Key Messages
Unlocking The Secrets Of Alice Waters’ Delicious And Sustainable Food Revolution
The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters is a back-to-basics look at how to make food taste more like itself.
With her help, you’ll learn the fundamentals of creating fantastic meals and cooking techniques that will unlock the full potential of your ingredients.
Alice’s revolution in American food culture put a focus on using only local, organic, freshly sourced produce, and there’s no better way to discover the true flavor of your ingredients than following how Alice does it – by simply allowing food to be what it really is.
You can learn about creating vinaigrettes for training your specifications on the kind of dressing you like; get an understanding on how to poach an egg in classic salads; plus other unique uses for seasonal fruit!
With The Art of Simple Food, Alice puts all these valuable lessons in one place.
Find Fresh Ingredients And Master The Basics To Make Your Own Delicious Vinaigrette
Alice Waters, author of The Art of Simple Food, says that no sauces make a more delicious base for a meal than vinaigrette.
According to Alice, it can immediately turn your simple plate of meat, veggies and salad greens into a finished dish.
Vinaigrette is a classic combination of olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice and salt.
She also suggests adding pepper, herbs and even puréed garlic or shallots to give it your own twist.
The tricky part is getting the ratio right – one tablespoon vinegar for every three or four tablespoons of oil – as too much acid will overpower the dish while too little won’t bring out the flavor enough.
In order to get this balance right Alice recommends tasting your vinaigrettes throughout the process until you’ve made it exactly how you like it!
By using quality ingredients like fruity olive oils and wine vinegars with character, you’ll be sure to get maximum bang for your buck with every batch of vinaigrette.
With practice and patience, you’ll soon master this foundation sauce that can take any dish from ordinary to extraordinary!
Alice Waters’ Approach To Salads: Mix It Up With Seasonal Ingredients, Flavorful Vinaigrettes, And Careful Composition
Alice Waters is a firm believer that the best way to enjoy fresh and delicious ingredients is through a raw salad.
Especially in California, where she pioneered her approach to cooking, salads featuring seasonal, ripe produce can be an absolute delight.
When it comes to making salads, Alice has some tips and tricks.
She prefers to buy heads of lettuce from local growers and arrange them together herself rather than buying pre-mixed salads.
It’s important not to be too heavy handed with the dressing—aim for leaves that glisten rather than dripping with dressing!
If you’re looking for something unique, consider crafting a composed salad–one that layers various ingredients on top of one another.
The star of the show should always be the greens; make sure they are supported but don’t get overwhelmed by heavier items like nuts or olives.
One of Alice’s favorite composed salads is a blood orange and olive salad.
For this dish you’ll need a sharp knife to carefully peel the oranges so that none of the pith remains—this will give you beautiful slices for laying out on your platter.
Then simply dress it with a vinaigrette made from orange juice, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, olive oil and add small Niçoise olives as garnish (remembering to let your guests know about their pesky pits!).
Thanks to Alice Waters’ inventive approach in using simple ingredients to make delicious dishes, enjoying salads really can be “salad days”!
Enjoy A Delicious, Ethically Sourced Roast Chicken With Few Hassles
Cooking a roast chicken is one of the most comforting and homely things you can do in the kitchen.
Thanks to Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food, anyone can create a taste of home with her simple recipe.
When starting out, it’s important to remember that choosing a healthy bird from an organic farm is worth the extra cost as it will ultimately give you better flavor.
It’s also important to season it with salt and pepper early on for maximum flavoring.
Once you’ve prepped your chicken for roasting, take it out of the refrigerator an hour before cooking and let it come to room temperature so that all the meat cooks evenly.
Put your seasoned bird into a 400°F oven for 60 minutes with its breast-up, flipping once halfway through.
To know when your roast chicken is finished, wiggle its leg – if it moves freely, this means that all juices are running clear from between the thigh and body.
Lastly, let your roast rest for 10-15 minutes before carving to make sure all juices stay saturated inside the meat!
Enjoy alone or use the juice in pan to create savory gravy or simply swipe some delicious crusty bread through the fatty savoriness – Cooker’s treat!
