About this deal
Like the earlier work of Michael Pollan, and so many who wrote before, say, 1950, Adler’s simple and somewhat tradition-based approach could go a long way to ending the confusion around food - and many of the environmental and health problems that accompany it - in North America today. If you want to cook with economy (and grace), this book is a wonderful read, and you’ll have plenty of help with traditional categories of food, such as eggs, but it does feel a little old-fashioned; a book for aspiring cooks ‘in the know’ about what makes good eating, and how to do it without stressing. I enjoyed the author’s insightful writing about her cooking knowledge; and really, this guide to all things culinary would be on my kitchen shelf instead of in my bookcase, if I’d wanted to remain a full-on omnivorous eater. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine , the New York Times Book Review , the NewYorker. She used quality ingredients, fresh and in season, always prepared correctly -- and always with an eye to using the leftovers in the next meal.
I like the fact that the meals are not just one meal but usually could last for several days of meals, always in different variations. Her prescriptions are very specific, and without going into the general principles behind why she is doing the things she is doing, a beginner would find it hard to generalize and find substitutions. To cook up vegetables, grains and beans and then figure out how to repurpose them for different meals through the week.Adler has won a James Beard Award and an IACP Award, and is the author of An Everlasting Meal and Something Old, Something New . I would much rather read Nigel Slater, Simon Hopkinson, Fergus Henderson, Melissa Clark, Mark Bittman, Deborah Madison, or even Alice Waters, who gives a glowing review of Adler's book, but oddly enough, I find less offensive. She recommends turning to neglected onions, celery and potatoes for inexpensive meals that taste full of fresh vegetables, and cooking meat and fish resourcefully.
I really can't explain it, but my eyes feel totally opened by what are really some basic, yet sage, words of advice. Influenced by the first chapters, while I was making one meal I piled the vegetable scraps and skins I would generally toss into the compost into a big pot and covered them with water and the bit of beer I had leftover from the main dish. Through the insightful essays in An Everlasting Meal, Tamar Adler issues a rallying cry to home cooks.Before moving house I finally cooked up that bag of beans and it became a warm soft mash beside a Fiorentina-style steak, then part of a breakfast fry-up with apple slices, then (best of all! Those are economical, and, if the free range chicken is place sparingly atop the rice, as she recommends, makes an extremely tasty meal while not using much of the chicken. Sensible, frugal, and consistently delicious, the recipes in An Everlasting Meal Cookbook allow you to prepare meals with economy and grace, making this a vital resource that every home cook needs.
Through the insightful essays in An Everlasting Meal , Tamar Adler issues a rallying cry to home cooks .If she is aiming to convert the noncook into a new lifestyle, she would do better to open up the possibilities using words that suggest and entice rather than prescribe. Skip the rest, if you must, but that chapter gives you ways to save money and waste by using so many bits and pieces we normally throw away. It is chock full of great ideas rooted in old (mostly European) and practical ways of doing things in which cooking is a kind of folk art to be shared.