A Cook's Compendium, by Jenni Davis

A Cook's Compendium, by Jenni Davis. Random House Struik Lifestyle. Cape Town, South Africa 2014. ISBN 9781432304041 / ISBN 978-1-4323-0404-1

Jenni Davis's Cook's Compendium is like an essential cooking course that shows you all the best ways to cook meat and fish, pulses, vegetables, pastas, grains and dairy products, while unlocking the mysteries of pastries and baking to make you feel like a confident cook, whether you choose to follow a recipe or invent something with what's in the cupboard or freezer.

Jenni Davis  

Cooking is a joy. Not assembling packages and jars of processed foods and uniting them, but real cooking, from scratch, using the best ingredients. It's only when you serve your first batch of homemade pasta with a sauce of your own making, when a cube of tender meat falls apart almost before your fork reaches it, when the aroma of baking fills the kitchen, that you really start to understand why chefs love their work so much. Cooking engages all your senses, often without you noticing. Taste is only part of it, you use your eyes to judge colour, your ears to listen for a sizzle, your nose to gauge progress. You touch steak, fish, a cake to assess whether it's cooked. Your intuition tells you what will work, and what won't. And these are just examples. Be aware of all your senses as you cook and you'll find it's as soothing as a meditation. This isn't a recipe book, although there are recipes scattered throughout to demonstrate technigues. Rather, it's a book about 'how' and 'why', cooking is a far less daunting prospect if you're armed with knowledge about how ingredients behave and why you don't always get the result you'd hoped for. From now on, you always will!

Content: A Cook's Compendium, by Jenni Davis

Foreword
About this book
Key ingredients
Utensils, gadgets and gizmos
Fish & shellfish
Fresh with fish
The art of cooking fish
Mastering shellfish
Meat
Tenderizing meat
Surely it's all just cooking?
Beef: The ultimate red meat
Versatile pork
Create your own sizzle
Lively lamb
Popular poultry
Grains & legumes
Rice is nice
Perfect risotto
Sensational sushi
Pasta, bella!
Serious about sauce
Artisan pasta
Know your noodle
A handful of grains
Luscious legumes
From the ground
Chopping, slicing, peeling
Root veggies
Tasty greens
Mushrooms: A classic addition
Vegetable fruits
Juicy fruit
Herbal magic
Essential garlic
Variety of spice
Nuts and seeds
Know your oils
Dairy
Understanding dairy ingredients
The joy of eggs
Cheese connoisseur
Mastering roux
Cream and butter
Baking
Utensils and ingredients
The art of pastry
Baking bread
Cakes worth celebrating
Dinner's at Eight
Set the scene
Eat with your eyes
Menu inspirations
Glossary
Charts
Index Credits

This is an excerpt from the cookbook: A Cook's Compendium, by Jenni Davis.

Title: A Cook's Compendium
Subtitle: 250 essential tips, techniques, trade secrets & tasty recipes
Editors: Jenni Davis
Publisher: Random House Struik
Imprint: Lifestyle
Cape Town, South Africa 2014
ISBN 9781432304041 / ISBN 978-1-4323-0404-1
Softcover, 19 x 24 cm, 160 pages, 350 photographs