Table of Contents
For Spencer and Kurt, the little guys.
Foreword
I have been in the restaurant business all my life, and I constantly describe food and cooking procedures to employees and guests. I thought I was good, but with Tod Dimmicks entertaining and practical new book, you cant go wrong!
Tod takes you through food and recipes as if he was there in your kitchen, through real-life analogies answering all your questions before you even ask them. Most recipe books assume one knows what a teaspoon is or how to make a marinade (or knowing what a marinade is!). This book never makes these assumptions. Key elements are listed that are vital in any kitchen, from prep time to equipment. In everyday language, with entertaining humor that makes you want to read on, Tod presents recipes in a manner that will make anyone (even the guy who has trouble pouring a bowl of cereal) feel confident cooking a meal. He writes in such a way that you are learning without even trying.
Tod shows us how to make a meal in real lifeusing what is in our cabinet. He shows us, at the same time, how to save time and money with ingredients and methods. The variation tips he adds to many of his recipes make each meal interesting and delicious. The food for date night chapter is fun and ingenious, while the food and wine chapter is a nice overview for buying great wine at reasonable prices and matching them with your masterpiece. Tod even includes a mini suggested wine list at the end, for those of you who dont really want to figure wine out but want to enjoy wine just the same.
Although this book is written for the guy who doesnt feel comfortable in a kitchen, who doesnt like to clean, or who doesnt like to do a lot of planning, this book will also appeal to anyone (yes, women, even some of you!) who knows how to cook, but would like to take the monotony out of the menu with new, appetizing, and easy dishes.
How many guys thought cookbooks talk a different language that makes cooking complicated and time-consuming? How many of us never really tried to understand food and cooking techniques because we thought we had to go to cooking school to make a great meal? How many of us have friends who like to keep their cooking secrets to themselvesknowing darn well the only secret is that cooking can be simple, quick, and easy if you know the basics, a few rules of thumb, and some tricks?
If I have just described youlet me proudly present The Complete Idiots Guide to Cookingfor Guys. With Tod Dimmicks new book in your kitchen, people will be asking you where you learned your secrets.
Daniel Mastrangelo
Restaurateur
New York City
New York City restaurateur Daniel Mastrangelo has been the founder and/or general manager of several well-known restaurants, including The Steakhouse at the Monkey Bar, Sorriso Ristorante, Finch Tavern (Stanley Tuccis restaurant in Westchester, New York), Coco Pazzo 74th Street, and Le Madri.
Introduction
Guys have a reputation for being food-challenged, not in eatingwe do that finebut in cooking. As a guy who used to avoid the kitchen like the plague, I know.
For a variety of reasons, though, many guys find themselves driving the stove. To find out just how many, I went out on the road. Wherever I went, whether a worksite or a firehouse, I found men more than willing to talk turkey. Its funny that guys today have a reputation for not being cooks, I thought, as I scribbled down recipe after recipe from a carpenter who is as passionate about food as he is about finish work. That reputation is also ironic when you consider that the history of fine food is filled with great chefs who also happen to be guys.
I verified some things you already know. Guys hate kitchen cleanup (priority number one from everyone). We want great flavor, but were not interested in spending all day or a lot of money. When were in mixed company, guys like to do it right: We want to make a meal with class, but still one that doesnt take a long time to prepare.
These ground rules shape everything in this book, from ingredients to cooking methods to directions.
I cover a few other ground rules later, but you get the idea. My hope is to show that cooking for guys, even the most certifiable Ive-never-been-in-a-kitchen-in-my-life guy, is not only possibleits fun.
Each chapter in this book has two general types of recipes. The first are those recipes, generally called fast, that make good use of basic building block foods, such as canned meats and vegetables. These recipes often use only 4 or 5 ingredients and often enable you to have dinner ready in 15 minutes or less. Think of skillet-cooked meats, savory pasta dishes, and seafood.
The second are recipes, also fast by any standard, that are just a bit more homemade in look and feel. These might take 20 minutes of your time. Some, such as slow cooker recipes, benefit from time gently cooking while you watch the game or engage in some other productive activity. In this corner, we have dishes like meat loaf, homemade pasta sauce, casseroles, and more.
Is it possible to cook and have fun at the same time? Of course! Thats the whole point.
How This Book Is Organized
The recipes in this book cover just about every type of dish you can imagine, from appetizers to desserts and from pasta to chicken wings. They are organized, however, by themes, such as type of cooking (stove top), or type of occasion (date night). Methods are all early in the book, so that once youve tried a few similar recipes, you might start to get comfortable enough with them to start experimenting (like roasting beef instead of chicken).
But be careful! Do that too many times, and someone is going to call you a cook.
Throughout, youll find tips and suggestions to make cooking a meal more of a pleasure than a pain. My not-so-secret mission is to show that once youre comfortable with the basic methods (stove top, broiler, oven, etc.), youll then feel like you have a license to grill, so to speak. Then the fun really starts.
We divided the book into four parts:
Part 1, Starting Line Basics, covers cooking basics from a guys perspective, from explanation of equipment (power tools and hand tools) to ingredients and methods. We start with a favorite guy topicthe secret sauce (every guy seems to has one.) Youll find recipes for favorite dishes from meat loaf to pork chops. Finally, well hold our own pasta sauce competition. (Question: Can a guy live on pasta alone?)
Part 2, Method and Madness, explores a range of recipes within general cooking methods, such as using the grill, stove top, oven, and more. To keep you healthy, theres a chapter on vegetables, and to keep you happy, theres a chapter on desserts that even a guy can make.
Part 3, Survival Rations, keeps a guy alive during the week. We look at quick, tasty weeknight meals and at big leftover-oriented batches that will pay dividends later in the form of instant meals with zero cleanup. Well play with our food in the chapter on kid-friendly fare and polish things a bit with food the ladies will love (then regress with food the ladies will hate). And how could this part be complete without serving up a helping of nachos and other south-of-the-border-inspired foods?
Part 4, Big Games and Big Themes,
