Everyday Easy

Starred review from January 5, 2015
Pascale breathes a gust of fresh air into the fast-and-easy cookbook category with her thoughtfully developed collection of recipes. Best known in the U.K. for her books and television shows, the British author is an angel for harried home cooks stuck in the trenches of weekday cooking. What you won’t find are lofty ingredient lists that require “a space shuttle flight to the outer reaches of the universe to source.” After surveying her Twitter fan base, Pascale created recipes based on what people actually cook (spoiler alert: we eat a lot of chicken breasts). What you will find are dishes that don’t skimp on flavor or originality, despite their fast cook time. Chicken cacciatore is revved up with harissa, a bold Moroccan spice paste, while a salmon fillet served over lentils gets some added intrigue with chorizo, asparagus, and a balsamic dressing. International influences abound, from Indian tandoori chicken wraps to a Greek spinach, feta, and pine nut phyllo pie. Pascale’s voice is helpful and cheery as she carefully coaches readers through the steps of each recipe, offering tips and encouragement. An added bonus: almost all of the main courses include a side dish that’s seamlessly incorporated into the instructions. Twenty minutes will yield not just a Sri Lankan chicken curry, but a coconut and cashew rice to enjoy with it. Pascale succeeds at making cooking on a Monday night look like fun.

January 1, 2015

Best-selling UK cookbook author Pascale (Baking Made Easy) shares simple recipes for last-minute cooking and entertaining, including pancetta and Parmesan puffs (a twist on gougeres), tandoori chicken wraps with cucumber raita and mango salsa, and chocolate mousse with raspberries. These recipes have clear instructions and relatively short cooking times and offer varied preparations for ever-popular ingredients such as chicken breasts and ground meat. In addition to conventional courses--starters, salads, mains (poultry, meat, fish, and vegetarian), and desserts--the author includes canapes, cocktails, breads, and confections. VERDICT Pascale's recipes are distinct, but her carefree, reassuring cooking style recalls that of such well-known celebrity chefs as Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, and Ina Garten. Recommend this to readers looking to add a new voice to their everyday cooking collections.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2014
Best-selling British cookbook author Pascale offers an array of easy recipes suitable for snacks, family meals, and dinner parties. Her international palate spices up chicken cacciatore with red chili paste from North Africa. She offers quickly assembled canap's made from sliced baguettes topped with white beans and arugula, or goat cheese, figs, and mint with balsamic drizzle. She offers no-cooking-required recipes for dips, including hummus with cumin and paprika. Soup recipes include Thai chicken soup with coconut milk and ginger and potato-and-leek vichyssoise with bacon and chives. Salads include concoctions with mango, feta, and avocado, Thai beef salad with roasted peanuts and chili dressing, and mackerel salad with horseradish cr'me fraiche. Main dishes include Sri Lankan chicken curry with coconut milk and cashew nut rice, baked jerk chicken with pineapple salsa, rosemary roast cottage pie, moussaka, tarragon pork steaks, pan-fried pork chops, blackened Cajun cod, and Moroccan pesto fish. Forvegetarians, she includes goat-cheese quesadillas, butternut and sweet-potato lasagna, and sweet-potato tortillas. The ease and broad assortment of these recipes will appeal to foodies.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)