cuisines

The great advantage of this is that the recipes are hard to
mess up, and they welcome further improvisation! So do not fear – for
cooking is not an exact science.

After cooking a recipe and becoming familiar with it, feel free to
change it and make it your own. By experimenting with the variations
provided, you’ll soon be able to survive without a cookbook. If
something works different for you, write in notes over the recipe. The
best thing this book can do is to give you ideas and to give you
courage.

While creating this cookbook, I’ve kept the following principles in
mind:

Time. We’re not going to replicate our grandmothers’ hefty work in the kitchen, for today, people are busy. (Although what we’re busy doing may not always be worth all that effort…) But in only around
thirty minutes – the time it would take to watch a sitcom episode on TV
– you can make food that’s more delicious and nutritious than anything
in the frozen or boxed-food aisle.

Ease. Nothing in your daily cooking should require intricate technical knowledge or a degree from a culinary institute. With these recipes,
you can achieve delicious results from only few basic techniques with
which you’ll soon become familiar (if you are not already).

Get Out Of The Box! cookbook www.thelword.com
Readily-available materials. Most ingredients can be found at your local supermarket. If a recipe calls for a spice you don’t have or
haven’t tried, don’t be shy about buying it – many of the ingredients are
used throughout the cookbook, so it probably won’t be the only time
you’ll use it.

Variety. There’s nothing here that’s terribly exotic that would frighten off people with timid palates, but this book contains a nice mix of
continental flavors and faraway cuisines, traditional plates with a
continental spin.

Cost. While I would hope that you can spoil yourself with expensive food every once in a while, this book focuses on delicious eating on a
modest bank account. If you treat your potato like a king and cook it
with respect, it will treat you likewise.

Variations. There are no unbreakable rules in cooking – therefore, I’ve listed many variation ideas for each recipe. These are provided so that
you can try the recipes from different angles depending on your mood,
taste, or ingredients at hand, and they’re meant to tickle your
imagination – feel free to come up variations of your own!



How To Begin

For those of you who are just starting, it may at first feel a little like a mystery, but soon, even after just seeing ingredients and recipes, you’ll
instinctively know how much of an ingredient to use; what you’ll have
to do to prepare something; and even how to change a recipe to your
liking. My hope is that this book will serve as a springboard to
becoming creative and confident in improvising a life.


Get Out Of The Box! cookbook www.thelword.com

To gain confidence in your first efforts, try to keep the following
principles in mind when planning a meal:

1. Make sure you have what you need before starting. Read through the recipe first, choose the variation you want to make, and be sure you
have all of the ingredients.

2. Think about your audience. If any food in the book looks new or strange to you, give it a chance – but you may want to try it first
yourself so that you feel more comfortable introducing it to others.
Although the recipes are basic enough to please most palates, if you’re
making something like dried curried beef, be sure to plan a side dish
that is sure to satisfy the taste buds of more conservative family
members.

3. Once you’ve chosen a recipe to work with, become familiar with
the cooking techniques used in it. Look at the ingredients to see if any need prior preparation. (Check for things like “butter, cubed” or
“cookies, crushed.”) If you don’t know what a term means, look it up
in the brief Glossary of Cooking Techniques included with this book.

4. Become familiar with the look of various food measurements. If a recipe calls for 1-2 tablespoons of something, put it on your palm and
try to feel what it looks like so you can instantly gauge it in the future.
Or try to see how much space a half-cup of liquid takes up in your
favorite glass. Or study what two teaspoonfuls of olive oil look like in
a pan. This way you may find that you often won’t need multiple
measuring cups when cooking a simple recipe for a quick dinner, and
you’ll have much less to wash!
Get Out Of The Box! cookbook www.thelword.com




se these recipes on broiled or grilled meat, chicken, fish, soup,
U pasta, bread, and pizza; in potato salads and sandwiches; or as dips
on the side. Pesto is an easy topping for pastas and toasted baguettes
and will make pizza more interesting if you just dollop some over the
pizza sauce. Chutney is a wonderful accompaniment and an excellent
way to lighten up a spicy meal. Salsa and sauces have so many uses
that I can only say this: Just try it on whatever you like!
Get Out Of The Box! cookbook www.thelword.com
Almond Dip, Turkish

Servings: 4

1 cup almond, slivered
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup water
2 cups stale bread
3 tablespoons lemon juice
salt, to taste