Cookbook Review: The Kitchen Ecosystem

The Kitchen Ecosystem

By Eugenia Bone

Clarkson Potter/Publishers

A trip to the grocery store can by a budget-busting experience now. When you pay hard earned money for food, why not use it as fully as possible? That’s the principal behind this book. Turn chicken bones into broth, beet greens into side dishes and apple peels into jelly.

The book is alphabetized according to ingredient. So if you get a deal on fresh apricots or salmon you can easily find recipes to utilize your bounty. Each ingredient has recipes to: Eat Some Fresh, Preserve Some, Use The Preserve, and Use The Scraps. At the beginning of each food section there is a flow chart listing the recipes. They’re simple and unadorned, but a nice, graphic touch that I love.

Just because using ingredients fully is economical, that doesn’t mean the book highlights only inexpensive meats and produce. You can find sections on fresh tuna, lobster and duck. Since those types of foods are a splurge to many people that’s all the more reason to make sure you get as many meals as possible from the purchase. The recipes are often quite simple to make, but have a sophisticated, gourmet flair like Warm Scallop and Potato Salad with Lobster Reduction or Ricotta and Marinated Mushroom Pie. For people that want to tackle the preserving recipes there is a section at the end of the book to help with things like canning, pickling and freezing. It also goes over basic techniques such as cooking pasta in broth and preparing crepes.

I really love this cookbook. Not only does it help stretch my food budget a little farther it’s also full of recipes that I want to try. I’m sure I will be turning to it often.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

This post is part of Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads