The American palate changes constantly. Who would have guessed that salsa would replace ketchup as our condiment of choice? Even so, home cooking hasn't caught up with many of the "new" dishes we've come to enjoy. Addressing that gap, Cooking New American offers 200 recipes from Fine Cooking, a magazine devoted to telling cooks "how-to" as well as offering simple, tasty formulas. The book's recipes, which cover the full dish range from "small bites" through desserts, are the work of 75-plus food authorities, such as Alice Waters (Garden Lettuces with Baked Goat Cheese); Pam Anderson (Broiled Chicken Thighs with Coriander Rub); Norman Van Aken (Grilled Tuna with Mango and Habanero Sauce); and Gale Gand (Chocolate Terrine with Whipped Cream and Almond Brittle). Despite a few taste lapses (a recipe with rosemary-flavored blue-cheese sauce, for example), and at least one doubtfully edited formula (readers are advised to serve grilled red onions with optionally garnished Bermuda onion-topped flank-steak), the formulas are overwhelmingly attractive--traditional and modern fare that's easily prepared.

It is, however, the instructional asides that make the book so valuable. From "Cooking Right" tips (for example, to get the right vegetable thickness for a zucchini dish, "press down hard on a Y-shaped peeler") to sections like "Just What Is a Mojo?", the book abounds in genuinely useful advice. These tips benefit from color photos that show, for instance, the various stages of sugar-syrup caramelization. Ingredient and cooking-ahead pointers, as well as sub-recipes like those for quick pan sauces, further enhance this winning collection. --Arthur Boehm


From Publishers Weekly
A mere glance over the recipes and ingredients in this cookbook highlights how international American cooking has become. This volume brings together 200 dishes from Fine Cooking magazine, and covers everything from slight snacks to decadent desserts. The recipes, which are generally straightforward and accessible, emphasize the use of fresh, top-quality ingredients to bring out the flavor of simpler dishes like White Beans with Rosemary & Olive Oil and to anchor the taste of more exotic fare like Grilled Coffee-Brined Chicken Breasts. The Italian influence is big, as is evidenced by the book’s many elegant variations on bruschetta and pasta (some of which are standard, like Angel Hair with Mussels & Spicy Tomato Sauce, and others that are more inventive, like Squash Ravioli with Sherried Onion Sauce, Walnuts & Cranberries). The recipes also incorporate Chinese, Latin, Indian and Middle Eastern flavors. Though the dishes presented here are appetizing, the book is just as strong in what it offers by way of practical tips. Instructions on "Cooking Right" tell readers how to judge when a steak is seared properly and how to prepare lemongrass, and "Cook’s Choice" ideas explain key ingredients like ricotta salata and provide ideas for substitutions. Every page has one or more eye-catching photos that illuminate the process as well as the ingredients and the final product, which is always artfully plated. Although many cooks may have tried variations of these recipes before, this inspired collection will motivate many to revisit them.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Book Description
Cooking New American offers today's cooks everything they need to know to cook fresh, contemporary, and great-tasting food for family and friends. With Fine Cooking's most popular recipes by many of America's greatest chefs that include Bruce Aidells, Gale Gand, Caprial Pence, Alice Waters, and Joanne Weir, the book features fresh, delicious ingredients simply prepared, with all the tips and techniques to successfully prepare today's favorite foods. The 200 recipes selected by the editors of Fine Cooking deliver the fresh and bold flavors that have powered the American culinary revolution, yet all the ingredients are readily attainable at the supermarket. The range of recipes is exciting, but every dish is decidedly easy-to-prepare. With almost 400 step-by-step color photographs, an assortment of techniques, ingredients, tips from the pros, essays, preparation and serving tips, optional ingredients, shortcuts, recipe variations, and timesaving tips as well as ideas for cooking ahead and serving suggestions, Cooking New American is a private tutorial in preparing the kind of food that Americans truly love to eat.

FROM THE PUBLISHER