Best Cookbooks for New Cooks?
What's best depends on what you want to do and learn. Do you want to know why a recipe works so that you can learn to improvise your own or do you just want dependable instructions for your favorite dishes?
If you want to know the "how and why", The Science of Good Cooking by Cook's Illustrated is an excellent choice and one of my favorites. There are 400 recipes and each describes not just what to do, but why doing it that way works best.
The 400 recipes are used to teach 50 basic concepts beginning with "Gentle heat prevents overcooking" to "Cocoa powder delivers big flavor". In between you learn that salty marinades work best, fat makes eggs tender, how to "bloom" spices to increase their flavor, and why you should put vodka in your pie dough.
It looks like a lot of the U.S. is in for some chilly weather on Sunday. Here's just the thing to warm you up!
Break up the chocolate bar into small pieces. Set aside.
Heat milk, heavy cream, and powdered sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. When the milk mixture starts to bubble, remove it from the heat and whisk in chocolate pieces until they are melted and the drink is thick and smooth.
Pour into small cups (it's very rich, you don't need much) and top with whipped cream. Serves 2.