I really like this cookbook: Made Simple by Danielle Alvarez

I don’t usually review cookbooks, but I’m genuinely excited about this new one – Made Simple by Danielle Alvarez! Simple mid-week, family friendly recipes from an acclaimed chef, I’ve made 5 dishes already and have 25 more on my list. It’s one of those books where I’ll actually cook many recipes from it!

This is not sponsored. No one asked me to do this and no one knew I was going to do it. 🙂 See here for all the places to get Made Simple and here to find your local independent book store.

Proper cooking by a proper chef, made easy

Lately I’ve become a little jaded by the flood of “viral hack-type” recipes on social media – dumpling lasagnas, sushi bakes, mounds of mince slapped into roasting pans. Recipes seemingly designed more to grab attention than actually taste good.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for clever shortcuts! But sometimes I feel like good food is getting lost in the race for the next viral sensation.

To me, Danielle Alvarez’s new cookbook has come along at a time when I wanted it most. A real chef sharing simple recipes that just look so darn good, I want to dive into the pages and eat everything! Proper home cooking using supermarket ingredients, simple recipes but with the depth of flavour, clever techniques and variety that come from years of professional cooking experience. <– And that right there is the thing that I think really sets this cookbook apart from other everyday recipe books. Not boring! 🙂

Danielle Alvarez is a seriously accomplished chef

For those who don’t know who Danielle Alvarez is, let me share some of her background. I know a freakish amount about her because I have been a fan for a long time. 🙂

She’s Sydney based, and a proper, seriously accomplished chef – a Chez Panisse alumna (the legendary California restaurant founded by Alice Waters) and former head chef of Fred’s, a French fine dining restaurant in Sydney that earned hats under her leadership. (It is no longer hatted).

These days, she does consulting work for the hospitality industry, with high profile clients like the Sydney Opera House, developing recipes and helping shape menus, as well as hosting events, teaching cooking classes and writing cookbooks.

She’s one of those incredibly talented people who seems to do a million different things, and does them all brilliantly!

She seems lovely, and I do hope to meet her in real life one day. Look, here’s a photo of her. Doesn’t she look friendly and nice?? 🙂

But for now, I am so happy she’s used her incredible experience to make a cookbook filled with accessible recipes for everyday folk like me! 🙌

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What I’ve made so far

Here are recipes from her book I’ve already made.

1. Bang bang chicken salad (page 86)

I saw a preview of this recipe on her Instagram account and I declared it would be the first I would make, and it was!! Genuinely tastes like a salad I’d expect to get at a good restaurant. I LOVE the dressing – a bit spicy, great depth of flavour, perfectly balanced seasoning – and I really like the way the vegetables are peeled into ribbons just using a potato peeler. Different! But easy!

I ate a LOT of this. 🙂 Bonus: leftovers are excellent. Rare with salads.

2. one-pan chicken with cauliflower and potato gratin (page 201)

This is a bake that’s essentially a potato bake, cauliflower gratin and roast chicken that all cook together in one pan. A quick scan of the ingredients and you’ll know straightaway it’s going to be tasty with cream, cheese and garlic present. Experienced cooks will query the long baking time for the cauliflower, wondering won’t it be overly soft?? And you will be right, it is, but actually it goes well beyond the point of soft into cauliflower mash territory so you end up with this lovely texture contrast: tender potatoes, creamy cauliflower mash, and a cheese sauce that’s beautiful not only with the potato, but the chicken as well.

Heads up: the sides of your pan will be quite black, like you see in mine, because the recipe cooks at a very high 250C/480F (230C fan) which browns the chicken and surface of the gratin beautifully. Be bold and trust the process, the lovely browning on the surface is what you get. Just soak your pan for a bit and it will come off effortlessly.

3. Tomato and cannellini bean soup (pantry friendly!) – page 30

I was keen to try a few pantry recipes, partly because I feel like it’s a good test – there’s nowhere to hide with simple recipes – and partly because I could make it on the spot without going to the shops.

