Cookbook-related

World Central Kitchen fundraiser: Buy our $5 e-cookbook, and we'll donate all proceeds to José Andrés’ nonprofit

By Leslie Brenner

There’s probably no person in the food world today who’s more important than José Andrés. Sure, his restaurants are wonderful and have had wide influence. But that’s not why. Andrés is a superhero for his work with his nonprofit, World Central Kitchen.

And so are those who regularly put themselves in harm’s way, working alongside Andrés in hotspots around the world, wherever violent conflict or natural disasters create situations where people need food. On Monday, these philanthropic activities proved fatal to seven aid workers for the organization, people who were risking their lives to deliver desperately needed food for people in Gaza.

In an opinion piece in today’s New York Times, here’s how Andrés himself put it:

“Their work was based on the simple belief that food is a universal human right. It is not conditional on being good or bad, rich or poor, left or right. We do not ask what religion you belong to. We just ask how many meals you need.”

As you know if you’ve been reading Cooks Without Borders for any length of time, we’ve long supported WCK with frequent fundraisers. Since our first one two years ago — our Cook for Ukraine Pop-Up — Cooks Without Borders has helped raised more than $10,000 for WCK. I was about to publish a review of Andrés’ new cookbook, Zaytinya. But instead, following Monday’s tragedy, it’s time first for another fundraiser.

To participate, purchase our e-cookbook, 21 Favorite Recipes from Cooks Without Borders. Normally $7, the book is on sale for just $5 per copy; we’ll donate every penny we collect* to WCK. Not as exciting as Zaytinya, maybe, but our heart’s in the right place! And the Zaytinya review will be up next.

About World Central Kitchen

Chef Andrés founded World Central Kitchen based on the idea that “when people are hungry, send in cooks. Not tomorrow, today.” The nonprofit organization makes sure there is always a warm meal, an encouraging word, and a helping hand in hard times. 

When disaster strikes, WCK’s Chef Relief Team mobilizes to the front lines with the urgency of now to start cooking and provide meals to people in need. WCK’s resilience work advances human and environmental health, offers access to professional culinary training, creates jobs, and improves food security for the people it serves.

WCK has provided hundreds of millions of fresh, nourishing meals for communities around the world. Your donation today will be used to support its emergency food relief efforts and resilience programs.

Want to do more?

We have set up a fundraising page through World Central Kitchen. Please join me there in making a separate contribution in any amount to help us reach our modest goal of raising $1,000 by the end of November. I’ve kicked off the campaign with my own donation. (Once our e-cookbook purchases start rolling in, I’ll contribute the proceeds through that page, so you’ll be able to see the progress on that front as well.)

Thank you so much for joining me in supporting WCK! Please pass on this pop-up invitation to friends who will want to help feed people in strife around the world.

*45 cents of each e-book purchase will be retained by Stripe for processing. We will donate the full $4.55 we collect on each purchase to WCK.

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Kwame Onwuachi's Jambalaya is a thrilling expression of a Creole classic

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By Leslie Brenner

Jambalaya was not in the cards when I recently visited New Orleans, but it was definitely front of mind when I came home.

This was the perfect excuse to dive into Kwame Onwuachi’s acclaimed cookbook, My America: Recipes from a Young Black Chef, and start cooking. Since publishing it two years ago, Onwuachi has made a gigantic splash at Tatiana, the Afro-Caribbean restaurant he opened in New York City’s Lincoln Center 16 months ago. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a bigger splash: Tatiana topped the New York Times’ list of the 100 Best Restaurants in the city. Last fall, he was profiled in The New Yorker.

Jambalaya is not on Tatiana’s menu, but it does sit, as Onwuachi explains in his recipe’s headnote, “at the heart of Creole cuisine.” Generically, it’s a one-pot dish of rice with meats (often andouille sausage and chicken), vegetables (Louisiana’s “holy trinity” of onion, celery and bell pepper) and often shrimp or other seafood. Unlike gumbo, it’s not soupy or stewy. While gumbo (the ingredients of which are tatooed on Onwuachi’s arm, according to The New Yorker) is served with rice, jambalaya is a rice dish.

Every family has its own way of making it, writes Onwuachi in My America:

“Some use roux, some don’t. Some add andouille; others stick to seafood and chicken. Some families use short-grain rice, in a nod to paella; others use long."

The dish carries deep meaning for the chef, who grew up eating his mother’s jambalaya; she’s Creole, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His father is from Nigeria (where Kwame lived as a youth); the chef draws a comparison between Creole jambalaya and Nigerian jollof, another one-pot rice dish.

“Jambalaya, however, hails from Louisiana, where many Africans worked the rice fields the two continents shared. They brought with them not just the knowledge of how to grow but also how to prepare rice. Once in Louisiana, proto-jollof incorporated whatever proteins were available: andouille sausage, abundant shrimp from coastal waters, and chicken, another economical choice. Also added were influences of from the Spanish settlers who yearned for the paella of their home; and the French, the masters of roux.”

Although jambalaya is known as a one-pot affair, you’d need to haul out quite a few extra pots were you to follow Onwauachi’s recipe verbatim. There’s a second pot for the shrimp stock (for which you’d need a full pound of shrimp shells). You’d need a third to make chicken stock, and a fourth to make Louisiana-Style Hot Sauce, which requires a batch of Pickling Spice — in a fifth pot.

In a restaurant kitchen, making each of those ingredients from scratch in large quantities makes sense, but I don’t know many home cooks who’d comply.

That’s why I took the liberty of creating a few shortcuts. I hope that if chef Onwuachi ever sees this story and my adaptation of his wonderful recipe, he’ll find it in his heart to forgive me. My motive (a pure one to be sure!) is to make the recipe accessible to readers who may or may not own five pots, but in any case probably aren’t inclined to fabricate two stocks, a sauce, a brine and a spice mix before beginning to cook. Shortcuts notwithstanding, I daresay the resulting jambalaya is still pretty magnificent — and I think pretty close to the effect Onwuachi is hoping you’ll get.

RECIPE: Kwame Onwuachi’s Jambalaya

If you love the dish as much as I do, you’ll want to purchase the book — especially if you’re a seasoned and devoted enough cook that you might already have some shrimp stock laid in the freezer, or you’re actually eager to make your own hot sauce, or you to know how to create your own shortcuts. It’s an inspiring and beautiful volume.

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Auspiciously, deliciously ring in the Year of the Dragon with these outstanding Chinese cookbooks

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By Leslie Brenner

With Lunar New Year right around the bend — New Year’s Eve is Friday, Feb. 9 — you may be planning a celebratory feast. And of course the 15-day spring festival that begins on New Year’s Day, Feb. 10 is a great time to focus on Chinese cooking.

We’ve rounded up our favorite Chinese cookbooks to serve as inspiration and guide you with great technique — with a selection of recipes from them that are perfect for the holiday season.

The Breath of a Wok

Grace Young's award-winning 2004 book approaches cooking as a poet might, looking deeply into the soul of the cuisine. For Young, it all starts with the wok, and she walks readers through everything about it, from how to choose one to purchase, to "opening" the wok, to seasoning it with dishes early in its life. She then teaches us to stir-fry with wok hay — that ineffable "breath of a wok" that distinguishes the best Chinese cooking.

The book is also extremely useful if you’re cooking for Lunar New Year, as it includes — buried way back in the index — a list of 66 recipes appropriate for the holiday.

There’s also a helpful section about New Year’s menus, with four suggested menus — all of which are made up of dishes that can be made in advance. The lead-off recipe is Jean Yueh’s Shanghai-Style Shrimp, which is auspicious because shrimp represent happiness. Sweet and savory, with ginger and scallions, it’s also quick and easy.

RECIPE: Jean Yueh’s Shanghai-Style Shrimp

The Breath of a Wok, by Grace Young and Alan Richardson, 2004, Simon & Schuster, $38.50

BUY ‘Breath of a Wok’ at Bookshop

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Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking

The books of trail-blazing author Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, who died in late 2022, were my first teaching manuals when I began exploring Chinese cooking 17 years ago. Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking, which was published in 2009, is structured like a Chinese cooking school — as a series of lessons, all centered around the Chinese market. With more than 150 recipes and beautiful photos throughout, it's a classic.

It includes a chapter called “Creating Menus in the Chinese Manner,” in which there’s a wonderful page outlining a Lunar New Year banquet.

Among the New Year’s dishes are Clams Stir-Fried with Black Beans, auspicious because “When clams open, they symbolize prosperity.”

RECIPE: Clams Stir-Fried with Black Beans

Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, photographs by susie cushner, 2009, Chronicle Books

BUY ‘Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking’ at Amazon

Every Grain of Rice

If you could purchase only one Chinese cookbook, this would be my recommendation. Author Fuchsia Dunlop, who was the first Westerner to train as a chef at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine in Central China, is a wonderful teacher. Her well selected recipes have always worked brilliantly for me (she’s a careful writer, and the book is well edited); she has a terrific palate, so everything’s delicious. You’ll pick up lots of sound technique along the way. [Read our review.]

In fact, all of Dunlop’s books are outstanding — including The Land of Fish and Rice; The Food of Sichuan and her latest title — which is not a cookbook — Invitation to a Banquet.

