Reviews
Steaming Basics... proves that steam is not hopelessly bland. You'll discover new condiments (garlic oil), dim sum (fish balls), "easy vegetables" (green peas, mint and ricotta), stuffed dishes (mushrooms with ginger), special suppers (sole rolls) and desserts (banana flans)., This series includes books on Pasta, Vegetable, Chocolate, Sauce, Steaming, Middle Eastern, and Indian Basics. Each book includes 60-100 recipes, each with not just an image of the finished product, but photos of every step. Perfect for the family chef, foodie, or cookbook collector., I think these books are perfect for entry-level cooks... I'd be tempted to give the whole set as a gift., Owing to the popularity of food-focused TV programming, the effective arrangement of the "My Cooking Class" series (which also includes Steaming, Chocolate, Middle Eastern, and Pasta Basics) will have you wondering why it has taken cookbooks so long to get visual. Beyond a one-page preface, an ingredient index, and concisely measured instructions, you won't find much text here, but this does not mean the books lack detail. Each recipe is pictured step-by-step with the crisply reductive clarity of a minimalist still life.... This series of stripped-down pictorials worth a thousand words is the missing link between elementally vague text-based cookbooks and video instruction you can't slow down enough or take into the kitchen. Elegant design you can't help but devour. Highly recommended for all experience levels., This is a series by various authors with complete (and I mean complete) step-by-step and how-to colour photos to describe every conceivable step in every conceivable process. Each with 70 to 97 recipes. These books are extremely clear in presentation, right down to photos of egg yolks (with every other ingredient) so you don't accidentally reach for, say, Palmolive dishwashing soup when you should be making Bearnaise sauce. Some might think the series is too dumbed-down but, at only $25 a copy, I think these books are perfect for entry-level cooks who want to move beyond Kraft Dinner to discover that homemade lasagna does not always have to be made with dried gypsum board. I'd be tempted to give the whole set as a gift to the right person., Cooking by steaming offers a way to introduce heat into food without adding any fats. The Chinese have used this method for centuries for any number of dishes, especially for those popular dumplings that are the hallmark of dim-sum dining. Guillaumont covers a large range of such dishes, preparing delicacies such as duck and mushroom dumplings as well as steamed spare ribs. She even shows how to make the leavened dough encasing popular bao. Western dishes also profit from steaming techniques, as witnessed by a complicated haute-cuisine guinea-fowl ballotine and bacon-wrapped rabbit stuffed with dried fruits. Flan and other custard-based desserts also lend themselves to steaming. As with other volumes in this series, color photographs of both ingredients and techniques illustrate how to assemble and prepare each recipe. Interest in steaming as a low-fat alternative cooking method will increase demand for this title.
