Starting with Ingredients: Quintessential Recipes for the Way We Really Cook

Joanna Lefebvre

By Aliza Green
Running Press, $39.95
Hardcover, October 2006

Boiling down an array of culinary possibilities in her latest cookbook, James Beard Award-winning author Aliza Green's Starting with Ingredients: Quintessential Recipes for the Way We Really Cook reverses the typical " cookbook" approach.

Throwing the "recipe, list of ingredient and preparation technique" approach out the window, each chapter of Green's book begins with in-depth explanations of ingredients in their cultural context, then explores various approaches to using them. Each chapter concludes with a selection of recipes that showcase the ingredient's best attributes.

Fact-filled and gorgeously designed, Starting with Ingredients offers an impressive range of creative resources, from Almonds, Apples and Apricots to Yogurt, Yuca and Zucchini, each featuring invaluable information that will enhance the taste of every dish.

Each recipe makes use of whole measures—a whole stick of butter, a half cup of sugar or a tablespoon of salt—that can easily be doubled, tripled or quadrupled.

"Whether it's Brussels sprouts or pears, tomatoes or peaches, bluefish or crab, skirt steaks or turkey cutlets," says Green, "cooks can confidently choose and cook their selections with this book."