Product Description

In Off the Shelf, Australia's bestselling food writer Donna Hay shows you how to fill your pantry with convenient and basic ingredients. Save time with these easy to put together recipes -- for everyday meals or special occasions, and especially when unexpected guests arrive.

Off the Shelf is packed with the information and inspiration to create a great meal at short notice -- anything from a simple pasta dish or the slippery slurp of Asian-inspired noodles to a tempting berry tart. All you need is a well-stocked pantry and a handful of fresh ingredients.

An essential handbook for everyone who loves to cook and to eat.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #202583 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-01
• Released on: 2001-10-24
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Amazon.com
Donna Hay, Australia's bestselling cookbook author, understands our pain. The pain, that is, of producing delicious meals when time is tight and we really can't shop--again. Off the Shelf: Cooking from the Pantry presents a blueprint for from-scratch good eating that relies on a thoughtfully stocked larder, a few fresh ingredients, and truly streamlined recipes. The idea isn't new, of course, but Hay finds a better way with it, presenting recipes like Pasta with Pancetta and Peas; Lime, Beef, and Noodle Salad; and Green Olive and Baked Chicken that are truly quick and easy to do. First published in Australia, Off the Shelf arrives here in an edition meant to work for American cooks; if ingredient names, quantities, and some operations aren't always completely "translated" (one recipe calls for English spinach leaves) or given conventional American form, willing readers will still be able use it most productively.

Organized by ingredients and topics, the book offers buying advice throughout, regular recipes, and Short Order sections that distill formulas, such as those for Lemon and Basil Pilaf and Marinated Chickpea Salad, into get-the-drill-quickly paragraphs. Among the fuller-dress recipes, readers will surely want to try Beef and Caramelized Onion Couscous Salad, Crispy Spiced Thai Chicken, and Seared Salmon on Coconut Spinach, among others. Sweets, including Burnt Vanilla Creams and Chocolate Honey Snaps, are also delicious and easily accomplished. With truly useful tips (cut overlong cooked noodles to make them more manageable is one why-didn't-I-think-of-that example), an oversize bravura design, and color photos throughout, the book shows and tells how to cook with the greatest ease. --Arthur Boehm

About the Author

Donna Hay is an Australian-based food stylist, author and magazine editor and one of the best-known names in cookbook and magazine publishing in the world. Her previous eight books have sold more than 2.2 million copies internationally and are renowned for their fresh style, easy-to-follow recipes and inspirational photography. These best-selling, award-wining titles—including The Instant Cook, Modern Classics Book 1 and 2, and Off The Shelf—together with donna hay magazine, have captured the imagination of cooks worldwide and set a new benchmark in modern food styling and publishing. She has recently released the extremely popular Donna Hay Home range of servingware, kitchenware and foods.

Customer Reviews

Yummy Recipes!
I love that all of the recipes in this book have pictures! I also like that Donna has the recipes categorized by main ingrediant. I love rice so I am always finding yummy new recipes in the Rice section. Within each category there is a section for fast recipes that only take minutes to make. The deserts are wonderful! I can't wait to cook my way through this book!!!!

a friend's rec
A friend brought this cookbook to a women's weekend and I fell in love with the beautiful pictures, variety, and ease of recipies!

Amazing book design, even more amazing food.
I am a huge fan of Donna Hay. I have a collection of recipes from her magazines and they all taste fantastic. The skill level for some of her magazine recipes can be a bit high though. Tastey and amazing none the less.
I recieved this book from a friend who went to Australia and brought it back for me. I was so excited. I dismissed the title 'off the shelf', as I find this isn't always true with cook books. It is very true here. Now that have cooked with nothing but these recipes for two weeks, I know to always have some fresh lemon, parmesean and herbs in my kitchen and I am good to go. There is a good range of veggie, fish and meat dishes. All that i have easily been able to substitue ingredients for (ex. fish instead of chicken). The food has all been amazing and if I take 5 minutes to prep all my ingredients, the dinners that I have made have taken about 15-20 minutes. Highly recommend this for ANYONE who loves to cook and loves to eat good food. These are easy recipes and there is a good mix of meals from everyday to a sunday dinner.