Starting with Ingredients

by Aliza Green

Book Overview

Each chapter focuses on a single ingredient. The accompanying recipes in Chef Aliza Green's culinary tour de force demonstrate the broad range of possibilities for each ingredient, utilizing a variety... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0762427477
• ISBN13: 9780762427475
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Running Press Book Publishers
• Length: 1056 Pages
• Weight: 5.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.9" x 8.3" x 10.2"

Customer Reviews

A really BIG book.

I love this book . I never realized that the recipes I was always searching for were based on what I felt like eating. What is so great about this format is it takes me directly to the recipe that I am in the mood for. I had been baking banana bread last year and never found a recipe to suit my taste. The banana bread I made from this book was outstanding and easy. This is a great book also when you have the food and decide against the reipe you had chosen. Just a really great concept.

Excellent armchair cookbook. Buy It.

`Starting With Ingredients, Quintessential Recipes for the Way We Really Cook' by Philadelphia chef and cookbook writer, Aliza Green is an imposing tome which promises much, and generally delivers on it's promise, even if it lets us down just a bit on expectations now and then. The book has ONE BIG IDEA that sets it apart from almost all other general purpose cookbooks. All recipes are in 100 chapters which represent one (or two, or a family of) principle ingredient. Examples of single major ingredients are Beef, Chestnuts, and Butter. Examples of two ingredient chapters are Calamari & Octopus, Carrots & Parsnips, and Bananas & Plantains. Examples of `family' recipes are Mushrooms, Cheese, and Greens. One special chapter entitled `X-tras: Basic and Useful Information for the Cook' covers the usual pantry preparations such as stocks and basic pastry recipes. All this means that the author is realizing the promise of her title with no compromises. The virtue of this organization comes home as I recall Tom Colecchio's great dictum that one does not decide what one wants to cook before we look at what we have on hand. Ingredients, not dishes, always come first. With that established, lets look at the recipes we get for that most important ingredient, eggs. Opening this chapter, we see another excellent aspect of this book. Each chapter begins with a table of contents for all the recipes and sidebars appearing under this ingredient. Here we encounter the second great strength of this book. Each chapter includes a great wealth of information on dealing with the ingredient. In the egg chapter, for example, I see (or at least take notice of) for the first time the instruction on how to freeze egg yolks by first stabilizing them with either sugar or salt, depending on whether you are more likely to use them for a savory or sweet recipe down the road. All the other sidebar tips are familiar to me, but I always value any book if it can tell me at least one thing I didn't know before (and not lead me astray in any way). After my initial pleasure, I'm just a bit surprised that for eggs in this chapter, there are scant seven recipes, covering: A souffle (Broccoli with aged Gouda) An egg tart (Milanese with spinach and peppers) Buttermilk Pastry Dough Huevos Rancheros Spanish Potato and Chorizo Tortilla Baked Eggs (`Dad's Venetian') Baked Eggs (Florentine) Out of seven recipes, I'm surprised that one, the pastry dough, is much more about buttermilk than it is about eggs, and that in the remaining six, there is no recipe for an omelet, basic scrambled eggs, fried eggs, or poached eggs! And, even on the `sort of' traditional dishes such as the version of the Tortilla Espagnola, the author does not use the most traditional (and easiest) recipe. As I look through other chapters, I see the same pattern repeated over and over again. Many especially good tips and information, and an assortment of good `example' recipes, but not what you would consider `pa

A Must-Have for Any Epicure

This is probably one of the best cookbooks I've ever owned. It is detailed, thorough (over 1,000 pages!), and inspiring. I purchased it originally because, as the tagline suggests, this really is the way we cook (at least I do). Plus, though it's relatively gourmet at times, it's amazingly convenient for those of us who don't have a big shopping budget or a lot of food at home. Other recipe books call for so many different items that I don't have, but this book allows me to take stock of what I do have in my kitchen and go from there; and in this sense, the recipes are pretty practical. Not only have I learned new recipes, I've also learned many things about each ingredient: the way an ingredient interacts with other ingredients, the varieties of each ingredient and how to choose from them, storage tips, what to expect when cooking that ingredient in any number of ways, and so much more. My only complaint (which is small) is that it lacks a section on herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme, etc.). I still have plenty of questions about the different varieties, storage requirements, etc. It's definitely a cookbook to have for a lifetime and pass down the generations. So what are you still reading this review for? Buy it now, you won't regret it!

A New Classic Cookbook

Starting with Ingredients by Aliza Green is an achievement of massive proportions. Another reviewer compared this book with The Joy of Cooking, and I believe the comparison has some merit. However, this book is no Joy wannabe but rather an eloquently written cookbook with a unique style of its own.From a commentary on onions and civilization to a remembrance of her great grandmother's Sabbath Challah bread, Ms Green makes even the humble cabbage come alive. Organizing by ingredient makes it easy for the reader to investigate uses for the thing we have too much of, such as tomatoes in August, but this is more than a collection of recipes. It is in the beginning of each chapter/ingredient that Ms. Green shows her true expertise. I had not heard of this author before, but she certainly has her bona fides in the food world. Yet this book is not a fancy restaurant celebrity chef book. It is solidly grounded in the senibilities of the home kitchen. Though this book has no slick color photographs the author's words alone make me want to make the food. At 1035 pages not counting the index, this book is going to take years to learn well. For that reason it has a place next to the Joy, Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything,and perhaps Jean Anderson's New Doubleday Cookbook. It will then be in appropriate company.

Starting with Ingredients by Aliza Green

This is a chef's treasure chest. Each food is listed with an accompanying recipe. For instance, almonds, quince, spinach and amaretto filling are depicted with various recipes illustrating dishes in the preferred mode. A splendid amaretto filling may be prepared with fine liquor, sour cream and amaretto extract. The recipe also explains how to pick fine fruit; such as , apples. The preferred apple picked will be shiny, smooth and colorful. Overall, the work provides valuable information for the cook in your home.