Product Description

Rachael Ray is back with more delicious meal ideas and flexible menus for cooking great meals 24/7."Rachael Ray's latest collection of 30-Minute Meals is the next best thing to having a 24-hour diner next door. Need an early supper for the kids before a

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #103339 in Books
• Brand: Koen Books
• Published on: 2004-10-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

'Round The Clock Rigmarole
I used to like Rachael Ray, I really did. That was five years ago before she became such an overblown phenomenon and I couldn't stand the site of her anymore. I can remember watching the Food Network and by chance catching her show, intrigued with her concept as I watched her make Cowboy Hash and Eggs with Texas Toast and Yellow Tomato Salsa. The über-queen of quick-cooking meals has now made a killing with several shows on the Food Network as well as numerous publications, which include her own magazine (Every Day With Rachael Ray) and a mountain of cookbooks. Ray will be turning 40 this month and she's got a lot to celebrate - she has made a literal empire out of her own name à la Martha Stewart (someone else I despise), spawning a cookware collection as well as food products (she has her own extra-virgin olive oil, something which I refuse to buy) and is now launching a line of pet food (of all things!). Whereas her cutesy demeanor and time-saving approach once appealed to me, she is now wearing thin and has even managed to inspire an anti-fan site completely devoted to trashing her called "Rachael Ray Sucks" (the site boasts nearly 2000 members).

All that aside, "Cooking `Round The Clock" is a fair collection of recipes that offers up plenty of her family history, her cultural roots and some moderate flaunting of the elbow-rubbing she's done in Hollywood and beyond. Ray starts off her book with an introduction that shares some cute little anecdotes, followed by "Rachael's Reminders" that takes the reader through some basic knowledge and dishes out little nuggets of wisdom (First Things First, How To Measure, Shortcuts, Substitutions, You Are Not Racing The Clock). It then proceeds into the Table of Contents where the recipes are sorted by time of day:

Rise and Shiners - 7 to 11
Let's Do Lunch - 11 to 4
Early Bird Specials - 4 to 7
Sit-Down Suppers - 7 to 9
TV Dinners and Snacks - 7 to 12
Bistro Meals - 9 to 12
Late-Nite Bites - 12 to 7

Surprisingly, the book is short on pictures (there's one measly section in the middle of the book with a total of only 8 color photos) and it doesn't even contain an index. I still find this annoying because it makes it that much more difficult for me to hunt something up based on one major ingredient if I can't remember the name of the recipe. Instead, I have to comb through 13 pages of the vast Table of Contents to locate what I'm looking for. The layout of the book is basic white with colored text and the type of font and font size makes the recipes fairly easy to read, along with ingredients in red and measurements in green for quick-checks while cooking. Occasionally a recipe page will have an anecdote and/or suggestions for variations on the theme/ingredients, all Ray's personal touches to make her approach more personable and relaxed.

As for the recipes themselves, I admire Ray's style of big, bold flavors but they aren't such a hit with me when the ingredient list starts to break the bank. This is a constant fault throughout the book and here are several examples.

First, this Parmigiano Reggiano cheese she insists on using on nearly everything is quite costly, as are some of the other cheeses she uses (Manchego, Gruyére, ricotta salata, bocconcini and Camembert), almost all of which have you visiting the specialty cheese case, which means SPECIALTY PRICES. Then there's the odd appearance of truffle oil, of all things. Ray has no formal training but she takes the position of a gourmet chef with all those exotic ingredients, ingredients that can eat through someone's tight budget. She uses a variety of liquors and liqueurs (Grand Marnier, limoncello, amaretto) as well as different wines.

Getting overwhelmed yet? There's more.

Then there's these fire-roasted tomatoes that keep making an appearance, something of which I can't find, even in the larger grocery stores. There's also the unusual and/or costly spices such as smoked paprika (which only about two years ago became available to me) and saffron (the most expensive spice there is), weird things like plantain chips and/or gourmet chips (wha...?) and exotic meats (prosciutto, pancetta, sopressata).

Some of the particular cuts of meats she uses can get costly as well - in a Beef and Broccoli Salad, she uses 4 beef tenderloin steaks at 6 oz per steak. I don't even wanna think about how badly that's gonna gouge my small pocketbook.

To put it bluntly, very few of the recipes are for the budget-conscious. If you're currently tightening the purse strings, then you'd be better off buying a Semi-Homemade cookbook by fellow Food Network star Sandra Lee. After all, that woman's mantra is that her recipes save you time AND money. This obviously escapes Ray and the fact that she was once a gourmet food buyer does not help matters.

