A entire world tour of beloved ground meat recipes from award-successful writer James VillasGround meats are easily reasonably priced and amazingly versatile—and frequent in practically each cuisine. Floor beef, pork, poultry, and seafood are staple elements across continents and cultures, but they have rarely been offered the respect they have earned. With favorites like the traditional American hamburger and steak tartare, croquettes and crab cakes, From the Floor Up collects two hundred recipes that span the globe, all offered with the passion and type that make James Villas one of the world’s most admired meals writers. The following, he pays loving tribute to this underappreciated culinary wonder, permitting it just take its rightful seat at the head of the table. With delectable dishes from far and extensive, this amazing collection is stuffed with inspiration. James Villas was the foodstuff and wine editor for Town & Country magazine for 27 a long time and is the writer of Pig, The Bacon Cookbook, and The Glory of Southern CookingFeatures two hundred
A Clever and Timely Twist for Meats and Seafoods,
Leave it to former Town & Country food and wine editor James Villas to come up such a timely topic for our economic times, how to use economical ground meats and seafoods to create great dishes.
From the simplicity of “The Perfect American Hamburger” to the ethnic “Jamaican Chicken-Stuffed Plaintains’ and the regionally-inspired California Lobster and Avocado Salad in Radiocchi Cups, “From the Ground Up” covers a wide range of applications for ground meats and seafoods.
Villas has relied on his world-wide travels and solid knowledge of cooking traditions around the globe to offer more than 200 recipes, along with practical tips for doing your own meat grinding at home. Most of the recipes are great for groups or for preparing ahead of time to dole out during the week.
You will never look at a pound of ground beef or turkey in the supermarket case the same again after reading “From the Ground Up” – visions of Scandinavian Meatballs, Cajun Boudin Rouge or Norwegian Croquettes will be dancing in your head instead.
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|Has it all!,
Ground meats are about the most flexible foods around. There’s just one problem: What do I do with it for dinner tonight?
Actually, that’s no longer a problem, with From the Ground Up. Author, James Villas — a Food & Wine editor, renowned cookbook author, and James Beard Award winner — takes us around the world with ever-versatile ground meats, including beef, pork, chicken, turkey, veal, lamb, and even seafood (ceviche, anyone?). And when I say, “around the world”, I mean it; the book really is a culinary voyage across the globe, in its 400 pages of mouth-watering recipes.
For instance, in the first of eleven chapters, on Appetizers, Canapes, and Dips, the thirty two recipes range from Boston Clam Dip, to Greek Lamb, Raisin and Pine Nut Spanakopitas, back to Key West for Conch Fritters (yum!) to a Japanese Shrimp Spread with Sake, a French Country Pate, or Singapore Crabmeat and Peanut Toasts.
Other chapters in From the Ground Up include Soups and Salads, Sandwiches and Turnovers, Patties, Balls and Dumplings, Pies, Quiches, and Souffles, Casseroles and Pastas, Hashes and Chilies, Sausage, Sauces and many more.
I think you probably get the idea: without exaggeration, From the Ground Up is THE authoritative work on ground meat dishes of all kinds. Any recipe you’ve ever had — or wanted to have — with any type of ground meat is likely to be found here. And what’s more, the recipes are the kind you will actually make, over and over again, with many sure to become family favorites. Now to get busy making Meatballs Stroganoff with that ground round in the fridge… My family is going to love it!
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|Great cookbook,
//From the Ground Up// would benefit any cook’s kitchen library, novice to advanced. Though it has no illustration, it is a handsome trade paperback with clear, large prints and 210 recipes using ground meats of every possible kind. The book is well written, the head notes are excellent and worth reading (even for those who never bother reading them). The introduction is thorough telling you everything you need to know about ground meats. The recipe writing is equally good using logical steps (some of which many recipes writers neglect) and the ingredients are mostly easily available. The serving sizes indicated are designed for very large eaters–in most you can multiply the number by one-and-half and will still have leftovers.||The variety of recipes are astonishing and taken from cuisines around the world; ranging from simple like American hamburgers to complex French pâtés. Occasional recipes (like Coney Island Dogs) don’t use ground meat but includes it in the pre-processed ingredient. The type of preparations also covers the cooking spectrum from appetizers to hashes and chilies, even forced meats and sausages. Layout could’ve been better though most recipes are placed on single or facing pages. The well cross-referenced index is perfect.
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