The Big Book of Sides

Whether planning a quick dinner after work or a holiday meal for a crowd, you will never be stumped for a side dish again. Side dishes make the meal. Think about it: What’s a burger without fries, turkey without stuffing, or barbecue without coleslaw, baked beans, or macaroni and cheese--or all three? The Big Book of Sides contains more than 450 delicious recipes to complement any dish. Award-winning cooking teacher and author Rick Rodgers has carefully compiled a variety of wonderful options, from traditional to inspired, Americana to ethnic, Southern fare to California cuisine. Sections include “Eat Your Vegetables,” “From the Root Cellar,” “A Hill of Beans,” “Righteous Rice and Great Grains,” and “Pasta and Friends.” The Big Book of Sides shares • more than 100 information-packed entries on vegetables alone, from artichokes to zucchini, including root vegetables and grains • tutorials on the cooking techniques you need to know, such as grilling and deep-frying • at-a-glance charts for a variety of perfectly roasted vegetables and freshly cooked beans • carefree menu planning, with a complete list of special-occasion meals and suggested side dishes Home cooks of all levels will delight in preparing Roasted Summer Squash with Pepitas and Cilantro; Chard Puttanesca; Parsnip, Apple, and Bacon Hash; Smoked Gouda Mashed Potatoes; Quinoa with Carrot and Mint; Farro, Cherry, and Feta Salad; and Butternut Squash and Potato Gratin. Rodgers also shares recipes for relishes, chutneys, pickles, baked goods (from biscuits to foccacia), and even sauces. With helpful tips on how to stock your pantry, easy-to-follow cooking techniques, gorgeous color photos, and main dish pairing suggestions, The Big Book of Sides is sure to become a trusted staple in your kitchen.

Auteur
Rick Rodgers is an award-winning cookbook author and cooking teacher and the writer of more than forty cookbooks on subjects from baking to grilling and more. Rodgers often works behind the scenes as a recipe tester, co-author, and consultant on cookbooks by other authors, including Lilly Pulitzer and Sarabeth Levine of Sarabeth’s Bakery. He has also written corporate cookbooks for clients such as Kingsford Charcoal and Sur La Table, as well as many titles for Williams-Sonoma. Rodgers’s recipes have appeared in Bon Appétit, Cooking Light, Men’s Health, Food and Wine, and Fine Cooking, among other magazines. He has received Bon Appétit Magazine’s Food and Entertaining Award as Outstanding Cooking Teacher and an IACP Cookbook Award for The Chelsea Market Cookbook. Rick Rodgers has been guest chef on all of the national morning shows.

Échantillon de lecture

Getting It to the Table

 

Cooking Methods

The most obvious way to vary your side dishes begins with the choice of ingredients. But choosing one cooking technique over another will also change things up. For example, roasting will add sweet, caramelized notes, while steaming retains the food’s natural characteristics, and braising creates an interchange of flavors between the food and the cooking liquid. Most of these techniques refer to vegetables because they are the stars of the side dish menu.

 

Cooking methods are separated into two large categories: moist heat and dry heat. Moist-­heat methods (boiling, simmering, blanching, steaming, braising, and pan-­roasting) require liquids, including water and steam, to cook the food. Dry-­heat methods (sautéing, stir-­frying, roasting, baking, grilling, and deep-­frying) do not use water as their cooking element, and the heat source does the work.

 

Moist-­Heat Cooking Methods

 

Boiling, Simmering, and Blanching

Boiling cooks the food in strongly bubbling hot water (with a temperature of 212ºF at sea level, although you won’t need a thermometer!). This technique does a relatively fast job of softening tough vegetables, so it is one of the most common methods for root vegetables, corn, and the like, and boiling also does a great job of brightening the food’s color. Its main drawback is that nutrients can be leached into the cooking water.

 

Simmering uses water heated to a slightly lower temperature than boiling to create smaller bubbles for a more delicate cooking method for tender ingredients.

 

Blanching is a technique that partially cooks the food by boiling it briefly, and then finishes the cooking later with a second method, usually sautéing.

 

To cook by boiling, simmering, or blanching, fill a large saucepan or pot from one-­half to two-­thirds full with cold water. (The jury is out on whether you can use hot tap water to save time, because some experts believe that old hot-­water pipes leach lead, so cold water is safer from a health perspective.) The water should be salted—­enough that you can taste the salt, but so that the water isn’t as salty as seawater. If you require a measurement, use about 2 teaspoons kosher salt (or 1½ teaspoons fine sea or table salt) for every quart of water. The salt isn’t just there for flavor; it also helps soften the vegetables for quicker cooking. Cover the saucepan and bring the water to a full boil over high heat.

 

The vegetables should be cut into uniform pieces that will cook in about 5 minutes. (Potatoes and other very hard vegetables will take longer to cook, but evenly sized pieces are still important.) Cooking in liquid breaks down the cell structure in vegetables, so whether you are boiling, simmering, or blanching, check the food occasionally to avoid overcooking. The best tool for this is the tip of a small, sharp knife.

 

When the food is cooked to the desired texture, drain the contents of the pot in a large colander. In most cases, the food is now ready to season and serve—­rinsing will not “set the color,” so it is totally unnecessary at this point.

 

However, if the vegetables are going to be reheated later, stop the cooking by rinsing them under cold running water. It is not always necessary to transfer them to a bowl of iced water, a step that just uses another bowl and depletes your supply of ice cubes. You can do it if you wish, but be sure to remove any unmelted ice cubes from the water after the vegetables cool. Drain the cooled vegetables well and pat them dry with clean kitchen towels before storing them in plastic zip-­tight bags.

 

Steaming

Steam, the vapor from boiling water, is actually as hot as the water itself, and can cook food on a rack in a closed pot. Steaming’s gentle heat retains the vegetable’s characteristics (shape, flavor, and texture) and nutrients better than boiling in water, but it can take more time.

 

Place a collapsible steamer rack in a large saucepan. The saucepan must be large enough to contain the vegetables without crowding so the steam can travel freely around the food. Pour in enough water to come just below the insert. (If you are using a steamer-­style saucepan, just add an inch or two of water to the saucepan.) Cover it tightly and bring the water to a full boil over high heat, with a visible head of steam.

 

Add the food (be careful of the hot vapors) and cover it again. Adjust the heat to maintain the full steam. If you are steaming food (such as artichokes) for more than 15 minutes, check the water level and add more boiling water as needed so it doesn’t boil away. Only check when you think it is really necessary, because opening the lid will drop the temperature.

 

Braising and Pan-­Roasting

Sturdy vegetables (such as members of the onion family and other roots) often bene…