I’m from a cooking school of thought very closely aligned with that of Rachel Flax (Winona Ryder’s mother in the movie, Mermaids, memorably played by Cher) who believed in making hors d’oeuvres and only hors d’oeuvres.

If left to my own devices, every meal would be a string of snacks and finger food. But when I hear my cooking-centric friends rhapsodize over the amazing meals they concoct with ingredients I’ve never heard of, I wonder if I’m missing out.  So having only made a few basic dishes before (rice and beans), or been relegated to the “peeler and chopper” when assisting in the kitchen, I thought I’d try my hand at the Chicken Potpie recipe from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home cookbook. The cookbook’s recipes are described as “doable at home,” so that seemed like a step in the right direction.

Right off the bat I was relieved to note I had definitely heard of all the ingredients needed for the potpie, and as a bonus, I already possessed a few (milk, butter and carrots!). And those I didn’t have in my kitchen wouldn’t go to waste if there were leftovers (pearl onions and bay leaves).  After reading the recipe, it seemed pretty straightforward, even to my untrained eye. The only step I was really sweating was making the pie crust, which has always seemed particularly scary – Don’t overwork the dough! Make sure everything stays cold! It can’t be too dry! Or sticky!  I always thought it was a task best left to the professionals.  So after rereading the recipe about 6 times, I jumped in, and turns out, no, it isn’t that scary. The one oversight on my part was forgetting that I don’t actually own a rolling pin, which I imagine would be immensely helpful when trying to roll out dough. Turns out a wine bottle can pinch-hit if needed.

Once I had the dough situation under control, the rest was smooth-sailing, I chopped and simmered the vegetables, cooked up some béchamel sauce (perhaps whisking a little too obsessively, but there were no lumps!) and finally assembled the pie and popped it in the oven.  The result?  A dish I couldn’t believe I had created, and the first dish I felt the need to photograph – partly because I was so proud and partly because I knew no one would believe it came from my oven.  But most importantly, it was delicious.  Flaky crust? Check. Creamy, savory filling? Check.  Tender vegetables? Absolutely.

And now with my cooking confidence vastly improved, I’m already eyeing the Catalan beef stew recipe in the next chapter and thinking that it looks “doable at home.”
Click here for the recipe

The new self-sufficiency movement has inspired people to can fruits and vegetables like old-fashioned homesteaders. Even my local warehouse club was selling Mason jars this summer – a true sign of a movement gone mainstream.

But this trend hasn’t spoken to me. While I like to cook, the notion of boiling a pot of glass jars on a hot August day (which is always when the veggies are ripe) makes me want to leave the kitchen and head to the air-conditioned movie theater instead.

And yet, Pickled Carrots called to me like little orange sirens from the pages of Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home, the New York Times bestselling cookbook by the chef at The French Laundry. Despite its upscale restaurant origins, the book is all about home cooking, and includes a whole section of surprisingly unfussy recipes for jarred delicacies like sweet onion tapenade, fennel mustard, and fig and balsamic jam (which Keller uses to stuff a pork loin). And a platterful of bright and spicy vegetable pickles – carrots, cauliflower, green beans, and more.

What’s the appeal of Keller’s homemade pickled vegetables? First of all, there are about four ingredients in each of these recipes, and most of them are already in my kitchen cupboard. Second, there is no mention of boiling jars or fitting on those scary lids when they are blazing hot. (Instead, Keller asks you to stick the finished product in the fridge, and eat it up within a month – that I can do.) Third, these pickles are gorgeous to look at: jewel-toned carrots, tiny champagne grapes in curry…looking at the pictures in the book is like window-shopping at the ultimate gourmet store.

It never really occurred to me I could make pickles (let alone out of carrots). But it turns out I can, with remarkably little fuss. In approximately 28 minutes on a Sunday afternoon, start to finish, I made a collection of stunningly pretty Pickled Carrots – a yield large enough to serve with a cheese plate over Thanksgiving weekend and still have a couple jars left in the fridge to go along with sandwiches for the next week or two. (Like I said, eating within one month is not going to be a challenge.)

The most time-consuming part of this recipe was peeling the carrots. After cutting them into sticks, all I had to do was heat up some curry powder, and add Keller’s incredibly easy pickling liquid (good vinegar + water + sugar, stirred together in a measuring cup) and the carrots. After two minutes of simmering  – truly, two – I was standing those little carrot spears up in some jars and pouring the liquid over them. And trying not to burn my fingers by sampling too many while they were still hot. They are delicious – enough heat from the jalapeno to keep things interesting, and a bold flavor that doesn’t shout “curry.” And they are gorgeous to behold: bright orange and crisp after such a short time on the heat, and sparkling in their glass jars.

