Cooking to Beat the Clock: Delicious, Inspired Meals in 15 Minutes [Paperback]

Sure, you can cook up pasta in no time and whip up an omelet in a flash, but Sam Gugino insists you can also make sophisticated dishes, such as Duck Breast on Baby Vegetables, spending only 15 minutes in the kitchen to prepare them. Besides 60 recipes, he offers a strategy to help you quickly produce original, satisfying meals from scratch--and he doesn't mean a quick stir-fry! To prove his point, he offers recipes for a jambalaya studded with shrimp and hot sausage; a chicken curry with coconut milk; and Steak Diane, elegantly sauced with flambéed cognac and melted butter. Flavor, organization, focus, and creativity make this possible. For flavor, you need a pantry and freezer stocked with such staples as aromatic basmati rice and intense, sweet-tasting balsamic vinegar. Organization requires the right equipment, starting with a 12-inch, nonstick skillet. Focus means no radio or TV. Creativity means the ability to make substitutions--to save on a trip to the store.

Frankly, the idea of a 15-minute chili or cassoulet sounds more like a gimmick than good food. Better to use the time to prepare delicious San Diego Fish Tacos and make the cassoulet on a Sunday afternoon, when it can simmer long and slow. But a Tuesday-night dinner of mustard-sparked turkey cutlets served with creamy garlic mashed potatoes, or lamb chops smothered in orzo with olives and rosemary, sounds promising. Chances are high that they'll taste as good as they look in the handsome color photos. --Dana Jacobi

The title is an attention grabber but unless they have trained as short-order cooks, most readers will have a tough time turning out these recipes in a quarter of an hour. They could do them in under 30 minutes, though, and not collapse into their seats at the dining room table. The few extra minutes are worth it. Gugino, a chef, cooking instructor and food columnist, offers 60 tasty and imaginative dishes that can be put together in about the time it takes to get a pizza delivered. These inspired one-pot or one-platter meals draw on a variety of cuisines including Mediterranean, French, Mexican and Asian. There's Chili with Beans, Smothered Lamb Chops with Orzo, Quick Cassoulet featuring turkey kielbasa, Chicken Fajitas with Mango Salsa, Asian-Spiced Salmon with Braised Bok Choy and a startling 15-Minute Thanksgiving Dinner. There are also soups, such as cumin-scented Moroccan Chicken and?the harried cook's best friend?pasta dishes, including Spaghetti Carbonara. While the focus is on casual family meals, there are dishes fit for company as well (15-Minute Bouillabaisse and Chicken Saltimbocca with Arugula and Tomato Salad, among others). In addition to recipes, the book recommends labor-saving techniques and creative substitutions. Gugino's style is terse and on the bossy side, but cooks in a hurry won't mind.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Eat the Clock Ask most on-the-go guys why they don't cook and they'll probably say because it takes too long. "if you have fifteen minutes, you can put a delicious meal on the table," counters Sam Gugino, author of the new Cooking to Beat the Clock. Doubtful? "It sounds too good to be true because a lot of people are put off by the notion of quick food," Gugino says. "They worry about sacrificing taste." No need: Gugino's recipes are simple, straightforward (you won't find directions for soaking beans overnight) and for the most part use fresh ingredients (with a few exceptions, like roasted peppers from a jar). As for cooking time, the clock starts ticking the moment you have everything assembled on your countertop, and the buzzer goes off the moment you're ready to serve. Gugino, a former restaurateur, created all 60 recipes, most of which are cooked on top of the stove (the oven takes too long to warm up) and sometimes employ the bachelor's best friend, the microwave. "I guarantee that anyone can cook these recipes in fifteen minutes," Gugino says. "But you certainly don't have to eat them that fast." -- POV

In the time it takes his less fortunate friends to have a pizza delivered, Sam Gugino can whip up a saffron-scented bouillabaisse-complete with homemade croutons and garlicky mayo-wash a pot, open the wine, and dazzle a table for four. Gugino can pull off the same trick with soup or pork tenderloin with figs, brandy and parsnips or any of the other recipes in his new book, 'Cooking to Beat the Clock.' Each of the book's 60 recipes can be prepared within 15 minutes by cooks with basic skills and equipment, Gugino promises. The clock starts when the ingredients are laid out and ends when the dish hits the table. 'This is good food that you can make fast, not fast food,' says Gugino, while opening bottles of clam juice and a can of tomatoes in a nothing-special kitchen in his Upper West Side co-op. 'I've tried to take the best ingredients, using fresh items when possible, and put them together in 15 minutes for a meal,' Gugino says. 'It's no more expensive than ordering takeout, and it's cheaper and better for you than most restaurant foods.' -- USA Today, March 26, 1999

Which sounds more appealing for dinner-cold pizza or Provencal mushroom ragout over polenta? A can of soup or pork medallions with cider and mashed potatoes? James Beard Awards-winning food journalist Sam Gugino demonstrates in his new cookbook that it doesn't take much time to produce a delicious meal. He has devised a host of secret strategies for getting organized so cooking dinner is quick and painless. He approaches the overall kitchen scene with four key principles in mind: flavor, organization, focus, and creativity. To this he adds timesaving techniques that drastically cut the preparation time for meal-sized entrees to 15 minutes or less. Gugino is the 'Tastes' columnist for Wine Spectator magazine. -- The Pennsylvania Gazette

James Beard has devised a host of secret str ategies for getting organized so cooking dinner is quick and painless. He approaches the kitchen with 4 key principles i n mind - flavour, organization, focus and creativity. '

A former chef and restaurateur with two three-star restaurants in Philadelphia in the late 1970s, he became restaurant critic for the Philadelphia Daily News in 1986. From 1988 to 1994 he was food editor of the San Jose Mercury News where his columns were named best in the nation by the Association of Food Journalists in 1993. Upon moving to New York City in 1994 he wrote a weekly wine and spirits column for the Star Ledger of Newark, NJ (for which he was a runner-up in the AFJ Best Column category in 1999) and co-authored two books, "Eat Fresh, Stay Healthy" and "Matthew Kenney's Mediterranean Cooking." His first solo book, "Cooking to Beat the Clock," published by Chronicle, was named one of the top ten cookbooks of 1999 by Amazon.com.

He has written frequently for The New York Times and was nominated for a James Beard Journalism award in 1997 for a Times story. His Tastes column appears in every issue of the Wine Spectator. His "Cooking to Beat the Clock" column appears in newspapers such as the San Jose Mercury News and Portland Oregonian. He also writes a wine column for Showcase, the magazine of the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, which operates the Fancy Food Shows. He is editor and publisher of Sam Cooks, a free bi-weekly food, wine, and spirits newsletter available through his website. His fourth book, "Low-Fat Cooking to Beat the Clock," will be published in December, 2000 by Chronicle. He makes his home in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia and maintains an apartment in New York City.