Bittman - How to cook everything fast: a better way to cook great food

How to Cook Everything

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

How to Cook Everything The Basics

VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00

The VB6 Cookbook

Food Matters

The Food Matters Cookbook

The Best Recipes in the World

Fish: The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking

Leafy Greens

Mark Bittmans Kitchen Express

Mark Bittmans Quick and Easy Recipes from The New York Times

The Mini Minimalist

Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef

Simple to Spectacular

Copyright 2014 by Double B Publishing, Inc.

Design by MGMT. design

Illustrations copyright 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Illustrations by Olivia de Salve Villedieu.

All rights reserved.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

www.hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-0-470-93630-6 (cloth); ISBN 978-0-544-33340-6 (ebk)

v1.1014

To my fabulous women-children, Kate and Emma, who have always been there for me.

INTRODUCTION

Cooking is an essential human activity. It can relax us after long, stressful days, bring us closer to our families, and put a lifetime of nourishment and endless eating possibilities right at our fingertips. Then why do we avoid it? Many of us claim we just dont have time to cook, and given the abundance of restaurants and food companies jockeying to feed us, that has become a perfectly acceptable position.

In the last 50 years, the way we feed ourselves has changed, and with reason. More women are in the workforce than ever before; kids rush between activities and sports and often arrive home as late as their parents. Even people without children have less time to spend planning, shopping, and cooking, as we work more hours than we used to.

Yet as eaters weve become more sophisticated; we understand and experience and appreciate flavors that were once foreign, and we care more than ever about the quality of the ingredients we buy. We know what eating well is but often dont have the time to do it, so we settle for eating fast.

Over the years, Ive found easy ways to put real meals on the table. Life may have become more complicated, but cooking can become simpler.

The fact is that you do have time to cook: You just need better recipes. Imagine a road map that captures the rhythm of the kitchen, where preparation and cooking happen seamlessly. Soup begins to simmer while you prepare more vegetables for the pot; oil shimmers in a skillet as you chop an onion; broiled meat rests while rice steams. This is naturally fast cooking, the kind experienced cooks do intuitively.

Fast cooking involves strategy, not compromise. Here I take seemingly complicated dishes like wonton soup and spanakopita and reduce them to their essentials, taking them apart and reconstructing them with all the flavors and textures you love about the originals. Smart, easy techniques, like cutting meat into smaller pieces for lightning-quick braises and harnessing the power of the broiler, give you all the pleasure of eating homemade meals with minimal work andperhaps more importanttime.

The result is delicious food prepared from real ingredientsand quickly. There are plenty of shortcuts here, and for the most part they dont compromise flavor or texture. (When they do, theyre worth it.) As a practical purist, I open cans and boxes like everyone else, provided whats inside is nutritious and minimally processed. (See for a checklist of what qualifies as convenience food in this book; if youre already a How to Cook Everything fan, there wont be any surprises.)

In short, How to Cook Everything Fast is both a series of strategies and a collection of all-new recipes that do the thinking for you. Whether youre a beginner hoping to learn how to weave homemade meals into your regular routine or an experienced cook looking to become more efficient, I can help you get where you want to be, while giving you all the time you need.

Fast doesnt mean frantic. In fact, if you use your head, fast cooking can be pleasurable. As with many skills, learning to be efficient, comfortable, and confident in the kitchen comes with practice. Here the lessons are built into the recipes, so you can just dive in, and, without realizing it, youll hone your skills and become naturally more efficient whenever you cook.

The process of getting a home-cooked meal on the table involves four tasks: shopping, preparation, cooking, and cleaning up. Common wisdom would have you complete these steps linearly, finishing one before beginning the next. Shop. Unpack the groceries. Wash, trim, chop, slice, dice. Stand at the stove. Serve. Eat. Tackle the dishes.