(Part 3) Top products from r/recipes

What exactly do you mean by 'healthy?'

Is it about calorie reduction or getting more nutrients? Or both?

A very simple, tasty one is roasted cauliflower. Cauliflower really benefits from browning. Preferably roasting. Just wash and dry it (thoroughly), cut into equally sized pieces, whether it be bite size or "steaks," toss in olive oil, salt & pepper (and garlic if you want), spread evenly on a roasting pan, but don't crowd it too much, and roast in the oven on the middle rack or higher at about 425-450F until brown... even nearly black in a few places. It's so simple and delicious.

It makes a great soup too, just blend it with either veg or chicken stock and either some fresh parsley or thyme.

Another veg that does well with char is broccoli. Steam, blanch (heavily salt your blanching or steaming liquid) or microwave (if you must) the cut broccoli stalks until about half done, drain and dry. Toss in olive oil, salt, minced garlic and chili flakes and grill on very high heat or broil until slightly charred. You won't believe how good it is.

Some great books for veg dishes are:

Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

Tender by Nigel Slater (this one has a great chocolate beet cake)

The Art Of Simple Food II by Alice Waters (So many simple, classic veg preparations in this one.)

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Regarding Mac & Cheese, here is page from Modernist Cuisine at Home:

http://i.imgur.com/E4dd4lQ.jpg

It involves using Sodium Citrate. Calm down! Don't be afraid. It's a type of salt derived from citrus fruits. If you like to cook with cheese this stuff will be your best friend. The only issue is you don't need very much of it, so you will need an accurate scale that can handle very small weights, but they're not that expensive and it'll pay for itself quickly in the amount you'll likely save in cheese costs, because.....

What it does is it helps emulsify the fats and solids of cheese when it melts and it can be used with just about every type of cheese that can melt, so that means you can use it to emulsify multiple types of cheeses at the same time. Why this matters for you? If you're trying to reduce calories you can mix your favorite cheeses with some lower calorie cheeses (like drained cottage cheese) and still end up with a really creamy sauce without having to add cream or butter. This stuff doesn't make Pasta & Cheese "healthy" but it does help you reduce the caloric value of a cheese dish without sacrificing texture... in fact it improves it.

Check it out: http://youtu.be/gOLgLi5ZJOY

Hooray! I love cookbooks!

• Forest Feast is great for those veggies & entertaining
  
  
• A subscription to Cook's Illustrated
  
  
• A solid cookbook - Smitten Kitchen
  
  
• Anything by Yotam Ottolenghi but I particularly LOVE Plenty.
  
  
• The god of pastry Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery
  
  
• David Chang's momofuku, his pastry chef Christina Tosi's milk bar,or a subscription to his magazine Lucky Peach
  
  I don't know if they're into making ice cream, but it's really easy and fun:
  Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, The Perfect Scoop, and Ample Hills are all great.

I realize this is probably on the borderline of allowable in this sub but I guess I'll post it and see if people are okay with it. So with that said, I'm looking for books full of unusual uses of certain ingredients, unexpected flavor combinations and outside the box ideas. Basically, books that contain a lot of 'secret ingredients' I would never think of on my own but which take recipes to the next level?

I think my idea of exciting and new will be different from a lot of the hardcore foodies' here, but a few examples of recipes that have really struck me with their creativity:

Black pudding + sherry poultry stuffing, gingersnap biscuits for paté, apple juice in pea+ham soup, 'bloody Mary' beef, sauerkraut + pastrami mac+cheese.

A few of my favorite books for this sort of thing have been: Hog, Anna Mae's Mac and Cheese and also basically anything by Heston Blumenthal, though his recipes are far too advanced for me (and tend to require niche equipment).

Anyone?

Egg salad, pudding, mashed potatoes, oatmeal, grits, cream of wheat, canned fruit, cottage cheese, yogurt, scrambled eggs, tuna, canned salmon. Raw meat can be ground extra fine at most butchers too.

You might also consider adding ensure to his meals to help him get extra calories and vitamins he has been lacking in. (Ensure is a liquid supplement available at most grocery stores.)

This cookbook would be helpful, it is recipes specifically about soft foods for the elderly. http://www.amazon.com/Easy---Swallow--Chew-Cookbook-Nutritious/dp/0471200743/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419340664&sr=8-1&keywords=Easy-to-Swallow%2C+Easy-to-Chew+Cookbook%3A

In "The Alice B. Tolklas Cookbook," she has a recipe cooked on an asbestos slab. There is also a foonote explaining what sesame is.

