Anyway, Seth is responding to and offering some criticisms of Anderson’s new book – Free. In his response, Seth writes, “A good book review on Amazon is more reliable and easier to find than a paid-for professional review that used to run in your local newspaper, isn’t it?” My goodness, NO!

One of the many reasons I do still read newspapers, albeit usually their digital versions, is to get reliable, easy to find reviews of restaurants and books. I don’t want reviews of movies because I don’t want to know too much going into the theater. Sites like Amazon and Yelp have many, many book and restaurant reviews. My problem with these reviews is the same thing Seth is pointing out – anyone can write them. Let’s face it, most people should not write book reviews. Book reviews on Amazon, much like restaurant reviews on Yelp, are often poorly written, hard to follow, irrelevant, boring, the list goes on. Reading through readers’ reviews does not save me any time when decided to buy a book, and it may not even help me make that decision.

For a rather fair example, see the reviews of Heat, a really fun book by Bill Buford. Right on the page you can compare the usefulness of a review by Anthony Bordain and those made by readers. I say the example is fair because the readers’ reviews aren’t the worst examples I could find. One of the reviews begins, “I don’t go to restaurants. I don’t watch FOOD Channel. I don’t even order take-out. I’m just a pizza and burger guy with an occasional side trip to Taco Bell for my veggies. So why was I reading this book?” Please, why am I reading this review? I read reviews in established publishing sources because I know who the writers are and have some reason to trust them. 270 readers on Amazon thought the review that started with that line, about a cooking book, was helpful. That shows me that both the reviews and the people who rate them are not to be trusted when I’m deciding how to spend my book money.

Amazon’s statistics about what people buying books I liked, like Heat, also bought are more helpful. Those stats are about user behavior though, not user contributions. Not all reviews are equal. To have more reviews is not necessarily better – it just makes finding the useful ones harder. I have in the pipeline a site that will address that problem for restaurants by aggregating reliable, professional reviews – Food Pilgrim – but for now, I’ll just avoid the reader reviews on Amazon and stick to trusting the reviewers at Salon, the NY Times, and my local library.

Ingredients
1 English roast, 3.5+ pounds (chuck eye works too)
1 white onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced or through a press
2 medium carrots
1 celery stalk
1 C. chicken broth (optional)
2 tsp. sugar
Salt & pepper
Sprig of thyme
Water
Vegetable oil

Tools
Dutch oven or other big pot with lid that can go in the oven
Plate
Chef’s knife
cutting board

Notes
I like to salt my beef before I cook it, almost all the time. That means I salt steaks, roasts, what have you. By “salting” I mean that I generously cover the thing in kosher salt and stick it in the fridge for an hour or two. Much like brining for poultry, salting steaks and roasts makes them more tender and flavorful. So, if you’re home at lunch to put the roast in the oven, salt it. Then eat lunch; then put it in the oven.

Process

1. Salt the beef with kosher salt and stick it on the plate, in the fridge for an hour or two (optional)
2. In the Dutch oven, heat enough oil to just cover the bottom of the pan
3. While the oil heats, season your roast with salt (if you haven’t salted it) and pepper (no matter what)
4. When the oil’s hot, brown the roast on all sides. Will take about 10 minutes for all the sides to be nicely browned.
5. While the meat browns, coarsely chop your onion, carrots, and celery; preheat the oven to 300 degrees F
6. When the meat’s brown, remove it from the pan and let is rest on the plate. Add the chopped veggies and garlic to the pan.
7. Cook the veggies until just tender, then add the garlic and sugar. Cook the garlic and sugar for about 30 seconds or until you can just start to smell the roasting garlic.
8. If you’re using chicken broth, add it now.
9. Use the broth to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. If you’re not using broth, add a bit of water and scrape up the bits.
10. Add the roast back into the pan and fill with water to halfway up the sides of the roast; add the sprig of thyme.
11. With the lid on, bring the pot to a simmer.
12. Once simmering, put the whole shebang in your now-warm 300 degree oven and leave it there for 3 – 4 hours.

Eating the Roast
When you pull the roast from the oven, it should be cooked all the way through and fork-tender. What you do next is up to you. I boiled then pan-fried white potatoes and cooked up some green beans to go with mine. I also used a slotted spoon to remove the veggies and reduced the remaining liquid to about half. Then I added a flour-butter mixture to thicken it just a little and used it as a really runny gravy. It was tasty but not fantastic. The roast makes great leftovers as sandwich meat, pasta topping, even just reheated with the same sides as the first night.

Ingredients
1 batch of chicken stock, or 8 cups of commercial stock
1 boiled chicken from chicken stock, or 3/4-1 lb of cooked chicken in small pieces
1 small to medium white onion, quartered (no roots)
2-4 cloves of garlic, peeled
Cilantro and oregano in an 8:1 ratio (e.g. 8 springs cilantro, 1 spring oregano), use as much cilantro as you like and adjust oregano accordingly
8 corn tortillas
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium to large tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 small to medium jalapeno, seeds removed if you want a milder soup
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, minced, a little less if you want a milder soup
a spoonful of adobo sauce. leave out if you want a milder soup
Salt

Garnishes
Lime wedges
Monterrey Jack or Queso Anejo
Cilantro
Avocado
Sour cream

Tools
Chef’s knife
cutting board
soup pot
food processor
baking sheet
small Tupperware
wooden spoon

Notes
I make chicken stock the day before (or earlier in the day) when I make this soup. I have not tried it with commercial chicken stock and don’t recommend it. Those stocks have so much salt that they’ll overpower your soup. Making chicken stock and this soup costs about $13 and will last you at least 6 meals. Remember that the longer you let this sit in the fridge, the hotter (spicier) it will get. You can always add spice later, but you can’t take it away. Bottom line, be careful with those chipotle chilies.

