Hack Your Cupboard: Make Great Food with What You've Got PDF
Preview Hack Your Cupboard: Make Great Food with What You've Got
W I E G A N D & C A R R E O N HACK YOUR C UPBOARD Make Great Food with What You’ve Got w itM ha Wk e h aG tr Ye oa ut ’v F eo o Gd o t AALLYYSSSSAA WWIIEEGGAANNDD && CCAARRLLAA CCAARRRREEOONN THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK HACK YOUR CUPBOARD HACK YOUR CUPBOARD AN IMPRINT OF AN IMPRINT OF AN IMPRINT OF LERNER PUBLISHING GROUP LERNER PUBLISHING GROUP LERNER PUBLISHING GROUP WWW.LERNERBOOKS.COM WWW.LERNERBOOKS.COM WWW.LERNERBOOKS.COM Make Great Food with What You’ve Got ALYSSA WIEGAND & CARLA CARREON ZEST BOOKS ZEST BOOKS ZEST BOOKS MINNEAPOLIS MINNEAPOLIS MINNEAPOLIS Contents Introduction . . . 6 Dorm Room Dining . . . . . . . . . 47 Who We Are (and Were) 6 Stretching Your Meal Plan 53 How the Book Is Organized 8 Better Salads 55 How to Read the Recipes 9 Sesame Soy Dressing Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette Your First Ramen Hacks 57 Kitchen . . . . . . . . . 11 Spicy Egg Drop Ramen Beginner Techniques Ramen with Ham, Egg, and Spinach and Recipes 15 Coconut Curry Ramen Ramen Salad with Cabbage and Carrots Basic Vinaigrettes 17 Ramen Salad with Peanut Sauce Red Wine Vinaigrette and Edamame Balsamic Vinaigrette Microwave Recipes 63 Lemon and Oregano Vinaigrette Greek Salad Mozzarella in Marinara Sauce Garlic Bread Amazing Scrambled Eggs 21 Spicy Edamame Basic Scrambled Eggs Mushroom and Cheese Egg Bowl Cheesy Scrambled Eggs Breakfast Bread Pudding Toast 27 Simple Brownie Chocolate-Dipped Pretzels and Chips Avocado Toast Sliced Avocado Toast Gourmet Popcorn Hacks 73 with Olive Oil Olive Oil and Parmesan Popcorn Mashed Avocado Toast Curry Lime Popcorn with Garlic and Lime Chocolate and Peanut Popcorn Grilled Cheese 31 Dorm Room Movie Night 77 Basic Grilled Cheese Sandwich Pepperoni Grilled Cheese First Apartment Brie and Jam Grilled Cheese Dining . . . . . . . . . 79 How to Cook Pasta 36 Penne with Marinara Sauce Helpful Hacks 82 Cacio e Pepe The Spice Rack 83 Baking 101 41 Intermediate Techniques Chocolate Chip Cookies and Recipes 89 A Family Celebration Dinner 45 Granola More Toast 92 First Solo Cinnamon Sugar Kitchen . . . . . . . 123 Cinnamon Sugar Toast Saving v. Splurging 124 Apple Peanut Butter Toast Intermediate Baking 95 First Solo Kitchen Pantry 125 Drop Biscuits Advanced Techniques and Recipes 129 How to Sauté 96 Fancy Toast 130 Ground Beef and Potato Tacos Baked Brie How to Pan-Fry 98 Traditional Bruschetta Crispy Chicken Blue Cheese and Honey Crostini Ricotta and Olive Oil Crostini How to Roast 100 Crostini with Salad 136 Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Butter French Goat Cheese Salad Caramelized Onions How to Deep Fry 139 Gruyère Onion Grilled Cheese Wonton Chips Cooking with Rice 107 Cheesy Spinach Dip Bacon Fried Rice First Solo Kitchen Knife Skills 142 Rotisserie Chicken Hacks 110 How to Braise 145 Roommate Food Swap 112 Herb Braised Pork Bean Chili Fancy Rice 149 Pizza Hacks and DIY Pizza Bars 114 Bacon and Pea Risotto Herbed Rice Pilaf Salads without Greens 116 Exploring Different Cuisines 152 Tomato Cucumber Salad Teriyaki Salmon Dessert for a Crowd 118 Sesame Green Beans Pie Chips with Berry Dip Lemon Pound Cake The Big Game Party 121 A Fancy Dinner 161 Afterword 162 Conversion Chart 163 Index 164 Notes 166 Introduction Who We Are (and Were ) Do you watch cooking shows and wish you could cook like that? You totally can. It just takes a little practice and help! We’re Alyssa and Carla, and we love to eat, cook, and show others how to do it themselves. This is Alyssa. Her cooking attire has changed slightly over the years, but she still loves to sneak tastes straight from the bowl. She loves to throw dinner parties, but hates doing the dishes afterward. She can’t get enough carbs — bring on the pasta and bread! Her personal cooking philosophy is: “Everything is better with cheese.” This is Carla. She’s the youngest of four girls, so she grew up doing a lot of dishes and prep work. (You should see her chop vegetables!) She makes a mean hash brown and is currently finding as many recipes as possible that allow her to bake with lemons. In the kitchen, you’re most likely to find her