Piecemeal

Starred review from June 1, 2023
It's easy to get overwhelmed (and jaded!) by the zillions of meal prep systems and cookbooks that claim dinner-solution miracles in the kitchen, but this is a book that dispels all doubt. Blogger behind Cardamom and Tea, photographer, and recipe developer Pauline (Dish for All Seasons, 2022) devotes her second cookbook to relieving stress in the kitchen while still using quality ingredients. The book is organized by 30 base recipes for "super-flavorful components," like smoky eggplant and lemongrass beef. Each building block has three accompanying recipes that can be made in 5, 15, or 30 minutes, and amazingly, most can be accomplished with pantry staples. Filled with make-ahead suggestions, substitutions, and variations for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, this book has seemingly endless possibilities. The author also includes store-bought cheats to make cooking times even shorter. Multiple tables of contents make revisiting favorites a breeze. Home cooks who loathe leftovers or serve picky eaters will love the flavor variations recipes deliver from a single base. With its delicious, accurate, and reliable recipes, this title will fly off library shelves and become a staple for home cooks.

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September 4, 2023
Pauline (A Dish for All Seasons) offers a clever alternative to weekend batch cooking and meal planning with simpler recipes organized around “30 super-flavorful components” that can be made ahead and repurposed into myriad quick meals throughout the week. Cornerstone ingredients include caramelized tomatoes (used in caramelized caprese, summer strata, and cornmeal pancakes), coconut shrimp (served as a curry, in tacos, or with sweet chili sauce), and lemongrass beef (which can be placed in a lettuce cup or on a skewer). A chapter on fruit explores the possibilities of pickled mango and mulled wine pears. Pauline also provides versatile sauce recipes, such as a Korean gochujang sauce, a sesame ginger sauce, and an “Actually Good” vinaigrette. Some of the five-plus-minute recipes are only slight extensions of the featured batch-cooked component; miso sweet potatoes, for example, become miso sweet potatoes with sesame and lime. A useful introduction invites experimentation and offers freezing tips, while time-saving store-bought substitutes (including frozen chicken fingers) and mix-and-match suggestions are woven throughout. This unique adaptable approach will inspire those looking to expand their repertoire while streamlining meal planning. Agent: Andrianna Yeatts, CAA.

Starred review from October 1, 2023

Wondering what to do with an ear of corn or how to take meatballs from quick-and-easy to elegant? Pauline (A Dish for All Seasons) has all of that and more covered in her brilliant approach to component cooking. She's selected a range of ingredients (loosely grouped into vegetables, meats, sauces, and fruits), and for each key ingredient, she delivers five-, 15-, and 30-minute recipes designed to pack as much flavor into as little effort as possible. The recipes play well together, so readers can improvise menus by stringing a few dishes together. Pauline also organizes recipes by the meal, for browsing by category rather than by ingredient, and explains how readers can either use the recipes for batch cooking or take a more improvisational approach. VERDICT For people tired of meal prep that seems uninspired yet also overwhelming, Pauline's concept of batch cooking and recipe stitching offers an equally budget- and time-friendly solution that still has space for transforming leftovers, combining components in new ways for a second or third meal, and awakening cooks to the freedom that comes from more flexible meal planning, by cooking a few items at a time rather than dedicating an entire day to meal prep.--Emily Bowles

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