For New Year’s, try the Every Grain of Rice’s Yangzhou Fried Rice.

RECIPE: Yangzhou Fried Rice

EVERY GRAIN OF RICE: SIMPLE CHINESE HOME COOKING, BY FUCHSIA DUNLOP, PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRIS TERRY, 2012, W.W. NORTON & CO., $35.

BUY Every Grain of Rice at Bookshop

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The Woks of Life

Fun, approachable, relatable and highly user-friendly, the cookbook spun out of the Leung Family’s popular cooking website is another great primer. A whole fish is a must for Chinese New Year feasts, and The Woks of Life’s Cantonese Steamed Fish — with ginger, scallions, cilantro and soy sauce — is a great choice. [Read our review of the book.]

There’s also a splendid recipe for jiaozi (dumplings), which are traditionally enjoyed in the north of China for New Year’s. They’re filled with pork, mushroom and cabbage.

RECIPE: Woks of Life Pork, Cabbage and Mushroom Dumplings

THE WOKS OF LIFE: RECIPES TO KNOW AND LOVE FROM A CHINESE AMERICAN FAMILY BY BILL, JUDY, SARAH AND KAITLIN LEUNG, CLARKSON POTTER, $35

BUY The Woks of Life at Bookshop

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The Vegan Chinese Kitchen

This 2022 book from Hannah Che, creator of the excellent blog The Plant-Based Wok, is inspiring and beautiful — and a real gift for vegans and vegetarian.

Now based in Portland, Oregon, Che studied in Guangzhou, at the only vegetarian cooking school in China. There she immersed herself in zhai cai, the plant-based cuisine with centuries-old Buddhist roots that emphasizes umami-rich ingredients.

Leafy greens symbolize wealth, and Che’s Blanched Lettuce with Ginger Sauce is deliciously auspicious for the holiday. [Read our review of the book.]

RECIPE: Hannah Che’s Blanched Lettuce with Ginger Sauce

THE VEGAN CHINESE KITCHEN: RECIPES AND MODERN STORIES FROM A THOUSAND-YEAR-OLD TRADITION, BY HANNAH CHE, CLARKSON POTTER, 2022, $35

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My Shanghai

Betty Liu has a lovely page about Lunar New Year in her 2020 book, My Shanghai, which we wrote about two years ago.

Pork dishes are big for the holiday, and you can’t do better than Liu’s Shanghai-style red-braised pork belly.

RECIPE: Betty Liu’s Mom’s Shanghai Red-Braised Pork Belly

My Shanghai: Recipes and Stories from a City on the Water, by Betty Liu, 2020, Harper Design, $35

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EXPLORE: All Cooks Without Borders Chinese Recipes

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The ultimate cookbook gift guide: New and notable titles from 2023

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By Leslie Brenner

[Editor’s note: This is part II of our two-part Ultimate Cookbook Gift Guide. Read Part I.]

Deliciously all over the map: That’s this year in cookbooks. One dives into Italian peasant food. Another offers Japanese home cooking as expressed by a fairly recent immigrant and a nice Jewish boy who fell in love, both chefs. The next explores the Mexican tradition of backyard grilling, carne asada. Yet another illuminates the Taiwanese American experience as played out at a popular Brooklyn restaurant and bakery.

In fact, Brooklyn restaurants expressed in books was big this year. That Japanese-Jewish fusion happens in Williamsburg, at Shalom Japan. A Persian place in Prospect Heights — Sofreh — gave us another exciting title.

The renowned Washington, D.C. restaurant Maydan and its siblings spawned its own volume, filled with gorgeous Lebanese-inspired dishes. And that Mexican grilling book? It’s from the co-owner of Guelaguetza, the legendary Oaxacan restaurant in L.A.

All those volumes try not to be too cheffy or restauranty, instead skewing delightfully homey. That’s no doubt in response to a publishing backlash against restaurant cookbooks; the cooking public, these days, wants great recipes for real food that can be achieved at home without too much fuss. That’s always been our jam, too, at Cooks Without Borders.

If only the recipes that filled all these books this year had been properly tested and more carefully copy-edited. As a group, this year’s new books are rife with mistakes that can easily lead to recipe flops. Not all, to be sure; those from seasoned pros, like Nancy Silverton, Andrea Nguyen and Katie Parla, have yielded only fabulous results in our test kitchen. Some other books on this list are recommended with caveats; there may be problems lurking in their pages, but they’ll still make great gifts for certain kinds of cooks (or armchair cooks). Still others are included that we have yet to test recipes from — yep, I’m an incurable optimist. The untested titles are flagged.

Here’s the good news: Any problems we find in recipes get corrected as we adapt them for this site. Click on our recipe links, and you can feel confident the recipe will work. We very much hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did.

Here we go: our recommended new and notable titles for 2023. Between this, and Part I of our Ultimate Cookbook Gift Guide, you should have no trouble finding the perfect gift for every cook in your life. And maybe a little something for yourself, too — you deserve it.

 

The Cookie That Changed My Life

It’s not every day that Nancy Silverton publishes a cookbook. “Making the absolute best version of the familiar baked goods that we all know and love” was her idea behind this one, and the results are (so far) pretty wonderful. We’ve now tested three — a Devil’s Food Cake with Fudge Frosting, Almond Biscotti in the style of soft cantucci (the real Italian word for biscotti), and Cheese Coins rimmed with cracked black pepper, which I’m calling Cacio e Pepe Cheese Coins. This is a baking book that every serious cook needs to own. I can tell you that Silverton pulls no punches in her recipes. She’s not afraid of using a pound of chocolate, and she triples our previous conception of how much vanilla to use in anything.

Find the recipe for the Cacio e Pepe Cheese Coins here. Look for a review soon.

The Cookie That Changed My Life: And More than 100 Other Classic Cakes, Cookies, Muffins and Pies That Will Change Yours, by Nancy Silverton (with Carolynn CarreñO), Ten Speed Press, $40.

BUY ‘The Cookie’ at Bookshop
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Cucina Povera

I love the concept of this book, which is stuck throughout with Post-Its on the myriad recipes I can’t wait to try. Three involve Savoy cabbage, which I adore and haven’t been able to find lately. (Buckwheat Pasta with Cabbage and Cheese!) A few others I have my eye on: Artichoke, Fava Bean, Pea and Lettuce Stew (for the spring); Pork Braised in White Wine; Savory Swiss Chard and Parmigian-Reggiano Pie. The vibe is irresistible comfort. The one recipe I’ve tried turned out great: Roasted Pepper Rolls Stuffed with Tuna and Capers (Involtini di peperoni alla piemontese).

Cucina Povera: The Italian Way of Transforming Humble Ingredients into Unforgettable Meals, by Giulia Scarpaleggia, Artisan, $44.

BUY ‘Cucina Povera’ at Bookshop
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Ever-Green Vietnamese

Andrea Nguyen, the preemient authority on Vietnamese cooking in the United States, is also one of our best cookbook authors. Her recipes are wonderfully appealing, and they work — beautifully. Her seventh cookbook focuses on a loose definition of plant-based: It’s not strictly vegetarian or vegan, but vegetables take center stage. Read our review, try the recipes, buy the book.

Ever-Green Vietnamese: Super-Fresh Recipes, Starring Plants from Land and Sea, by Andrea Nguyen, Ten Speed Press, $35.

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Food of the Italian Islands

Treat someone you love to a trip Capri — and Sardinia, and Sicily. Vicarious, perhaps, but they can count on lots of messy, delicious food along the way. Read our review, try the recipes, buy the book.

Food of the Italian Islands, by Katie Parla, Parla Publishing, $35.

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Love Japan

Co-authors Sawako Okochi and Aaron Israel are the married couple and the chef-owners of Shalom Japan in Brooklyn (she’s Japanese, he’s Jewish). They may be restaurateurs, but happily the recipes in this enticing book skew homey; many point to what they love to cook in their own home. Most of the dishes are Japanese; others are Japanese-Jewish fusion. (Home-Style Matzoh Ball Ramen? Sign me up!) Their Smashed Cucumber and Wakame Salad was super easy and turned out well — here’s the recipe.

Love Japan: Recipes from our Japanese American Kitchen, by Sawako Okochi and Aaron Israel with Gabriella Gershenson, Ten Speed Press, $30.

BUY ‘Love Japan’ at Bookshop
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Asada: The Art of Mexican Style Grilling

This season, the greatest excitement I had flipping through a book and identifying can’t-wait-to-cook recipes was when Asada — Bricia Lopez’s book — came in the mail. So many dishes looked so amazing. Lopez co-owns Guelaguetza, L.A.’s legendary Oaxacan restaurant, but this book is about carne asada: the backyard grilling tradition that’s popular all over Mexico, and anywhere Mexican ex-pats, immigrants or their offspring live. It includes lots of centerpieces to grill, along with all the salsas and sides to serve with them.

We dove in and tried the recipe for Carne Asada Clásica — flap steak marinated overnight, grilled, sliced and served with homemade tortillas and salsas. [Try the recipe.] We were so glad we did. We also loved a recipe for Guacamole Tatemado en Molcajete — which adds lots of grilled scallions and fresh mint to the classic avocado mash.

