Customer Reviews:
 Disappointing July 4, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
While I was very excited to get this cookbook, once I actually read it, I was very disappointed with the recipes. It's very heavily skewed towards seafood, so if you're allergic or simply don't like it (like me), don't bother with this book - there's not enough other recipes to make it worth purchasing. Some of the non-seafood recipes are very simple things that most people already know how to make anyway, like fajitas, again, not making it worth buying. There are also many ingredient items that must be native to the UK, as I couldn't figure out what they actually were... So, if you're British and like seafood, go for it, otherwise, don't bother... The pictures are beautiful...
 Get rid of frozen dishes and junk food May 2, 2008
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
My problem is a deep hatred of cooking. When I don't forget to buy an ingredient, I make mistakes while following recipes. Consequently, I systematically resorted to junk or frozen food. I could bear the awful or lack of taste until I realized how much salt they contain. At one point, setting foot in a grocery store and the sight of the food I usually buy literally made me sick.
This book changed everything. Now I can't wait to go back home and have a quickly cooked and tasty dinner. To speed things up, Chef Ramsey provides excellent advices as to what non-perishable ingredients (spices, etc.) the reader should always have at hand.
Some other ingredients might indeed be hard to find in the usual supermarket chains. But nowadays, every major city has specialized smaller exotic food stores, thanks to our immigrant friends. Chef Ramsay specifies in its introductory notes that one should find a decent vegetable, fish and meat store.
By the way, here's the recipe for home made crème fraiche:
240ml/8fl.oz. Double/Whipping Cream
2 tbsp Buttermilk
Place all the ingredients in a glass bowl, mix well, cover, and leave to stand at room temperature (about 70 degrees F.) for 8 to 24 hours, or until thickened. Stir well, cover with cling film, refrigerate and use within 10 days.
 Different and bordering on the exotic, but still worth the effort March 31, 2008
34 out of 39 found this review helpful
Chef Ramsay's lastest book proved interesting, with plenty of variety and fresh ideas that will help you find something you like. While some recipes will strike you as bleedin' obvious, such as the one describing how to make a sandwich on a bagel, others are not quite so generic. I would agree that they are relatively "fast" and directions are simple enough to follow.
What I did not find simple about this cookbook, are that many of the recipes contain ingredients that I am not able to easily obtain in Canada, if they can be found at all. No doubt you will be stumped to find such things at your grocery store like "creme fraiche", membrillo paste, quail eggs, porgy, baby turnips, star anise, gooseberries, and the list goes on. Be prepared to be creative with substitutions, or you may be dropping f-bombs like Ramsay coming all the way home from your shopping trip.
The various themes, such as Thai, Mexican, Summer flavours, Easy for a crowd, Working lunch, help make menu planning simple.
I would stress that "Fast Food" does not mean cheap food. This book ranges from inexpensive dishes, to more luxuriously priced ones (cooked lobster tails, anyone?). Overall, I would say I enjoy it, and I use the recipes as a baseline to modify to suit my tastes.
|
