Milk Street

August 1, 2018

The second cookbook from Kimball's Milk Street (177milkstreet.com) delivers 200+ recipes for palate-awakening meals, including kimchi and bacon fried rice, Persian barley-vegetable soup, rigatoni carbonara with ricotta, and Colombian coconut braised chicken. Generously seasoned with international spices and pantry staples, these speedy stir fries, pastas, pizzas, and other dishes will satisfy adventurous home cooks. The book assumes a well-provisioned kitchen; readers should browse instructions in advance to make sure the requisite equipment (e.g., metal skewers, blender, several sizes and types of skillet, spice grinder) is available. VERDICT Milk Street's globally inspired approach to fast cooking is anything but bland. Turn to their latest for flavorful weeknight winners.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 18, 2018
Kimball—owner of Milk Street, a Boston-based cooking school and media company that he founded after leaving Cooks Illustrated —harvests zingy flavors from across the globe to craft flavorful dishes that do not require long cooking times: Suya is spiced flatiron steak eaten as street food in Nigeria and takes 45 minutes from start to finish; Indian-inspired beef and peas is pepped up with garam masala and is ready in 40 minutes. Recipes are impeccable and basic, such as a 20-minute cacio e pepe, which calls for only black pepper, corn starch, pasta, and pecorino Romano cheese (though Kimball advises using only freshly grated cheese). Lightning-quick dishes fall into three categories: fast (Palestinian chicken with sumac), faster (sautéed shrimp with coconut and macadamia nuts), and fastest (kale soup with canned cannellini beans). Salads appear throughout—as sides (tomato salad and a chickpea salad) as well as mains (fattoush, Korean chicken salad). There is also a section on family favorites, including pizza, tacos, and burgers. Book organization, however, can become fuzzy at times (a chapter on one-pot meals includes a rigatoni carbonara with ricotta that could have been a variation on an earlier spaghetti carbonara found in the “fastest” section). Kimball concludes with quick desserts, such as maple-whiskey cakes baked in ramekins and sherry-soaked French toast. This is a handy, wide-ranging collection of pleasingly efficient recipes.

October 1, 2018
Wondering what to cook on a weeknight that could possibly be faster or better than takeout? Look no further than the second cookbook from bow-tie wearing chef Kimball and his team at Milk Street, which turns out a magazine, podcast, and PBS show. Classic French cooking (ruler of the culinary world) instructs that time and heat are the pathways to flavor, says Kimball, but the rest of the world (i.e., most of it) knows that "flavor is built with ingredients, not time." Thus, Kimball and company draw ingredients and inspiration from Vietnamese, Armenian, Italian, Japanese, Cuban, Palestinian, South African, Indian, and many other cuisines for this decidedly inventive, omnivorous, and international collection. It is organized by speed: fast (on the table in less than 45 minutes), faster (35 minutes), and fastest (under 30); a few other useful groupings include one-pot meals, dinner salads, and speedy desserts. The 200-plus recipes, each under a page and accompanied by a full-page photo, include start-to-finish (active and inactive) time estimates and, when applicable, "don't" notes that discourage common pitfalls.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

February 21, 2022
In this latest from the team at Kimball’s Milk Street (Milk Street Vegetables), a single pan takes on global cuisines to offer a delicious range of accessible dishes. With a home cook’s efficiency in mind, recipes are grouped by the time it takes to prepare them (an hour, 45 minutes, under 30 minutes); the method (stir-fried, roasted, baked); and dish type (pasta, sandwiches, grains). Influences and techniques reach far beyond simple geography, evident in the way ketchup lends a sweet counterpoint to the spice in Trinidad pepper shrimp, and in the elements that ensure success when dry-frying Sichuan beef with celery (salt being a main one). Quinoa goes from understated to elevated—cooked in the style of risotto in a quick poblano-corn side dish—and a Georgian stew serves as the inspiration for braised bone-in chicken with herbs. Descriptions and origins for regional dishes—such as Syria’s harak osbao (lentils and caramelized onions) and Sweden’s pyttipanna (meat and potato hash with celery root)—are provided in the headnotes, offering a tasty opportunity to brush up on one’s culinary knowledge, while “don’t” tips designed to avoid missteps (“Don’t brown the meatballs aggressively”) lend solid guidance along the way. Kitchen adventures beckon in this expansive and appetizing collection. Agent: David Black, David Black Agency.