Some other recipes gave us trouble. A small salad of 2 Persian cucumbers and 8 radishes, for instance, called for a tablespoon of salt and two teaspoons of pepper; I cut the salt by two thirds and the pepper in half, and even that was on the salty-peppery side. Still, there are some wonderful ideas in the book, and so much deliciousness. Therefore I recommend it — with that caveat that it’s best for experienced cooks who know how to eyeball a recipe and spot potential pinch-points, or for those keen on flipping through for inspiration.

Asada: The Art of Mexican Style Grilling, by Bricia lopez with Javier cabral, abrams, $40.

BUY ‘Asada’ at Bookshop
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Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook

So much fun in the pages of this book from Josh Ku and Trigg Brown, the founders of Brooklyn’s Win Son and Win Son Bakery. Again, I marked oodles of recipe to try. Like the Shrimp Cakes that fill Win Son’s “Nutritious Sandwich.” Or Flies’ Head — the dish that inspired them to form a partnership and start a restaurant. (There are no flies in it; rather flecks of pork and fermented black beans, along with a lot of flowering chives.) Clams with Basil, a classic Taiwanese re chao (hot stir-fry) dish, looks splendid as well.

We dove in and fell in love with Lamb Wontons, served on a shmear of labneh (how original!), and drizzled with a Sweet Soy Dipping Sauce, cilantro leaves, cumin seeds, chili crisp and a fantastically vibrant “‘Lamb’ Spice Mix.” Wow! That recipe worked great, and so did Green Soybean, Tofu Skin and Pea Shoot Salad (though I had to adjust amounts on radically on one of the ingredients). San Bei Ji — Three-Cup Chicken (another Taiwanese classic) — turned out well, but the instructions needed some clarification and timing required adjusting. That’ll all be fixed when we bring you a full review. In the meantime, please try the Lamb Wontons. Again, this is a book that’s more suited to experienced cooks who will love the ideas and know when to tweak, compensate and fix.

Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook, by Josh ku and Trigg Brown with Cathy Erway, Abrams, $40.

BUY ‘Win Son Presents’ at Bookshop
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Gohan: Everyday Japanese Cooking

Here’s one I’d recommend for fans of Emiko Davies — the Tuscany-based Japanese-born food writer and photographer who blogs and writes about regional Italian cooking. Those diving into Japanese cooking for the first time will also find it interesting. “Gohan’ means ‘rice’ in Japanese, and it also refers to the “everyday home-cooked meal.” As Davies’ Japanese mother explains it, “Nothing fussy, but quick and easy, and nourishing. One that is made with love.” I appreciate the section on hosting a temaki (sushi hand-roll) party, and went crazy over her recipe for Chilled Dressed Tofu. The illustrated cover captures its charms, and the photos (and more illustrations) inside are lovely.

Gohan: Everyday Japanese Cooking, by Emiko Davies, Smith Street Books, $35.

BUY ‘Gohan’ at Bookshop
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We’re Also Excited About . . .

The following titles are those we haven’t yet tested recipes from, but we have high hopes for.


Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine

By Nasim Alikhani with Theresa Gambacorta, Knopf, $40.

Nasim Alikhani has such a great story: She opened her Brooklyn restaurant Sofreh five years ago at the age of 59, never having worked in a restaurant, but with a wealth of Iranian home cooking experience under her belt. Based on the gorgeous photos and the way the recipes are written, we can’t wait to dive in and cook. [Recipes not yet tested.]

BUY ‘Sofreh’ at Bookshop
BUY ‘Sofreh’ at Amazon

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The Korean Cookbook

By Junghyun Park and Jungyoon Choi, Phaidon, $55.

This impressive, 496-page volume was written by two chefs, but the focus is home cooking and tradition. The history-filled introduction to hansik (Korean cooking) is on its own worth the price of admission, and the recipes — particularly the banchan (side dishes) — look wonderufl. [Recipes not yet tested.]

BUY ‘The Korean Cookbook’ at Bookshop
BUY ‘The Korean Cookbook’ at Amazon

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On the Curry Trail: Chasing the Flavor that Seduced the World

By Raghavan Iyer, Workman Publishing, $30.

From the award-winning author of 660 Curries, this smart little illustrated volume tackles the question what makes a curry — with enticing recipes from six continents. [Recipes not yet tested.]

BUY ‘On the Curry Trail’ at Bookshop
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Taste the World in Marseille

By Vérane Frédiani, Éditions de La Martinière/Abrams, $30

From all reports, the multicultural food scene in Marseille is exploding, and this exuberant book captures it all with a giant heart. It’ll make you want to go there, as much as it’ll make you want to cook. And if you do go, you’ll certainly want to have the book (a paperback) in hand as a guide. [Recipes not yet tested.]

BUY ‘Taste the World in Marseille’ at Bookshop
BUY ‘Taste the World in Marseille’ at Amazon

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Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation

By Clarissa Wei with Ivy Chen, Simon Element, $40.

Taipei native and food writer Clarissa Wei has put together an ambitious and impressive volume, in collaboration with Taiwanese cooking instructor Ivy Chen, that aims to tell the full story of Taiwanese cuisine. Home cooks from all over the island nation contribute their dishes. The result is a book that anyone who loves Taiwanese cooking or interested in learning about it should be thrilled to receive. [Recipes not yet tested.]

BUY ‘Made in Taiwan’ at Bookshop
BUY ‘Made in Taiwan’ at Amazon

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Maydān: Recipes from Lebanon and Beyond

By Rose Previte with Marah Stets, Abrams, $40

Rose Previte, owner of Washington, D.C. restaurants Maydān, Compass Rose, Kirby Club and Medina, mined her travels all across the Levant, North Africa and Georgia to put together this gorgeous book. From Taktouka (Moroccan roasted pepper and tomato spread) to a lamb shoulder with Syrian seven spice that takes 8 hours to roast to Lebanon’s famous date-filled butter cookies, mamouls, the recipes look incredible. Plus, the book itself is a beautiful object — a rarer thing these days. [Recipes not yet tested.]

BUY ‘Maydān’ at Bookshop
BUY ‘Maydān’ at Amazon

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Eater: 100 Essential Restaurant Recipes

By Hillary Dixler Canavan, Abrams, $35.

Eater’s Restaurant Editor chose iconic recipes from establishments all over the U.S. for this super-fun book, a snapshot of eating in America in our time. [Recipes not yet tested.]

BUY ‘Eater’ at Bookshop
BUY ‘Eater’ at Amazon

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The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope

By José Andrés & World Central Kitchen with Sam Chapple-Sokol, Foreword by Stephen Colbert, Clarkson Potter, $35

“This is a place that is full of empathy and hope, a place where we are building longer tables, not higher walls,” writes super-hero chef José Andrés in his Introduction. He’s talking about the world of World Central Kitchen. “Wherever there’s a fight so that hungry people may eat . . . we’ll be there.” The book is meant to inspire to us to cook for a neighbor in need, volunteer at a local food pantry, or join WCK’s Relief Team responding to a disaster. Andrés uses the phrase “Cooks Without Borders” as a section head, which tickles us. Of course we support the organization! Please join us in raising money for their efforts. Buy the book; cook the recipes that come from WCK’s missions. [Recipes not yet tested.]

BUY ‘World Central Kitchen Cookbook’ at Bookshop
BUY ‘World Central Kitchen Cookbook’ at Amazon

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The greatest cookbook gifts: Back-list treasures and new classics

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By Leslie Brenner

[Editor’s note: This is Part I of our 2-part Ultimate Cookbook Gift Guide.]

We’re doing something a little different for our holiday cookbook gift guide this year.

Most roundups like this one exclusively cover books that are new this year, or this season. But that doesn’t address the way people really buy book gifts.

Most of us are more concerned with how much the giftee will love, use and treasure a cookbook than whether it was published this year or last — or five years ago or ten. Those older volumes, known in book publishing as “backlist” titles, are the ones with staying power. They’re the books that are good enough to keep selling for years (or decades), making it worth publishers’ while to keep them in print. Season after season, they’re some of the best cookbooks money can buy.

Meanwhile, as we have been testing the recipes from new books this particular year, we’ve bumped into an awkward problem. The books look wonderful, the photos are tempting and the dishes sound great. But a crazy number of the recipes don’t work, or have egregious mistakes. They seem not to have been tested at all, or only spottily tested. They might get a gazillion views on Instagram, they might even win an award, but they won’t be treasured backlist books.

That’s why this year, we’ve put together a gift guide in three parts. Part 1 rounds up our tried-and-true favorites, mostly backlist classic, but also newer treasures. Part 2 will recommend exciting new cookbooks from which we’ve tested at least one recipe, followed by promising titles whose recipes we haven’t yet tested.

Following the publication of Part 2, our guide will be updated periodically. Notable new books will be added, those that test well will move into favorites list, and others will drop out of the guide — if we have poor results or too much difficulty with the recipes.

One more thing: Cookbooks are a great gift any time of year, not just for the holidays. We’ll keep the guide pinned on the Cookbooks page of the site, for your handy reference year-round.

