A Man And His Pan - Hardcover

Boswell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0836278542 ISBN 13: 9780836278545

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1999

Synopsis

Ranging from easy breakfast dishes to one-pan meals, more than 150 recipes for meals to be cooked in a skillet are drawn from the four major male food groups: chicken, shrimp, steak, and chops.

About this title

Review

Boswell and Wyler. What sounds at first like a boutique law office is, in fact, a highly successful concept cookbook production team. They're the ones behind all those 365 Ways to Cook titles. And now, in what appears to be a labor of fun, as well as love, comes A Man and His Pan. Boswell is careful to point out in the introduction that he in no way means to exclude women from his one-pan-does-it-all-cookbook. He just couldn't resist the title.

A Man and His Pan proposes two basic elements of successful cooking: ease of production and even easier cleanup. This is a book based on nonstick cookware. Teflon came out in 1962, but the nonstick cookware of today has about as much to do with those early adventures as the portable typewriter has to do with a laptop computer. As Boswell points out, being careful of temperature and avoiding harsh abrasives are about all the special care this cookware needs. Pick the right pan, Boswell counsels, and you are well on your way to one-pan cooking, which is really what this book is all about.

The eight chapters of A Man and His Pan cover breakfast, red meats, chicken, seafood, one-pan meals, short-order gourmet, sides for all occasions, and pan cooking for kids. The recipes are direct and simple, and bold flavor appears to be the underlying theme. There's a pan-fried steak, for example, with a Madeira-balsamic vinegar reduction sauce that tastes like it's right out of a four-star restaurant, but cooks up in one pan like a charm. In the "Short Order Gourmet" chapter, you'll find a Spicy Peanut Chicken Stir-Fry that can hold its own against any Kung Pao takeout, home-delivered or not.

For anyone who is starting to cook, this is a good place to begin. For anyone who has been knocking out family meals night after night, this is a terrific place to come back to for simple, flavorful ideas. There will be no battles about doing the dishes if you use this book, one pan, and paper plates. --Schuyler Ingle

From Library Journal

Perhaps the approach of Father's Day explains the simultaneous appearance of three "men's" cookbooks. Its catchy title notwithstanding, Boswell's A Man and His Pan is essentially an eclectic collection of favorite recipes from a man who likes to cook, whether for his family (there's a separate chapter on cooking for kids) or for guests. Boswell is coauthor of The Best Fryer Cookbook Ever (HarperCollins, 1998) and the packager of the "365 Ways To Cook" series. Here the gimmick, such as it is, is that all the recipes, from Pepper-Crusted Steak Flamb?ed in Whisky to Asian-Flavored Arctic Char, are made in a large nonstick frying pan. Many are quite easy, although they do assume some experience in the kitchen. For larger collections. With his wife, a food writer and editor, Bowers, who has a restaurant background, has written an entertaining but at heart serious cookbook. Despite his tongue-in-cheek macho tone, he conveys a lot of useful information on food and cooking, starting with "Men and Hardware" (kitchen equipment) and moving on to "Men and Flame" (grilling, flamb?eing, and "blowtorch cooking"), "Men and Fat" ("They Don't Call It a Fry-Mama"), and "Pommes des Hommes" (vegetables), among other topics. The recipes are tasty and wide-ranging, not confined to hearty "guy food" by any means. Recommended for most collections. Mauer, author of the best-selling Lean and Lovin' It (Chapters, 1996), has always been the family cook, but about ten years ago, he changed his habits, scaled back on fat, and lost 100 pounds. Disdaining diet books that consider half a cup of macaroni and cheese enough for a serving, he's come up with 175 recipes that are relatively low in fat but designed to satisfy hearty appetites. Mauer has a more "down-home" approach than Bowers and a less sophisticated style, but many family cooks, male or female, will find lots of recipes to try here. For most collections.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0836278542
• ISBN 13: 9780836278545
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272