Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition - Hardcover

Lynch, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0618576819 ISBN 13: 9780618576814

Publisher: Harvest, 2009

Synopsis

First Edition. Quarto. Photographs by Deborah Jones. Handsome collection of recipes of Italian dishes by the James Beard Award winning chef-owner of Stir and several other restaurants in Boston.

About this title

About the Author

Barbara Lynch is the James Beard Award-winning chef-owner of Barbara Lynch Gruppo, which includes seven restaurants and food businesses in Boston: No. Nine Park, B & G Oyster, The Butcher Shop, Sportello, Plum, Drink, and Stir.

From the Back Cover

"Well worth the wait" -- Tom Colicchio

"The core of Stir is the story of a woman who saved herself from a dead-end life with the power of cooking. Any chef who goes from stealing buses to creating some of the best food on the eastern seaboard is someone I always want to hear from. Distinctive dishes, generous spirit, and a genuine cook are all bound up in this wonderful book."-- Michael Ruhlman, author, Ratio

"In the American culinary stratosphere, Barb Lynch stands out as a national treasure. Stir gives the home chef her cooking keys and secrets to the kitchen kingdom." --Chef Art Smith, James Beard Award-winning chef and best-selling author

"To look inside this book is akin to looking into the soul of one of America's greatest chefs. Though Barbara Lynch's food is contemporary and smart, it's refreshing to see that her cuisine is remarkably grounded. There is so much of this that I can't wait to cook" -- John Besh, Chef/Owner Besh Restaurant Group, New Orleans

"Honest and straightforward, Stir will be your new best friend in the kitchen." Nancy Oakes, chef-owner, Boulevard

"I didn't think it would be possible to capture all that is bold, brash, ballsy, and Bostonian about Barbara Lynch on paper but somehow she has done it! I love this book!" --Suzanne Goin, chef-owner Luques

"Barbara Lynch's first cookbook was well worth the wait. Her grit, drive, and signature good humor shine through in this collection of elegant, user-friendly recipes." -- Tom Colicchio

 

From the Inside Flap

"How a working-class Irish girl from South Boston became a chef with a national reputation is one of those virtually unanswerable questions. But to watch Barbara Lynch as she mixes dough with her hands . . . is to see a young woman with the soul of an Italian grandmother." --Mark Bittman, New York TimesCritics count Chef Barbara Lynch's food as some of the best in the country. Her handmade pasta is shamelessly silky, rivaling --some would say surpassing-- Italy's finest, melding effortlessly with her sauces. Some of her creations are more or less traditional, like the creamy Butcher Shop Bolognese (in this book, she revealsthe secret ingredient that gives it special depth). Others are spectacularly original, like her Prune-Stuffed Gnocchi with Foie Gras Sauce, a dish so luxuriously light that it must be tasted to be believed. For all Lynch's culinary prowess, her roots are not in Italy but inher childhood in South Boston, one of the poorest, toughest enclaves of the nation, where she was raised by a single mother with seven children. She never went to cooking school. But in the unlikely environs of a high school home ec class, she "got high on that thing that drives all good cooks: the desire to please others by making them the food they love to eat." InStir, Lynch's eagerly awaited first cookbook, you'll find plenty of food that you toowill love to make and eat. The 150 recipes combine practical simplicity with charming sophistication, as in the easy finger-food appetizer Ham and Cheese Puff Pastry Bites with Honey Mustard or the comforting pantry-staple dinner Rigatoni with Spicy Sausages and Cannellini Beans. Some break the rules when necessary to achieve deliciousness: pizza made with buttery-tender brioche dough, a spicy fresh clam sauce defying Italian custom with a dash of Parmesan.Every single one, from Baked Cheese and Tomatoes with Black Olive Crisps to the fanciful Winter Citrus with Cumin Meringue and Whipped Creme Fraiche, will make you and your guests lean back and sigh, "This is so good.""

Reviews

Starred Review. James Beard Award-winning Lynch, chef-owner of Boston's famed No. 9 Park and several other notable restaurants, delivers her much-anticipated first cookbook. An unlikely cook raised in the projects of South Boston, where she subsisted solely on processed foods, Lynch was introduced to cooking by her high school home economics teacher and was smitten. Since then, she's mastered her art, and the results are evident in this gorgeous, mouth-watering book, which includes her restaurants' signature dishes, such as prune-stuffed gnocchi with foie gras sauce and Butcher Shop Bolognese. She offers an ample selection of starters including quick chicken liver pâté, gorgonzola fondue, and brioche pizza dough. She also includes hearty and satisfying soups and salads, a substantial section on pasta, side dishes and desserts. Lynch's fish offerings are plentiful, including pan-fried cod with chorizo and clam ragout, and scallop and pureed celery root gratinée. Poultry dishes range from lemony breaded chicken cutlets to spice-rubbed roast goose. Lynch provides helpful tips throughout on everything from celery leaves to segmenting citrus. Lynch will delight fans who have been waiting patiently for this delectable collection.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvest
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0618576819
• ISBN 13: 9780618576814
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352