This is a creamy soup made with canned tomatoes that uses canned cannellini beans rather than the usual cream to thicken and make it creamy. It’s very hearty and satisfying yet you won’t feel weighed down because there’s no heavy cream in it.

I didn’t have good sweet Italian canned tomatoes so mine was a little more tart than I would have liked, but it’s an easy fix just by adding 1/2 teaspoon of sugar.

PS Danielle said to do a cheese toastie, so I did. 🙂

4. 7 ingredient pasta with sausage, faux pesto and cherry tomatoes (page 188)

I HAD to try this one. 7 ingredients – without using a jar of pesto as a shortcut. Could it really be that great? YES!!!

Woweeee! Now this is the sort of recipe you will find in the book that gets me excited, so few ingredients to make something spectacularly delicious! Seven ingredients – basil, pasta, Italian sausages, garlic, olive oil, cherry tomatoes and parmesan – this is a rustic Italian pasta Danielle says she fell in love with on her travels that she recreated at home.

Is it an everyday one? Not all the time, because it calls for 2 bunches of basil.

But will you want to make it every day when your basil plant is going gangbusters in spring and the shops are selling giant bunches for $2? YES YOU WILL!

PS I was a bit skeptical because it’s missing pesto staples – pine nuts and lots of olive oil (the recipe uses a modest 1/4 cup for a whole 500g/1lb packet of pasta). But in the intro, Danielle raves, and of course she was right. Rockingly delicious, outrageously simple.

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What to try from Made Simple by Danielle Alvarez

I have read Made Simple from cover to cover. Like some people can read sheet music and hear the melody in their heads, I can read recipes and practically taste the finished dish.

And here are my picks for things to try, in addition to the above four. Heads up – the list is long! And the great news is that most of it is Monday night friendly, and 99% of the ingredients I can find at my local Coles and Woolies.

• Soups

  • Italian wedding soup (p. 38) – I have been waiting to try a good recipe for years but hesitated. This is the one! (Not a Monday night recipe)

  • Pasta e fagioli (p. 41) – I know there’s a gazillion recipes out there, but I know Danielle’s will be great. (Definitely a Monday night recipe!)

  • Easy garbure (p.46) – Simplified version of the classic French soup

• Salads and veg – these are all Monday night friendly.

  • Coconut, lime and peanut slaw (p.63) – Using the natural richness of coconut milk to make a creamy dressing is wonderful!

  • Corn and green bean salad with yogurt ranch dressing (p. 68)

  • Asparagus with almond and oregano picada (p. 77) – exactly the sort of side I want when I’m having people over (ie bit different, but simple to make 🙂 )

  • Chicken, risoni (orzo) and kale salad with za’atar and lemon vinaigrette (p. 79) – Looks filling, fresh, easy and interesting!

  • Coconut and lime black beans (p. 84) – Like a Cuban vegetarian Chilli Con Carne. Except far fewer ingredients!

• Pastas – Except for the involtini, these are all Monday night friendly.

  • Eggplant involtini with ricotta, tomato and rosemary breadcrumbs (p. 107) – Comfort food YUM!

  • Orecchiette with broccoli, chilli and anchovy (p. 115) – VERY interesting sounding recipe where the broccoli is intentionally cooked until mushy and soft and it essentially becomes like a sauce that gets a flavour boost from anchovies and chilli, lifted with lemon. Love that there’s two whole heads of broccoli for just half a packet of pasta. Don’t be surprised if this recipe moves up into the “things I’ve tried” list very shortly!

  • Pasta alla boscaiola (p. 116) – I’ve had this dish on my Things To Make list forever!

  • Fusilli with zucchini, tuna, oregano and lemon (p. 112) – Delicious sounding recipe for canned tuna! Can easily substitute the zucchini with another vegetable. Love that it’s a complete meal (veg + protein + starch).

  • Pasta with ricotta, pumpkin and sage (p. 125) – Because it just sounds and looks delicious.

  • Life saving spaghetti for one with anchovy, garlic and lemon (p. 128) – Pantry perfection. Anchovy makes it delicious!

