Rachael Ray 365, By Rachael
Ray
Reviewed by Publishers
Weekly
Food Network darling Ray wants
home cooks to become more "instinctual," and
this assortment of quick meals is expansive enough to
encourage even novices to wing it. The author hopes
readers cook their way through the entire book; to that
end, she organizes the recipes not by course or main
ingredient (though there are indexes), but by number.
The organization takes some getting used to. Helpful
but occasionally jarring "tidbits" pop up
everywhere, and many "recipes" make more than
one dish, so cooking just one requires a fair amount
of reading. For example, number 16 encompasses "Oregon-Style
Pork Chops with Pinot Noir and Cranberries; Oregon Hash
with Wild Mushrooms, Greens, Beets, Hazelnuts, and Blue
Cheese; [and] Charred Whole-Grain Bread with Butter
and Chives." Readers making just the hash must
read around the instructions for the other two dishes.
Still, the recipes are great. They vary in technique
and ethnicity, and many give instructions on expanding
the dish (after making Spicy Shrimp and Penne with Puttanesca
Sauce, for example, "now try" omitting the
olives and capers, swapping linguine for the penne,
reducing the number of shrimp, and adding lump crab
meat and mussels to make Frutti di Mare and Linguine).
As Ray would say, "Yummo." (Nov.)
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