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4.5
These recipes are wonderful, no doubt, but they're not for everyone. I'm shelving this on the fussy gourmet end of my cookbook shelves. To be fair, the author never claims to be offering "meals in under 30 minutes" fare. But she does make somewhat laughable statements in this regard, such as suggesting that a dish involving homemade pasta dough is doable for a quick weeknight meal. In whose world? Not this working mom's.This is a great cookbook for entertaining, or for any occasion where you really want to impress. But for use beyond that, you're going to have to brush aside the purist attitude and make your own shortcuts. Believe me, your recipe will not crash and burn because you substituted store-bought stock for homemade. Case in point: I made the vegetable curry last night. The recipe instructed me to rehydrate 3 cups of dried coconut, and then squeeze the coconut milk out by hand through a cheesecloth. Now... I had dried coconut. I had cheesecloth. What I didn't have was time to waste. But I also had 2 cans of canned lite coconut milk, so that's what I used instead. And the results were very good. The recipe also called for a large number of whole spices to be freshly ground. I followed these instructions. But in a pinch, I doubt the recipe would have suffered too badly had I used pre-ground cloves, cinnamon, cumin, or coriander.The other problem I had with this book is that it frequently calls for produce or herbs that the average person will not have access to. Lemon thyme is a perfect example. I may add lemon thyme to my garden next year. But until then, my chances of finding a supplier of fresh lemon thyme are fairly slim.I bought this book used and I'm glad about that. It's not that I won't use it, but I suspect it will be one of those cookbooks that I'll only drag out for holiday meals or special dinners.
