Product Description

Bistro cooking—bold and full-flavored—is more like the best home cooking than restaurant fare, featuring slow-cooked stews, exquisitely roasted chickens, perfectly seared steaks, vibrant salads, fresh fruit tarts, and comforting custards. Now Gordon Hamersley of acclaimed Hamersley’s Bistro in Boston helps home cooks bring these classic dishes into their own kitchens.

Bistro Cooking at Home offers a complete menu of versatile selections for cooks who crave sophisticated but easy-to-prepare comfort food. Many of the dishes allow for “walk-away cooking,” such as stews, roasts, or braises. And many of these same dishes taste best if prepared a day or two ahead, making entertaining foolproof. Although the accent is French, dishes such as hamburgers stuffed with blue cheese and Pear Cranberry Crumble reflect Gordon Hamersley’s all-American roots.

Start a bistro meal at home with Hamersley’s classic Onion Soup au Gratin or signature Wild Mushroom and Roasted Garlic Sandwich. For a main course there is roast chicken (you can cook it ahead and reheat it under the broiler), New England Bouillabaisse with Rouille and Croutons, or Moroccan lamb shanks. Pasta, polenta, and risotto are given French finesse in dishes such as Lemon-Scented Risotto with Morels and Chives and Oven-Baked Penne with Onions, Walnuts, and Goat Cheese. The Savory Tarts, Gratins, and Galettes chapter holds such richly satisfying dishes as Portobello Mushroom and Roquefort Galette or Creamy Bistro Potato and Leek Gratin, each practically a meal in itself. Even vegetables are made exciting in dishes ranging from Roasted Artichokes with Garlic and Pancetta Bread Crumbs to Garlicky Mashed Potato Cakes. Bistro-inspired desserts include Maple Crème Brûlée, Profiteroles with Easy Chocolate Sauce, and a dense Chocolate Truffle Cake.

All the main dishes are accompanied by knowledgeable, down-to-earth wine recommendations from Fiona Hamersley, Gordon’s wife, who runs the wine service at the restaurant. With the Hamersleys’s expert guidance every step of the way, you can re-create the romance of bistro dining—at home.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #203647 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-14
• Released on: 2003-10-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From Amazon.com
Gordon Hamersley's Bistro Cooking at Home makes a much-explored culinary style newly exciting. Hamersley, chef-owner of Hamersley's Bistro in Boston, has won praise for fare that, though straightforward, is often flubbed, due to poor ingredients and technique. Bistro Cooking repeats his success, providing 150 classic and innovative recipes for irresistible dishes like Tian of Summer Vegetables Provençale and Spicy Lamb Shanks with Couscous and Preserved Lemons. Immediately appealing--open the book to any recipe and you'll want to start cooking--the book also boasts cook-friendly asides like "How to Make a Great Vinaigrette."

The organization is equally enticing. Beginning with "The Art of the Salad," which includes a particularly good version of frisée salad with lardons and poached egg, and "Small Plates," like Wild Mushroom and Roasted Garlic Sandwich, the book then pursues savory tarts, gratins and galettes, such as Fresh Goat Cheese, Roasted Beet and Walnut Tart; starchy dishes including Crabmeat Risotto with Peas and Mint and bistro-style fish like the quick-and-easy Halibut with White Wine, Shallots and Basil. Meat and vegetables are equally well represented--there's a mini-repertoire of roast chicken and duck confit dishes--as are simple but "finished" desserts like Souffléed Lemon Custard and Chocolate Mousse Cake. With a useful section on techniques (moderate-temperature "walk away roasting" ensures juicer results, says the author), good pantry-stocking advice, and color photos that further excite kitchen action. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly
Serving Bostonians some of the best French fare in the city at Hamersley's Bistro, James Beard Award winner Hamersley presents his hearty yet simple dishes for all occasions, like Walk-Away Roast Chicken with Onions and Potatoes or the elegant Pot-Roasted Pork with Prunes, Armagnac, and Walnuts. Instructions are succinct and helpful, for example how to test for doneness in Fiona's Easy Halibut with White Whine, Shallots, and Basil (when the fish is cooked, the bones can easily be picked). Bistro staples like Onion Soup Au Gratin, Mushroom Duxelles, and Tian of Summer Vegetables Provencal are familiar to most serious home cooks (thanks to Hamersley's teacher, Wolfgang Puck) and are classics that, like a good trench coat or pair of black slacks, never go out of style. Home cooks can't go wrong with Mixed Greens with Fried Walnut-Coated Goat Cheese and Sherry Vinaigrette, followed by Grilled Salmon with Peas, Potatoes, and Mint. There is an especially pleasing chapter on Savory Tarts, Gratins, and Galettes and plenty of vegetarian options like Autumn Vegetable Stew with Cheddar-Garlic Crumble Crust and Creamy Gratin of Celery Root, Onions, and Black Truffles. Hamersley and Smart (an editor at Fine Cooking magazine) include a generous dessert chapter with an assortment of tarts, such as Apple Tarte Tatin, cakes, like Chocolate Mousse Cake and others, like Profiteroles. While there's little new here, this volume-with its bold photos and bistro menu-inspired design-makes a fine, comprehensive bistro cookbook.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
“Reading Bistro Cooking at Home is like having a productive conversation with a great chef who is truly on your side. Gordon Hamersley’s recipes are as honest and generous as his wonderful restaurant, and each is seasoned with the kind of insightful tips that will make his food sing in your home kitchen. I’d crave the book for the chicken recipes alone.”
--Danny Meyer, coauthor, The Union Square Café Cookbook