Baking with Dorie

Award-winning, best-selling cookbook author Dorie Greenspan is one of America’s most outstanding. Her 14th book, partly inspired by her travels and filled with must-bake recipes, encourages home bakers to riff and play. Read the review and purchase the book.

Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty and Simple, by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021, $35

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Classic Indian Cooking

I’ve cooked quite a bit from this encyclopedic book, published more than four decades ago, leaning on it when I want to remind myself of basics like the best way to make basmati rice, or making a wonderful rogani gosht (lamb braised in aromatic cream sauce). Sahni’s recipes work brilliantly, and she gives plenty of valuable context, including how to make them part of a meal. Here’s a sample recipe — for Yerra Moolee, a gently spiced, herbal dish of shrimp poached in coconut milk from Kerala.

Classic Indian Cooking, by Julie Sahni, William Morrow, 1980, $29

BUY ‘Classic Indian Cooking’ at Bookshop

BUY ‘Classic Indian Cooking’ at Amazon

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Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean

One of the revered author’s greatest works. Read the review and purchase the book.

Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean: Treasured Recipes from a Lifetime of Travel, Ten Speed Press, 2021, $40

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Every Grain of Rice

Dunlop's approachable, reliable book is one of our favorite cookbooks ever. Read the review and purchase the book.

Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, by Fuchsia Dunlop, Norton, 2012

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Falastin

Exuberantly delicious recipes that work brilliantly fill the pages of this book about Palestinian cooking and culture, from Yotam Ottolenghi’s business partner (Tamimi) and a longtime member of the Ottolengi team (Wigley). Read the review and purchase the book. Watch CWB’s Q & A with Tara Wigley.

Falastin: A Cookbook, by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley, Ten Speed Press, 2020, $35

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Food of Life

Batmanglij is the undisputed queen of Persian and Iranian cooking. The recipes in her mammoth 1986 book, revised in 2020, are astounding in how much they delight — from the moment you start prepping the aromatic, beautiful ingredients, through the inevitably pleasurable cooking, through every last bite. Read more and purchase the book.

Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies, by Najmieh Batmanglij, Mage Publishers, 2020, $55

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Gâteau

This charming 2022 collection from Aleksandra Crapanzano speaks to people who love cakes but don’t want to fuss over them; you won’t think twice about whipping up these delightful and easy treats. Still, if you want to dive into an ambitious project, she has you covered; her baba au rhum recipe is a knockout. Review coming soon - for now, try a recipe and purchase the book.

Gâteau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes, by Aleksandra Crapanzano, ILLUSTRATIONS BY CASSANDRA MONTORIOL, SCRIBNER, $30.

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Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art

Still in print since 1980 for a reason: It's essential. Here’s a sample recipe.

Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, by Shizuo Tsuji, Kodansha America, 2006, $45

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Jubilee

Tipton-Martin's award-winning 2020 book is already a classic. Read the review and purchase the book.

Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking, by Toni Tipton-Martin, Clarkson Potter, 2019, $35

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Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Julia Child’s essential 2-volume set. Of course I love Julia — she taught me to cook!

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, volumes i and ii, by Julia Child, knopf

BUY ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volumes I and II’ at Amazon

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Mother Grains

This groundbreaking book from L.A.’s star baker, the co-owner of Friends & Family, eloquently explicates the grain revolution. Organized around 8 “mother grains” (barley, buckwheat, corn, oats, rice, rye, sorghum and wheat), it’s filled with fabulous recipes that will change the way you think about baking. Since reviewing it, I’ve continued reaching for it regularly (the rye bagel recipe is fantastic). Read the review and purchase the book.

Mother Grains: Recipes for the Grain Revolution, by Roxana Jullapat, Norton, 2021, $40

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My Korea

The Michelin-starred New York-based chef hit a home run with his approachable and authoritative primer. Read the review and purchase the book.

My Korea: Traditional Flavors, Modern Recipes, by Hooni Kim, Norton, 2020, $40

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Ottolenghi Simple

This is probably my favorite book from the Israel-born London super-chef. Read my review and purchase the book.

Ottolenghi Simple, by Yotam Ottolenghi with Tara Wigley and Esme Howarth, Ten Speed Press, 2018, $35

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The Perfect Scoop

The Paris-based former Chez Panisse pastry chef, David Lebovitz, is the undisputed king of ice cream. His recipes are great for following to a T, but they're also imminently riffable. Read the review and purchase the book.

The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas and Sweet Accompaniments, by David Lebovitz, Ten Speed Press, 2007

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Peru: The Cookbook

Worth it for the ceviche chapter alone, this is the authoritative work from Peru’s most famous chef.

Peru: The Cookbook, by Gastón Acurio, Phaidon, 2015, $55

Buy ‘Peru’ at Bookshop

Buy ‘Peru’ at Amazon

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The Rise

Marcus Samuelsson is one of the most talented and accomplished chefs of our time, and his recipes — inspired by Black chefs, activists and cooks — are thrilling. Osayi Endolyn’s essays about those cooks and activists are wonderful, enlightening reads. Read our review and buy the book.

THE RISE: BLACK COOKS AND THE SOUL OF AMERICAN FOOD, BY MARCUS SAMUELSSON WITH OSAYI ENDOLYN, RECIPES WITH YEWANDE KOMOLAFE AND TAMIE COOK, PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANGIE MOSIER, 2020, LITTLE, BROWN, $38

Tu Casa Mi Casa

If I could only own one book on Mexican cooking, this would be it. Read the review and purchase the book.

Tu Casa Mi Casa: Mexican Recipes for the Home Cook, by Enrique Olvera, Luis Arellano, Gonzalo Goût and Daniela Soto-Innes, Phaidon, 2019, $40

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Vegetarian India

Jaffrey’s 2015 classic is one of our all-time faves. Read the review and purchase the book.

Vegetarian India, by Madhur Jaffrey, Knopf, 2015, $35

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Via Carota

Cooks Without Borders’ 2022 Cookbook of the Year. Read the review and purchase the book.

Via Carota, by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi, with Anna Kovel, Knopf, 2022, $40

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Zuni Cafe Cookbook

From the late Judy Rodgers — filled with recipes culled from her legendary San Francisco restaurant — this is one of our favorite cookbooks ever. It’s just as valuable for the myriad quick ideas Rodgers talks through, not-quite-recipes like seven different crostini — one with bean purée and sardines in chimichurri, another with egg salad, fava beans and smoked trout. Of course you’ll find her famous Zuni roast chicken in its pages, and so much more. Try this recipe for her favorite New Year’s Eve hors d’oeuvre: gougères stuffed with bacon, pickled onions and arugula.

The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, by Judy Rodgers, Norton, 2002, $35

Buy ‘The Zuni Cafe Cookbook’ at Bookshop

Buy ‘The Zuni Cafe Cookbook’ at Amazon

READ: Part II of our Ultimate Cookbook Gift Guide — New and notable titles from 2023

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Oh, snazzy block of tofu, where have you been all my life?

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By Leslie Brenner

One of the best things I’ve made from Emiko Davies’ charming new book, Gohan: Everyday Japanese Cooking, is what she calls Chilled Dressed Tofu.

It’s a block of tofu dressed as her obaachan (grandmother) used to prepare it for her: with soy sauce, sliced scallions, grated ginger and katsuobushi (shaved bonito). Her innovations are setting it on a shiso leaf, and adding a drizzle of sesame oil. No cooking required. Does it sound simple? It’s spectacular!

It comes together in a flash; really the only work involved is grating a piece of ginger and slicing a scallion. If you have access to a good Japanese supermarket, you should have no trouble finding fresh shiso leaves. But even if you leave off the shiso, the dish is really a treat — unexpectedly sumptuous and luxurious.

Silken (or soft) tofu is nicest for this dish, giving it a custardy, slippery texture. You could also use medium.

For the katsuobushi, any kind you find or have on hand will be fine; the fresher, the better. But if you’d like to make it really special, buy the most premium bonito flakes you can find.

READ: Katsuobushi (bonito flakes) will put a spring in your step and umami on your plate

Premium katsuobushi — dried bonito flakes — can be found at well stocked Japanese markets.

Best of all, if you prepare Japanese food with any kind of frequency, you may well have all the ingredients at hand (except probably the shiso). When the craving strikes, you’re just five minutes away from the treat.

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Cook to feed the world: Buy our $5 e-cookbook, and we'll donate all proceeds to World Central Kitchen

By Leslie Brenner

When it comes to providing relief in the face of humanitarian crises and natural disasters, there’s no organization that does it like World Central Kitchen (WCK), superstar chef José André’s highly effective nonprofit. At the moment, they are on the ground feeding families affected by the conflict in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon, the earthquakes in Afghanistan and the refugee crisis in Armenia.

Since our first fundraiser 18 months ago — our Cook for Ukraine Pop-Up — Cooks Without Borders has helped raised more than $10,000 for WCK .

Now we’re launching a fall fundraiser — with the modest goal of raising $1,000 to help feed families between now and the end of November. You can help! Purchase our e-cookbook, 21 Favorite Recipes from Cooks Without Borders. Normally $7, the book is on sale for just $5 per copy; we’ll donate every penny we collect* to WCK.

