How to Cook Anytime, Forever: Building Blocks and 100 Simple Recipes for a Lifetime of Meals: A Cookbook

410 Pages·2020·139.735 MB·English

by  Hugh Acheson

Copyright © 2020 by Hugh Acheson
Photographs copyright © 2020 by Andrew Thomas Lee
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Random House, a
division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
clarksonpotter.com
CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER with colophon is a registered trademark of
Penguin Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Acheson, Hugh, author. | Lee, Andrew Thomas, other.
Title: How to cook: building blocks and 100 simple recipes for a lifetime of meals /Hugh
Acheson ; photographs by Andrew Thomas Lee.
Description: New York : Clarkson Potter, 2020. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019059560 (print) | LCCN 2019059561 (ebook) | ISBN
9781984822307 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781984822314 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Cooking. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.
Classification: LCC TX714 .A376 2020 (print) | LCC TX714 (ebook) | DDC 641.5--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059560
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059561
ISBN 9781984822307
Ebook ISBN 9781984822314
Hand lettering by Sonia Persad
Illustrations by Hugh Acheson
Photographs by Andrew Thomas Lee
rhid_prh_5.6.0_c0_r0
01 A LIST FOR A FUTURE GENERATION
02 WHAT THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT
03 WHAT IS GOOD FOOD?
04 HOW YOU SHOULD SHOP
05 COMPLEMENTARY FLAVORS
06 HERBS, SPICES, SALT + HOW TO USE THEM
07 WHAT YOU NEED IN YOUR KITCHEN
08 USING A KNIFE
09 THE BUILDING BLOCKS
10 RECIPES
11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
12 INDEX
A LIST FOR A FUTURE GENERATION
Learn how to cook for yourself.
Wash your hands often.
Don’t double-dip, but do taste as you cook.
Drink lots of water.
Be grateful for the food in front of you.
Be proud to cook family recipes.
Adapt leftovers to new uses.
Buy in season…it is less expensive.
Related: The most expensive thing is often not the best thing.
There is nothing wrong with canned beans.
Don’t grocery shop while hungry.
Clean the outsides of pots and pans.
Try new things.
Fast food is fine, but once in a while.
No one has loving memories of a meal of pizza pockets.
Salt is a flavor enhancer. So is MSG. Ain’t nothing wrong with
either, in moderation.
Avoid plastic and disposables. Compost. Recycle diligently.
Yes, you can probably pickle it.
Be nice to farmers, teachers, postal workers, and grocery store
clerks. Actually, just be nice to everyone.
Tip well.
If there is trash on the ground, pick it up.
Feed your friends and family. Feed kind strangers. Realize the
power of giving nourishment.
WHAT THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT
My daughters, Beatrice and Clementine, are well into their teens. I don’t
think of myself as an overbearing parent, but I wrote that list for them
sooner than I want to admit. Growing up the kids of a professional chef,
they have been surrounded by good food their whole lives; when I think
about them leaving home and living on their own, I want them to feel that
they should still be surrounded by good food. I don’t expect them to cook
like I do, but I do want to make sure they have the basics to be able to
feed themselves, their friends, and eventually their own loved ones good,
delicious, simple meals. And so I wrote this book, so that you can, too,
whether you’re leaving home as a teenager, or making your own home,
or starting your own family.
What follows is a really simple concept. There are a few ways to
cook. One is to read recipes and stress about following them to the letter.
Another is to dive into a kitchen and absorb everything, until you can
make a bisque, brioche, or baked ziti without ever opening a cookbook.
What I think is the most approachable way to go about it is
somewhere in the middle. There should be some very basic things that you
know how to make almost from memory. I’m talking about a classic
vinaigrette that you can use to dress salads, but also tweak to use as a
sauce for roasted vegetables or meats or fish. Or how to cook pasta. Or a
perfect grilled cheese, or how to roast a chicken or stir together a simple,
flavor-packed herb sauce you can put on anything. Don’t worry, there are
no tests; you don’t really have to memorize any recipes. But I want you to
get comfortable making these very basic things, so that you can tweak
them, add to or subtract from them, or mix and match them with stuff you
have in your fridge, so you can make a meal anytime. Envision a Lego set
of cooking skills; once you have those building blocks at hand, cooking
becomes a skill you have forever.
So the first part of this book is
dedicated to twenty-five building
blocks that will anchor your world
of cooking and give you the ability
to build a system of nourishment.
As a professional cook, I rely on
core ideas of food to create dishes
and menus, and there is no reason
you shouldn’t do the same.
I’ve chosen the recipes for the
building blocks not just because
they’re great to make and eat and
are flexible in how you use them,
but also because in learning to
make them, you will learn
techniques you can apply to other
foods. Learning how to sear a
steak, for instance, will give you the same tools you need for searing pork
chops or chicken breasts; roasting broccoli will teach you how to roast
cauliflower or asparagus.
After those initial building blocks, there are seventy-five more recipes
for you to use your new skills…or to use the leftovers of what you’ve
already made. In fact, you might want to make some of the building
blocks on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and keep them in your fridge
to cook with through the week. I want you to think of leftovers not as
“leftovers,” but as great ingredients that you can turn into new meals. And
with that, you’ll be able to cook anytime, forever.