So the focus this year is on new cookbooks. There are just so many great new cookbooks coming out that I wanted to review a few of them for you. I am the type of person that actually reads cookbooks, for entertainment as well as edification. I have learned so much about cooking from reading recipes without actually making a particular recipe. I find that many of the newer cookbooks focus more on vegetables and grains, with smaller helpings of a lovely protein, which is more in line with my way of eating now days. So let's get to it!
Small Victories by Julia Turshen
I just checked this one out and I am love, love, loving it! Ina Garten wrote the forward, if that tells you anything about the book. The recipes are straightforward (not a lot of piddly steps), flexible (options given for whatever ingredients you may have on hand), and beautifully photographed. Most of the recipes also focus on learning a new technique or a way to make something easier. I'm not a from scratch baker, but I did make the Afternoon Cake (no creaming butter with sugar! Yay!) with stunning results. I'm asking for this one for Christmas.
Cooking for Jeffrey by Ina Garten
I really like Ina Garten's cooking aesthetic. Lots of flavor, fresh ingredients, beautifully and simply prepared. She's really all about pulling the best flavor out of the ingredients-so many time I have tried a recipe only to be disappointed by the amount of flavor I am getting, whether it's garlic or lemon or whatever. If Ina makes a recipe called roasted potatoes with lemon, you can be sure you will taste the lemon! And her husband Jeffrey is just adorable. There's a menu section called Jeffrey's all-time favorite dinners, and Jeffrey appears to like some really tasty dishes. How great is that?
Scratch by Maria Rodale
You won't find any long lists of ingredients here. Many of the recipes have only 4 or 5 ingredients. For example, crispy roast chicken with gravy: 1 chicken. Also water, flour, salt and pepper. That's it. The snack time chapter is especially inviting-3 ingredient guacamole, fried chickpeas, roasted pumpkin seeds. These are simple, new and old classics that are not difficult or intimidating. Beautiful photos, too.
The Vegetable Butcher by Cara Mangini
In my quest to eat more vegetables I turn to this book. I like that the chapters are arranged alphabetically by vegetable (I am a librarian). Each chapter starts off with a description of different varieties of a particular vegetable. It covers how to choose the best veggies, when they are in season, what flavors will complement. Then it moves on to how to clean, prep, and store your veggies, with photos to guide you, and a couple of different ways to cook your chosen veg. Each chapter finishes up with 2 or 3 recipes to get you started. Not all the recipes are savory. There is one for a parsnip-ginger cake with burnt buttercream frosting which I am anxious to try. I'm sure it involves creaming butter with sugar but I'm willing to five it a whirl with my hand mixer.
My final review is really for a class of cookbook, those focusing on Nordic cuisine. These books are just what you would expect from Scandinavia-uniformly spare, clean, lovely photos not just of food but of the countryside. Happy people eating healthy, beautiful food while sitting around in their IKEA kitchens using their littala dishes and their Maimekko linens on their annual month off of work. I suppose there are recipes too.
These seven new books are just the tip of the iceberg. Check out our HUGE selection of cookbooks at the library. Happy Holidays and bon apetit!