• Fabulously Easy Fish Chapter – Basically every dish in this entire chapter! I love fish and am always looking for new ways to cook it in an interesting-but-not-hard way. Notable dishes –

  • Tamarind and curry baked snapper (p. 151) sounds interesting!

  • Baked fish with agrodolce (p. 161)

  • Chilli butter baked fish (p. 164)

  • Sesame Prawn Burgers with Wasabi Slaw (p. 156) gets a special mention.

• Meaty

  • Harissa chicken drumsticks (p. 173) and Harissa lamb (p. 174) – *claps with glee* to have two recipes using harissa paste side-by-side. YES I will get it then re-use!

  • Lamb burgers with whipped feta (p. 178) – I was stumped for ideas for how to make lamb burgers a bit special and the answer is here, the whipped feta!

  • Picadillo (p. 185) – Cuban staple from Danielle’s childhood. How can we not try? 🙂

  • One pan chicken chorizo and rice bake (p. 190) – Sounds like it will taste a bit like a paella!

  • Fontina stuffed pork, fennel and lemon meatballs (p. 202) – Not a Monday night recipe, but golly they sound great!

  • Crispy chicken thighs with yogurt, mojo verde and lime pickled onions (p. 206) – This, on the other hand, IS Monday night friendly yet Sunday Supper worthy! The recipe reads long because she provides helpful guidance but essentially you brown the chicken skin then bake with the potatoes, blitz the Mojo ingredients and dollop over everything with yogurt. Easy.

  • Soy and lemongrass braised beef (p. 220) – This Asian flavoured fall-apart beef sounds incredible! A braising liquid infused with lots of aromatic flavour, it takes patience to slow cook but the active effort is very, very low.

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Random but useful things to know

• Restaurant food is notorious for being tasty because they use lots of oil and butter and salt. The amount used in all the recipes but one (you’ll see it!) is very restrained and sensible, mostly on the less-oil side. I raise this because I know some people worry that recipes from restaurant chefs will be overly rich or indulgent, but that’s definitely not the case here.

• Recipe type – leans mostly towards Mediterranean / Italian with a sprinkle of modern Australian, Middle Eastern and Asian. Soups, salads, pantry chapter, pastas, larger format food for gatherings and the one I personally will probably use the most – the fish chapter. Chef’s do the best fish dishes – simple, tasty, good for you!

• Aleppo chilli flakes is a recurring ingredient. Looks like regular red chilli flakes (red pepper flakes) but they are milder. You can find it at some fresh produce stores, I got mine from Amazon. You can substitute with half the quantity of regular red chilli flakes.

• Sometimes she uses slightly fancy ingredients, like champagne vinegar, but always gives an everyday alternative (white wine vinegar).

• She likes lemon. Her first cookbook is called Always Add Lemon. If you’ve got a lemon tree, her books will put it to good use! 🙂

• There is a photo for 98% of the recipes in the book. I wish it was for 100% – because of course there are two recipes I want to make that don’t have photos. But I feel this is a very small omission for all the great!

• The exact amount of salt to use isn’t always specified, probably deliberately in recipes where the brand of ingredients used can affect saltiness (like canned beans). So always taste and check for right saltiness right at the end.

• The recipes are written in grams, ounces and cups – so globally friendly!

Oh, and for full transparency – after I pre-ordered Made Simple for myself, the publisher sent me a free copy ahead of the release date (yesterday!).

I gave no indication that I’d be doing this post – in fact, it is the first post I’ve ever done about a cookbook so this will probably come as a surprise to everyone – and was not paid nor asked to endorse this book.

Just sharing it because I haven’t been this excited about a new cookbook in more years than I can remember! I just think it’s terrific and deserves a place in everyone’s kitchen. 🙂 You can get it here – Made Simple by Danielle Alvarez – and see here for more places to find it and here to find your local independent book store. – Nagi x

PS Also, not affiliate links. I don’t know how to do them. 🙂 😅

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Life of Jaffle

More photo bombing than usual by Jaffle in today’s post! He’s getting quite comfortable in front of the camera. 🙂