Caroline Wright - Twenty-Dollar, Twenty-Minute Meals*: *For Four People

WORKMAN PUBLISHING NEW YORK

I feel very thankful to spend my days cooking. No two days are ever alike, and they most often end at the dinner table with someone I love sharing my work. Recipes have the ability to affect a cooks life in a very real way, by turning strangers into teacherswriting recipes has certainly done that for me.

To my friends Tyler Gierber and Christiane Angeli, who believed in this project from early on and helped shape my thoughts on design and language: Thank you.

I raise a glass of local brew in thanks to the Brooklyn Kitchen for giving me a space to play and teach these recipes to eager cooks.

I am very lucky and thankful indeed to know Kylie Foxx McDonald, the editor of this book, who found a kernel of an idea in some pages Id written and made it better than I could have ever imagined. I owe this book to you.

To my agent, Angela Miller, thank you for being my guide and for bringing such wonderful people into my life.

Thanks to my parents for giving me my first real camera and for perceiving messes in the kitchen (and every other room in their home) as a little kids creativity.

To Jeff, Teddy, Gillian, Dan, Tyler, Claire, Neil, and Alli, who have eaten everything in this bookthanks for bringing the wine.

For Henry, who lets me use his nursery as a makeshift photo studio, thanks for arriving in our lives right on time. I cant wait to cook for you.

To my loving husband, Garth, a man of a few favorite meals that I never have the chance to cook: Thanks for everything.

I lived in New York CityBrooklyn, mostlyfor six years. My closest friends lived as near as the upstairs apartment in our brownstone building and only as far away as a few subway stops. Most weekends, ours was the apartment that collected all the overworked and underpaid twentysomethings who needed a good meal, though our crew of struggling actors was among the most frequent diners. I am a cook by training, profession, and nature, so I cooked for them. These friendshungry, creative, and new to the kitchenhelped give me the confidence that the fresh and simple way I liked to create meals when alone after a long day was the way they wanted to cook, too. It is for them, and the meals we shared (more memorable than the bad movies or bottles of wine in the background), that I wrote these recipes: real food, cooked quickly and inexpensively.

Like all the meals I try to prepare, whether Im alone or not, these recipes use simple cooking techniques, fresh produce, and ready ingredients that dont sacrifice flavor or healthfulness for time. These recipes are written to serve four people and accommodate a variety of appetites. My driving philosophy is one that is common among many of the busy cooks I know: the willingness to look at dinner differently. On some nights, dinner consists of a heaping plate of meat and vegetables, while on others its just a simple pured soup and a piece of crusty bread. For me, deciding what to bring to the dinner table isnt only about what is in my refrigerator; its informed by the weather outside, what I ate that day, if I went to the gym, and if my hands are tired already. Sometimes dinner is eaten while perched on my kitchen counter before running out to a movie. Other times its paired with dinner guests and a simple dessert that exchanges the small amount of extra time and cost, like the sweet (and quick!) recipes included here, for exponential returns in making a memorable meal. These recipes were written for all aspects of the busy life of someone who likes to eat well.

Pulling together a good, simple meal at the end of the day takes a little bit of practice and freedom to play, two skills that I encourage you to hone throughout this book. Variables such as how fast you wield a knife or how organized you are as you cook will affect the overall preparation time, especially the first time you give a dish a try. Stick with it. Also, some of the ingredients may be new to youbut I think its part of the fun to learn to adapt a recipe to your taste, or to try out a new favorite ingredient. I hope youll use these recipes as a guide to figuring out how you like to cook, whether by incorporating these dishes into your repertoire or by discovering elements in them that intrigue you.

I continue to learn from the pages of cookbooks, and I strongly believe in the dialogue that exists between cooks who exchange tips out of the pure love of food. I hope youll consider this the beginning of our conversation.

An Extra Two Cents Worth

Here are a few tips for making the most of this book:

• Get organized. Read the recipes through and gather ingredients. These recipes are written to introduce the ingredients as you need them (all ingredientsexcept water, salt, and pepperare highlighted), but shuffling back and forth to the refrigerator or cupboard will add to your prep time. Instead, I urge you to assemble your ingredients and tools before you start. While youre getting organized (or better yet, right when you get home), make that extra time work for you: Preheat the oven or grill, or put the pasta water on to boil.
• Consider seasonal swaps. When debating what to make for dinner, take a good look at whats available at the market: Choose a recipe that features in-season produce, as it will be cheaperand tastierthan out-of-season. If you have trouble finding some of the ingredients called for, try the alternatives in the margins or the variations at the bottom of the page.
• Dont stress. Most of the time, swaps can also be made when specific oils, vinegars, butters, pasta shapes, and even types of beans are mentioned. Here are a few suggestions in case you find yourself staring at a sparse pantry:

• Oils I like to use mild vegetable oil, such as canola, for cooking over high heat or in dishes that have big flavors that would otherwise become muddied with a more assertive oil. However, olive oil can be used in place of almost all the oils in this book (just save the extra-virgin stuff for salads and other dishes where it wont be heatedit doesnt do well at high temperatures).
• Vinegars have distinct personalities, but most often red or white wine vinegar can be used in place of anything else mentioned.
• Butter Salted or unsalted butter can be used interchangeably, though occasionally Ill specify one or the other. If given the luxury of choice, I prefer salted for savory dishes and unsalted for desserts.
• Pasta As a very general rule, I like long pastas for thick sauces, and reserve shorter pastas for light sauces thinned with pasta water. But dont let a pastas shape stand in the way of your dinner: Most shaped pastas that are longer than 1 inch can be used in place of long pastas.
• Beans As for beans, I choose them mostly based on texture. If you cant find the bean thats called for, pick a substitute with a similar color and/or size.
• Chiles A number of these recipes call for fresh hot chiles. I generally use a moderately spicy pepper, like jalapeo, serrano, or Fresno. If you dont have fresh peppers on hand, substitute to teaspoon hot red pepper flakes for each chile listed.