Life's too short to stuff a mushroom Really good food without the fuss

There's nothing quite so charming as a true grande dame of cuisine tackling a contemporary technique--and nailing it. Great British Bake Off host Leith, a restaurateur, novelist, and cookbook author with nine novels and five cookbooks to her name, achieves yet another life milestone by exploring and promoting food hacks--those shortcuts and tips known by professionals, now shared with home cooks. Leith's hacks range from lining a baking tray to prepping a pineapple (complete with QR codes for video how-to's) and are accompanied by dozens of recipes. Some dishes are familiar, like herbed salmon parcels, classic hummus, and whipped feta dip. Others marry Leith's English and world-cooking views: Moroccan chicken b'stilla, Turkish eggs, twice-baked Cheddar and mustard soufflés. Some standouts include pickle juice added to Bloody Marys, alternatives to the traditional basic pesto, and skirlie, a savory Scottish oat dish to replace ho-hum starchy sides. A few ingredients may puzzle (and require substitutions for) U.S. readers. "Hip, hip hooray!" for adopting Leith's kitchen shortcuts--and her recipes.

In this practical and inventive outing, Dame Prue Leith (The Great British Baking Show: Love to Bake) offers 80 recipes with a focus on time-saving techniques and shortcuts. Dubbed "Handy Hacks," these tips appear throughout, many linked to supplementary videos via QR codes. Despite the title, recipes and hacks run the gamut from simple (the best way to chop an onion for French onion soup) to sophisticated (how to skin a fish fillet for "Sushi for Scaredy-cats"). Main dishes include herbed salmon parcels using store-bought puff pastry (hack: preventing a soggy bottom by preheating the baking sheet so it's the same temperature as the oven), and hot-and-sour vegetable noodle soup (hack: peeling ginger with a spoon). A breakfast chapter features "perfect" scrambled eggs, while a small selection of drink recipes includes a pickle juice Bloody Mary. Leith's dark chocolate and orange trifle is emblematic of her time-saving approach, combining store-bought chocolate Swiss roll with homemade chocolate mousse and offering hacks for segmenting oranges and rescuing overwhipped cream. Leith also encourages experimentation by delineating key elements of a recipe--for example, a pesto should include "a flavouring ingredient, an oil, a cheese, a nut and fresh garlic"--before offering multiple variations. This is sure to inspire. (Oct.)