Organize your kitchen for efficiency. Everything needs a proper place so
you can find it without searching.
• Put your everyday, most-used tools in the drawer closest to your work surface.
• Have your pantry essentials in the front of your cabinet.
• Keep a pinch bowl of sea salt on the counter along with a pepper mill.
• Move the tools you rarely use out of the way; they can go in a drawer across
the room.
• Make sure your spices are visible and within easy reach.
• Organize your pots and pans. A couple of sauté pans, a soup pot, a small pot,
and an eco-friendly nonstick are what you need to have front and center.
• Keep your knives sharp. When a knife is dull, you end up sawing through
food. A sharp knife will cut your food in one stroke.
• Before you cook, clear the decks: Take everything you don’t need off the
counter.
• Read the recipe before you start cooking. Get a sense of the transitions
involved from the preparation to the cooking and serving of the dish. A good
understanding of a recipe allows you to improvise and stay several steps ahead
to avoid any surprises.
• Consider preparing ingredients that need to be cleaned and chopped ahead of
time; it’s best to do it right when you bring them home from the market. Have all
the ingredients for your dish out and ready to go. This will speed up your
cooking time.
• Create a freezer inventory so you can have stocks, sauces, toasted nuts, and
cooked dishes on hand in easy-to-use portion sizes. Label all of your containers
with the date, contents, and quantity. When you’re freezing food, always leave ½
to 1 inch of space at the top of the container to allow for expansion.
Have the following on hand in the refrigerator: salad dressing, cooked grains, chopped vegetables, and cooked protein. Consider using the weekend to prepare these for the week. • Create a recipe repertoire. Learn a few dishes well by cooking them over and over until you feel thoroughly familiar with them. You will be able to transfer what you learn to making other dishes. • Pay attention to heat. If you cook in a pan that is too cold, your food will take longer to cook, lose moisture, and may not taste right. If your pan is too hot, you will burn your food. • Clean as you go. Keep your work surface clear, and wash dishes and utensils as soon as you’re done with them.
I’ve heard many people say they would be happy to have meals of nothing but appetizers and dessert. Really good starters may outshine main courses, although their intended functions are simply to wake up the senses, stimulate appetite, and create expectations of more substantial dishes to come. Starters should not be too filling, and, above all, they should be interesting. The recipes in this section follow these guidelines. They are diverse, easy, and fun to make and serve.
Having the right tools for the job makes cooking quick and enjoyable. The following are my go-to kitchen tools. BLENDER: Blenders are convenient for making beverages, smoothies, and purees, but you may not need one if you have a food processor and a handheld immersion blender. The Vitamix is a versatile, high-performance blender that does much more than most, but it is quite expensive. CITRUS JUICER: A sturdy manual juicer for lemons and limes is a kitchen necessity. Look for stainless-steel or coated-aluminum models. Norpro, Oxo, and Amco are good brands. CITRUS ZESTER: You can remove the zest from oranges, lemons, and limes with a Microplane grater, or look for zesters made by Zyliss, Oxo, and Amco. COOKWARE: Pots and pans generally come in six varieties: saucepans, sauté pans, stockpots, roasting pans, grill pans, and frying pans. Heavy-bottomed pots and pans are essential. I suggest stainless-steel 18/10 gauge with an aluminum core sealed between two layers of stainless steel; it conducts heat well and is suitable for all stovetops. By category: • SAUCEPANS: There are usually five sizes, from 1-quart to 5½-quart. • SAUTÉ PANS: Come in 8-, 10-, and 12-inch diameters. Slope-sided pans are easier to use. • STOCKPOTS: 12-quart and up. • GRILL PAN: One standard size. They’re most effective on a gas stove (food may take longer to cook on electric stoves). Grill pans should be rubbed with oil before using. Ceramic-coated nonstick cookware is a great innovation, making Teflon-coated pans obsolete. The best brand I have found is Scanpan CTX, made in Denmark and available in many models online. I use them all the time. Not only do they give excellent results, they are a snap to clean.
Have the following on hand in the refrigerator: salad dressing, cooked grains, chopped vegetables, and cooked protein. Consider using the weekend to prepare these for the week. • Create a recipe repertoire. Learn a few dishes well by cooking them over and over until you feel thoroughly familiar with them. You will be able to transfer what you learn to making other dishes. • Pay attention to heat. If you cook in a pan that is too cold, your food will take longer to cook, lose moisture, and may not taste right. If your pan is too hot, you will burn your food. • Clean as you go. Keep your work surface clear, and wash dishes and utensils as soon as you’re done with them.
I’ve heard many people say they would be happy to have meals of nothing but appetizers and dessert. Really good starters may outshine main courses, although their intended functions are simply to wake up the senses, stimulate appetite, and create expectations of more substantial dishes to come. Starters should not be too filling, and, above all, they should be interesting. The recipes in this section follow these guidelines. They are diverse, easy, and fun to make and serve.
KITCHEN SUPPLIES
Having the right tools for the job makes cooking quick and enjoyable. The following are my go-to kitchen tools. BLENDER: Blenders are convenient for making beverages, smoothies, and purees, but you may not need one if you have a food processor and a handheld immersion blender. The Vitamix is a versatile, high-performance blender that does much more than most, but it is quite expensive. CITRUS JUICER: A sturdy manual juicer for lemons and limes is a kitchen necessity. Look for stainless-steel or coated-aluminum models. Norpro, Oxo, and Amco are good brands. CITRUS ZESTER: You can remove the zest from oranges, lemons, and limes with a Microplane grater, or look for zesters made by Zyliss, Oxo, and Amco. COOKWARE: Pots and pans generally come in six varieties: saucepans, sauté pans, stockpots, roasting pans, grill pans, and frying pans. Heavy-bottomed pots and pans are essential. I suggest stainless-steel 18/10 gauge with an aluminum core sealed between two layers of stainless steel; it conducts heat well and is suitable for all stovetops. By category: • SAUCEPANS: There are usually five sizes, from 1-quart to 5½-quart. • SAUTÉ PANS: Come in 8-, 10-, and 12-inch diameters. Slope-sided pans are easier to use. • STOCKPOTS: 12-quart and up. • GRILL PAN: One standard size. They’re most effective on a gas stove (food may take longer to cook on electric stoves). Grill pans should be rubbed with oil before using. Ceramic-coated nonstick cookware is a great innovation, making Teflon-coated pans obsolete. The best brand I have found is Scanpan CTX, made in Denmark and available in many models online. I use them all the time. Not only do they give excellent results, they are a snap to clean.
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