‘How to Boil Water’ and other adventures

"How to Boil Water" is chatty but surprisingly comprehensive, with bright graphics and photos that should entice all but the most disinterested to try a recipe or two

By: Faith Bahadurian

"image"
Date-Night Chicken from ‘How to Boil Water,’ which is ‘ideal for someone striking out on his or her own for the first time’ and needing some serious kitchen orientation.


   Do you remember how you learned to cook? I started by watching
my mother and grandmothers in their kitchens, and was lucky to be part of a
family that gardened, ate well, and loved to discuss and evaluate each new
dish that came our way.
   When I started living on my own, I eagerly explored many
cuisines along with my first roommate, a complete cooking novice. One Thanksgiving
she roasted the turkey neck and innards right in their waxed bag in the crop,
wondering why she couldn’t find them in the body cavity, the only place she
knew to look. After I taught an early boyfriend of mine to brown chicken pieces
in oil, add the aromatics and liquid of his choice, then braise until the chicken
was tender, he enthusiastically tried variation after variation on me over
the next few weeks.
   Today, many young adults are quite clueless in the kitchen, having growing up on takeout and delivery, or just being too busy to notice how dinner gets on the table. My nephew got his first apartment after college last year, and I’m proud to say he’s working on expanding his culinary repertoire. And I’m going to give him a nudge with a cookbook I recently came across, "How to Boil Water." It’s ideal for someone striking out on his or her own for the first time, while "The Basics," also
described below, is more advanced in the techniques and dishes it presents.
   "How to Boil Water" is chatty but surprisingly comprehensive, with bright graphics and photos that should entice all but the most disinterested to try a recipe or two. Recipes are sprinkled with helpful notes and tips, including a "make it your own" section of variations to try. The advice is generally on the mark, such as, for gazpacho: "Look
for firm, fat, tomatoey-smelling tomatoes. And don’t refrigerate them!"
   The book covers all the basics of entertaining (from seating strategy to cleaning up), techniques such as knife skills, basic equipment, and ingredients. It touches on popular ethnic cuisines, and has an excellent section on vegetables, with very useful cooking and seasoning charts. There are instructions on the "big basics" such as roasting chicken or pan-searing steak, but also recipes for foods like PB&J Wings (glazed with apricot jam and dipped in peanut sauce) and Mexican Fish & Chips
(fillets baked in green sauce and topped with crushed tortilla chips and feta
cheese).
   "The Basics," on the other hand, is a deceptively simple-looking little black book with gilt lettering and edges and a red ribbon bookmark. Originally published in Europe, its minimalist approach of spare prose and artsy photos is the opposite of "How to Boil Water." The
book is divided into sections on cooking and cutting techniques, stocks, soups,
sauces, eggs, mousses, pastry, etc. It is a bit short on practicality but plenty
long on charm.
   "The Basics" would be suitable for someone with an established interest in cooking who wants to expand his or her repertoire with more challenging techniques. Toward the end, a section titled "21st century" presents, in very concise manner, the latest techniques of avant-garde molecular gastronomy: working with jelling agents, sous vide (vacuum packed) cooking, gas-powered siphons, and Paco-Jets. If you have a spouse or friend who loves to wow guests with professionally blow-torched crème brulée, this very adult "how to" is
the perfect gift.
DATE-NIGHT CHICKEN
adapted from "How to Boil Water,"
Food Network Kitchens,
Meredith Books, 2006.
Serves 2-4.
   8 cloves garlic
   1 medium onion
   ¾ cup pitted dates
   ¾ cup pitted green olives
   1 lemon, scrubbed
   3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
   1 bay leaf
   2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
   Freshly ground black pepper
   1 chicken, quartered, about 3 to 4 pounds
   1 teaspoon ground cumin
   2 to 3 tablespoons chicken broth or water
   Handful fresh parsley or cilantro leaves (optional)

  1. Preheat
    oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Smash and peel garlic and put into a shallow baking
    dish or casserole. Halve and thinly slice the onion, adding to dish. Quarter
    the dates and add them to the dish. Scatter the olives on top.
  3. Peel 6 long
    strips of zest from the lemon with a vegetable peeler, add to the dish, then
    juice lemon over the top. Toss everything with half the olive oil, the bay
    leaf, 2 teaspoons salt and black pepper.
  4. Put the chicken quarters, skin side
    up, on top of the onion mixture, brush with remaining olive oil, and season
    with the cumin, salt, and black pepper. Bake until chicken is golden brown
    and onion mixture is tender and juicy, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
  5. Transfer
    chicken to a serving platter, discard bay leaf, and stir the broth or water
    into the onions, dates, and olives to glaze them. Spoon the goodies around
    and over the chicken. Rinse and chop the parsley, if using, and scatter over
    the top. (Serve with couscous.)

TO POACH PEARS
Freely adapted from "The Basics"
by Filip Verheyden (recipes)
and Tony Le Duc (photography),
Homarus Cookbooks/
Melville House Publishing, 2007
4 servings.
   4 medium-sized firm Bosc pears
   1 bottle of fruity red wine
   ¾ cup sugar
   Choice of spices (cinnamon, vanilla bean, star anise,
cardamom, cloves, etc.)
   Peel the pears but leave the stems on. Bring the wine to a boil with the sugar
and spices. Add the pears, turn down the heat, partially cover, and simmer
until tender. Turn the heat off after about 35 minutes (when pears are almost
but not quite tender), and leave the pears to continue cooking in the heat
of the wine. Cool the pears in their poaching liquid.
   Tip: Instead of red wine, dry or sweet white wine can be
used. The recipe also works well with apples, dried fruit, or soft fruit such
as plums, cherries and figs.