Milk Street: The World in a Skillet

Inspired by the cross-cuisine concept of a single all-purpose cooking vessel (like the wok or the clay pot), the newest Milk Street cookbook (following Tuesday Nights Mediterranean) presents a wide variety of international recipes that can be made in a 12-inch skillet, the most common pan in U.S. home kitchens. The book has meat-forward, vegetable-forward, and grain-forward recipes (Vietnamese caramel pork; dry-fried green beans with Sichuan peppercorns; toasted pearl couscous with zucchini and herbs), in chapters organized around cooking times and specific techniques. Each recipe fits conveniently on one page, with a photo; the recipes themselves are clear and direct, with easily purchased ingredients and straightforward techniques. Each begins with a conversational introduction that puts the recipe in its cultural context and explains the way Milk Street modified it for ease of weeknight cooking. Finally, there’s a useful recipes-by-ingredient index, as well as a more conventional subject index.