What To Cook When You Think There's Nothing in the House To Eat: More Than 175 Easy Recipes And Meal Ideas - Softcover

Schwartz, Arthur

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060955597 ISBN 13: 9780060955595

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2000

Synopsis

Gathers more than 175 simple recipes using ingredients commonly on hand in most kitchens, ranging from pasta, bread, and carrots to sour cream, tuna, and yogurt, and features a host of easy-to-prepare, creative meal suggestions. Reissue.

About this title

About the Author

Arthur Schwartzhosts "Food Talk," a popular New York City-based, nationally syndicated radio show, and was the longtime restaurant critic and food editor of the New York Daily News. He is the author of Cooking in a Small Kitchen, What to Cook When You Think There's Nothing in the House to Eat, and Soup Suppers.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Anchovies

Few people are indifferent to anchovies. I love anchovies so much that I've become a proselytizer. To prove to an anchovy hater how subtle these little preserved fish can be, I soak the anchovies in water (or milk) to leach out the salt and temper their taste. Or, to demonstrate how anchovies can enhance other foods without taking over, I prepare a sauce or casserole (see Tomato Bulgur, page 65) in which the anchovies are a background flavor, a boost to other flavors.

I must point out, however, that there are vast differences in quality between brands of anchovy fillets in oil whether canned or jarred--and between fillets in oil and those that come whole and preserved in salt.

Anchovies packed in oil should be firm and smooth, not falling apart or with a fuzzy surface. You should have good luck with any of the canned or jarred brands packed in Portugal, Spain, or Italy. I am suspicious of those without an identifying origin (the world's worst anchovies are used for chicken feed). Whole salted anchovies, which can be bought in Italian markets and other specialty stores, should look plump, not shriveled. Whole salted anchovies will keep for several months in a covered jar or plastic container in the refrigerator. They are more perishable than anchovies in oil--which, until they are opened, last indefinitely--but once salted anchovies have been rinsed and filleted under cold running water they are actually less salty and have a milder flavor than canned ones.

An unfinished can or jar of anchovies in oil will keep for about 6 months in the refrigerator if you keep the unused portion covered with oil, then wrapped in plastic. Anchovy paste in tubes, which generally contains added oil and salt, keeps almost indefinitely.

Whole, salted anchovies are extremely easy to fillet; you don't even have to use a knife. Hold the anchovy under cold, running water and, using your thumbs at the belly, split it in half. The central bone usually lifts out in one piece. The skin, or most of it, will rub off by just stroking the fish while you hold it under the water. To rid them of salt, soak the fillets for 10 minutes in cold water or milk.

In the small amounts we eat anchovies, their nutritional content is beside the point, but anchovies are, on the negative side, high (for a fish) in cholesterol, and, on the positive side, high in calcium.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060955597
• ISBN 13: 9780060955595
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288