****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I love this cookbook so much. I checked it out from the local library first to make sure I'd like it, and after eating the first meal from it, I knew I absolutely had to buy it. My copy arrives today!We're huge fans of his cooking style and love that he uses a lot of vegetables, a lot of bold flavors like herbs & chiles & spices, and manages to make food that tastes really delicious and is nutritionally balanced. But I also really loved the format of this book in particular, more so than other books of his that I have. When other books suggest sides, they're typically kind of boring and take a back seat to the main dish. But the way he constructs each meal makes you so excited about the meal as a whole. So there's none of that, "We're having this great fish dish for dinner! ...plus boring broccoli and boring sweet potatoes". I think it makes you cook outside of your typically flavor profiles, because you end up making recipes you probably wouldn't have made if they were just listed by themselves since they might not sound particularly exciting at first (like some of his salads, for example...I was like, "I don't think I *LIKE* radicchio, but then I found out I totally did...I had just never really made it). You pretty much end up cooking and eating stuff you typically wouldn't have, which is really fun to me. Also, I love that desserts are included with a lot of the meals, since it makes a weekday meal seem so much more special! And I love that they're pretty light (and often fruit-based), so you're getting to eat some great bites of sweets, but not eating, like, an entire piece of super rich cheesecake or anything.In the three weeks that we had this checked out from the library, we made:-Pregnant Jool's Pasta (LOVED the technique of chopping up the meat and veggies together, and LOVED the tarts)-Green Curry (the kimchee slaw was awesome on top of the noodles)-Chicken Pie (although we ended up not making the peas or carrots as we were really tired that day)-Mustard Chicken (loved the sauce, and loved the potatoes)-Killer Jerk Chicken (which was perfectly flavored, as was the rice & beans)-Chicken Skewers (loved the noodle salad, loved the fruit with mint sugar)I will say that the meals did seem to take us longer than 30 minutes--probably closer to 40-45. However, we were cooking pretty leisurely, so I would say that if we really tried, we probably could bang these out in 30 minutes. But even taking 45 minutes, you'll still be impressed that you made a full dinner and either drinks or a dessert in such a short period of time. Like he says in the book, it becomes pretty addicting.Oh, another thing...don't be worried if you don't have all the equipment. Just know that if you don't, it will take a little bit longer, but you can still make everything. For example, we actually don't have a microwave (which is kinda funny because in the intro for the book he's like, "90% of households have one, so I'm assuming you do"). But we can still make everything, we just have to do it "the old fashioned way" (which honestly, isn't even a problem in almost all of the recipes). Oh, and we don't have an electric kettle either, but we do have a "normal" one, so we just use that. I'm sure it takes a few extra minutes to come to a boil, but really, it's no big deal. And then if he calls for a food processor, we'll break it out if there's gonna be a lot of stuff chopped up, but if it's just for like slicing one onion, we'll just use a knife instead. Yeah, it slows it down a little, but I also like doing some stuff by hand. So you should know that if you're a person who wants no shortcuts, wants everything done by hand, you might be frustrated by his instructions. But really, I like the mix of doing some stuff by hand and some stuff by machine.So excited for my copy to arrive today! I can't wait to decide what to make next.
