won this book from a goodreads giveaway! I am super excited to add this to my collection! Cooking is not really my thing and this book has a lot of good information for using ingredients to make the most out of your cooking! My fiance really likes vinegar and I have already found a few good tips for cooking with vinegar! Very handy book to have near the kitchen! Disclaimer: I received this book for free in a giveaway
It is super accessible.
It keeps things simple for all the newbies out there like myself, It has a variety of things from “awesome I can do this” to “this is way beyond my abilities money or talent”,
If you are on the poorer side like myself this may not be a good investment, Further if you are in a food desert where access to fresh herbs and whatnot is limited this is one to skip,
I could only try the simpler recipes because anything more complicated would have involved a drive out to the farm stand and I wasn't inclined to do that.
I may do that in the future, in which case I will add to this later, but for now this is what I've done.
OrangeClove Tea A quick way to spice up your black tea, Super easy just add orange slices and cloves into your black tea when brewing,
PeachInfused Simple Syrup As with all simple syrups this is a tad bit time consuming, but the result is a sweet peachy flavored syrup.
I ate the saturated peaches afterward on pancakes, A sweet treat.
Peach Iced Tea Another suggestion from Infusing Flavors by Erin Coopey, This one didnt work out as well as the others, Essentially all you do is brew iced black tea and flavor it with the peach simple syrup from her book, And in y opinion the flavors didnt blend so well, Not something I would repeat, Some really good ideas for oils and sauces, This was an enjoyable, wellillustrated, and easy to digest cookbook that focuses on several kinds of infusions, Each section contains a good number of recipes that would be pretty easy to make at home, There are sections on tisanes, bitters, infused oils and vinegars, broths, and more, There are certainly a few recipes in here that I would like to try out e, g. lemon and dill infused vinegar, strawberrybasil infused soda syrup, switchel, honey and blueberry shrub, and cherryvanilla bitters but I haven't yet, so I can't comment on that.
Ready to escape "vanilla" hohum recipes, embrace your culinary creativity, and taste something new Yeah, we thought so, Pick up this cookbookyour ticket to a world of flavor,
Infusing Flavors features recipes to infuse mindblowing flavors into teas, tisanes, bitters, liqueurs, aguas frescas, waters, vinegars, oils, gastriques, shrubs, ice creams, soft drinks, and more.
Each section in the book is packed with unique recipes, You'll learn which herbs, fruits, flowers, vegetables, and even seeds can be prepared and infused into allnatural food and drink recipes, With its emphasis on flavor infusions that stretch beyond your standard cocktail bitters, this book is a special treat for any food lover,
Here's a taste of some of the ingredients you'll use in Infusing Flavors:
Herbs and flowers chamomile, lavender, lemongrass, rosemary, mint, sage, thyme, lemon verbena, ginger, basil
Fruits cherry, peach, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, citrus lemons and oranges, watermelon
Veggies, berries, and roots celery, fennel, dandelion
The blending and infusing chapter, plus the diverse recipe sections of the cookbook, promise to keep readers enthralled and learning something they never guessed about these wideranging ingredients for flavor infusion.
The book includes information about the following:
Peeltostem is the new nosetotail: introduction to the movement Blending Infusing Storing Experimenting with flavors Health benefits including tips on growing your own fresh herbs
The Recipes
Teas and tisanes herbal and fruit iced and hot
Honeys, sugars, and simple syrups
Extracts and bitters from baker to bartender
Shrubs, switchels, and kombuchas
Soft drinks and infused waters sodas, beer, and "ade"
Flavored oils the chef's secret
Vinegars and gastriques
Broths
Desserts and sweets This is the perfect book for anyone interested In learning all the wonderful ways we preserve food from making your vinegars, tinctures and botanical shrubs, to teas, tisanes, bitters, and kombucha.
The opening section provides a really good background on equipment, terminology and all the info on everything that you need to infuse.
There is a list of the most significant botanicals and their properties which is extremely helpful,
While I have some experience with several methods, I have never tried others and the recipes are straightforward and overall pretty easybut many recipes do take weeks or months to
make because they need to, well,”infuse”.
Go figure. As I write this I am currently making the apple cider vinegar, and some bee balm tincture, Erin Coopey is a chef, writer, and teacher, After receiving her culinary degree in Scottsdale, she trained at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, Erin has molded her passion into a career, sharing her love of cooking and good food with hundreds of students, In addition to teaching, she has published multiple recipes in local and national publications, including “Good Morning Americas Cut the Calories Cookbook,” edited by Sara Moulton and KAET Channels cookbook series including “I is for International” and “E is for Entertaining,” SheSpeaks.
com and Yahoo! Shine. Erin has also appeared on several television programs, including Food Networks Guys Grocery GamesPasta La Vista, Baby, Her first cookbook, The Erin Coopey is a chef, writer, and teacher, After receiving her culinary degree in Scottsdale, she trained at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, Erin has molded her passion into a career, sharing her love of cooking and good food with hundreds of students, In addition to teaching, she has published multiple recipes in local and national publications, including “Good Morning America's Cut the Calories Cookbook,” edited by Sara Moulton and KAET Channel"s cookbook series including “I is for International” and “E is for Entertaining,” SheSpeaks.
com and Yahoo! Shine. Erin has also appeared on several television programs, including Food Network's Guy's Grocery GamesPasta La Vista, Baby, Her first cookbook, The Kitchen Pantry Cookbook, was nominated for an IACP Julia Child Best First Cookbook Award, Her latest cookbook, Infusing Flavors was published in June, sitelink.