Weir Cooking in the City: More than
125 Recipes and Inspiring Ideas for
Relaxed Entertaining by Joanne Weir
Wonderful Food From A Wonderful Chef
The American city is thriving. In urban neighborhoods across the country
you can find intriguing restaurants, gourmet and ethnic markets, farmers
markets, and artisanal breads and cheeses. In her new book, Weir
Cooking in the City, chef and teacher Joanne Weir takes readers and
home cooks into our nations ethnically diverse and vibrant culinary and
cultural urban landscape. Exploring her adopted city of San Francisco as
a guide, Joanne invites readers to search their own cities for the myriad
international flavors and tastes they will find there. From local ethnic
neighborhoods to the butcher to the farmers market, Joanne seeks out the
best ingredients and most delicious dishes and shows how they can be re-
created in home kitchens anywhere. A companion volume to her new
series on public television, Weir Cooking in the City brings every city to life.
With chapters on Firsts, Soups, Mains, and Desserts, Weir includes more

than 125 vividly flavored, inventive recipes, created with urban cooks in
mind: those cooks with not enough time and too little space, but an
appetite for creating memorable meals and social gatherings. Start your
meal with Joannes Straw Potato Cakes with Smoked Salmon and Caviar,
Parmesan Flan, or Kale Soup with Pancetta and White Beans. Showcase
beautiful salad greens in a Radicchio, Arugula, Golden Raisin, and Pine
Nut Salad or a Duck Salad with Pecans and Kumquats, or spice things up
with a Thai Beef Salad with Mint and Cilantro. Simple yet delicious main
courses include Silver-Roasted Salmon with Sweet-Hot Relish; Pan-
Seared Chicken Breasts with Mustard, Rosemary, and Capers; and Green
Lasagna with Artichokes and Leeks. Sweets like Warm Chocolate,
Cinnamon, and Coffee Tart; Plum Cake; Double Chocolate Ice Cream with
Dried Cherries; and Panna Cotta with Raspberries will complete your meal.
Each recipe is accompanied by wine suggestions from wine expert Tim
McDonald. Filled with mouth-watering photographs throughout, Weir
Cooking in the City is the cookbook for the modern home cook, with
essential information on stocking your pantry, matching wine with food,
and effortless entertaining. From creating a party of Mediterranean-
inspired small plates to a simple but sophisticated supper after a movie or
play, from bustling neighborhood markets to Joannes welcoming kitchen,
this excursion into city cuisine will inspire you to create a weekday meal or
an impromptu dinner party.
Personal Review: Weir Cooking in the City: More than 125
Recipes and Inspiring Ideas for Relaxed Entertaining by Joanne
Weir
This new book by author, teacher, and PBS TV chef show host is aimed at
helping people entertain at home when they are in an environment such as
downtown San Francisco, where virtually every type of foodstuff
imaginable is a few blocks walk away. At worst, you may have to take a
cable car or motor scooter trip for a mile or so to reach your objective. Life
is tough.That last cynical remark is not fair. This is a very good book on
both cooking and entertaining. It is as good as Sheila Lukins' new book
`Celebrate', but complimentary to that book as Lukins is focusing on
inexpensive family entertaining and Weir's target is more for young couples
with few children to eat up disposable income. Both books gain from
offering food / beverage pairings. Weir is more parochial in that her
beverages are all modest to higher priced wines. Weir's book is clearly
better than Ina Garten's book on parties, as Weir offers a really valuable
instruction on a lot of the nuts and bolts of organizing and prepping a party.
It is not in the same league as the classic Martha Stewart `Entertaining',
which is really directed at large, catered parties.The first feature about this
book which impresses me is a table of contents which lists every recipe in
the book, in chapter and page order, and chapters are arranged by course.
This feature is doubly valuable in that chapters are based on very logical
courses familiar to modern American families. These chapters are:Firsts
(Weir knows her stuff here, as she wrote a book on Tapas and Mezes)
Salads

Soups
Mains and a few Sides (Why not go to the very small extra effort to split
these up?)
DessertsWeir's cuisine is centered on the Mediterranean, with some East
Asian and Latin American dishes added for variety. Interspersed with main
dishes are recipes for pantry preparations such as salsa, preserved
lemons, dashi, and potato chips. Many dishes are familiar such as
spaghetti and meatballs, or variations on familiar themes such as Panini
Caprese (the old familiar mozzarella, tomato, and basil combination).All
the cooking instructions are mindful of tips and techniques familiar to most
Food Network junkies, such as being careful not to burn the garlic when
you do a sauté beginning with garlic in olive oil. The author is also brave
enough to recommend making your own chicken stock and her recipe may
not be worthy of Judy Rodgers, it is quite good for the home cook.My
biggest problem with the book is with the section on pantry items. I have
never seen anyone succeed with a viable pantry-stocking list, leading me
to believe that no fixed pantry list will work for anyone other than the
person who makes it up. By all means, buy this book if you like to entertain
at home, but avoid the author's advice on pantry items. Her giving us three
(3) different lists compounds the error. One for the Mediterranean cuisine,
one for a Latin American cuisine, and one for an Asian cuisine. Heaven
forbid if you want to cook from all three. Let me just cite a few errors in the
Mediterranean list.Does not recommend salt packed anchovies and capers
over products packed in olive oil.
Does not give any warning on spoilage risks for nuts, nut oils and whole
grains.
Puts phyllo dough on the shelf. I believe this must be frozen to preserve
beyond a few days.
Pictures mozzarella as a pantry item, while authorities I know say this must
be a serve on day made item.The pantry notion is doubly misguided since
the book is aimed at city dwellers who are both short on living space and
long on availability to nearby markets and specialty stores. Best strategy is
to simply buy what you need when you need it, keep a careful eye on shelf
life, and never, never buy anything because you may make something with
it in the future. You never do.A cookie cutter blurb from Alice Waters
graces the dust jacket. I give Alice credit for supporting a former employee,
but I suspect the value of her endorsement may be wearing itself a little
thin by now. More surprising is a rare blessing from Madeline Kamman.
Not bad.This is a superior book if you like to entertain at home and you do
not have the time to wade through books devoted to regional cuisines to
pick out suitable dishes (although I suggest Patricia Wells' books are an
exceptional resource on this matter).Highly recommended for people who
entertain at home and wine and food fanciers.

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