The Breakaway Cook: Recipes That Break Away from the Ordinary - Hardcover

Gower, Eric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006085166X ISBN 13: 9780060851668

Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks, 2007

Synopsis

Fusion cooking broke the rules first––now Gower's breaking fusion's rules with The Breakway Cook. Despite the explosion of farmers' markets, ethnic grocers, and creative restaurants in America, lots of home cooks remain puzzled by the bewildering array of choices, and don't have the confidence to break away from tradition. Eric helps home cooks everywhere approach unfamiliar ingredients from different global regions and combine them for some amazing results of flavor.

"Breakaway" cooking pays homage to culinary traditions yet uses innovative techniques and ingredients to give home cooks a new approach to their dishes, marrying unintimidating flavors with the old standards. Sample his Miso Orange Pepper Roasted Chicken, or tease your tongue with his take on Fluffy Herby Eggs, and you'll be convinced. It's not fusion––it's fusion that makes sense. And the cardinal rule is to season with authority. Don't be afraid of the spice cabinet anymore, and use presentation to create a simple, appealing meal. Spend less time fussing about the preparation and clean–up, and more time enjoying food and its huge role in our daily lives. To further this quick and mindful approach to cooking, Eric will take us shopping in local and ethnic markets, teach the importance of table setting and presentation, and stress visual aesthetics, especially regarding pottery and ceramics.

Eric helps you reconstruct your approach to the kitchen, highlighting the seasonings and essential ingredients or "Global Flavor Blasts," such as tamarind, pomegranate molasses, miso, yuzu, green tea, Chinese plum sauce, mole, among many others, that will liberate your cooking and provide a lifetime of fantastic eating. Using Gower's recipes as broad outlines, you can be creative as you go, and within his framework you will discover your own genius in the kitchen. We feel better when we eat better, and it's easier to be productive, creative, and relaxed when the food part of life is under control. Enter The Breakaway Cook.

In addition to the recipes, The Breakaway Cook includes stunning, full–color photos by Annabelle Breakey throughout the text; a guide to using flavored salts in your dishes; sidebars on wine, tea and sake; and ideas for even shorter–cuts on Gower's easy–to–follow recipes.

About this title

About the Author

Eric Gower lived in Japan for fifteen years, working for the prime minister's office as an editor and writer on political economy before turning his interest to food. Currently a private chef and the author of two previous cookbooks, Eric's Kitchen and The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen, he lives and works in San Francisco.

From Publishers Weekly

Though Gower (Eric's Kitchen; The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen) defends his inventive, improvisational cooking against charges of "fusion," his lively combination of cuisines from Japan, Mexico, India and Italy (among others) is exactly that—a fusion. For the adventurous home cook who delights in intense and surprising flavors—and who doesn't want to labor for hours in the kitchen—this book will provide endless ideas for invention. Gower's pantry basics are exotic yet accessible: tart pomegranate molasses, ginger and galangal, miso, yuzu (citrus valued for its zest) and umeboshi (Japanese pickled apricots). Gower, currently a private chef, lived for 15 years in Japan; his explanations of Japanese ingredients are especially informative, and though he is clear on typical practices, he doesn't shy from presenting his own unconventional combinations such as Frittata Giapponese, baked eggs with umeboshi, green beans, ginger and maple syrup, Mole Tofu with Spiced Bread Crumbs or Minty Boozy Chicken marinated with rum and lime. Even home cooks familiar with Gower's kind of staples will be pleasantly shocked by some of these recipes—in a way that culinary adventurers are always seeking. (May)
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About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 006085166X
• ISBN 13: 9780060851668
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240