Weekend Cooking- Emeril's Cooking With Power by Emeril Lagasse

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Emeril's Cooking With Power by Emeril Lagasse
Published by William Morrow Cookbooks ISBN 9780062300171
Hardcover, $25.99, 272 pages

While on the treadmill a few weeks ago, I found Emeril Lagasse on Good Morning America making lasagna in a slow cooker. "Hmm," I thought, "Maybe I should try this in my new crock pot." My only worry was that the noodles would be mushy, but I remembered that my husband saw a recipe for Crock Pot Lasagna on my Facebook feed and mentioned that he would like me to try it, so I did.

Everyone raved about it, and although I personally thought the noodles were a little mushy, I was clearly in the minority on this one. (I'm making it again tomorrow by request.) Then I remembered that I had an ARC of Emeril's Cooking With Power on my Kindle, so I flipped through it to see what else was there.

The subtitle of the book is 100 Delicious Recipes Starring Your Slow Cooker, Multi-Cooker, Pressure Cooker and Deep Fryer. Now as many of you know, I live in an NYC apartment and my kitchen is not big, so I don't have the space for all those electrics. But for those of you who do, this is a book you may want to pick up.

At the beginning of each section Emeril lists the gadget he cooked in, all of them available from his line of cookers, but if you don't own his brand, he helpfully lists the requirements you will need- size, timers, warmers, etc.- in your own electric appliance.

This book is for the more sophisticated cook; it's not a throw-it-in-the-crockpot-and-forget-it type of cooking. Many of meat recipes call for browning in a skillet, and some vegetables have to be sauteed before going in. There are multiple steps before placing in the cooker.

I liked that there are so many varieties of ethnic dishes here, perhaps because Emeril is from the melting pot of New Orleans. In the slow cooker section, he has recipes for Risotto Milanese, Cuban-Style Slow-Cooked Black Beans, Colombian Chicken, Corn and Potato Stew, and Duck Confit.

The Multi-Cooker recipes includes Seafood Soup with Coconut Milk and Tamarind, Baby Bock Choy with Black Bean-Garlic Sauce and S'mores Pudding.

He makes Lamb Stew with Israeli Couscous, Sweet Potatoes and Preserved Lemon, Quick Osso Buco, and Korean-Style Beef Stew in the Pressure Cooker section.

Classic Crab Rangoons, Crabmeat Beignets, Southeast Asian Egg Rolls and Natchitoches Meat Pies can be found in the Deep Fryer section.

If you are an adventurous cook who owns these electrics and likes ethnic foods, I would recommend Emeril's Cooking With Power; I think it could expand a cook's palette.

If you want to see Emeril's segment on Good Morning America, the link is here.
His recipe for Slow Cooker Lasagna is here.

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