Part 1 (1/2)
Glorious One-Pot Meals.
A Revolutionary New Quick and Healthy Approach to Dutch-Oven Cooking.
by Elizabeth Yarnell.
FOREWORD
Elizabeth Yarnell has developed a remarkably simple method of putting a delicious, healthy dinner on the table quickly and easily. Her own quest for fast, fresh, nutritious meals led her to create this revolutionary one-pot preparation system.She first introduced me to the unique one-pot meals by preparing a sampling of her recipes. I was amazed and impressed by these delectable dinners that took no time at all to prepare. As a health-conscious cook, I am delighted that the recipes can be made with very little fat and with a variety of fresh vegetables and lean meats. The results are flavorful, nutritious meals for the entire family to enjoy.I added Elizabeth's Glorious One-Pot Meals to the cla.s.s schedule at The Seasoned Chef Cooking School and was astounded by the popularity of her cla.s.ses. The concept of this unique cooking method caught on right away and her cla.s.ses filled up immediately. Cla.s.ses were added to accommodate lengthy waiting lists of students eager to simplify their dinner preparation.We've seen everyone from restaurant owners to teenagers, from stay-at-home moms to empty-nesters take her cla.s.ses. In the seven years that Elizabeth has taught Glorious One-Pot Meals at The Seasoned Chef, many students have returned every time she has offered a cla.s.s. They're always hungry for her newest recipes. I know that they-and many others-will be delighted that she has published this marvelous cookbook with a variety of delectable recipes!I like to introduce Elizabeth's cla.s.ses by saying that this is a cooking method where, once you have the meal prepared and in the oven, you can sit down and relax (perhaps with a gla.s.s of wine!), knowing your Glorious One-Pot Meal doesn't need any more attention until it is ready for the table.Our cooking school students-home chefs with busy work and family schedules-appreciate the ease and convenience of preparing dinner with just one pot to clean up. They have enjoyed success with Elizabeth's one-pot meals; I know you will too.Susan Stevens, M.A., R.D.DirectorThe Seasoned Chef Cooking SchoolDenver, Colorado
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This cookbook is a credit to a true gra.s.sroots effort.John and Jesse Cahill gave my husband and me our first enameled cast-iron Dutch oven as a wedding gift. Our thought then was, ”Oh, how cute. How do we use it?” Good friend Corinne Snyder commented to me that we ate really well and asked me to teach her how to cook like we did, sparking the first draft of Glorious One-Pot Meals. Glorious One-Pot Meals. My in-laws, including Judy and Tony Cope, Peter and Leslie Cope, John and Stephanie Donohue, and Andrew and Lisa Cope, became de facto recipe testers. My aunt, Jane Cotler, was my tireless cheerleader, recipe tester, and draft editor. My cousin Emily Cotler builds all of my gorgeous Web sites, designed the logo, and has always dropped everything else to help me make this happen. My cousin Abi Bowling is my Web guru and valuable tech support service, and cousin Julie Pottinger my role model for succeeding as an author. My in-laws, including Judy and Tony Cope, Peter and Leslie Cope, John and Stephanie Donohue, and Andrew and Lisa Cope, became de facto recipe testers. My aunt, Jane Cotler, was my tireless cheerleader, recipe tester, and draft editor. My cousin Emily Cotler builds all of my gorgeous Web sites, designed the logo, and has always dropped everything else to help me make this happen. My cousin Abi Bowling is my Web guru and valuable tech support service, and cousin Julie Pottinger my role model for succeeding as an author.My wonderful MS support group based in southeast Denver and headed by Connie Harris became early recipe testers. Jennifer Gennaro told me she believed that I got MS in order to invent this new cooking method and help the world eat better. My Bodyshops Toastmasters group cheered me on and gave me the confidence and skills to speak in public. Rocky Mountain PBS invited me to demonstrate a recipe in their 2001 Cookathon, and then reran it numerous times, giving me my first television exposure.Sally Stich, the best writing teacher I will ever have, Leslie Petrovski, and Lara Riscol all edited my early ma.n.u.script and book proposal as I set out to find an agent and a publisher. Susan Stevens of The Seasoned Chef Cooking School not only allowed me to teach but also gave me targeted feedback on both my recipe writing and my teaching style. My patent attorney, Henry L. Smith, Jr., took my five pages of gibberish and turned it into a twenty-five-page patent (U.S. no. 6,846,504, Canada no. 2,401,092), making me a bona fide inventor.If it weren't for the vision of my agent, Stacey Glick, and my talented editor, Jennifer Josephy, you wouldn't be holding this edition in your hands today.My mother, Susan Rutherford, and stepfather, Phil Stietenroth, tested numerous recipes, took my professional photographs and early videos, loaned me money to get my business going, and believed in me even when I didn't. My father and stepmother, Phil and Barbara Yarnell, helped to fund my first print run, contributed recipes, and encouraged me to pursue my dreams. My sister Molly Skyar urged me to grab for the bra.s.s ring even when I thought it was futile. My sister Katie Yarnell provided babysitting that allowed me to make this book happen, and my brother, Jared Yarnell, dared me to succeed.Finally, I acknowledge my beautiful children, Jeremy and Lilia Cope, who through their very existence encourage me to seek a healthy lifestyle. And last but not least, I thank my husband, Edward Cope, whose support has never waivered. Without my partner, my best friend, my lover, my soul mate, none of this would have happened. I am very lucky indeed.
