Recent changes in my personal schedule gifted me a fresh start – an opportunity to get back into the habit of cooking regularly! I am really enjoying this change and hope to keep things interesting by trying a variety of recipes, but also need to keep it simple and quick. As with many people, I do not have the time and energy to make an elaborate dinner when I get home from work, nor the pantry space (or patience at the grocery store) to acquire dozens and dozens of ingredients each week.
Milk Street to the rescue! Milk Street Cookish: Throw It Together launched a helpful series of books from Boston’s Milk Street Kitchen focusing on flavorful dishes that use a short list of ingredients and that can be made in under an hour – even if you are not a particularly fast cook and do not have kitchen staff to prep your produce. The recipes are creative, encouraging home cooks to try new things without too much risk, i.e., without spending loads of time, effort, or money.
Cookish, along with Milk Street’s Simple and Cook What you Have, provides ideas for alternative ingredients, too. Is Market Basket out of broccoli rabe? Regular broccoli is fine! Did your walnuts go stale? Try pumpkin seeds or leave them out, no problem! The publisher touts the “simplest, most delicious recipes ever created with six or fewer ingredients that makes it easy to be a great cook in minutes.”
My favorites so far include Chili-Garlic Pork Burgers, Korean Fire Chicken, and Roasted Green Beans & Shiitake Mushrooms with Pecans. I have my eye on the Cucumber & Chickpea Salad and Afghan-style Curried Beans. With 200 flexible recipes, there are a lot of choices! Happy cooking!