By Sandra Reynolds
Quick Smart Cook, the latest book from the Delicious team, with 120 recipes by Valli Little is everything we have come to expect. This is a book that will turn up in a lot of Christmas stockings this year and it will be a welcome addition for anyone looking for some new ideas at the end of the busy day or for those beginners who are venturing beyond the simplest of meals. The photography by Brett Stephens is beautiful, the recipes designed for a Mod Oz palate. The sub-title of this book, ‘Fuss free cooking for the time-poor cook’ seems reassuring, but to me it’s a challenge - can these recipes live up to the claim?
Little strikes some good hits but there are a couple of clangers. A wonton soup is assured with some lovely flavours and easily prepared in under 15 minutes; likewise a punchy Vietnamese Chicken salad is packed to the hilt with mint, basil and chilli and perfect for the 40 degree day we eat it on. But can someone please explain to me the attraction of Caesar Salad Soup, or the decision to mix beetroot with spaghetti?
A cannellini bean and coconut curry is a great supper dish and for breakfast we have Egyptian eggs, a riff on baked eggs, served with some Turkish bread and mint and cumin flavoured yoghurt. For a sweet treat I make dulche de leche cupcakes which are demolished by the TTT’s (Teenage Taste Testers) and some quick strawberry tarts for a Sunday lunch with friends.
It’s easy to see Little’s British roots with recipes including plum fool and toddy pudding, and there are references to fennel-flavoured baked pork, a slow-cooked roll of beef as well as a broad range of poultry and seafood dishes. In the heat of the day I think about some baked blue-eyed cod with ‘Spanish flavoured breadcrumbs’ but baulk at the asking price for cod at nearly $40 a kilo. We opt instead for the Daily Pasta Special, with a variation on a putanesca sauce, using pantry staples and cooked well under the 15 minute time frame I have decided on.
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And here lies the main drawback: There is a huge range of ingredients. For the tarts I write down strawberries, mascarpone cheese, some frozen puff pastry and vanilla beans to my shopping list only to find that I can add optional orange zest, some micro-sized baby basil leaves and flowers if I so choose – is such overkill really necessary? To be a quick smart cook you need a well-stocked pantry first and foremost, and although there is a list of stockists it’s largely Sydney City and Eastern suburbs centric.
There is a very useful section called Basics which includes Garlic Bread, something I would have thought everyone has a recipe for. Perhaps a recipe for aioli would have been more useful, given the number of times it’s recommended as a serving suggestion. Here’s mine:
Ingredients
2 egg yolks; 4 cloves roasted garlic, crushed; 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard; 250 ml extra virgin olive oil; sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste; 2 teaspoons lemon juice
Method
In a food processor, add yolks, lemon juice, garlic cloves and mustard and set the motor to low. Pour oil in a thin stream while the motor runs over a good two to three minutes until the egg emulsifies and the sauce thickens and becomes pale. Adjust seasoning to taste and then pulse through one tablespoon warm tap water to emulsify and lighten the mayonnaise.
Makes 1-2 cups. Can be stored in refrigerator in a sealed jar for up to a week.