leaf parsley) and "Parsley Potatoes" (steam new potatoes and top with snipped parsley) ... Well it does get the author to his 1001 recipes more quickly. One also gets recipes that you must be a kid to appreciate - fish sticks wrapped in crescent dinner rolls.But once one gets past some of the absurdities, the cookbook provides some very good introductions to basic home cooking flavors and mixtures: corn with bell peppers, fresh green peas with garlic, curried green beans, cucumbers in sour cream. It's strength, however, is that it moves beyond the standard pantry:dandelion greens, eggplant parmigiana, bamboo shoots with chili sauce, shallots, steamed taro with swiss chard.The recipes never exceed 4 ingredients plus pantry items. The instructions require only minimal cooking experience. Occasionally the recipe includes variations but the normal pattern is for variations to be separate recipes.The recipes are printed 3 to a page - a random sample pair of pages gives an idea of the breadth of the material: on the left "Pressed Lamb Loaf with Herbs", "Prosciutto with Pasta Sauce", "Quick Lamb Fricassee"; on the right "Quick Ham and Pineapple" "Red Flannel Hash" and "Rice and Cheese with Frankfurters". The odd juxtapositions provide entertainment when one scans for a recipe.Even an experienced cook will find some interesting recipes, but the real value of this cookbook is for those just learning what might go with what.