Bruguru's Full Review: Emeril Lagasse - Prime Time Emeril: More TV Dinner...
Are you ready to kick it up a notch in the kitchen? If you are, then you just might want to consider adding a copy of Prime Time Emeril: More TV Dinners from America's Favorite Chef to your cookbook library. My beloved Barbara loves to cook, and over the past few years she has been honing her culinary skills to an incredibly fine degree. One of the ways she does this is with her continually expanding collection of cookbooks.
Barbara also loves the Food Network, another great resource for food fans everywhere. With Prime Time Emeril, one gets the best of both worlds: an accessible and useful cookbook packed with recipes from one of Food Networks (and Americas) best known chefs
Prime Time Emeril begins with an introduction by a brief introduction by Emeril himself, and then is broken up into segments:
Basic Basics will get you started with recipes for simple stocks, dough, sauces, and more. The Roasted Garlic Puree is easy to make and delicious smeared across fresh Italian bread. Some of the recipes, though, seem a bit too simple. Do I really need Lagasse to show me how to make mashed potatoes or hard boiled eggs?
Once youve mastered the basics, you can move on to Starters, an assortment of appetizer and snack dishes. Try the Egg Rolls and Hot Mustard Sauce or Baked Crabmeat, Artichoke, and Spinach Dip at your next party, or Singing Shrimp on puff pastry before dinner to get your appetite fired up.
Personally, I love Soups, and there are some great soup, stew, and chowder recipes here. These include Caramelized Onion and Parmesan Cheese Soup and Chicken, Bacon and White Bean Soup Portuguese Style. Emeril, a native of Fall River, Massachusetts, is renowned for his fusion of French and Portuguese cuisine, and theres no better example than Mr. Johns Seafood Chorizo Gumbo, packed with Portuguese sausage, shrimp, crawfish, and more.
We cant forget the Salads. There are recipes for Roasted Vegetable Salad and Fried Crawfish Salad, just to name a few. Its amazing the things you can do with Pasta and Rice, but the next segment, Emerilisms, is where things really get kicked up a notch. Here youll find recipes for Tuna of Love, Kicked-Up Fried Calamari With Creole Olive Salad, Kicked-Up Chicken Drumettes With Blue Cheese Sauce and Bamburgers, one of the tastiest burgers youll ever eat.
The recipes continue with YAll Southern? (though Emerils recipe for Country Fried Steak isnt quite as good as Barbaras in my opinion), Fall River Memories, a collection of Emerils personal hometown favorites (the Lobster Portuguese Style is a winner), The Floppin Fish Market, From the Barnyard and Pork Fat. These are fairly self-explanatory. Macho Meats covers beef, and Vegetables, Breads and Desserts round the book out.
Obviously, we havent tried all the recipes yet. Many of them will require a bit of shopping, and include ingredients not readily on hand in most kitchens. The books relatively compact size makes it easy to take along on shopping trips, however, so youll know just what to buy for the recipe you want to prepare. The step-by-step directions are easy to follow and include an introduction about the dish by Emeril. Some of the dishes are complicated to prepare, but they are worth the effort. Likely youve seen some of them prepared on Emeril Live.
My one criticism here, and it is a major one, is that there is not a sole picture of any of the dishes in the book. Not one. Nada. To be sure, there are pictures, but theyre of Lagasse himself most of the time. Theres even a shot of a piece of his name-brand cookware, a cheap plug if ever there was one. Come on, Emeril. We know what you look like. Show me the food.
Still, the wealth of recipes here makes this a great cookbook to have around. With a copy of Prime Time Emeril: More TV Dinners from America's Favorite Chef, you too can be kicking it up a notch in no time.
From the Publisher Millions of viewers from coast-to-coast tune in to the Food Network daily to watch their favorite chef, Emeril Lagasse. Now fans ca...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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