"A Thousand Years Over A Hot Stove" does a great job of illustrating recipes and updating them for the modern kitchen, so issues of temperature and amounts are corrected.

Nice find!

My favorite cookbook for beginners is Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food, which has really delicious recipes for making basic things from scratch; she walks you through a lot of basic techniques and tips for learning how to cook, not just following a recipe.

This is my favorite Cajun cookbook. I'm from south Louisiana and I highly recommend it.

I've actually never had an appetizer with gumbo, so I'm not really of any use there. For me, a cup of gumbo is either the appetizer or a stand alone entree. Plus any appetizer recommendation I would think give you would be fried haha. (Fried catfish, crab cakes) Although, you could do spinach and artichoke dip - although I'm not entirely sure that's Cajun.

Don't forget the filé for your gumbo!

You can buy the Kindle version from Amazon for about $15. If you've got time to wait for a physical book to arrive, don't order this version: http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Set/dp/0307593525/ref=la_B000AQ0XXS_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417219641&sr=1-1

because the book and the print are small and it is impossible to keep the book open.

I suggest this version:http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Anniversary/dp/0375413405/ref=la_B000AQ0XXS_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417219641&sr=1-2

which is much larger and easier to read. In fact, the 'look inside this book' feature at Amazon lets you see most of the cassoulet recipe.
Just click 'look inside' then search for cassoulet.

They still do. Midas Touch is an ancient ale, available all year long. Sadly, they've not done any of their OTHER ancient ales in a while. If OP is interested, he should read Uncorking the Past, great read on how ancient brewing began. He also has another book coming out soon, Ancient Brews Rediscovered and re-created

There's an outstanding, funny book, Trader Vic's Rum Cookery and Drinkery, that unfortunately is out of print.

More recently, rum is being used in Nuevo Latino (Florida-Caribbean) cuisine in marinades and sauces. Here's a general purpose marinade for meats and seafood, for grilling or frying. The vanilla sounds weird, but it's a flavor intensifier, and just as with baking, it's almost transparent. Meats should be marinated for 4 hours, poultry for 2, seafoods for 45 minutes.

Rum Marinade

1/2 cup rum
juice and zest of 1 lime
2 Tb olive oil
2 Tb Worcestershire
2 Tb molasses
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 green onions, thinly sliced and then minced
1.5 Tb fresh thyme, chopped (or 1/2 tsp dry)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
pinch of allspice, to taste
Tabasco to taste

Whisk all together.

Thanks for the reply. It is different. I think it's called "gratin dauphinois" in the International Cookbook. Has Gruyere cheese in it. It's this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crockers-International-Cookbook-Crocker/dp/0394504534/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482345510&sr=1-1&keywords=betty+crocker+international+cookbook

If you really want to get into this, look for a wonderful book called Square Meals by Jane and Michael Stern. Here are 2 of my favorites from the book, both are way more delicious than they sound:

Five Cup Salad

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup mandarin oranges, drained

1 cup crushed pineapple, drained

1 cup sour cream

1 cup miniature marshmallows (white only)

Combine all ingredients.

=====

Eight Can Casserole

2 5-ounce cans boned chicken

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

1 8-ounce can of mushrooms, drained

1 5-ounce can chow mein noodles

1 13-ounce can evaporated milk

1 can fried onion rings

Preheat oven to 350. In a 3-quart casserole, mix everything except onion rings. Bake 20 minutes. Sprinkle on onion rings. Bake 15 minutes longer.

Well you could add to their cooking knowledge by getting them a book about real mexican cuisine:

Truly Mexican


Tacos, Tortas y Tamales.


The Art of Mexican Cooking

You might be interested in this cookbook.

He has a fairly popular recipe blog here, but I'm not sure if the book's recipes (specifically the meal planning) are online.

Leek and potato soup. Rice pilaf. Veggie chili. Seriously, there's a whole world of possibilities. I recommend getting How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and going to town.

A few British classics Delia's Complete Cookery Course, Mary Berry Cooks and Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible.

All about Braising, and All about Roasting by Molly Stevens are my most used books. Changed my life.

http://www.amazon.com/All-About-Braising-Uncomplicated-Cooking/dp/0393052303

Get a book on curries.

Divorce yourself from everything you think a curry is because the word "curry" has practically no meaning beyond "sauce". Curry is the European term for every regional dish of a-thing-in-sauce the imperialists managed to encounter. This is why you have to specify "Madras curry" or "Punjabi curry" - they use entirely different regional ingredients. Colors have no relation to spiciness, in the same way you can make a red chili hotter than a white or green chili but the flavor profiles are different.