Cook This Book: Techniques That Teach and Recipes to Repeat

Recipe developer Baz delivers an exciting crash course in cooking fundamentals via 95 recipes that don’t “ask too much of the home cook.” The book begins with a list of “Molly’s Golden Rules,” which includes tips like “read the recipe first” and “season as you go,” and ends with Baz’s rundown of fundamental cooking techniques such as poaching, searing, sauteing, and roasting. In between are the recipes, organized by ingredients. Meat lovers will enjoy milk-braised chicken legs with bacon, beans, and kale, and a sumptuous tomato-braised brisket. Seafood options include seared scallops in curried butter, and there are plenty of pasta dishes, such as zesty orzo a limone. Desserts offer a black sesame shortbread and a sweet and salty miso apple tart. Baz’s tone is encouraging, and she packs in helpful resources, such as charts on texture and flavor, checklists to review recipe results, and lists for keeping one’s “arsenal of yummy condiments” stocked. Readers who don’t know their way around the kitchen will appreciate the QR codes that appear throughout, which link to video tutorials on such tasks as chopping onions and prepping shrimp. Novice home cooks would do well to have this on the shelf. (Apr.)