Essentials of Cooking

1158 Pages·1999·64.95 MB·English

by  James Peterson

James Peterson
Essentials of Cooking
Artisan • New York
To my mother and my aunt Jane for giving me my dreams
Acknowledgments
So many people played such a vital role in the creation of this book that I must
ask forgiveness from anybody I leave out here. I would first like to thank you,
Ann Bramson, editor and the publisher of Artisan, who has now been with me
for many years, for your work, not just on this book but on projects past,
including Vegetables and Fish & Shellfish, and for your confidence in allowing
me to undertake this (at times daunting) project. And thank you, Peter Workman,
for your confidence and for signing the checks that made this possible. I must
also express my appreciation to those people at Artisan who spent months poring
over manuscript, galleys, and pages, doing their best to make this book sound
and look its best. Thanks to Deborah Weiss Geline, Judith Sutton, and Dania
Davey for your careful attention to detail and your, what to me seems magical,
ability to imagine text and photographs in various combinations and to come out
with something so beautiful. To Jim Wageman, thank you for your talents as a
designer and for the restraint and good taste that seems to me now evident
throughout the book. And to Vicki Semproni, Pam Smith, and Lisa Sloane, who
produced the layouts. To Tricia Boczkowski, thanks for your patience with my
endless phone calls, including that last-minute request for a table at the French
Laundry.
And limitless gratitude to Stephanie Lyness. Without your extensive help
with reorganization and hard work putting the manuscript into its final form, this
book would not be as logical and approachable as it is.
Very special thanks must go to Debré DeMers, not only for your hands,
which are in practically every photograph, and for your lips, which are in one,
but for your friendship, enthusiasm, critical photographic eye, and for sharing
with me all that food after we photographed it. And thank you for using your
infallible good taste for selecting the props for the photographs. Thank you,
Geraldine Cresci, for your help in styling the chapter opening photographs and
for so many other things.
And I must always acknowledge my agents, Arnold and Elise Goodman,
who stand behind me, rock-solid determined, and who, after so many years, I’ve
grown to love and respect in ways that still take me by surprise.
Finally, thanks to the man with whom I share my life, Zelik Mintz, who
sometimes seems to care more about the rewards and pitfalls of my life as a
cookbook writer than even I do.
Contents
Introduction
Basics
HOW TO:
Peel Vegetables
Shuck, Stem, Trim, and Seed Vegetables
Cut Up Vegetables and Herbs
Prepare Fruits
Take the Meat out of a Coconut
Make a Chicken Broth
Make a Fish Broth
Make a Crustacean Broth
Make a Green Salad
Make a Vinaigrette
Make Infused Oils
Make a Mayonnaise
Make a Hollandaise Sauce
Clarify Butter
Make a Flavored Butter
Make a Beurre Blanc
Make a Tomato Sauce
Make Fresh Egg Pasta Dough
Roll and Cut Fresh Pasta Dough
Make Stuffed Pasta Shapes
Make Gnocchi
Make Blini and Crêpes
Cook Risotto, Pilaf, Fluffy Rice, and Paella
Determine Doneness of Foods
Vegetables and Fruits
HOW TO:
Roast Vegetables
Make a Vegetable Gratin
Slow-Cook (Braise) Green Vegetables
Glaze Root Vegetables
Deep-fry Vegetables
Make Potato Chips and French Fries
Grill Vegetables
Steam and Boil Vegetables
Sauté Vegetables
Cook Artichokes
Make Mashed Potatoes and Other Vegetable and Fruit Purées
Make a Vegetable Flan
Make a Chunky Vegetable Soup
Make a Creamy Vegetable Soup
Roast Fruit
Poach Fruit
Fish and Shellfish
HOW TO:
Poach a Big Fish
Poach a Small Fish
Poach Fish Steaks and Fillets, Small Whole Fish, and Shellfish
Cook Fish Fillets en Papillote
Bake Fish and Make a Sauce at the Same Time (Braise)
Roast a Whole Fish
Deep-fry Seafood
Grill Seafood
Sauté Seafood for a Crisp Crust
Cook Squid (and Other Tentacled Creatures)
Stir-fry in a Wok
Steam Shellfish
Shuck Oysters
Prepare Lobster
Prepare Soft-shell Crabs
Cook Crayfish
Use Salted Anchovies
Make Miso Soup
Poultry and Eggs
HOW TO:
Roast a Chicken
Poach Chicken in a Pot
Cut Up a Chicken
Make a Chicken Stew
Make a Chicken Sauté
Make Fried Chicken
Grill Chicken
Sauté Breaded Chicken Breasts
Make a Chicken Liver Mousse
Roast a Turkey and Make Giblet Gravy
Cut Up a Duck
Boil Eggs
Poach Eggs
Bake Eggs
Make an Omelet
Make a Soufflé
Meat
HOW TO:
Roast a Leg of Lamb
Roast a Rack of Lamb and Make a Jus
Roast a Rack of Pork
Roast a Prime Rib of Beef
Grill (or Broil) Chops and Steaks
Sauté Steaks, Chops, Noisettes, and Medallions (and Make a Pan Sauce)
Sauté a Small Whole Loin of Pork, Veal, or Venison
Make Pot-au-Feu and Other Boiled Dinners
Poach a Tender Cut of Meat
Make a Pot Roast
Make a Stew
Cook Veal, Beef, and Lamb Shanks
Make a Stew Without Browning
Make a Veal Stew
Prepare Sweetbreads