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404 Recipes (2000)

by Mark Bittman(Favorite Author)

3.95 of 5 Votes: 1

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review 1: Definitely not one of my favorite cookbooks. I dislike Cook's Illustrated (I know...heresy!) because I think that the recipes are way over-engineered, and I don't need my cooking to be perfect. I just want my food to taste goooooood. I dislike Kitchen Express because it is so unstructured. I need more direction from recipes. It doesn't need to be in the form of photos, but it should be less loosey goosey in terms of measurements and ingredients.I made the Jerk Chicken, Beef and Corn Tacos and the Eggplant, Kalamata and Goat Cheese Sandwich. The sandwich had the most flavor but that came mostly from the olives. The chicken and tacos were not horrible but not great either. The recipes also took more than 20 minutes.I think this cookbook is most useful for confident, ... moreexperimental cooks who want more ideas for their everyday cooking.This was my introduction to Mark Bittman. Others have raved about his recipes, so I think I'll try another of his cookbooks before I write him off as "Not My Cup of Tea."
review 2: The What's Cooking group's reaction to this cookbook and the recipes was wide ranging. Our star rating averaged out to 4 stars but we had a few 2 star and 3 star ratings to balance out the 5 stars.One participant came to our discussion exclaiming "This book saved my life!" While no one else had such a strong reaction, the majority enjoyed the unstructured nature of the book even if the recipes took longer than 20 minutes to prepare.We sampled the following recipes...- Jerk Chicken- Eggplant Rolls- Cucumber - Dill Soup - Stir fry Steak Fajitas- Eggplant, Kalamata, Goat Cheese and Dried Tomato Sandwich- Curried Coconut Butternut Squash Soup- Almond Tart- Sausage and Cabbage with Mustard- Dessert French ToastWe all enjoyed the sausage/cabbage and the French toast dishes. We were split on the others.One participant who loved this book did caution that she thought that Bittman doesn't suggest adding salt enough in his recipes. This cookbook is ideal for cooks who have a bit of experience in the kitchen and are comfortable with making substitutions/additions of their own choice. less

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