The ITSU team has this delightful new cookbook, ITSU: 20-Minute Suppers. This is the second book from ITSU and you can see a review of that first one here. This new book deals with full meals displayed in chapters on:
- Noodles
- Rice & Grains
- Soups
- Sauces [no the sauces are not an entire meal, they are here for the first three!]
Julian Metcalfe is the British founder of the food chain Pret A Manger, truly a global success. So far ITSU is confined to Great Britain but it’s a big confinement: almost 60 stores serving thousands of people each day.
Very often a cookbook suggesting you can achieve wonders in a short time or with just a handful of ingredients is a cookbook that fails to deliver. The food you get from those books may rate as okay, but it is often blah. It does not inspire your eyes, let alone your palate.
Ah, not with this book. At the end of this post is a picture of a typical recipe: Noodles in Chicken Broth. That’s a much understated title, for you see a rich broth swimming with noodles and topped with sliced chiles, red or green. There’s some ginger in there as well plus hits of soy and oyster sauces. It’s brilliant just to behold. It will taste as superior comfort food. It’s an entire meal, aside from the beer you want to have with it. You can make this dish in 20 minutes. And it loads you up with 250 calories. Jeez, you’ll burn more calories than that just making the thing!
Here are some of the other recipes you will want to subscribe to:
Soba noodle salad with avocado and Asian pesto
Egg noodles and shiitake with green onions and sesame sauce
Pork and mushrooms with cucumber noodles [really!]
Miso-rubbed chicken on sticky rice
Chicken katsu
Hoisin roast duck breast
Stir-fried mixed seafood with sesame and ginger rice
Chicken katsu soup [I’m addicted to katsu, by the way]
Prawn, tamarind and chilli soup
Green curry soup with cauliflower and peas
The ITSU shops are in Great Britain, but the inspiration here is Asian. The results are, well, very quick and very flavorful. There is nothing bland in this book. And the book itself is exceptionally well packaged. Each recipe comes with a full page photo that you can almost smell and that certainly begs you to get cooking. This is a book literally filled with recipes you’ll be highly tempted to try.
With the 20-minute concept so well developed in this book, you now have companion for every busy night of your life. This is surely a Monday-Thursday cookbook, where you come home a little tired and have to begin planning for tomorrow. Here your best laid plans can be considered over these easily made, delightfully enjoyed treats.
The success of the ITSU chain speaks to the quality of their recipes, style and preparation. All that experience is here for you to enjoy. When you see this book, which was just published on April 5th, you’ll find leafing through it to be colorful and inspiring. Go ahead. Go a little Asian. Go ITSU. Try one of these recipes and this book will be your weeknight buddy.