The sight of those jars of Pickled Carrots in my refrigerator makes me feel like a new-fangled, gourmet Laura Ingalls Wilder. This self-sufficiency thing, it turns out, can make one feel very smug indeed.

Page Edmunds, associate publisher at Workman Publishing, lives with her family near New York City. She is currently reading Spooner, by Pete Dexter (which is so brilliantly funny she’s been reading whole paragraphs aloud to her husband) and cooking from What Can I Bring? Cookbook (banana bread) and Barefoot Contessa at Home (butternut squash soup).

We’ve got five videos of Chef Thomas Keller sharing tips, tricks and inspiration from his newest book, Ad Hoc at Home, and we’ll be posting a new one every day.
Click here to view videos 1-4.

We’ve got five videos of Chef Thomas Keller sharing tips, tricks and inspiration from his newest book, Ad Hoc at Home, and we’ll be posting a new one every day. Check back tomorrow for the last video!

Click here to view videos 1-3.

We’ve got five videos of Chef Thomas Keller sharing tips, tricks and inspiration from his newest book, Ad Hoc at Home, and we’ll be posting a new one every day. Check back tomorrow for the fourth video!

We’ve got five videos of Chef Thomas Keller sharing tips, tricks and inspiration from his newest book, Ad Hoc at Home, and we’ll be posting a new one every day. Check back tomorrow for another!

Chef Thomas Keller talks about his newest book, Ad Hoc at Home. Ad Hoc at Home is filled with family-style home-cooking recipes and Keller’s perfected versions of classic comfort foods.

Alright, so maybe you won’t cook quite like Thomas Keller right off the bat. But Ad Hoc at Home, Keller’s latest cookbook, has the tips and recipes to get you cooking, if not on his level, then certainly with greater know-how and confidence than before. Even with limited experience in the kitchen, these are meals you can envision making. To become a well-rounded cook, one that can tackle almost any recipe, here are a few basics you might want to get the hang of….

Learn to:
Use salt properly: Salt enhances flavors already in a dish – if you can taste the salt, it’s too salty. Salt used for seasoning needs time to dissolve—salt steaks, chops and other smaller cuts 15 to 20 minutes before cooking, while larger cuts, like a chicken, should be salted 40 to 45 minutes before cooking.

Use vinegar as a seasoning device: Vinegar can be an important way to enhance the impact of a dish. It’s always worth considering whether a few drops of vinegar could be added to a soup, sauce, or braising liquid to make the flavors really jump out.

Roast a chicken: When you know how to roast a chicken you have an infinite number of dishes at your fingertips, from springtime chicken with peas and morels to cold salads in the summer to a winterized version with roasted root vegetables.

Sauté: Recognizing the level of heat you need is the critical part of sautéing food. A duck breast should be cooked over low heat to render the fat in the skin and make it crisp, while fish is usually sautéed over high heat to develop flavor on the exterior through browning.

Pan-Roast: This combines two techniques, sautéing and roasting. It’s a good technique to use at home and only requires a frying pan or sauté pan with an ovenproof handle.

Make a pie crust: Baking your own pie crust gives you the framework to make a range of dishes. It also allows you to choose the type of fat you want to use as your shortening—butter adds richness, while lard can be great for savory dishes.

Cook eggs: Eggs can be prepared in so many ways – they’re delicious, inexpensive and nutritious. They can be used in sweet or savory meals as an ingredient or a tool.

Use the big-pot blanching technique: Big-pot blanching involves boiling vegetables in brine strength salted water until they are cooked through. The result? Vividly colored, perfectly seasoned vegetables.

Roast: There are two types of roasting: high-heat roasting and low-and-slow roasting. High-heat is used for foods that are naturally tender, like chicken or rack of lamb. Low-and-slow is used for either of two reasons: it can be used for meats that need to be tenderized or for large cuts that need to time to cook evenly.

Make one really good soup: There’s enormous value in making a good soup. A vegetable soup, a protein-based soup, and a pureed soup are all an invaluable part of a cook’s repertoire.

Poach: Poaching is a gentle form of cooking—the temperature never goes above 200˚F. Poaching allows you to flavor the cooking medium and thereby enhance the flavor of what you’re cooking.

Braise: Braising has the ability to develop deep flavor and tenderness in inexpensive, tough cuts of meat.  Braising is straightforward: the meat is seasoned and browned on the stovetop, then liquid is added and the meat is cooked in the oven at 275˚ to 300˚ for hours until it’s tender.