About World Central Kitchen

Chef Andrés founded World Central Kitchen based on the idea that “when people are hungry, send in cooks. Not tomorrow, today.” The nonprofit organization makes sure there is always a warm meal, an encouraging word, and a helping hand in hard times. 

When disaster strikes, WCK’s Chef Relief Team mobilizes to the front lines with the urgency of now to start cooking and provide meals to people in need. WCK’s resilience work advances human and environmental health, offers access to professional culinary training, creates jobs, and improves food security for the people it serves.

WCK has provided hundreds of millions of fresh, nourishing meals for communities around the world. Your donation today will be used to support its emergency food relief efforts and resilience programs.

Want to do more?

We have set up a fundraising page through World Central Kitchen. Please join me there in making a separate contribution in any amount to help us reach our modest goal of raising $1,000 by the end of November. I’ve kicked off the campaign with my own donation. (Once our e-cookbook purchases start rolling in, I’ll contribute the proceeds through that page, so you’ll be able to see the progress on that front as well.)

Thank you so much for joining me in supporting WCK! Please pass on this pop-up invitation to friends who will want to help feed people in strife around the world.

*45 cents of each e-book purchase will be retained by Stripe for processing. We will donate the full $4.55 we collect on each purchase to WCK.

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Why my desert-isle cookbook author would probably be Claudia Roden

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Medley of Spring Vegetables from Claudia Roden’s ‘The Food of Spain’

By Leslie Brenner

[Women have a history of writing the best cookbooks. That’s why throughout March — Women’s History Month — we’ll be featuring cookbooks by our favorite female authors.]

If I had to choose just one cookbook author and live with only that author’s books for the rest of my life, it might well be Claudia Roden. Somehow, after decades of cooking, I haven’t paid nearly enough attention to the widely lauded, highly accomplished, deeply interesting 87-year-old author of 20 cookbooks. Foolish, foolish me!

I own four Roden titles, and I’ve cooked from them all, always with excellent results. I’ve called upon her books frequently for research; they’ve informed my approach to baba ganoush and helped me develop a recipe for pita bread. But somehow I have rarely just relaxed and cooked from Roden’s books, and never fully recognized how much I love them. It’s a little like one of those old-fashioned romantic comedies where the young, handsome, gallivanting star suddenly sees that the love of his life has been right there under his nose the whole time: the girl next door. Only I’m not young, handsome or a gadabout, and Claudia Roden is definitely not the girl next door.

Born in Cairo, Egypt to Jewish-Syrian parents and now based in London, Roden has made a brilliant career of studying and writing about the foods of the Middle East and Mediterranean. Her 2011 title, The Food of Spain — a 609-page magnum opus — won first prize for International Cookbooks by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Her 1968 book, The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, was updated 32 years later, then inducted in 2010 in the James Beard Foundation’s Cookbook Hall of Fame. In 1997, The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York won the James Beard Award for Cookbook of the Year.

Ab Ghooshte Fasl (Iranian Bean Soup) from Claudia Roden’s ‘The New Book of Middle Eastern Food’

I love Roden’s aesthetic, she’s a great cook and a captivating food historian. Just about any other author I might choose to focus on for the rest of my life would have depth of knowledge in one or two, or maybe three food cultures. Roden has taken deep dives into so many. In one book alone — The New Book of Middle Eastern Food — she covers Albanian, Algerian, Armenian, Bedouin, Egyptian, Greek, Iranian, Tunisian, Turkish, Syrian, etc. etc., the work of more than two decades. She spent five intensive years researching Spanish cooking for the aforementioned magnum opus. Arabesque focuses on Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon.

As if that weren’t enough, 16 months ago she published Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean: Treasured Recipes from a Lifetime of Travel. And you know what? If you think the world already had enough Mediterranean cookbooks, it didn’t — Roden’s is one of the most quietly captivating ever published.

In the Introduction, Roden writes that after her children left home thirty-five years earlier, she embarked on a solo trip all around the Mediterranean inspired by a childhood memory of visiting Alexandria. Traveling alone was “strange and suspect” in those days, but it allowed her to meet people everywhere. “My interest was in home cooking and regional food,” she writes. “I was invited into homes where people still cooked as their parents and grandparents did.”

After so many decades, the Mediterranean — and all that she has encountered in her travels — continues to inspire her. Working on this particular book, she explains,

“has kept me happy, thinking of people and places, magic moments, and glorious food. It might be cold and raining outside, but in my kitchen and at my desk in London I am smiling under an azure sky. The smell of garlic sizzling with crushed coriander seeds takes me back to the Egypt of my childhood. The aroma of saffron and orange zest mingled with aniseeed and garlic triggers memories of the French Riviera.”

How beautiful is that?

I only started cooking from that last book a month ago; there are enticing recipes on nearly every page. The first dish I made was so wonderful, I made it again two weeks later: chicken thighs baked saucily with green olives, boiled lemons and lots of garlic. To accompany it Roden offers (practically in an aside), the most brilliant method for making couscous I’ve ever found — you pour salted warm water over the grains, stir them, let them swell for 10 minutes, then add olive oil and rub the couscous between your hands to “aerate the grains” and break up lumps. Cover it with foil and bake it for 10 or 15 minutes. The result is nearly as perfect as the traditional way, when you painstakingly moisten, rub, and steam the grains two or three times. I promise recipes soon, accompanying a review of the book.

Till then, please treat yourself to these Roden recipes:

Tender veg for early spring

If you can’t wait for spring, try this Medley of Spring Vegetables, inspired by the traditional Spanish soup menestra de primavera, from The Food of Spain. I made it last night, and I’d make it again next week.

RECIPE: Claudia Roden’s Medley of Spring Vegetables

Soup for a chilly late-winter day

On a cold day (there are surely still a few to come this season), simmer a pot of Ab Ghooshte Fasl — Iranian Bean Soup. The recipe is adapted from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.

RECIPE: Ab Ghooshte Fasl (Iranian Bean Soup)

Savory snack for anytime

Cod Fritters from Claudia Roden’s ‘The Food of Spain’

Finally, these tender, fabulous Buñuelos de Bacalao — Cod Fritters — are made with fresh fish rather than salt cod. That means no soaking the fish, so you don’t have to think about them a day in advance.

RECIPE: Buñuelos de Bacalao (Cod Fritters)

I’ve only just scratched the surface in discovering all this cookbook giant has to offer. Hopefully I still have a long cooking life ahead of me because Roden’s thousands and thousands of pages promise infinite deliciousness.

Find more cookbook reviews from Cooks Without Borders

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For Women's History Month, we're celebrating outstanding women cookbook authors

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By Leslie Brenner

Happy International Women’s Day!

I’ve long believed that when it comes to writing cookbooks, women have a serious edge: Most of my favorite all-time cookbooks were written by women. That’s why throughout March — Women’s History Month — we’ll be featuring cookbooks by some of my favorite female authors, and celebrating their achievements.

We’ll spotlight the authors in various ways: sometimes by honoring an entire long, distinguished career; other times presenting a newer author with a wonderful recent title, or maybe telling you about someone who didn’t write many books, but gave us one or two truly great ones. We’ll also feature standalone reviews of cookbooks by women.

In the past, we have honored a number of our favorite women authors in this way. They include:

• Diana Kennedy (read the story)

• Najmieh Batmanglij (read the story)

• Andrea Nguyen (read the story)

• Toni Tipton-Martin (read the story)

• Dorie Greenspan (read the story)

Build your collection

The first spotlight is coming shortly. Meanwhile, we have collected many of our favorite cookbooks by women in a mini-shop at Bookshop: “Women Have a History of Writing the Best Cookbooks.” We’re thrilled to invite you to browse the shop. Treat yourself (or a cookbook-loving friend) to one or more of the marvelous volumes. In doing so, you’ll be supporting women authors, independent booksellers and Cooks Without Borders (where it will be much appreciated).

Happy browsing, and happy Women’s History Month!

Cook for Türkiye Pop-Up: Buy our $5 e-Cookbook, and we'll donate all proceeds to World Central Kitchen

By Leslie Brenner

If you’re looking for a way to support relief efforts in Turkey and Northern Syria (following last week’s earthquakes that have killed at least 33,000 people), here’s something easy you can do right away. Purchase a copy of our e-cookbook, and we’ll donate 100% of the proceeds to World Central Kitchen. Now until further notice, we’re offering a special pop-up sale of 21 Favorite Recipes from Cooks Without Borders. Normally $7, the book is on sale for just $5 per copy; we’ll donate every penny we collect* to WCK.

Founded by chef José Andrés, World Central Kitchen is a nonprofit based on the idea that “when people are hungry, send in cooks. Not tomorrow, today.” WCK is now on the front lines in Turkey, feeding survivors and first responders while working to scale up its operation.

The New York Times has rounded up other organizations that are also doing great, dedicated work in the region, including some that are also already providing relief in Syria.

CWB eCookbook Cover 3.22.png
sale
21 Favorite Recipes from Cooks Without Borders
$5.00 $7.00

Grab our e-book to support WCK’s efforts in Turkey

Published in January 2021, our $5 e-Cookbook includes 21 of our best original recipes. After you receive your digital copy, we’d like to encourage you to make a separate donation to WCK, if you can, or to one of the other excellent relief organizations.