INTRODUCTION
Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody.
Samuel PepysImagine coming home after a long day, reaching into your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry, and-in five to twenty minutes-tossing enough food for an entire meal into a single pot and walking away from the kitchen. A half hour to forty-five minutes later you serve up a scrumptious meal of chicken bathed in a peanut-satay sauce served on rice with a variety of crisp-tender vegetables. Or perhaps succulent scallops tinged with ginger on a bed of chunky sweet potatoes, with an array of mushrooms and broccoli to round out the meal. Sound like a dream?Our daily lives often seem to run on overdrive, and too frequently a home-cooked, healthy dinner is one of the sacrifices made. We're too busy to cook properly, we complain. Or perhaps we just don't know how to cook healthfully, or aren't even sure we can identify healthy foods beyond lettuce. Surely we all want to feed ourselves and our families nutritious meals so we will live long and healthy lives, but until now there haven't been many solutions for getting a good, nutritious meal on the table quickly.It seems that while most people would prefer to eat home-cooked meals, in reality they don't more often than they do. In fact, 82 percent of Americans say they enjoy preparing food at home and more than half claim they would cook at home more often if it didn't take so much time. Further, while 65 percent of us say we are trying to eat healthier foods, one-third report not having the time to prepare healthy meals. Part of the problem may be the lack of a good way to cook that meets all our needs for speed, convenience, ease, and nutrition.This was certainly the problem I faced as a newlywed and business owner diagnosed with a debilitating disease. I wanted to improve my diet and the course of my disease, but I lacked the time and stamina for long, complicated meal-preparation marathons. I wished there were an easier way to cook healthier foods. So I began experimenting and soon discovered a new and different way of cooking that met my needs: I call it infusion cooking. infusion cooking.Infusion cooking refers to using a lidded cast-iron Dutch oven to hold layers of whole foods and flash-cooking them inside a superhot oven for a brief time. No added liquid means that these recipes are not stews but rather complete meals where each item retains its cellular integrity and emerges perfectly intact. The intense heat causes the vegetables to release their moisture, which presses up against the food and infuses it with clean flavors from herbs, spices, and other natural ingredients. refers to using a lidded cast-iron Dutch oven to hold layers of whole foods and flash-cooking them inside a superhot oven for a brief time. No added liquid means that these recipes are not stews but rather complete meals where each item retains its cellular integrity and emerges perfectly intact. The intense heat causes the vegetables to release their moisture, which presses up against the food and infuses it with clean flavors from herbs, spices, and other natural ingredients.Vegetables stay crisp. Meats are moist. Grains fluff nicely. It's as if you used three or four pots and pans to create a complete and balanced dinner, only you didn't have to juggle the timing of different dishes or hover over a hot stove or face a daunting clean-up task. Pretty cool. That's why I call these recipes Glorious One-Pot Meals: They allow me to serve deliciously healthy dinners with very little effort-a glorious glorious feeling! feeling!Make no mistake: These are not recipes for your slow cooker. You will not find ca.s.seroles, skillet meals, stir-fries, or even simmered stews in this cookbook.Instead, Glorious One-Pot Meals Glorious One-Pot Meals offers a revolutionary new way to think about planning, shopping for, preparing, cooking, and eating dinner. This method is so different that it has been awarded both U.S. (no. 6,846,504) and Canadian (no. 2,401,092) patents. So far, I haven't discovered any previously published recipes that use this particular cooking technique. I guarantee that you will be amazed at how easy it can be to put together mouthwatering meals in less than half an hour. offers a revolutionary new way to think about planning, shopping for, preparing, cooking, and eating dinner. This method is so different that it has been awarded both U.S. (no. 6,846,504) and Canadian (no. 2,401,092) patents. So far, I haven't discovered any previously published recipes that use this particular cooking technique. I guarantee that you will be amazed at how easy it can be to put together mouthwatering meals in less than half an hour.First, follow a few recipes to discover how truly easy and delicious Glorious One-Pot Meals can be. Be bold about subst.i.tuting ingredients as advised. Then take the plunge and become an intuitive cook by creating your own meals out of your favorite foods. Appreciated for its convenience and simplicity, the infusion cooking technique demystifies cooking for those who fear the kitchen, while still offering the textural complexity and depth of flavors demanded by more accomplished chefs.It has been said that there are only nine cooking methods on this planet: saute, fry, bake, broil, grill, slow-cook, braise, boil, and steam. With infusion cooking, there are now ten. Soon, a cast-iron Dutch oven will be as prevalent as a slow cooker in the battery of utensils available to the home cook.My focus had been in finding a solution to my problem, not in inventing a new way to cook. However, what resulted may be viewed as the missing link between eating conveniently and eating healthfully. Happy cooking and eating!