“More than anyone in America, Gordon Hamersley deserves credit for bringing classic French bistro cooking to prominence in America at his namesake restaurant in Boston. What other chefs have copied from him over the past two decades is now between the covers of this splendid book for everyone to enjoy–recipes full of deep taste and strong conviction, with plenty of passion to go around.”
--John Mariani, Esquire magazine

“This is a great tale of food, and of cooking and dining, overflowing with the poetry of all the senses. The richness of each image, each word, is–like the best literature–intoxicating, and is at times as intensely local as it is universal. This eloquent book is filled with respect for its subjects–ingredients, recipes, seasons of the year, chefs, and diners. I’d as soon read this book as a novel or collection of poems or stories, and
found myself unable to put it down.”
--Rick Bass, author of The Hermit’s Story and The Roadless Yaak

“Gordon Hamersley is a cook’s cook–his food is earthy, honest, and deeply satisfying. Only the very best chefs are unafraid of simplicity (Broiled Tomatoes with Crispy Breadcrumbs) while being courageous enough to offer the unexpected (Wild Mushroom and Roasted Garlic Sandwich). His roast chicken recipe alone is worth the price of the book.”
--Christopher Kimball, Publisher, Cook’s Illustrated, and author of The Cook’s Bible

Customer Reviews

Just when you think you don't need another cookbook. . .
you open "Bistro Cooking at Home". Your next Sunday afternoon should be spent making the Beef Short Ribs Braised in Dark Beer with Bacon and Red Onions. It's incredible. The dishes are comparatively easy to make, unpretentious, earthy, and deeply soul satisfying. While not for the completely novice cook, Hamersley helps out with wine suggestions, accompaniments, and helpful preparation notes with almost every dish.

Highly recommended.

Do NOT hesitate. A standout, even on a groaning shelf.
I borrowed BISTRO COOKING AT HOME from the library, thinking I might steal a few tempting recipes, but upon reading it promptly purchased my own permanent copy. The recipes are delicious yet accessible (my last meal was his Orange and Ginger-Glazed Roasted Swordfish with a Carrot and Tarragon Vinaigrette, which caused swooning at my table. It was so good that I wondered, "Why would a chef give away a recipe like this?" ) The side dishes take delicious basics and rachet them up a notch, i.e. Roasted Asparagus with Pancetta and Shaved Asiago or Lemony Braised Endive or Garlicky Cherry Tomato Confit with Toasted Pine Nuts. If you love a flexible chef, one that can accept your vanilla extract if you don't have a vanilla bean on hand, this book is for you. My best summary is: Unpretentious, friendly, practical, and fabulous.

Buy This Book
Mr. Hamersley's "Bistro Cooking at Home" belongs next to Julia and Marcella in your cookbook collection. The 'presentation' is terrific; easy to read with many helpful pictures. There is a wealth of background information, all the way from techniques to sources for hard to find ingredients. The writing style is as comfortable as his restaurant. There is a full range of selections that will satisfy every taste. Recipes are presented with alternatives for technique and ingredients. I'm not the first one to say that the Roast Chicken p. 182 is worth the price of the book, but it's true. But Fiona's Easy Halibut, Seared Sea Scallops with Garlic Tomato and Olive Compote, Roast Pork with Apples, Onions, and Sage, ..............there's just no end to it. Best of all, the consistent end result is flavor, flavor, flavor. Buy the book, work your way through and start again.