Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, the culinary pair behind 30-plus cookbooks, are gearing up to teach Clean Eating’s next game-changing online course, Shortcut Cooking.
Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, the powerhouse culinary pair behind 30-plus cookbooks and the instructors for our next game-changing Clean Eating Academy course, Shortcut Cooking: Easiest-Ever Clean Meals.
To be with Mark Scarbrough and Bruce Weinstein is to enter a world
where food is fun and nothing can’t be made easier for the home cook. With 30 cookbooks to their names and counting — including The Great Big Pressure Cooker Book, The Great American Slow Cooker Book and,
forthcoming in 2018, The Kitchen Shortcut Bible — the pair are naturals
when it comes to simplifying, streamlining and, basically, making
everything you cook taste better.
Who better, then, to lead the charge for Clean Eating’s next online
cooking course, Shortcut Cooking, which will teach you how to do more with less, and then some.
Clean Eating: How did shortcut cooking become your “thing”?
Bruce: We’ve been columnists on WeightWatchers.com for 12 years,
and we’ve found what readers are
most interested in is not the
complicated stuff. So we’ve always
had a piece of our career that’s
focused on how to cook quickly
and easily.
You’ve become the pied pipers of time-saving appliances through your cookbooks. Pressure cookers, slow cookers, food processors –
what else do you love to use?
Bruce: We’ve been trying to convince publishers on the immersion
blender, but we’re unable to get
anyone to see that it’s more than for
blending soup in a pot! I use it to
make mayonnaise, dips, sauces,
marinara… just yesterday I used it to
process 25 pounds of tomatoes!
Mark: I’m an avid fan of the turbo
blender – Vitamix and Blendtec
are brilliant.
When you’re short on time, what are your go-tos to add flavor to a dish?
Bruce: Leftovers tend to dull quickly,
so condiments are an absolute must.
Pepper sauces (such as sambal oelek
and sriracha), chutney, pomegranate
molasses, Worcestershire sauce —
a little bit can brighten the flavor.
Mark: A Southern chowchow
(pickled relish) can make a ton ofdifference. Here’s the thing about
shortcut cooking: You are not
getting the complex chemical
reaction that a long braise gives you.
So you have to figure out how to
bump the flavor higher. For example,
if I make chicken sauté with
vegetables in a pan, the easiest way
to bump the flavor is at the end by
giving it a splash of lemon juice or
balsamic or rice vinegar. Add a little
acid, and you bump all flavors up.
What are your favorite cheats for a faster dinner?
Mark: I just made the Savory Cauliflower Waffles [from the course, featured below] with packaged cauliflower rice.
They’re fantastic! Cooks in 3 minutes
in the waffle iron. It’s so easy and
you skip the food processor.
Bruce: I’ve discovered the joys of
frozen, shelled edamame — not the
cooked kind. Through freezing
they are partially cooked, so you can
add them at any stage of cooking.
I’ll make an edamame hummus by
microwaving them for 1 minute until
they are al dente, or thaw them and
throw them into bean salad.
Mark: When you’re quick cooking, use clean, prepackaged* tomatoes
and broth; you’re not going to
make stock from scratch or reduce
something for an hour. The best
$15 bucks you can spend is to go
and buy four or five brands of clean,
prepackaged diced tomatoes and
open and taste them. Some will taste
too salty, some too mushy, some
will have too much liquid. You’ll
discover the one that matches your
taste. It’s the same with broth: Some
are too vegetal, others too salty —
tastes vary. It’s money well spent.
And you may find the $1 watery
variety is your favorite! [Laughs.]
Whenever we teach a class, we
refuse to answer what our favorites
are. You have to decide. [*BPA-free canned, boxed or jarred tomatoes; boxed or frozen low-sodium broth.]
Sign up today for Shortcut Cooking: Easiest-Ever Clean Meals for discount codes and a chance to win a free course! cleaneating.com/shortcut
Tell me about your point of view for the food in this course. What
will students be seeing?
Mark: What they’re going to see
are actual techniques rather than
hacks. That’s important. Also, the
class brings a kind of holistic kitchen
knowledge. It will cover a range of
ingredients, and you’ll learn not only
ways to speed up those particular
things, but also techniques and ways
of cooking that speed everything up.
Bruce: Exactly that point. We are teaching a man to fish. We’re
showing you a recipe, but within
that recipe, we are teaching a
technique to save you time that
you can easily expand and vary.
And we’ll talk to you about how to
do that. Once we talk you through
a technique, you’ll see 10 more
dishes in your head.
How much time do you think people might save by taking your course?
Mark: We can’t quantify what you’ll save overall, but for every recipe, we
aimed for 15 minutes of prep time.
Bruce: I don’t think anyone should
have to spend more than 15 minutes
of prep time for a recipe. We tried
to use ingredients and techniques
to allow that. Do you need to cut
scallions? Instead of getting the
cutting board out, and then having
to wash that and a knife, use
scissors. It’s those kinds of things all
throughout. When you save 1 minute
here, 30 minutes there, it adds up.
To learn more about Shortcut Cooking: Easiest-Ever Clean Meals with Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, click here.
Source: Clean Eating