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW.
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Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.
Mark Twain WHAT I IS A G GLORIOUS O ONE-POT M MEAL?.
Glorious One-Pot Meals call for whole foods rather than processed and packaged items, and you'll find that each recipe- even the vegetarian ones-offers a complete and balanced meal of an appropriate amount of protein, a variety of vegetables, and a healthy serving of carbohydrates.
While many other familiar one-pot meals require a side dish of pasta or rice made separately, or even a salad or bread, Glorious One-Pot Meal recipes are intended to provide the entire meal in just one pot- in just one pot-nothing else is needed, not even a salad. Each meal is complete in and of itself and offers a range of nutritional benefits.
The centerpiece of the infusion cooking technique is the Dutch oven. If you haven't used a Dutch oven since you were a Scout, relax: It has grown up. Today's Dutch oven is not the heavy, blackened behemoth that simmered baked beans for fifty at the cook-out all those years ago. Lighter in weight than those of old, sometimes coated with a nonstick surface of fired-on enamel, and often dishwasher-safe, modern Dutch ovens still carry a core of cast iron but now come in a wide variety of brands, sizes, shapes, and colors.
Any shape or brand of cast-iron Dutch oven works well with this technique: Round or oval ovens are most common, but you might also see snowflakes, hearts, eggplants, apples, and other fanciful shapes. As a result of its unique heat-conduction properties, cast iron works best for this cooking method; you won't experience the same guaranteed results using a pot made of another material.
Personally, I prefer enamel-coated cast iron over uncoated cast iron for a variety of reasons: (1) Enamel-coated Dutch ovens are lighter, an important consideration since you will be loading the pot with food and then lifting it in and out of a hot oven; (2) enamel-coated cast iron doesn't need seasoning and won't rust; and (3) most enamel-coated cast-iron Dutch ovens are dishwasher-safe, making clean-up even more of a breeze. However, uncoated cast-iron Dutch ovens perform just as well when cooking Glorious One-Pot Meals, and may be less expensive.
Some readers have had limited success using stainless-steel Dutch ovens as long as they have the essential characteristics of a Dutch oven: a wide, flat bottom, vertical (not sloped) sides, and a lid with a ridge on the underside that sits heavily and securely on the pot.
The recipes in this book are based on using a two-quart Dutch oven to provide a complete dinner for two adult eaters. If you're cooking for more than two, you will want to double or triple the recipes and use a larger Dutch oven (see the Recipe Adjustment Chart, page 12).
HOW D DOES I IT W WORK?.
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One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.
Virginia Woolf [image]
As mentioned earlier, Glorious One-Pot Meals work by infusion cooking-the process in which ingredients are placed in a covered Dutch oven and heated rapidly in a hot oven, releasing the moisture from the vegetables and trapping the steam inside the pot, which in turn cooks the food and infuses it with flavor. Because the hot steam is trapped against the food instead of evaporating, it cooks the food quickly and retains moisture. The method is deceptively simple, yet it produces complex flavors and aromas and enhances ordinarily mild flavors while retaining much of the nutritional value of the food.
The critical elements that ensure successful Glorious One-Pot Meals are (1) using a cast-iron Dutch oven, (2) baking in a 450F (Fahrenheit) oven, and (3) layering the ingredients in a specific order.
Since an oven ten degrees off in either direction will negatively affect a Glorious One-Pot Meal, it's worthwhile to verify the temperature with an oven thermometer.
