ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 21, 1996 TAG: 9608210003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOLORES KOSTELNI SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
This year, the unusual occurred in the cookbook world. Four authors and four publishing houses issued four books that offer four different approaches to two major cooking concepts.
In their books, Barbara Kafka and Kathy Gunst explored roasting. Rozanne Gold and Andrew Schloss chose cooking with only three ingredients as their subject.
Each of the books offers something for everyone.
Kafka, best known as the former Vogue magazine food editor and author of "Microwave Gourmet," now gives us ``Roasting: A Simple Art,'' ($25, William Morrow & Co.). In this book, she again breaks with tradition by advocating an unexpected 500-degree roasting temperature for all foods.
"At this temperature there is no need for basting," she explained. "This method is simply the easiest and best way to concentrate and deepen flavor, to seal in succulence, and make robust roasted meals."
Kafka drives home her fuss-free high temperatures with 437 pages of recipes, definitions, techniques and ideas for a seemingly endless number of centerpiece roasts, side dishes and creative leftovers. She is the master of deglazing: the cook's handiest technique for making sauces and gravies from the coagulated drippings.
Kafka is a woman of well-founded opinion. She prefers uncoated, stainless-steel flat pans because they are best for deglazing over high heat. She considers free-standing racks difficult to clean and of no real aid except when roasting a whole turkey breast for a total of 50 minutes.
What about spattering and smoking up the kitchen, the two notorious side effects of high-temp roasting? Kafka tactfully troubleshoots with a blanket: You may have used the wrong pan, or located the roast at the wrong level, or your oven was dirty.
The 20-plus recipes I tried from Kafka's book were well-received by my family and friends. However, I have not yet tried her 500-degree method on an unstuffed nine-pound turkey, which she insists emerges fully cooked in 75 minutes, or the 20-pounder that's out on the table in three hours.
Kathy Gunst takes the traditional approach to roasting. In ``Roasting: The Simple Cooking Technique for Food That's Bursting with Flavor,'' ($16, softcover, Macmillan). Gunst prefers searing the meat at 400 to 450 degrees, followed by continued cooking and basting at 325 to 350 degrees. She said this produces "utterly juicy meat with golden skin."
She explains: "The extra 50 degrees could sometimes quickly burn the meat." Except for occasional basting and a rare call for a browning blast under the broiler, roasts cook themselves, leaving the cook free to do other things or to be with family. Most of Gunst's dishes are table-ready in a little more than an hour.
Gunst's book includes thorough explanations and clear line drawings for all aspects of roasting and carving. She includes practical suggestions for which sides to serve with your roast; how to roast veggies and fruits; and how to make the currently popular combination dishes, such as roasted fennel parmigiana, roasted salmon with avocado, and Portuguese roasted clams with chorizo.
Gunst leaves no drippings unscraped when describing the magic of making sauces. Her food is pure and simple, and her recipes are easy to follow and execute.
The biggest difference between Rozanne Gold's ``Recipes 1-2-3'' ( $22.95, Viking) and Andrew Schloss' ``Cooking With Three Ingredients'' ($17, HarperCollins) is a matter of style. Gold's recipes use an international array of convenience items she finds acceptable as a professional chef and recommends to the home cook. A sophisticated touch comes from Gold's book: To the side of each recipe, she offers wine suggestions as well as "add-ons," additional flavorings and enhancements for those cooks who want to give a basic dish a higher degree of complexity.
Schloss' offerings depend on well-chosen, everyday convenience products that just about everybody uses. For example, the foundation for Schloss' cinnamon-raisin bread pudding is a loaf of raisin-cinnamon bread moistened with milk and seasoned with vanilla pudding. Gold's chocolate bread pudding uses chocolate-filled croissants, chocolate milk and eggs. Both dishes are delicious. Both books contain clever recipes.Two beef pot roast recipes caught my attention. Gold's Coffee and Vinegar Pot Roast calls for browning a 5-pound chuck roast "until nearly burned" on all sides. The blackened meat then braises in a liquid combination of strong black coffee and water. Schloss's Two-Soup Mushroom Pot Roast simmers browned beef in canned cream of mushroom soup, dry onion soup mix, and water.
I liked several recipes from both books, but especially Spiced Grilled Shrimp and Hot Lips Jalapeno Chicken from Schloss, while Gold gave me Pan-Seared Sirloin with Oyster Sauce and Mahogany Short Ribs. Both books contain cleverly created recipes.
Among my thoughts: 1) It is impossible to find an entire book of recipes to suit your individual and family tastes. 2) Excluding water, salt and pepper, how often does a home cook use more than three ingredients in a single recipe?
Representative recipes from the cookbooks are on Page 4, so you can make up your own mind about which best captures your preferences.
Recipes for:
CAESAR-BAKED FISH
HARVEST SQUASH SOUP
CINNAMON RAISIN BREAD PUDDING
BARBECUE PEPPER SHRIMP
COFFEE AND VINEGAR POT ROAST
CHOCOLATE BREAD PUDDING
ROASTED NEW YORK STRIP
LARISA'S INDIAN ROAST CHICKEN
WITH MASALA-APPLE STUFFING
LENGTH: Long : 108 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. Something for everyone: (From left)by CNB``Recipes 1-2-3,'' by Rozanne Gold, ``Roasting: A Simple Art,'' by
Barbara Kafka, ``Roasting,'' byx
Kathy Gunst, and ``Cooking With Three Ingredients,'' by Andrew
Schloss. color.