■ Glorious One-Pot Meals, by Elizabeth Yarnell. Broadway Books, $17.95.
In her recently updated and provocative cookbook, Glorious One-Pot Meals, Elizabeth Yarnell wrote, "It has been said that there are only nine cooking methods on this planet: saute, fry, bake, broil, grill, slow-cook, braise, boil and steam."
But Yarnell makes it 10 with her process for "infusion cooking," a term she has actually patented.
It works like this: You layer whole, healthy foods into a lidded, cast-iron Dutch oven, then "flash cook" them briefly in a super-hot oven.
The result is something different from a casserole or stew, she says. "No added liquid means that these recipes are ... complete meals (in which) each item retains its cellular integrity and emerges perfectly intact. The intense heat causes the vegetables to release their moisture, which ... infuses (the dish) with clean flavors from herbs, spices and other natural ingredients."
The "glorious" part is having crisp veggies, moist meats and fluffy grains in the same pot in about 20 minutes of prep time plus up to 45 minutes in the oven.
It sounds weird. But spend a few nights cooking out of this book and you may well become a fan.
After Yarnell found out she had multiple sclerosis in 1999, she began collecting her recipes into booklets for family and friends, which led to her self-published version of Glorious One-Pot Meals in 2005. It sold 12,000 copies. The new version, published this year, is twice as big and much more consistent and polished.
Yarnell, age 40 and free of MS issues since 2001, now is a mother of two. The book has become her business, which she supports via her Web site, Gloriousonepotmeal.com, and a blog, Effortlesseating.com.
The book has a broad selection of dishes. Many are such American favorites as macaroni and cheese or pot roast. Ethnic cuisines show up here and there, as in African peanut-butter stew, and tandoori salmon and kale with butternut squash over basmati rice.
Yarnell offers some quick and easy dishes, such as fiesta steak, citrus ginger chicken with root vegetables, and penne puttanesca. Other recipes include honey-chili trout, pistachio halibut, and corned beef and cabbage.
Once you get past the strict rules for cooking in a Dutch oven at high temperatures, the book does offer a lot of flexibility. You can follow Yarnell's recipes to the letter or do "intuitive cooking," mixing various ingredients into glorious one-pot creations of your own.
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