A few months ago, I won a copy of How to Cook: Delicious Dishes Perfect for Teen Cooks as a door prize. Now, I have been cooking for 50 years, so I would not be the best person to judge how well this book fulfills the (rather large) promise of its title, but my cooking-averse daughter is just the audience it’s written for. She’s 28, her freezer is full of Lean Cuisine, and her refrigerator is usually almost empty. (“Where I have failed?’ is a question best left unanswered.)
I loaned her the book, and she promised to look through it and pick out some recipes she would like to try, but only on condition we would cook them together. Fair enough! We made a date to use her kitchen, after she bought the ingredients.
That highlighted one of the first difficulties: this book needs a chapter titled How to Shop. My daughter (let’s call her “Jane”) noted the variety of ingredients some of the recipes call for, such as “lamb shoulder, cut into cubes,” and others using a long list of spices, presupposing either a very well-stocked (parents’) kitchen or a budget beyond the reach of many teens. Shopping for exotic ingredients needs more education than the “Back to Basics” chapter offers.
Jane decided on Spanish Omelet, Potato Rosti, Pad Thai, and Chickpea Curry. Buying potatoes for the omelet and rosti, Jane assumed the description “floury potatoes” meant “covered with flour.” The book did not disabuse her.
The omelet took longer to produce than claimed, and called for about twice as much oil than was necessary, but the final product was satisfactory. Even though we’d added some onions to the basic recipe, we concluded that it could use a little more punch – some hot sauce maybe, or cheese.
The rosti was less successful. The potatoes turned an unappetizing shade of grey and stuck to the pan, even though we followed the recipe exactly: parboiling, grating, then squeezing out the excess water before frying. They tasted good, though. (I understand turning grey is somewhat random, and may be a result of how the potatoes were raised.)
Pad Thai called for a wok. Jane did not have a wok, but used a large pan instead. Another problem with the book – kitchen equipment necessary to prepare the dishes: a loose-bottom pie pan, hand-held mixer, food processor – may not be available to a beginning cook.
This recipe was not difficult to prepare and the dish was tasty, but the 15-minute prep time given was totally unrealistic. Jane needed help shopping for shallots and a fresh red chili. There were too many noodles in proportion to the other ingredients, and the final product was a little too oily.
The most successful recipe was the chickpea curry. Again, the 25-minute prep time was totally unrealistic (and as I think back, so were all the estimates of prep time for all the recipes we cooked. I did not realize this before because I was teaching as we went.) It made more than the four servings claimed, but we didn’t mind. Jane could eat it for several days – and did!
As a primer for beginners, How to Cook is a good supplement or basic text when combined with lessons delivered by a more experienced teacher, but should not be a substitute for the personal touch.
How to Cook: Delicious Dishes Perfect for Teen Cooks, DK Publishing, New York, 2011.
NOTE: there is no author indicated. Maggie Mayhew is credited as a “Consultant.”
