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'All About Roasting' is the cookbook to get for the holidays

Ever since  I acquired Molly Stevens' All About Braising  in '04 my copy has become progressively more stained, tattered and torn.  In fact, some of the pages are actually falling out.    That's how good a cookbook it is.  Now the long wait is over.  Five years in the making, All About Roasting  is out at last— and just in time for Thanksgiving.  My Food for Thought pard, Seattle Times food writer Nancy Leson is every bit as excited about the new release as I am.  Though I haven't made any of Molly's new recipes yet, Nancy has whomped up two of them — one for  Roasted Brussels Sprouts and another for Herb-Roasted  Shrimp with Pancetta.  Click above to see the pictures.

Stevens is both massively knowledgeable  and down-to-earth.  She makes even the more complicated of her recipes easy to understand and follow.  Her preface ( something I would automatically skip in any other author's book)  including the  history, science and various roasting methods  is fascinating.  Low heat, high heat, low-high, high-low,  grill-roasting, spit-roasting, wet roasting, pan-roasting.

She has convinced me that rinsing chicken is a waste of time and that it's a good idea to remove the wishbone before roasting the turkey.  I can't wait to try her Quick-Roasted Scallops with Sriracha and Lime.  Unless I try her Pork Tenderloin Roulade with Herbed Spinach first.

Molly Stevens is my celebrity roaster.

"...I merely say that one may become a good roaster with application, observation, care and a little aptitude."

— Auguste Escoffier

 

 

Dick Stein joined KNKX in January 1992. He retired in 2020 after three decades on air. During his storied radio career, he hosted the morning jazz show, co-hosted and produced "Food for Thought" with Nancy Leson and wrote and directed the Jimmy Jazzoid live radio musical comedies and 100 episodes of Jazz Kitchen.