Poaching: The Perfect Way To Preserve The Subtle Flavors Of Any Ingredient, Especially Eggs
If you’re looking for a way to cook your eggs that preserves the subtle flavors, then you should try poaching.
Poaching is a method of cooking delicate foods in a little liquid over very low heat so that they don’t get overdone.
This makes poaching the perfect choice if you want to make the most out of high quality ingredients.
To perfectly poach an egg, make sure you start with fresh eggs; you’ll know when an egg is fresh when it has thick and gelatinous whites clinging to an orange yolk that stands tall and plump.
Fill your pan with about three inches of water and add a large splash of good red wine vinegar then heat until hot but not bubbling.
Next, carefully crack each egg into its own bowl or cup and lower it into the hot water – BE CAREFUL!
– then stir the water to keep them from sticking.
Let them sit until the whites are set, maintaining a careful eye on the water – lowering the temperature if it threatens to simmer too much.
Finally, carefully remove them with a slotted spoon, blotting them dry afterwards.
Now your poached eggs are ready!
Serve them up on a bed of curly endive lettuce tossed in a warm bacon-fat vinaigrette – adding some crumbled bacon beforehand for even more flavor – and top with freshly ground pepper.
Enjoy!
Grilling Over An Open Fire: The Primal And Satisfying Way To Cook
When it comes to cooking, nothing is quite as primal and satisfyingly immediate as grilling over an open fire.
That’s why Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food focuses so heavily on the craft of grilling.
From picking out the right cuts of meat to setting up a good bed of coals, there are many key elements when learning to master this skill.
Alice recommends using lump charcoal or hardwood –– or a combination of the two –– depending on how much time you have before your food needs to hit the flames.
She also advises against using any lighter fluids that might lend a chemical and petroleum flavor to your meal.
All you’ll need is some newspaper igniting embers in a chimney starter, which, when turned grey will be ready for placement under the grill.
Alice’s favorite thing to do with this flame-lit heat is cook steak: marbled rib-eye, New York steaks, skirt steaks –– whatever you desire!
But don’t forget those trimmings: make sure extra fat is removed from the edges before it hits the hot coals.
For her herb crust method season steak with an array of fresh herbs (rosemary essential!), freshly ground black pepper, salt and olive oil an hour or so prior grill time; then initiate searing once coals reach desired heat intensity.
Medium rare should only need 2-3 minutes per side before resting for juicy succulence.
Enjoy Perfectly Ripe Fruit With A Delicious Summer Peach Crisp
Alice Water’s The Art of Simple Food is all about emphasizing the beauty and simplicity of cooking, and for Alice that means fruit.
Plain, ripe fruit doesn’t need much to make it a perfect end to any meal; just a little sugar, orange juice, or wine added is good enough!
To get truly ripe fruit that’s full of flavor, the best place to shop is at your local farmer’s market.
There you can find fresh fruit in season and ask the farmers for a sample before buying – what could be better? And while you’re there, why not look into making an easy crisp with your perfectly ripe fruit? Not only will delicious dessert be produced with minimal effort, but it’s also a great way to highlight the natural beauty of summer fruits like peaches.
The process is simple: just toast some nuts of your choice (pecans, walnuts, or almonds work great), add them to flour and sugars along with salt and cinnamon (if desired), then mix in butter until it has a crumbly texture.
Slice up four peaches – first boil them for 10 seconds so the skin comes off easier – toss them with sugar and flour, spread across a dish for baking, top off with your crisp mixture, put in the oven – and that’s it!
Your hard work will result in 40-55 minutes of perfectly golden brown goodness that tastes as amazing as it smells—the perfect way to finish off any meal!
Wrap Up
The Art of Simple Food is a great book for mastering the fundamentals of cooking great food.
The overall message here is that cooking doesn’t have to be complicated or intimidating – all it takes is patience, experimentation, a few simple techniques and high-quality ingredients.
Alice’s advice on grocery shopping was also useful – shop strategically and focus on the fresh produce around the edges of the supermarket – this way you’ll avoid unnecessary processed foods that often taste bad anyway!
Finally, using fresh vegetables and herbs not only improves the flavour of your dish but also its nutritional value.
All in all, The Art of Simple Food has simplified many aspects of cooking with easy-to-follow tips and examples.