Resist the urge to lift the lid of the pot too early-you don't want to release the steam that's infusing the food with flavor. Go sit down, relax! You'll know your meal is ready when you can smell the aroma escaping from the oven. This is your three-minute warning: three-minute warning: Give your meal another three minutes of baking and then pull out the pot, lift the lid, and serve immediately. No more fussing at the stovetop while everyone else is already eating, no preparing rice or pasta separately, no need to make a salad; just bring the Dutch oven to the table and serve. Give your meal another three minutes of baking and then pull out the pot, lift the lid, and serve immediately. No more fussing at the stovetop while everyone else is already eating, no preparing rice or pasta separately, no need to make a salad; just bring the Dutch oven to the table and serve.
The infusion cooking method eliminates the obstacles that prevent us from cooking healthier, more nutritious meals by making it almost effortless to put dinner together and by significantly reducing the after-dinner cleanup ch.o.r.e. Choose a simple recipe for those days when you just need to get food on the table fast, and save more complex recipes for when you can spare the energy for a little more effort.
A typical Glorious One-Pot Meal for two people requires less than twenty minutes to prepare and thirty to forty-five minutes to bake. Build your pot at an earlier, more convenient moment, keep it refrigerated, and then move it directly into a fully preheated oven a half hour or so before dinnertime.
Forget menu planning and detailed recipes. Instead, use a very basic shopping list of staples to stock your kitchen: meat, fish, or poultry (fresh or frozen); in-season vegetables in as many colors as possible; pasta, rice, or another grain; and a few fresh herbs. (See the sample shopping list on page 23.) To increase the variety in each meal, use just part of a vegetable and seal the rest in the fridge for a future meal. There's no need to thaw anything from the freezer because Glorious One-Pot Meals accept any mix of fresh, frozen, and canned foods, usually with minimal or no adjustment of oven time.
Glorious One-Pot Meals work with anything from simple chopped fresh herbs to complex spice medleys or flavorful marinades. Use your favorite vinaigrette salad dressing as a marinade; add jarred condiments such as salsa, teriyaki sauce, and mustard; or just count on the pure flavors of salt, pepper, and garlic to enhance your creation. Almost any familiar flavor combination or exotic culinary culture can be interpreted as a Glorious One-Pot Meal with a little bit of creativity and intuition.
Go easy on yourself and try a few of the suggestions here that contain ingredients you already know you like. Or add things you do like to the recommended recipe. Don't like meat? Hate onions? Leave them out. Don't want to eat protein and carbs together? Then don't add them to the same meal. Glorious One-Pot Meal cooking is an adventure you know will always turn out well because you choose the ingredients and flavors you like each and every time.
THE I INFUSED C COOKING T TECHNIQUE.
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There is no sincerer love than the love of food. George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw [image]
The main premise for constructing a Glorious One-Pot Meal is to layer. While building a lasagna means interspersing sheets of pasta with meat, cheese, and tomato sauce, building a Glorious One-Pot Meal means layering the ingredients across the bottom of the pot in order of type: type: dry goods, protein, root vegetables, above-ground vegetables, and herbs, spices, and other flavorings. Don't be afraid to freely mix and match fresh and frozen items as they will all emerge perfectly cooked at the end! dry goods, protein, root vegetables, above-ground vegetables, and herbs, spices, and other flavorings. Don't be afraid to freely mix and match fresh and frozen items as they will all emerge perfectly cooked at the end!
This basic technique for making infused one-pot meals is adaptable for any combination of ingredients. If you're not adding a certain type of ingredient, such as pasta or meat, simply skip that step and continue with the process. I encourage you to fill the pot to the brim with veggies to take advantage of the extra s.p.a.ce available when something else is omitted from a recipe.
COMMON M MEASUREMENTS FOR S SUCCESSFUL G GLORIOUS O ONE-POT M MEALS.
The portions in the Glorious One-Pot Meal recipes presented in this cookbook feed two people and use a two-quart cast-iron Dutch oven. Adjust the measurements (see pages 8 to 9) and size of oven accordingly to feed more people.
BASIC T TIPS FOR G GLORIOUS O ONE-POT M MEAL S SUCCESS.
THE RECIPES AND TECHNIQUE.
Consider the recipes in this book as guidelines rather than gospel. Feel free to subst.i.tute or omit an ingredient or change a recipe in almost any sense to produce the delicious dinner you and your family want want to eat. With some practice and confidence you can become an intuitive cook with to eat. With some practice and confidence you can become an intuitive cook with Glorious One-Pot Meals. Glorious One-Pot Meals.
COMMON MEASUREMENTS.
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