Searing Inspiration: Fast, Adaptable Entrées and Fresh Pan Sauces

by Susan Volland

Overview

Introducing a new, mix and match approach to seared entrées and fresh pan sauces.

Sear, deglaze, enhance, and serve: flavorful dinners can be that simple. In her unique, approachable style, Susan Volland first explains how to skillfully wield a hot skillet to sear entrées, then shows how a sauce can be made quickly in that same hot pan.

In more than 60 enticing recipes for seafood, poultry, meats, vegetables, tofu, and eggs, Volland invites home cooks to adapt her recipes for taste, diet, and ingredient availability. Searing Inspiration gives cooks the confidence to invent their own dishes, reintroducing a classic technique to modern tastes and kitchens.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393292411
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/06/2018
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Susan Volland is a classically trained chef and cookbook collaborator based in Seattle. She is the author of Searing Inspiration and Mastering Sauces, named a Best Cookbook of the Year by the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune.

Editorial Reviews

10/01/2018
In this exuberant outing, Volland (Mastering Sauces) instructs home cooks on how to create easy dishes with flavorful sauces cooked in the same pan as the entrees. She focuses on techniques, such as searing and deglazing, and starts with three fundamentals: mise en place, temperature recommendations, and sauce making. Throughout, she offers invaluable tips on everything from avoiding nonstick pans and trimming chicken to basting steaks and deciding whether to flambé. Fish and seafood dishes such as classic sole meunière and “campground” trout with sweet onions and bacon drippings are appetizing and straightforward, as are such poultry entrees as chicken piccata and chicken with garlic, greens, and salty cheese. Volland also shares tempting meat choices such as steak with a simple red wine and herb sauce, and pork chops with sour cream and sauerkraut sauce. Vegetables and eggs are also well represented in crispy tofu with peanut and red curry sauce; charred broccoli with chili, garlic, and lemon oil; and basted eggs with asparagus brown butter sauce and shaved Parmesan. All dishes include searing instructions in addition to recipes for sauces and sides. Insightful and enticing, this collection provides home cooks with a new repertoire of choices to create novel dishes and enhance old favorites. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Searing Inspiration is a gem of a cookbook. Susan Volland empowers even novice cooks to feel confident searing foods like a chef and making rich pan sauces. Follow her easy instructions and you’ll be creating elegant entrées like a pro."

Grace Young

"No longer do you need to rely on takeaway to get a full-flavored restaurant quality meal on your table in minutes. With her encouraging voice Susan Volland equips you with foundational cooking skills and knowledge to make you a confident cook. The recipes are unfussy and versatile, many of the sauces go with vegetables, meats, and seafood. But what I loved most is Susan’s advice: 'The right way to make a sauce is your way.'"

Cameron Stauch

"The Japanese do a lot of stovetop searing-in-a-skillet—fish, meat, and vegetables—so I already know what a boon this method can be to getting dinner on the table quickly. By showing us how to build richly flavored sauces from pan juices Susan elevates ordinary dishes to special feast status. The layout of the book is perfectly matched to its instructive content: sear, sauce and serve. Inspirational!"

Elizabeth Andoh

Winter 2018

In this handy guide, Volland (Mastering Sauces) outlines the three fundamentals of sauce making: maximize flavor, manipulate texture, and season confidently, with a focus on "techniques, not just recipes" and practical strategy ("always heat the empty skillet first and then add the oil"). Advice on temperature recommendations and tools and equipment is offered along with Volland's fondness for glass pie plates and oval platters. Recipes include "this sauce also goes well with" notes to aid in flexibility. Featured meals span pan fried oysters with bloody Caesar sauce, chicken "con queso," and steak with simple red wine and herb sauce. Other standouts are kielbasa with ketchup and curry sauce, bangers with onion and brown ale gravy, and seared eggplant with walnut and roasted red pepper puree. Tables list entrée suggestions, pan aromatics, and deglazing liquids. VERDICT Public libraries should have a variety of current titles on this topic. Cooks will appreciate the simplicity of the style and gain confidence with these accessible recipes.—Barbara Kundanis, Longmont P.L., CO

Library Journal