Author: Martín Berasategui
- Non-Fiction
- Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial España
- ISBN: 9788403512733
- Release Date: 06-05-2012
-Reviewed by: Michael M Neal
This recipe book introduces us to a simple and popular family cooking of fresh ingredients affordable to anyone. They are flawless recipes that, the author says, come out great, time after time.
This book emphasizes not only in quality fresh ingredients but also in accessible ingredients to every one as seen in the soup, vegetable, and bean recipes.
The recipes are meant for 4 persons, and one should add proportionally the quantity of ingredients when cooking for more people.
The recipes use few ingredients, resulting in fast cooking and an easy-to-read recipe book. Berasategui shows how to make healthy and appetizing dishes to everyone's taste without spending hours in the kitchen. Most of the ingredients are accessible and affordable to almost everyone, making these recipes even more attractive.
The dishes, while easy to make, look more sophisticated than they are, and that’s what makes a good cuisine.
The recipes can be perfectly adapted to the cuisines of other countries. White fish can be substituted for other fish and meat for other types of meat.
Olive oil is the choice of oil used in the dishes, but other types of oils can be used as well as butter if the recipe requires it. Everything depends on the taste of the person.
Every recipe has a tip to enhance the flavour. There are also the Presentation and Finishing Touches, very useful to make the final product more attractive before serving.
First dishes: Here we find recipes for soups, vegetables, salads, pastas, etc. This section has many dishes for cooked vegetables and beans. It also has various pasta recipes that are very easy and, above all, affordable. The soups and creams are also very easy to make with few ingredients.
All the recipes come with pictures that show the recipe step-by-step, which is very important for those whom are not familiar with cooking and want to start.
Second dishes: This section contains recipes of the main course: meat, fish poultry, and seafood. Like in the first dishes, the author offers last minute tricks to enhance the presentation of the dish, and adds a small finishing touch.
This book is about the traditional Spanish cooking but there are some recipes inspired in international flavours like the Asian cuisine. In some dishes the recipes contain ingredients uncommon in American cooking such as cow or veal tongue, boar or rabbit. These last two meats can be substituted for pork or chicken without risking the recipe's original taste.
Fish: In Spain there is a variety of white fish, like gilt-head bream, hake, sea bream, etc. which are not very common in United States. Nonetheless, the recipes are completely adaptable using a different type of white fish like cod fish, sea bass, snapper, grouper, etc.
This is the case for seafood as well; the author's recipes are 100% adaptable.
The desserts consist of a base of fresh fruit with very healthy and light ingredients. Berasategui uses little sugar and cream, which makes the desserts easily digestible and of few calories.
If you look closely, the portions presented are small compared to American portions. This is a general complaint made recently by American chefs.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
This is a perfect book for adults and young adults that want to start cooking.
This is a recipe book adaptable to any cuisine in the world with ingredients known throughout the world.
It is well written and easy to follow up the recipe step by step.
You couldn’t ask for more in a cook book.