Ready to purchase and help feed Turkey’s earthquake survivors? Click on the ‘21 Favorite Recipes’ image above.

And please pass on this pop-up invitation to friends who will want to cook for Turkey.

*45 cents of each e-book purchase will be retained by Stripe for processing. We will donate the full $4.55 we collect on each purchase to WCK.

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10 standout cookbook recipes from this year in the kitchen

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BJ Dennis’ Okra & Shrimp Purloo, from the 2021 book ‘Black Food: Stories, Art & Recipes from Across the African Diaspora’

By Leslie Brenner

“If you were to give me one final meal to eat, it would be this,” writes BJ Dennis in the headnote to his recipe for Okra and Shrimp Purloo, collected in Black Food: Stories, Art & Recipes from Across the African Diaspora.

It’s one of the 10 dishes from new or recent cookbooks that I fell in love with this year — so much that I’ll be cooking them again and again in months and years to come.

The dishes span culinary cultures from East Asia to India, from the Middle East to Western and Eastern Europe — and two from the United States. Five include seafood, pork or a combination; three are vegan, one is vegetarian and one is a chocolate dessert. 

Weirdly, none of them involve chicken, lamb or duck — though one duck recipe came close to being included.* Not weirdly, none includes beef. Not that I don’t enjoy beef — I do! But I don’t eat it often. Eight happen to be gluten-free, and so are the two others, if you use gluten-free tamari in place of soy sauce.

The recipes come from books published this year and the two years prior. Here are the 10 standouts, beginning with the one pictured above.

BJ Dennis’ Okra & Shrimp Purloo

Purloo is an iconic rice dish in lowcountry Gullah-Geechee culture; this one from BJ Dennis, a Charleston, South Carolina chef with roots in the Gullah-Geechee community, features shrimp and okra. Okra season ends with the first frost, but you can use frozen okra (which isn’t bad at all) if you’d like to make it before next summer.

The quality of the rice you use is important: Dennis’ recipe calls specifically for Carolina Gold rice — a very special white rice that was nearly lost and was brought back a couple of decades ago. Not to be confused with the supermarket brand Carolina rice, Carolina Gold has beautiful texture and flavor. (Read more about the rice in the recipe’s headnote, and in this fascinating story by Keith Pandolfi in Serious Eats.)

Get the rice (which also makes a great holiday gift), and then make this irresistible purloo.

Betty Liu’s Mom’s Shanghai Red-Braised Pork Belly

If you ever crack open a cookbook and see the words “my favorite recipe in the book,” take heed: anything the author loves that much has an excellent chance of being smashing. That was absolutely the case with this tender and luscious dish from Betty Liu’s My Shanghai. “If there is one dish that represents Shanghai cuisine, this is the one,” she wrote in her headnote. The recipe comes from her mother.

Budmo! Russian Potato Salad

From Budmo!: Recipes from a Ukrainian Kitchen (one of Cooks Without Borders’ Best New Cookbooks of 2022), Anna Voloshyna’s vegetarian version of the classic is creamy and pickle-y — delicious in every season.

Woks of Life Shrimp in Lobster Sauce

The authors of the delightful new book The Woks of Life have a talent for creating outstanding versions of old-school American Chinese restaurant favorites. Their recipe for shrimp in lobster sauce is a fine example: Eminently craveable, it will probably blow other versions you’ve known out of the water. The book is another one of CWB’s Best New Cookbooks of 2022.

Via Carota Insalata di Cavoletti

This Brussels sprouts salad with apples, walnuts, aged cheese and pomegranate seeds made me fall instantly in love with Via Carota: A Celebration of Seasonal Cooking from the Beloved Greenwich Village Restaurant by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi, with Anna Kovel. It’s our first-ever Cooks Without Borders Cookbook of the Year.

Reem Kassis’ Eggplant Salad on Tahini

Reem Kassis’ The Arabesque Table is filled with wonderful recipes, some traditional, others of her own invention. This one — roasted eggplant salad on a cushion of tahini — combines elements of mutabal (roasted eggplant dip with tahini) and bitinjan al rahib (“monk’s eggplant” — roasted eggplant with fresh vegetables). Think of the dreamy result as everything you want in a mezze assortment but all on one plate. The eggplant salad part has pops of salty-meaty umami flavor from sliced green olives and tang from pomegranate molasses; walnuts add complexity and a bit of crunch. The tahini sauce is a creamy, rich foil. Swipe a piece of warm pita through it and you’re transported to everywhere you ever wanted to visit in the Levant.

I could eat the japchae from Hooni Kim’s 2020 book My Korea once a week and die happy. Japchae is a beloved traditional dish made from dangmyeon — stretchy, clear noodles made from sweet potato starch. This one has lots of julienned red and green bell peppers, shiitake mushrooms and spinach, garlic and a lovely touch of sesame oil. The book was published in 2020; we reviewed it in July.

Suzy Karadsheh's Sicilian-Vibe Cod

This roasted cod dish from Suzy Karadsheh’s The Mediterranean Dish has a deliciously Sicilian vibe, thanks to tomatoes, garlic, golden raisins, capers, spices and lemon. Throw it in the oven, open a bottle of Etna wine (white, red or rosé) and you’ve got a drama-free (and much less expensive) trip to Taormina, the Sicilian setting for White Lotus. Karadsheh’s book was one of our Best New Cookbooks of 2022.

Rinku Dutt’s Shrimp with Poppy Seeds (Chingri Posto)

Rich and fragrant, with a generous dose of white poppy seeds and black mustard seeds, this dish from Rinku Dutt’s Kolkata is transportingly delicous. We reviewed the book, one of our 10 Best New Cookbooks of 2022, in October.

Via Carota Torta al Cioccolato

It’s always good to end with chocolate cake, right? This one — another stupendous recipe from Via Carota — may well be the best flourless chocolate cake I’ve ever made. The top of the cake collapses (on purpose) and forms a crackly crust that contracts beautifully with the soft crumb inside, and it’s wonderfully chocolately and rich. ’Nuff said?

RECIPE: Via Carota Torta al Cioccolato

*I’ll definitely make the pici again many times, and will sometimes sauce it with a duck ragù, but probably my own.

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Showstopper dessert encore: Make Ottolenghi's fabulous rolled Pavlova while we still have peaches!

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was first published on July 30, 2021. Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh’s rolled Pavlova continues to be one of our favorite desserts ever. Peaches should be available from somewhere in the United States for at least two or three more weeks, so now’s the time to thinking about making it.

By Leslie Brenner

Looking for something fabulous and sweet to make this weekend or next? Or maybe you want something to wow a crowd during your upcoming August vacation?

Look no further: This rolled Pavlova from Sweet: Desserts from London’s Ottolenghi is absolutely smashing. Dramatic and gorgeous, it makes a hell of an impression — but it actually requires surprisingly little effort.

If you’ve never had or made a Pavlova, it’s actually quite simple: just whip egg whites with sugar until they’re thick and glossy, add a little vanilla for flavor and a touch of vinegar and cornstarch to stabilize, spread it on a parchment lined sheet pan and bake. When it comes out of the oven, it’ll be super-light, crisp and crusty on the outside and marshmallowy-soft on the inside. Round ones make great bases you can use in place of the shortcake for strawberry shortcake, or you can make a big one, dollop on whipped cream, top it with fruit and nuts and make a gorgeous statement. We’ve been doing both of those for years. Pavlovas are particularly wonderful for anyone needing or wanting to eat gluten-free.

But we’d never heard of a rolled Pavlova until we were flipping through Sweet last weekend, looking for a fruit dessert that we hoped would wow some wonderful new friends we’d invited to dinner.

And wow, did it! Not only was it a show-stopper; it was actually a show — everyone wanted to watch the dramatic roll-it-up maneuver. Then cutting the slices (thick ones! delightful crackly noise!) was its own entertaining moment.

The recipe probably reads a little scary if you’ve never made a Pavlova before — rolling a flat, crisp, thick meringue could seem perilous — but I knew it would be soft enough inside that rolling it up should be no problem. More than a show-stopper; it was actually a show — everyone wanted to watch the dramatic roll-it-up maneuver. Then cutting the slices (thick ones! delightful crackly noise!) was its own entertaining moment.

The Pavlova was dreamy to eat: Lots of ripe and super-flavorful peak-season peaches and juicy blackberries mingling with whipped cream inside the soft and crunchy meringue roulade, with more whipped cream, fruit and toasted sliced almonds on top. Our friends had brought along a delightful Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise — one of my all-time favorite dessert wines — a glorious match, thanks to the peaches.

OK, I know what you’re thinking: Need to run out and buy peaches, blackberries, cream and eggs. Do let us know how you love it.

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The 'queen of all gumbos' is a beloved New Orleans tradition in the days leading up to Easter

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Gumbo des Herbes, prepared from a recipe adapted from ‘The Dooky Chase Cookbook’ by Leah Chase

By Leslie Brenner

If you think of gumbo as a seafood-happy soupy stew punctuated with (and thickened by) okra, you’re absolutely right. In fact the word “gumbo” comes from gombo, which means “okra” in several west African languages.

