Thursday, February 21, 2008

Fix, Freeze, Feast






8 1/2 forks out of 10

Fix, Freeze, Feast is a fantastic resource for a chef who plans to make the most of warehouse grocery stores like Sam's Club and BJ's. The first chapter is dedicated to the basics of bulk cooking: from planning your meals and shopping lists, which ingredients will work best, to the semantics of storage and setting up your workspace. The authors even do some of your work for you by including cooking instructions in a separate section of the book. Copy these onto label paper, and you're all set.


One of the most interesting aspects of this cookbook is the inclusion of "generational meals". Several of the recipes include a second-generation, which helps turn one entree into two or three separate meals. Check out Dave's Swamp Blues Barbecued Chicken (page 30), which morphs into Dave's Skillet Hash or Dave's Barbecued Chicken Pizza (pages 32-33).


The variety of flavors and cultural influences found in these recipes is hard to match elsewhere, and I applaud the authors' sense of adventure. That said, don't be intimidated if you're a first-timer! Although there are occasionally more unusual ingredients than you might find elsewhere, the prep is incredibly easy and designed to take as little time as possile.


The only reason I'm not awarding a higher fork rating is that I haven't had the chance to try more of the recipes. If those that I have tried are any indication, this book will be in regular rotation for a very long time. Try the Very Vanilla Snickerdoodles (page 210), or the Cashew Chicken Stir-Fry (page 52).

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