I Love My Wok: More Than 100 Fresh, Fast and Healthy Recipes Kindle Edition

BE AWARE: Recipes in this book are taken from “The Big Book of Wok”, published in 2006 by DBP (Duncan Baird Publishers, (UK) now a part of Watkins Media Ltd., (UK). If you have that larger volume, (365 recipes), you won’t need this one. Or maybe you want to buy a used copy of the older book….. Your decision, of course, but if you don’t want to search through a huge volume looking for a recipe for dinner, this “I Love My Wok” will be the way to go. Me? Buying a new cookbook with out-dated, more than a decade old, recipes is not something I would choose to ever do. There are way too many freshly-published cookbooks out there, with new ideas featuring current trends and products, for me to consider buying something rehashed. But, the recipes the publishers have chosen to replay are decent, solid choices. Personally, I think the publisher should have been upfront about where these recipes came from....Nicola Graimes is a very prolific cookbook author. She has a knack of gathering recipes from around the world, presenting them in a format that puts a cook at ease. She has gathered her recipes into: Vegetarian, (200 recipes from 2003); Vegetarian and Wholefoods, (1600 recipes from 2010); Vegetarian for Healthy Kids, (100 recipes from 2016); Healing Foods from 2004, The Salad Bowl from 2015, The Big Bean Cookbook, (another redux coming out in October), and many more. I mention all this because some people like this kind of redundancy, this taking recipes from older books and re-compiling them under a new title; some don’t….If you have not had a wok before, you will benefit from the general information at the beginning of the book.There is a nice array of appetizers and soups, but nothing surprising and they do not vary from the norm. Appetizers include the usual filled wontons, steamed and fried; crab cakes, spring and rice paper rolls, a bun recipe (like a bao) with canned salmon. Eight soup recipes represent cuisines from several countries.I enjoyed the “Salads and Sides” chapter, because I am such a fan of veggies. But the recipes in that chapter seemed to be a step behind (several steps actually…) the current trend in bowl food. Remember: These recipes are from 2006…. And to say the salads are made in the wok is stretching it quite a bit: For instance, there is a soba noodle and chicken salad, where only plain chicken strips are cooked in sunflower oil in the wok, and a Vietnamese Hot Beef Salad where only the beef strips (in an often-used marinade) are cooked in the wok. Same for squid. But there is a good representation of vegetables in this chapter, and you will have ample opportunity to practice your steaming and frying/sautéing techniques.“Noodles and Rice” contains basics like chicken chow mein, pad thai, fried rice with pork, udon noodles with beef, a coconut milk pilaf. But, here again, there is a good representation of flavors and techniques from a variety of countries.Good variety of flavor combinations and ingredients and cooking techniques can be seen throughout the meat, poultry and fish/seafood chapters, too.Besides the abundance of vegetables that are usually found in wok cookery, there is a vegetarian chapter in this book—a nice call-out! Some of them are Vegan, and they are marked as such. There are many curries in this chapter.Even though this book comes from a publisher in the UK, they have been very diligent about providing accurate Imperial measurements to cater to our American preferences. There are handy and helpful color symbols to distinguish between dairy-, nut-, wheat-free, and vegetarian and vegan.Pictures are decent, but available for less than half of the recipes.Page layout is easy on the eyes, with a good-sized, san-serif type style. Ingredient lists are straightforward, and instructions are not confusing. Directions are grouped into paragraph form: Read a paragraph, and you can proceed swiftly through the steps without needing to hesitate in the middle of a cooking process to read what to do next.*I received a temporary download of this book from the publisher.

I Love My Wok is a nicely laid out, easy to use cookbook for a wok. The recipes are cleanly presented, there are full size pictures for many of the meals, and a nice introduction with recommendations and tools in the beginning. Ironically, the cover looks very basic but the inside is very professionally presented. You won't need a lot of tools - the wok really is the only component of many recipes.The book breaks down as follows: Introduction, Appetizers and soups, Salads and sides, Noodles and rice, Meat, Poultry, Fish and shellfish, Vegetarian, and an index. The book is nearly all recipes and is very full - there are quite a few to choose from and the recipes are multi cultural, not just Asian (e.g., Pesto pasta). The books delves beyond stir frying in beef and also has recipes for braising, blanching, and using water instead of oil. And as noted above, there is a vegetarian section.Each recipe comes with an allergy index, preparation time, cooking time, servings, ingredient list, and then directions. About half have full page photographs of the finished item (there are no small images, just full page). The ingredient list is right justified, which admittedly makes them fairly hard to read. Left justified Bullets would have made this much easier. The directions are in paragraph form and can get chunky and difficult to remember where you were - numbered brief steps would have been easier. I'm guessing the publisher or author wanted to make the recipes seem 'easier' by not listing a bunch of steps. But I hate having to find my place in the directions when they are in the middle of a large chunky paragraph.So yes, a lot of really good recipes, most with a health conscious approach. Nicely designed, cleanly laid out with large text, and with some accompanying full page photographs. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Simple easy instruction.