But seafood gumbo is just one iteration of the dish, and gumbos don’t always include okra.  In fact, the “queen of all gumbos” — the one that New Orleans residents look forward to eating just once a year at the legendary Dooky Chase’s Restaurant — has neither okra nor any seafood in its long list of ingredients.

That one day — Holy Thursday in the Catholic calendar, which is always the Thursday before Easter — is coming right up this week. That’s when gumbo-loving New Orleaneans will be taking their seats at Dooky Chase’s, founded in 1941 by Emily and Dooky Chase, Sr., to enjoy a bowl of its famous Gumbo des Herbes. It’s the most celebrated version of the dish more broadly known as gumbo z’herbes.

The one served at the restaurant is thickly verdant, packed with nine kinds of greens, along with smoked ham, two kinds of sausage, beef brisket, veal brisket, onions, garlic and more.

Dooky Chase’s is “completely booked for dining in” on Thursday, says Tracie Griffin, granddaughter of Leah Chase — the matriarch who headed the Chase family and its restaurant until she died three years ago at age 96. “But take-out is available.” If you happen to be in the New Orleans area and want to partake, you can call the restaurant to pre-order.

Next best thing: Cook up a pot at home

If you’re not in NOLA, you can still enjoy the tradition. Invite your friends and family, help yourself to Dooky Chase’s recipe below, and cook up a big, delicious pot. Chef Edgar “Dooky” Chase IV generously shared with us the recipe from The Dooky Chase Cookbook, by his grandmother, Leah Chase.

Want to learn more about gumbo z’herbes and its history? Last year, Chloé Landrieu-Murphy wrote a fascinating story about it. As she explained, it’s an important dish in the region for Catholics who abstain from meat during Lent — the 40 days of reflection leading up to Easter.

READ: “In celebration of gumbo z’herbes, a gloriously green, soul-nourishing Louisiana Lenten tradition”

For that reason, there are myriad versions of vegan gumbo z’herbes — and Landrieu-Murphy created a fabulous one for us.

Chloé Landrieu-Murphy’s Vegan Gumbo Z’herbes

‘Jubilee’ Gumbo Z’herbes

We’ve also got an excellent recipe adapted from Toni Tipton-Martin’s marvelous book Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking.

Whether you’re vegan or omnivorous, Catholic, atheist or a food lover of any faith, do consider diving into a bowl of the queen of all gumbos. You’ll be glad you did.

RECIPE: Dooky Chase’s Gumbo des Herbes

RECIPE: Chloe’s Vegan Gumbo Z’herbes

RECIPE: ‘Jubilee’ Gumbo Z’herbes

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Duck season? Rabbit season? Maybe — but dessert-wise, it's . . . Pavlova season!

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By Leslie Brenner

One evening fifteeen years ago, when I was living in Los Angeles, my friend Jenni wowed me at dinner with a magnificent dessert: a cloud-like pouf of meringue, crunchy on the outside and soft-chewy in the center, topped with a glorious mess of berries snuggled on a cushion of whipped cream and scattered with toasted chopped pistachios.

My spring and summer desserts would never be the same.

The dessert, called a Pavlova, has a down-under pedigree, invented about a hundred years ago, either in Australia or New Zealand (it’s unclear which), where it first showed up laden with strawberries, kiwis and passion fruit. It was named for the Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlovna Pavlova, who visited both countries in the 1920s. My friend Jenni, born and raised in South Africa, had fallen in love with the dessert there as a young girl.

When Jenni feted us with one back in 2007, Pavlovas were something you’d usually only see in restaurants (if you saw one at all) and probably mostly on the coasts, in New York, San Francisco or L.A. But those restaurant versions were small, smooth, perfect and formal-looking — nothing like that wild, craggy, irresistible mess I fell in love with at Jenni’s.

The cake that launched the Ottolenghi empire

Since then, Pavlovas’ popularity has grown — fueled in no small part by London chef Yotam Ottolenghi, whose 2017 cookbook Sweet (co-authored by Helen Goh) features on its cover a magnificent full-sized cinnamon version slathered with praline cream and covered with gorgeous slices of ripe figs and pistachios. Sweet!

In fact, spectacular lofty Pavlovas were essential in launching Ottolenghi’s restaurant and global cookbook empire. For his first professional kitchen job, as the Israeli-born chef tells us in the introduction to Sweet, he spent much of his time whipping egg whites for vanilla soufflés. And then, he writes:

“I ended up making my name on egg whites, sugar and lots and lots of air. The famously giant Ottolenghi meringues, which have adorned our windows for many years, have become our trademark.”

When it comes to busy home cooks, Pavlovas have a wealth of advantages. Surprisingly easy to make, they’re not only impressive and dramatic, but also forgiving — as their vibe is abundantly fruity and disheveled. Perfection is not required, nor even recommended.

Whipped meringue disc, ready to go into the oven

The Pavlova’s foundation is a thick disc of meringue — which you make by beating egg whites and sugar until stiff, spreading on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and baking slowly. As it cools, it becomes crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Use that time to macerate fruit. Whip some cream, slather it on the meringue, top with fruit, add enhancements like nuts (if desired), and voilà.

The baked meringue disc: Don’t worry; it’s not supposed to be perfect! The crags and crannies will catch the whipped cream and fruit juice.

Pavlovas are adaptable — make them full-size, individual, or anything in-between, and top them with whatever fruit is available and great-looking. You can flavor the meringue with extracts, liqueurs, spices or chocolate, or play with their texture by using brown sugar (as Ottolenghi does in his cinnamon-flavored fig and pistachio Pavlova).

This time of year, as strawberries are coming into season (no doubt they’re already resplendently displayed in Southern California on the beloved Harry’s Berries stand at Santa Monica Farmer’s Market), I like to make simple small ones featuring the juicy red fruit. (Happy spring!)

For the one shown here, I macerated the berries in orange liqueur and used them to adorn individually sized meringues. Want to dress them up a little more? Sprinkle on a little citrus zest and finish with toasted sliced almonds. They’re just the thing for spring holidays, like Easter or Mother’s Day. And if you’re looking for a flour-free dessert for Passover, look no further! (Which means yes, they’re gluten-free.)

Of course a full-on assortment of berries — blackberries, raspberries, strawbs and blueberries, as shown in the photo at top on a full-size Pavlova — is wonderful, too.

In summer, once stone fruits come into play, peaches, plums and apricots dance delightfully atop meringues. Or they can even get rolled up into them, as in this inventive spin by the Pavlova master himself, Ottolenghi.

To achieve that one, you make a meringue that’s rectangular rather than round. Spread a filling of whipped cream, berries, peaches and toasted sliced almonds on top, and roll it up. Yes, it probably sounds crazy if you’ve ever made meringues, but it works. Then more fruit goes on top, with a dusting of powdered sugar. Served in slices, it’s crazy good.

One of the glorious things about Pavlova season is that it’s luxuriously long. Late summer and fall, you could make make Ottolenghi’s sliced fig number. Or mix it up with late-season plums, or persimmons, or some roasted grapes. Toasted walnuts would be lovely on that.

But for now, we have spring, with all its delicious possibility. My recommendation for making most of the season? Get all messy with meringues and fruit and treat yourself (and friends and family, of course!) to one.

RECIPE: Strawberry Pavlovas

RECIPE: Berry Pavlova with Pistachios

RECIPE: Showstopper Rolled Pavlova with Peaches and Blackberries

READ: “Make this showstopper summer dessert: Rolled Pavlova with Peaches and Blackberries, from Ottolenghi’s ‘Sweet’”

Read: “Messy, gorgeous and dramatic: The berry Pavlova is a spring-into-summer stunner”

FIND: More Cooks Without Borders desserts

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Celebrate Chinese New Year with luscious red-braised pork belly (and greens!) from Betty Liu's 'My Shanghai'

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By Leslie Brenner

In her beautiful 2020 book, My Shanghai, Betty Liu has a lovely page about Lunar New Year. In Chinese households on New Year’s Eve, she explains, “guests are welcomed with cups of tea and fresh fruit,” and then there’s a parade of foods that in one way or another symbolize prosperity: whole fish, egg dumplings, tatsoi and sticky rice cakes among them.

Tuesday, February 1 marks the start of the Year of the Tiger, and in Chinese and the other Asian cultures that celebrate the holiday (including Vietnamese, Korean, Tibetan and Mongolian communities), the celebrations last about 15 days — from the new moon to the full moon.

One of my culinary adventurist dreams is to be invited, one day, to celebrate Lunar New Year’s Eve in the home of a Chinese or Chinese-American family. Alas, this year it will be but a dream once again. Given that we’re back to keeping to ourselves at home for dining lately, I think we’ll mark the occasion of Lunar New Year’s Eve by cooking something from Liu’s book — which I’ve only scratched the surface of.

So far, so great. The dish pictured above — Shanghai-style red-braised pork belly — has no specific symbolic connection to the holiday (that I know of!), but it is included in one of the Chinese New Years menus at The Woks of Life, one of my favorite cooking websites. And given that the holiday lasts a couple weeks, the wintry dish, which simmers for at least three hours (filling your kitchen with gorgeous aromas!) should be perfect for one of those dinners.

