Editors of Munchies - Munchies Guide to Dinner: How to Feed Yourself and Your Friends [a Cookbook]

Copyright 2019 by VICE Food, LLC

Photographs copyright 2019 by Heami Lee

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the publisher.

Hardcover ISBN9780399580123

Ebook ISBN9780399580130

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I n the time MUNCHIES has been around, weve gotten to work with all kinds of chefs, making food that ranges from lowbrow to highbrow and everywhere in between. Add to that the fact that almost all of us have spent serious time in kitchens ourselves and have super-high expectations of what food should be, what you get is a team of people who are pretty damn good at parsing pro-level skills and techniques into very tasty home-cookfriendly food.

This book is a culmination of all those skills: in short, this is how we cook when were at home. Most of the time, because were people with jobs and lives, were putting together quick dinners that keep us fed and happy. But we really love food and love feeding people and dont think theres a better way to enjoy the company of others than around a giant table of food. So, to that end, welcome to the MUNCHIES Guide to Dinner , our effort to turn the way we like to cook and eat into a collection of recipes. Easy ones for busy weeknights, and fancy ones for the occasional weekend dinner parties with friends.

Weve divided the recipes in here into four sections: Homemade Staples, Essentials, Weeknight Meals, and Weekend Entertaining.

Homemade Staples is where we offer primers on all the things that add so much character to your meals if you make them yourself: recipes like homemade mayo and salad dressings, chicken stock, tomato sauce, and fresh pasta from scratch for the days youre feeling ambitious. Do you have to make them at home? No. Will they kick ass if you do? Yes.

Essentials are the techniques and dishes we think everyone should knowthe ones that maybe your parents would have taught you if you lived inside a Norman Rockwell painting, where you dont really want to admit, Uh, shit, I cant believe I dont know how to do this: the roast chickens, the mashed potatoes, the pots of plain rice. With these basics, you can build all the elements and flavors you need to keep yourself fed and happy. They might not all be the quickest and easiestalthough some are, for surebut theyre exactly what youll want to have in your arsenal when a mac-and-cheese emergency comes along.

Weeknight Meals are exactly what they sound like: theyre what you fix yourself after a long day at work or school. They dont generally require a lot of complicated shopping or prep, and for the most part, theyll get you dinner on the table in under an hour. There are also a couple of recipes in that section (the Chicken Pot Pie on , for example) that work perfectly if you make them on a weekend and freeze your leftovers in batches. Then youll have a very easy pop-it-in-the-oven-and-crack-a-beer-while-you-wait situation when you get home on a Tuesday evening.

Weekend Entertaining is loosely organized theme nights for when you want to invite your friends over and go all out. Theyre intended as inspiration; no ones saying Pimento Cheese Quesadillas and Cacio e Pepe Popcorn are mandatory for a Netflix binge-watching party (see )but no ones saying theyre not, either. Treat these as loose suggestions, or shoot a couple of recipes over to each of your friends and make it a potluck.

We really want you to treat everything in here as a suggestion. We have thoughts and opinions about what goes with what, and how best to use leftovers, but fundamentally, the point of this book is to give you the knowledge base and skill set you need to be comfortable improvising on your own. Were hoping this book gives you the tools and skills you need to make yourself (and your friends and loved ones) many, many dinners that live up to your deservedly high expectations.

What Youll Need to Have on Hand The recommended pantry for MUNCHIES Guide to Dinner probably isnt all that different from what you already have at home. Youll want some staples: flour, unsalted butter, white and brown sugar, eggs, kosher salt, oils (olive oil and something heat-friendly like canola or grapeseed) and black pepper (whole peppercorns in a pepper grinder, please). Buy spices from the sort of store that has frequent turnover, in small quantities, and keep them somewhere cool and dark (like not right on top of the stove). If your oils are ancient, theyre probably not good anymorea handy test is that if the oil smells like a basement, odds are its rancid and you should toss it (pour it into the garbage, not down the drain) and get new oil.Most dishes here can be made with ingredients from your average urban supermarket. If a recipe calls for specific things, like semolina flour or toban djan, that you cant find locally, you can always find them either onlineat everyones favorite large conglomerate or a smaller purveyoror at a specialty shop (and we promise we call for fancy shit only when its absolutely necessary).A couple of quick notes about grocery shopping: it takes a little practice, but with time its not hard to shop like a pro.Buy only as much as you think you need or will finish before it goes bad. And with that in mind, dont be afraid of the idea of precut or prepackaged produce. Are you shopping just for yourself? Odds are youre not going to be able to finish a whole eight-pound watermelon. Buy the quartered section thats wrapped in plastic wrap, and youll end up not throwing away as much of your money in the form of food waste. (If youre morally opposed to single-use plastics, then youd better really love watermelon.) Same with things like onions. If youre shopping for just yourself, a single onion (as opposed to the five-pound bag) might make more sense for you, and the price difference per unit is negligible.If your local grocery store uses water misters to keep the produce looking shiny and fresh, try to pick the pieces that are farther back on the shelf or on the bottom of the pile where the water doesnt reach. Wet produce, especially if its not stored properly, will rot much faster. Also, the older produce is moved to the top of the pile when the store restocks the shelves, so the freshest stuff is on the bottom anyway.And please dont be afraid of the butcher or fishmonger. Sure, we live in an age where we dont have to take a ticket, get in line, and wait to be called by a big burly butcher in a bloodstained apron to order our preferred cuts of beef by weight. Most of the proteins we buy are sold in limited-weight packages on plastic-wrapped Styrofoam trays, so we can pick them up without ever having to speak to another human if we dont want to. But you should still get to know the person behind the counter! Even in a big chain grocery store, they can be super-helpful if you dont know the difference between a hanger and a skirt steak, or what the hell to do with chicken necks. And if you go to an actual butcher or fishmonger, the difference in the quality of both product and service youll get is night and day, so its kind of a no-brainer.Next page