Process

1. If your broth is frozen, defrost it.
2. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
3. Core and quarter your tomatoes; quarter the onions; peel the garlic; strip the seeds of the jalapeno (optional); mince your chipotle chili
4. Puree the tomatoes, onions, garlic, jalapeno, and chipotle in the food processor until pretty smooth
5. In the soup pot, heat enough oil to cover the bottom of the pot
6. Pour in the tomato puree mixture and cook over medium heat until it gets darker, sort of a maroon rather than red.
7. While the tomato puree cooks, chop your tortillas into thin strips.
8. In the small Tupperware, toss the tortilla strips with vegetable oil until lightly coated
9. Spread the tortilla strips on the baking sheet, and when the oven’s ready, bake for 15 minutes or until they’re as crunchy as you like. You may want to shake them or turn them after a few minutes.
10. By now, your tomato puree should be darker and should smell pretty tasty. Add the chicken broth, cilantro and oregano and cook until hot, about 10-15 minutes
11. Put some chicken in the bottom of a bowl for each eater
12. When the soup’s hot, ladle some over the chicken in everyone’s bowl
13. Let the soups sit for a couple minutes, heating the chicken through
14. Make sure you’ve pulled the tortilla strips from the oven
15. Serve the soup with all the garnishes and tortilla strips, and let everyone add their own cheese, cream, extra chilies, whatever

Tips for storage and leftovers
Part of the reason I don’t cook the chicken directly in the broth is that I want to use some of the chicken for other things like chicken salad. Adding the chicken to individual bowls lets every eater decide how much chicken she wants. Also, if you have other meats like turkey or the carnitas from Trader Joe’s lying around, you can use those with this soup as well. Make sure you store the soup in airtight containers in the fridge or freezer; if you store it in the soup pot, you’ll end up with stew and then slush rather than soup. Again, remember that the soup will get spicier in storage.

Ingredients
1 chicken, divided, skin and bones included
1 medium to large white onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 tsp of salt
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
Water

Tools

• Chef’s knife
• cutting board
• big stock pot, with lid
• tongs
• wooden spoon
• big bowl
• refrigerator-ready container or other bowl to hold the finished stock
• enough Tupperware or plastic bags for 4 cups of cut cup chicken

Notes
This chicken stock is so simple, I can hardly believe I’m writing it down. It’s tempting to do too much with stock though, so it’s important that I remember the simplicity and perfection of this stock. More chicken will yield richer stock. I like to keep the ratio of one medium-large onion per chicken. I haven’t experimented with the bay leaves’ ratios. More salt will make the flavor richer, but part of the point of making stock from scratch is to avoid all the sodium in the commercial varieties. Make sure the stock part is large enough to hold all the chicken and have room to spare.

Process

1. Heat the oil in a stock pot.
2. When the oil’s hot, brown the chicken pieces in batches. Use your tongs to place them in the pot and then to move ‘em to the bowl. They should get crispy on the outside, so don’t brown more than a few pieces at a time. A crowded pot will leave you with soggy chicken.
3. While the chicken browns, chop the onion.
4. When chicken pieces are no longer pink, put them aside in the bowl and do another batch.
5. After all the chicken is browned and set aside, throw the onions in the pot.
6. Cook onions, stirring occasionally with the wooden spoon, until they’re just tender.
7. Add chicken back into pot, cover, and reduce heat.
8. Cook chicken and onions over low to medium heat for about 15 minutes, until the chicken’s juices are released
9. Remove the lid, turn up the heat.
10. Add warm water to cover the chicken plus an inch or two. Warm from the tap is warm enough.
11. Add the salt and bay leaves.
12. When the water starts to bubble, turn the heat down to low; wash your bowl and tongs.
13. Let the stock cook for as long as you can (up to about 4 hours), with the lid off.
14. Put the chicken aside in the (now clean) bowl with your (now clean) tongs
15. Strain the stock into a refrigerator-ready container. Cheesecloth or a colander with small holes will work.

Stock’s made, now what?
That’s it, seriously. This stock is awesome. If you’re making soup or something right away, you’re all set. If you’re going to save your stock for later, stick it in the fridge for a few hours. When it’s cool, scrape the fatty stuff off the top. You can freeze it easily by putting the cooled stock into plastic bags (e.g. Ziploc) and then lay them flat in a baking pan in the freezer. When they’re frozen, take the baking pan out, and you have stackable blocks of stock. Remember that the stock will expand in the freezer, so don’t fill the bags too full.

What about the chicken I set aside?
That chicken will be so tasty and moist, you’ll hardly be able to stand it. When it’s cool, wash your hands, and pull it off the bone in little pieces. You’re kind of shredding it, but not so carefully that it’s a hassle. You’ll have about 4 cups of shredded chicken to use in tortilla soup, chicken salad, chicken and noodles, whatever. Put it away in the Tupperware or plastic bags. It’ll keep in the fridge for a few days or the freezer for about a month.

Dessert came across the street at a fruit stand in Pike Place Market. White peaches are ripe and ridiculously juicy. I got peach juice all over my arm, but man, that was a fine fruit.