I haven’t read Susie Middleton’s Fast, Fresh & Green
Until pretty recently, the most interesting cookbooks that emerged from publishing houses involved what might be called “weekend” or “special occasion” meals: they had you scrambling for rarefied ingredients and, quite often, spending hours constructing a single dish.
As a way to learn to cook, it was lots of fun, but also ad hoc and time-devouring. What about people who want to gain kitchen chops, but aren’t willing to spend most of their free time frying each ingredient individually for a classic Mexican mole, fixing a broken béarnaise, or tackling the vast pile of dirty pots and pans that such projects create? What about people who just want to put a nice dinner on the table after working all day Tuesday, with ingredients they picked up at the farmers market Saturday?
Hello! Has someone been reading the intros to my books? Because that’s what I’m all about. I’m also about improvisation. What does Middleton have to say about that?
In contrast to the exacting doyennes under whose cookbook tutelage I labored under in the ‘90s — I’m thinking of you Marcella Hazen, Diana Kennedy, and Paula Wolfert, my heroes — Middleton’s voice is gentle, encouraging, and geared to making cooks feel empowered to improvise.
And she does it entirely with vegetables. Which, admittedly, I’ve been in a bit of a rut with. I keep mixing up the main dish, but the veggies are always the same few things. Maybe with a whole book full of every-day veggie ideas, I can work on that.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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Vegetables… now here’s something I think we all need to work on! Talk about a rut… they always seem to be an “after thought” — once I’ve finally figured out what I want for the main course…
For me, it’s the decision making on exactly what my menu is going to be each day… So while we’re working on vegetable recipes here, can we plan a whole “simple” meal around them?
That’s the word I was looking for, they’re an afterthought. “What are we having for dinner?” Pork chops. “With what?” Oh, ummm … I’ll think of something.
Sound familiar?
My problem du jour is that I have fickle pregnancy tastes, and can be averse to veggies (among other foods) like *that*. Although I try to be adventurous with vegetables, I am finding my palette of them severely restricted!
Sounds like exactly the kind of book I like — who among us is NOT about technique? Good find.
I think part of the problem is that everything is always available. When things were seasonal, we had to work harder to come up with another way to prepare broccoli for the Fifth. Freaking. Time. This. Week.
Good thought! And yeah… I do fall back a lot on ol’ broccoli and carrots.
Will be back to see what you make from the book! So glad publishers are finally starting to get it! (Isn’t that why we luv blogs so much? It’s what people are really eating!!!) Enjoy reading ur blog!
Looking forward to seeing what you think of this book. My problem is that my family likes so few vegetables that I get in a rut with them too. I, however could eat any variety of veggies and stay happy all the day long.
Hoping this book can help!
On Improvising: I am so glad to hear that it’s ok to improvise. I rarely complete a recipe exactly as written. There is always a subsitition or omission. And yes, sometimes, ok often, I end up with weird food.
interesting cookbook – sounds right up my alley. I have found a few good veggie recipes in the Joy of Cooking that I keep going back to (Braised Cabbage with Carrots is one of my favorites). Just discovered your blog (recommended by a friend). Going to keep it on my daily refresh list.
My technique for cook vegetable is to use very good quality spice like Kampot pepper , coriander, mint… etc
So delicious.