Marinades

The tremendous success of slow-cooker cookbooks is rooted in the demanding lifestyles of working families: You get dinner started before you go to work and have it ready shortly after you return. Slow-cooking is not the only way to cook fabulous food on a busy schedule. Lucy Vaserfirer's Marinades offers a delicious alternative. With the right marinade, you can dress up meats, chicken, fish, or vegetables in the morning, pop the food in the fridge for the day, and finish it all off with a quick broil, grill, microwave, or saute when you get home. Dinner is served! Vaserfirer, who previously has written Seared to Perfection and Flavored Butters, and also writes the blog Hungry Cravings, is a culinary-school instructor known for her expertise with meats, her knowledge of kitchen science, and her warm and engaging teaching voice. Marinades shows when to use — and not use — oil— based, vinegar-based, fruit-based, and milk— or cream-based marinades. The recipes range from comforting American, French, and Italian marinades to adventuresome and assertive ideas from Mexico and Latin America, Asia, and beyond. The book includes seventeen recipe chapters, nine of which are based on specific types of marinades (herb, spice, and citrus, for example) and eight of which range geographically across the world's best cuisines. Each of the 200 marinades is accompanied by an additional recipe that shows one way to use it. A Raspberry-Zinfandel Marinade, for example, features a recipe for Grilled Raspberry— Zinfandel Pork Medallions, while a Souvlaki Marinade has a recipe for Swordfish Souvlaki alongside. In keeping with the popularity of marinades among outdoor cooks, more than half of these 200 additional recipes are for grilled dishes, but there are ideas aplenty for indoor cooking as well.