Let's Read....about Food and Cooking!

After every great meal, it is nice to relax for a while, grab a good book, read and learn something new and interesting.
My favorite books to read are cookbooks or books related to food, preparing food, ingredients, nutrition….
Even my kids started to pick books from library which have a content related to food and cooking….how suprising is that?
Well why not, there is a lot of educational material envolved, great graphics and even better stories.
Currently I am glued to The Elements of Cooking by Michael Ruhlman.

This book is a great tool. There is a lot of information that I am familiar with but still a lot of interesting stuff which are brilliant to know if you are serious about cooking.
Anthony Bourdain wrote the introduction, as always very nicely.
There are several elements:

Stock: Ruhlman gets pretty serious about stocks, how to make them, how to ruin them, and while you don’t really need to make your own, it’s still a good idea to try.

Sauce: Yes, we can make them too. This is where stocks come in very handy, and how to get the most out of the techniques.

Salt: Why it’s important, and despite the constant railings of those who wish to ban it (along with that other necessity in the kitchen, fat), how to learn how to use it.

The Egg: I love eggs, both as ingredient and tool. Ruhlman shows here how the egg can leaven food and make it rise, bind things together, and work wonders. He also includes a nifty little set of instructions on how to prepare eggs in the most basic ways, from boiling to poaching to scrambling.

Heat: Dry heat, moist heat, and poaching, along with a few other refinements. Once you start learning how to manipulate heat, and learn how to do it, you can pretty much learn to cook anything.

Tools: Ruhlman maintains that you really only need five tools — a chef’s knife, a large cutting board, a large sauté pan, a wooden spoon, and a large nonreactive bowl. Well I have to add few more, I appreciate kitchen tools:)

I love story time with my kids. It doesn’t have to be before bed time, it is important to read and whatever time of the day we pick, it’s a perfect time for interesting books and stories.

Alvie Eats Soup by Ross Collins is the book which catch my eye. It is educational but still very funny and interesting.

Drawings are great and the whole idea for the cover is super cute. It is about picky eaters…I don’t really want to write about what’s inside the book….when you visit your local library try to find it, you will like it:)

About these ads