Monday, April 13, 2015

Twenty Dinners

This is a review for Twenty Dinners by Ithai Schori & Chris Taylor.
I have this book ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ 3 stars, I liked it.
"A photographer (who happens to be an ex-restaurant cook) and an indie rock star (who happens to be an avid home cook) show you how to slow down your life by cooking beautiful, straightforward, but sophisticated, food for--and with--friends."
This book features 20 full meals arranged seasonally that you can cook at home for or with your friends.  Each recipe is accompanied by stunning photographs.  The authors are pretty good about simplifying their food so it doesn't seem so difficult to make.

Each meal has several dishes included and the authors encourage swapping pieces out or experimenting to make everything how you like it.   Many recipes in here even suggest alternatives if you can't find an element.  Each meal has a suggested drink pairing.  Sometimes it is merely a wine suggestion, other times it is a cocktail that you can make yourself with the included recipe.

This book is all about cooking with friends so it stands to reason that the authors had several of the friends collaborate with them on this book.  There are sections to tell readers how to stock a home bar, how to buy and brew great coffee and how to mix great drinks.  Everything about this cook book is meant to make cooking for your friends more fun.

I personally enjoyed this cookbook.  There are a lot of great recipes in here.  Some of them are pretty basic like roasting a chicken or grilling a hamburger.  Others are more involved such as "morel and shiitake mushroom risotto" or "spiced red wine-poached pears."  There are a lot of recipes that I am looking forward to trying.  There are also quite a few that I probably won't ever make, due to lack of interest or inability to get a specialized ingredient or because I live in a land locked region and fresh fish isn't readily available.  Overall I enjoyed the cook book but it didn't blow me away.

I received this book free from blogging for books in exchange for an honest review.

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