Cookbook Review: Cooking from the Hip

Cooking From the Hip

Cat Cora

2007 hardback ISBN: 0618729909

Photographs by Deborah Jones

This book is divided into five sections: Fast, Easy, Fun, Phenomenal, and Good to Know. It also includes resources for hard to find ingredients, which some people find really helpful. It has beautiful color photos and lots of notes from Cat throughout the book.

Cat Cora is the Food Network's only female Iron Chef and I enjoy watching her compete on that show. I also enjoyed her when she was on Melting Pot. This is another book I've had on my PBS wish list for some time and of course thrilled when I finally received it.

I made the Two Bean Salad with Hearts of Palm and Blue Cheese and it was great. It was so pretty layered in my glass pedestal serving bowl. The bowl was one of my yard sale finds from a few years ago. I did have trouble finding Sherry Vinegar so I used 1/2 red wine vinegar and 1/2 rice wine vinegar. I also used black beans instead of kidney since I forgot to get more kidney beans and had a couple cans of black beans already in the cabinet. Dexter likes black beans better anyway. He also wants me to leave out the chick peas and make this one again.

Cat encourages you to "cook from the hip" (hence the title of the book), taking these recipes as guide lines. She suggests using what you have on hand or your family enjoys and making substitutions if desired, which I did. This is a beautiful, fun book to read, cook from and enjoy.

Two-Bean Salad with Hearts of Palm and Blue Cheese

serves 6-8

Vinaigrette

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/2 cup sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup chopped shallots

Salad

1 8-ounce can hearts of palm, drained

1 cup drained kidney beans

1 cup diced cucumber

1 cup halved cherry tomatoes or sliced regular tomatoes

1 cup drained chickpeas

1 cup baby arugula leaves

1 cup crumbled blue cheese

For the Vinaigrette: in a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients. Set aside.

Slice the hearts of palm into rings and set aside. In a small bowl, combine the kidney beans and 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette. Toss quickly  to flavor the beans, then spoon the beans into a large serving bowl to form the salad's bottom layer. Using the same small bowl, toss the cucumber with a little vinaigrette, and add to the serving bowl to form the next layer. Follow the same steps with the tomatoes, chickpeas, arugula, and the hearts of palm. Finish by sprinkling the cheese over the salad. Chill, preferably for 1 hour and serve.