Ainsley Harriott's Gourmet Express

by Ainsley Harriott

Book Overview

Charismatic cook Ainsley Harriott shows how to make delicious, healthy food in a flash. Choose the option of great tasting, homemade, and healthy meals presented by Ainsley Harriott, popular British... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0789474999
• ISBN13: 9780789474995
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley)
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.0" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Gourmet Fast Food

Ainsley Harriott is one of Britain's most loved chefs and his playful, friendly style is loved by all. He becomes completely absorbed in his cooking and his love of food is very contagious. In Ainsley Harriott's Gourmet Express, you will enjoy the tastiest of fast foods. There are six chapters to show how fast food can be made at any time of the day. The "Snack Attack" chapter includes delicious Celtic Samosas, a Hot Crispy Cajun Chicken Sandwich and even a recipe on how to make Nori-rolled Sushi. After learning to do the "pan swivel" from his show, in which you swirl items around in the pan while looking most confident :)...I thought I would try some of Ainsley Harriott's recipes. That one technique where he swirls the food around in the pan has been very helpful for me when I make my turkey meatball recipe. It helps to brown all the sides of the meatballs evenly. Who would have known. Well, I tried the "Parisian Mustard Sausage Rolls" which were just smashing. Now, I did have to use Crescent roll dough, which did work quite well and I used breakfast pork sausage links. We served the rolls with eggs and orange juice for breakfast. I find that when cooking from a cookbook by a chef, you can adapt the recipes slightly to your own taste. I left out the Dijon mustard and they were still very good. While this recipe was in the "Snack Attack" chapter, they work very well to add a gourmet flair to a breakfast plate. I will also keep this recipe in mind for a brunch. I am looking forward to making Butternut Squash Spiced Soup, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Lightning Lamb Dhansak (great picture!), Baconeese, Citrus Couscous, Golden Raisin Salad and Banana Raita. Each recipe has a nice bold heading and the text is easy to read. There is a headnote from Ainsley to add a pleasant personal touch. "You know what it's like: home late from work and you'd love a delicious supper, well...a touch of French pistou blended with some al dente Italian pasta and you have the perfect answer....." pg. 95, Premier Pistou-Pasta The colors in this book are delightfully refreshing and almost tranquil. If you are a cookbook collector, you will enjoy reading the headnotes at the beginning of each recipe and the "Try This" or "Chef's Tips" info at the end of some recipes. Chef Ainsley gives advice on how to adapt a recipe, why you shouldn't make a recipe with fresh herbs too far ahead of time, how to make use of frozen foods like rice or how to completely change a recipe by substituting various ingredients. So, if you are looking for tasty sandwiches, hot snacks, delicious soups, mouthwatering curries, mini-pizzas and pastas you can make in a hurry, you will enjoy some great fast food at home. If you love this book, look for Ainsley Harriott's Meals in Minutesand Ainsley Harriott's Barbecue Bible. ~The Rebecca Review

Delicious Food, Great Recipes

So far, I have only tried three of the recipes but I intend to try a lot more. I love how the recipes are written in Ainsley's voice. It reminds me so much of the Ainsley Harriott show and how he would talk.The recipes are very delicious, although one of the recipes I tried took longer to cook than indicated. The Baconese potatoes were a big hit. If there was one thing wrong with the book it is that the conversions are a little off. Where most cookbooks would say 1/4 cup of ingredient, Ainsley says 3oz. of ingredient for the American conversions. Also the book is a little inconsistent in that sometimes the British units are in parentheses and sometime the American units are in parentheses.My overall rating is great recipes but you need to do a little math to do the conversions in you head.