With this particular 30-Minute Meal cookbook in your library, here are your most common pantry staples:

Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (or EVOO, as she refers to it - the woman popularized this abbreviate so much that The Oxford Collegiate Dictionary added this to their lexicon)
Hot Sauce (Tabasco is usually recommended)
Old Bay Seasoning
Paprika (sweet and smoked varieties)
canned tomatoes (crushed, diced and that obscure fire-roasted variety)
Chicken broth/stock
Capers
Red wine vinegar
Worcestershire sauce
Tomato paste (which they now make in a tube and I HIGHLY recommend that)
Grill seasoning blend
Anchovy fillets
Pitted olives (black and green)

That's a lot of things to keep on hand, if you ask me. As you can see, there are a lot of negatives here but that's because I'm a person who's trying to save money while not giving myself a headache looking for ingredients that only certain stores carry or that are so eccentric they have to be ordered online. I do actually like some of the recipes despite all my complaints and there are a few gems, some of which I'll list here:

Urban Cowboy Turkey Burgers
Rachael throws in everything but the kitchen sink for these turkey burgers and they are chock-full of flavor, with the sweetness of bell pepper, red onion, a few pungent herbs (garlic, cilantro, thyme) and spices (grill seasoning, hot sauce, fresh jalapeños and cumin), all topped off by pepper jack cheese, smoky bacon and a delectable red pepper relish on a crusty Kaiser roll. My personal tip for this recipe is to use ground turkey instead of turkey breast (too dry and too bland); get a little extra fat in your turkey and you'll be rewarded with a moister and more flavorful burger.

Crab and Corn Chowder Cup-O-Soup
This is a hearty and filling luncheon soup that goes perfectly with the cheesy toasted English muffins that Rachael includes. The base of the soup comes together with the classic aromatic vegetables (celery, onion, red bell pepper) and gets some smoky notes from bacon as well as a generous splash of Tabasco. Aroma and flavor are taken up a notch with thyme and Old Bay Seasoning. The soup gets a boost with flour and half-and-half to produce a frothy broth and then the chowder elements are added (corn, hash browns and crab meat), topped off with a garnish of fresh chives. Creamy and delicious to the last, you'll be mopping your bowl dry with that English muffin!

Cuban-Spiced Pork Tenderloin and Soffrito Rice
If you're looking for a "Hot Havana Night" in the comfort of your own home, look no further. The lean pork tenderloin gets dressed with a fantastic spice amalgam (bay leaf, fennel seed, coriander, cumin, grill seasoning), garlic and the zing of lime zest. It is roasted to perfection in the oven whilst a simple mixture is used to create the accompanying soffrito rice. Your standard white rice, some chopped green bell pepper, smoky bacon and chicken broth come together with the highlight of the flavor belonging to the delicate saffron, as well as the golden yellow color it creates (paella is most famous for this yellow color for its obvious inclusion of saffron). The saffron is the biggest problem in this dish due to its cost but I'm one to say on occasion "what the hell" and go for it. The meal is served with cilantro and scallions as a garnish and some chopped mango, a nice sweet compliment to all the strong spices. Have some mojitos and you'll be doing the cha-cha after a fantastic dinner.

New England Tasty Tuna Melt
This tuna melt is a nice variation in that it's served on a fluffy crusty English muffin and has a blessedly short ingredient list. The salad is your basic tuna salad with celery, mayo and pickle relish but gets some extra crisp from the addition of radishes and a real nice kick from Old Bay seasoning. Topped off with fresh tomato and a slice of white cheddar, it's put under the broiler to melt the cheese and enjoyed right away. Mmmm...

Green Ranch-Hand Eggs
I'm a big breakfast person. I'm also a fan of Tex-Mex, so this is my ideal dish to fill a food craving during late night partying (or just late night whatever). All of the ingredients are layered so that the food appears as one big, gorgeous, colorful heap. First there's a tortilla lightly blistered, topped by warm black beans, then a fried egg, tomatillo salsa (the green part) and cheese (manchego is mentioned but you can substitute with a sharp cheddar). Garnished with some more green in the form of fresh herbs (cilantro, parsley, scallions and/or chives - personally I'd use all four for kicks) and a dollop of sour cream, you've got a Tex-Mex breakfast/brunch that's to die for.

Bottom line: Though I appreciate Rachael's creativity and the novelty of a quick and balanced meal, the cost of it often outweighs my desire to refer to her recipes on a regular basis. Of all the cookbooks in my collection, the spine of my copy of "30 Minute Meals: Cooking `Round The Clock" is, not surprisingly, holding up well.

Good recipes, and you don't have to listen to her talk!
I'm not a huge fan of her show, but I like her creative takes on flavors. I've made several of these recipes, and everyone has loved them. Nice variety of recipes in this book, too.

Cowboy burgers suck
The only reciepe I've made from this book was the Cowboy turkey burgers. It was awful, it ended up being a stir fry and I just ate the "burgers" with a fork. Gross. Since I'm a novice cook, I wasn't able to adjust the reciepe in time to save the meal.

One saving grace is the fact it's organized by "time" rather than indexed. Terrible for people looking for something specific, but for us "browsers" this is a fun way of searching. I also took the liberty of pairing each menu title with an appropriate movie. For instance the "Monster Munchies" menu I paired with the movie "Godzilla". That was the funnest part, matching her menu titles to movies I would love to share with friends. Like the show "Dinner & a Movie". In this way, you can make it even MORE fun when you are browsing for the perfect reciepe to share with friends.