The world in a skillet

In this latest from the team at Kimball's Milk Street (Milk Street Vegetables), a single pan takes on global cuisines to offer a delicious range of accessible dishes. With a home cook's efficiency in mind, recipes are grouped by the time it takes to prepare them (an hour, 45 minutes, under 30 minutes); the method (stir-fried, roasted, baked); and dish type (pasta, sandwiches, grains). Influences and techniques reach far beyond simple geography, evident in the way ketchup lends a sweet counterpoint to the spice in Trinidad pepper shrimp, and in the elements that ensure success when dry-frying Sichuan beef with celery (salt being a main one). Quinoa goes from understated to elevated--cooked in the style of risotto in a quick poblano-corn side dish--and a Georgian stew serves as the inspiration for braised bone-in chicken with herbs. Descriptions and origins for regional dishes--such as Syria's harak osbao (lentils and caramelized onions) and Sweden's pyttipanna (meat and potato hash with celery root)--are provided in the headnotes, offering a tasty opportunity to brush up on one's culinary knowledge, while "don't" tips designed to avoid missteps ("Don't brown the meatballs aggressively") lend solid guidance along the way. Kitchen adventures beckon in this expansive and appetizing collection. Agent: David Black, David Black Agency. (Apr.)

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. VERDICT This is a fine purchase on its own and a solid entry in the Milk Street series.--Danise Hoover