Cookbook of the Week: All About Braising by Molly Stevens

It’s an exciting feeling when you learn that somebody you respect and admire is practically your neighbor.

When I first began collecting cookbooks, in my early 20s, I acquired a volume on potato cookery called One Potato, Two Potato by Roy Finamore and Molly Stevens. It was a thoughtful, single-subject treatment of one of my favorite foods.

A few years later, when I landed a job as the food writer at Burlington, Vermont’s alternative newsweekly, Seven Days, I learned that my boss is friends with Molly, who lives just a single town away from where I grew up.

By then, I already owned Molly’s tour de force on my favorite fall and winter cooking method, All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking.

What is braising? It’s a method for cooking that typically involves browning food, adding liquid to the cooking vessel, covering it tightly, and slowly, cooking the food at a low temperature which allows it to tenderizes and take on flavor.

In All About Braising, Molly first breaks down the crucial steps in this age-old cooking process, and helps the reader understand the purpose of each one without ever sounding dry or technical. Then, she moves on to the recipes.

The first chapter deals with vegetables. Braising meat is a common way to make tough cuts melt into tenderness, and plenty of people generally follow the steps without knowing that what they’re doing is taught in culinary school. However, it may be less common for home cooks to apply these principles to produce. Molly’s first few recipes are for potatoes, drawing a line back to her earlier book. She then offers recipes for braised eggplant, broccolini, cabbage, fennel and celery, among other vegetables. Each one stands out, surprises, and makes me want to run down to the garden to harvest the vegetable in question.

She then proceeds to seafood, various types of meats and wraps up with some suggestions for pantry items to keep in the house, and sources for ingredients.

Each year, as soon as the weather turns cool, and I crave the opportunity to turn on the oven for a bit of extra warmth, this is the first book I reach for.