If you are looking for some variety with your burgers,
Rachel Ray has the book for you. After a brief introduction to burgers as well
as her preferred meat blend, it is on to the recipes in this book published last
June. While there are recipes for outside grilling, Rachel Ray thinks of
burgers as a year around deal. The Book Of Burger isn’t just about
burgers, despite the title.
The book opens with a section titled “Burgers” made of
beef¸ veal, pork, chicken, veggies and other things. The section starts with “Big
Beef Burgers with Crunchy Sour Cream Onion Rings (pages 4-6). This one serves four and features onion rings
on top of a hamburger topped off with lettuce and red ranch dressing. “Chili
Mac ’N’ Cheese Burgers” (pages 12-13), “Bloody Mary Cheeseburgers” (page 31),
as well as “The Ultimate Salami Burgers” (page 52-53) among others are in this section.
Unfortunately, there is no nutritional information on
the recipes as well as very few pictures.
Tips, suggestions, and information in small text notes with or without
small icons is present and plentiful. The Book Of Burger is billed as an “Atria Smart Book” and
features active links to information online as well as images that can be
scanned by smart phones to release still more information. The active links
were not explored and this reviewer does not have a smart phone so those images
were not explored either.
The next section begins on page 128 and is “Sliders”
primarily featuring, beef and pork. There is one recipe using lamb as well as several
recipes for chicken and turkey sliders and two featuring seafood. Also included
here is further evidence this book is not just about burgers as there are
recipes for “Bourbon /Barbeque Sliced Steak Sliders” (page 139), “Green and Red
Chili Nacho Sliders” (pages 144-145) and “Sliced Steak Soft Taco Sliders with
Guaca-Salsa” (pages 154-155) among others.
This leads into the next section that further goes
away from the title of the book.
“Sandwiches and Dogs” begins on page 174 and features subs and hoagies
as well as sorts of dogs and sausages. Here are recipes for “Albondigas Subs:
Spicy Spanish Meatball Subs” (page 186-187), “Bourbon BBQ Pulled Chicken
Sandwiches and Green Apple Slaw” (pages 192-193) and “Cubano Dogs” (page 199)
among others.
While nearly every dish in this book is going to be
some potential sloppy eating, “Sloppies” is the title of the next section. Whether it be “Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy
Joes” (page 216-217) “Sloppy Dawgs” (page 227), or “Sloppy Veg-Head Joes with
Beans” (page 236-237) among others, the mess they make is the theme here.
Of course you
need “Sides and Sauces” because anything regular will not do. Starting on page
240 along with various recipes for French fries and tater tots there are
several recipes for potato salads of different types and ones for onion rings,
devil eggs, and pickles. Not to mention several for ketchups, dips, and
gravies.
A final chapter “Burger Bash” features recipes from
famous and therefore well-known chefs such as Bobby Flay, Marc Murphy and
others.
The
Book Of Burger closes with a sixteen page index.
An interesting cookbook that features variety and
not just with burgers. You can use this book to make things as simple or as complicated
as possible. Some toppings are for more complicated and will take far longer to
create than others. The Book Of Burger, despite its name, goes far beyond burgers
and thus will have appeal outside the demographic related to its title. A lack of nutritional information and
pictures are a definite negative and rather surprising considering her frequent
comments promoting healthy eating on her TV show.
The
Book Of Burger
Rachel
Ray
Photographs
by Romulo Yanes
Atria
Paperback (Simon & Schuster)
June
2012
ISBN#
978-1-4516-5969-6
Paperback
(also available as e-book)
324
Pages
$24.99
Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas
Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2012
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