roasting vegetables or putting cinnamon sugar on everything from toast to carrots. Why We Wrote This Book We wrote this book because we wanted to show people how easy it is to cook great-tasting food for yourself and your favorite people. We both happened to grow up in large families with some killer cooking role models, but we still had to learn how to upgrade from pouring our own bowls of cereal to mastering a few recipes. If you’re still at the cereal-for-dinner stage, that’s okay! It’s a start! One of the most important concepts in this book is the idea of “hacking” your recipes and using what you have on hand. Hacking involves thinking about what you like to eat and how it might improve the dish you’re cooking — think of every recipe like a make-your-own pizza. Is there something in your pantry you could add? In addition to recipe hacks, this book will teach you about ingredients, tools, and techniques. These sections will help you feel comfortable in the kitchen and grow your skills so that you can get from simple sandwiches and toast to fancy main courses like braised pork. The ultimate goal is for you to be able to figure out and cook exactly what you want in any kitchen. How the Book Is Organized Hack Your Cupboard guides you through some important living (and cooking) situations. There are four major sections for each kind of kitchen you might encounter. “Your First Kitchen” is all about getting started, “Dorm Room Dining” helps you prepare meals and snacks with little more than a microwave, “First Apartment Dining” helps you navigate a shared kitchen with roommates, and “First Solo Kitchen” helps you get set up on your own. These sections also include: Pantry guidelines Recipes, techniques, and hacks : Talking about pantries : We is a big task, particularly when you’re working combine techniques with recipes that let you in someone else’s kitchen. Ingredients can practice new skills right away. Look for the vary wildly based on many things, including suggested hacks at the end of each recipe to culture, region of the country, and even the help you take them to the next level. Some time of year. While we hope our pantry guides of the hacks we came up with include spicy capture most of the foods you’re used to hacks to add a little kick, gourmet hacks to eating, be prepared for some differences. trick out your dish, or fun hacks to add a little When you’re trying out recipes, just make sure color to your day. that you have the right ingredients — it’s pretty A party menu : Sharing your food with sad to get excited about making avocado others is one of the best parts about cooking toast . . . and then find out you have zero (and everyone loves a party)! Each section avocados. comes with a party menu using recipes that Equipment suggestions: In these sections, you just learned, but don’t forget to add your we talk about the tools that you might have own hacks and favorite recipes. You be you! in your kitchen, plus the ones you might Tips and tricks : Peppered within each want to buy. Your first kitchen is probably the section (pun intended), you’ll find lots of one you have at home, but it could also be a helpful information, including safety tips, grandparent’s kitchen, a kitchen at school, or spice ideas, budget tricks, and more. even your friend’s kitchen! If you don’t have all the items we describe, don’t worry — you can Fun in the kitchen really begins once you often improvise. Beyond that, start making a know that ingredients are flexible, as long as list of anything you might want to add to your you have solid techniques and the right tools. collection. You can also check dollar stores This opens up a whole new world of cooking and garage sales for inexpensive tools. and hacking recipes or dishes. Experimenting with new flavors and combinations gives you Knife skills : There are two knife-skill sections independence and freedom. in this book, intended to help you get through any recipe you might encounter. We cover skills like knife holding, and we explain several Don’t Skip Over different types of cuts. a section if it doesn’t apply to you! You’ll still find great recipes and tips that you might not already know. 8
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