Watch Makers, Shakers & Mavens: Woks of Life co-founder Sarah Leung talks about Chinese and Chinese-American cooking with Leslie Brenner

In her headnote, Liu calls the dish“perhaps my favorite recipe in this entire book,” mentioning that it’s the dish that best represents Shanghai cuisine, so I had to try it as soon as I got my hands on the book last winter, just after it was published. It’s a winner — rich, tender, deeply flavorful and very soulful. I love that it’s her mom’s recipe.

One you get all the meat browned and braising, the dish simmers for at least three hours, which means if you work at home, you might even be able to manage it on a work day.

What to serve with the red-braised pork?

Certainly the dish could be part of a big feast, but it’s so rich and satisfying that it’s also wonderful with just white rice (its traditional accompaniment), and a simple stir-fried green, such as baby bok choy.

As a student of Chinese cooking, I’m always interested to see how Chinese cookbook authors and other cooks I admire approach a basic Chinese greens stir-fry — a versatile dish I can’t get enough of at home, and one that’s a fixture on Chinese tables.

I love Fuchsia Dunlop’s recipe for Baby Bok Choy with Shiitakes, from Every Grain of Rice. But with the red-braised pork belly, I wanted something even more basic, without the umami-richness of shiitakes. Happily, I found it in My Shanghai.

Liu’s recipe for a Basic Winter Greens Stir-Fry calls for baby bok choy, but regular bok choy, choy sum or Chinese water spinach take to it well, too. Best of all, there’s a valuable cooking lesson in Liu’s recipe, so this is a great greens recipe to try if, like me, you consider yourself a student of the genre.

Flavor of a thousand tangerines

And finally, here’s a dessert that’s not traditional, but works brilliantly following the braise: tangerine sorbet.

Tangerines are very much associated with the holiday. They’re at peak season now (the ones I’m getting have incredible flavor) and this recipe — adapted from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop, captures and somehow amplifies all that gorgeous flavor. It’s an amazing (and easily achieveable!) mood-lifter at a moment that more than a few of us might need one.

RECIPE: Betty Liu’s Mom’s Shanghai Red-Braised Pork Belly

RECIPE: Basic Winter Greens Stir-Fry

RECIPE: Tangerine Sorbet

More about Lunar New Year traditions

• There’s a wealth of great info about Chinese New Year traditions at The Woks of Life, including menus.

• Award-winning cookbook author (and friend of Cooks Without Borders) Andrea Nguyen has a delicious post about Vietnamese Lunar New Year (Tet) at her splendid blog, Viet World Kitchen. There you’ll find some cool info about people born in the Year of the Tiger and, of course, a passel of enticing recipes.

More recipes and delicious ways to celebrate

Turnip Cake — a dim-sum favorite, can be even better made at home.

Cooks Without Borders Chinese and Chinese-American recipes page has plenty of other delicious dishes you might explore during the new year festivities. Glorious Lacquered Roast Duck or Chinese Lacquered Roast Chicken would be great centerpieces – both require some advance prep, but the effort involved is shockingly minimal. Lo Bak Go — the daikon cakes you find in dim-sum restaurants (where they often call them turnip cakes), can be even better when made at home; our recipe comes from The Woks of Life. Yangzhou Fried Rice would be awesome, as would Silken Tofu with Soy Sauce. Check that page — I think you’ll find lots you’ll want to try.

And these couple of weeks would be a great opportunity to dive into Chinese culture by cooking through an excellent book. Betty Liu, Fuchsia Dunlop and Eileen Fein-Lo are all great teachers as they write, and books by any of them are great places to start. And there are many more! Liu’s book has the bonus of gorgeous photos of Shanghai, so it feels like a getaway, as well.

21 recipes from cookbooks we loved last year (Part I)

Persian Chicken Soup with Chickpea and Lamb Meatballs from Nadjieh Batmangli’s 1986 cookbook ‘Food of Life’

By Leslie Brenner

My lifelong love affair with cookbooks has been supercharged by the pandemic, and the ups and downs of 2021 offered plenty of opportunities to explore titles both old and new. We reviewed nine of them during the course of the year, including new books by Marcus Samuelsson, Roxana Jullapat, Kate Leahy, Dorie Greenspan and James Oseland, plus titles (some recent, some older) from Fuchsia Dunlop, Yotam Ottolenghi, Enrique Olvera and David Lebovitz. You can find them all here, along with stories celebrating cookbook authors in honor of Women’s History Month.

Here’s the first batch of my favorite recipes from those reviews and stories. Part II will follow in coming days, so do check back!

Persian Chicken Soup from Najmieh Batmanglij’s ‘Food of Life’

In January, we wrote about the spectacular Persian chicken soup pictured at the top of this story. Featuring tender meatballs made from lamb and chickpea flour, and garnished with dried rose petals, herbs and garlic, it’s a project to make, and one we thoroughly enjoyed. It’s probably the most exciting chicken soup in the universe, and once again, the time feels right for it. We featured Najmieh Batmanglij in a story in March.

Silken Tofu with Soy Sauce from Fuchsia Dunlop’s ‘Every Grain of Rice’

Published in 2012, Fuchsia Dunlop’s Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking is one of our favorite cookbooks ever, a must for any English-speaking person wanting to dive into Chinese cooking. This beautiful tofu dish, Xiao Cong Ban Dou Fu, is a snap to put together.

Yangzhou Fried Rice from ‘Every Grain of Rice’

Another favorite from Dunlop’s book, this fried rice with shrimp, pork, shiitake mushrooms and more is infinitely customizeable is super fun to make — and will quickly turn you into a fried rice pro.

Brussels Sprouts with Browned Butter and Black Garlic from ‘Ottolenghi Simple’

Three years after it was published in the U.S., we reviewed Ottolenghi Simple, which has quickly become a classic. Four or five of its recipes turned into favorites we’ll be making for years to come.

This umami-packed Brussels Sprouts number is one of them.

Ottolenghi’s Puy Lentils and Eggplant

Also from Ottolenghi Simple, this big, delicious smush of French green lentils with eggplants and blistered cherry tomatoes is smartly set off with fresh oregano. It’s a great thing to throw together when you feel like a satisfying and soulful meatless main course.

Papa Ed’s Shrimp and Grits

If you love shrimp and grits, you must try this version from Marcus Samuelsson’s The Rise — it is literally the best shrimp and grits I’ve ever tasted. The recipe calls for fresh okra, which I’m still occasionally seeing in supermarkets, but that’ll end once okra-growing regions get a freeze. However, the recipe will work just fine with frozen okra.

We reviewed The Rise in February.

Andrea Nguyen’s Ginger Halibut Parcels

One of my favorite dishes from Andrea Nguyen’s latest cookbook, Vietnamese Food Any Day is fish baked in parchment with baby bok choy and lots of ginger and garlic; it gets lots of umami from oyster sauce and soy sauce. Super easy to put together, it’s exciting enough for a dinner party and quick enough for a weeknight. We featured Nguyen as one of our favorite cookbook authors in March, and we were thrilled to host her in a live Makers, Shakers & Mavens event in April [watch the replay!]. Halibut won’t be back in season till the spring, but this recipe works with with other fish fillets, such as the excellent farmed striped bass coming from Baja, Mexico, or with scallops.

Banana-Leaf Fish (Empapelado de Pescado)

From Enrique Olvera’s 2019 cookbook Tu Casa Mi Casa, which we reviewed in June, here’s another fish dish I loved. The ingredients are few and basic: A great fish fillet (we used that Mexican striped bass), slices of citrus, herbs, salt, olive oil and banana leaves to wrap them in, tamal-style. Much easier to make than you might think, the fish is infused with fabulous flavor from the herbs and banana leaf. The book is co-authored by Luis Arellano, Gonzalo Goût and Daniela Soto-Innes.

Tu Casa Mi Casa Chicken Tinga

Also from Tu Casa Mi Casa, this recipe for classic chicken tinga is delicious on its own, and fabulous the next day if you cook it down a bit make tostadas with it. From the headnote, I learned that chicken tinga is “the first recipe any Mexican will cook as soon as they move out of their parents’ home and live on their own.” In other words, if you love Mexican cuisine, you’ll want it in your repertoire.

Buckwheat Blini with Crab Salad

In May, we reviewed the just-published Mother Grains, by Roxana Jullapat, the renowned baker and co-owner of Friends & Family in Los Angeles. In June, Jullapat joined us on Makers, Shakers & Mavens [watch the replay!].

These crab-salad-topped blini are knockouts, and super fun to make. Crab has become insanely expensive recently; happily you can also top them with smoked salmon or other tasty treats (our adaptation’s headnote explains how).

Roxana Jullapat’s Spelt Blueberry Muffins

I’m always attracted to blueberry muffins, but usually they’re too sweet for me, and I hate the way so much white flour makes them stick to the roof of your mouth. Jullapat’s, made with spelt, solves both problems: They’re the blueberry muffins of my dreams.

Friends & Family Macadamia Brown Butter Blondies

One more from Mother Grains — the rich, buttery blondies are insanely delicious.

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Celebrating in place? Try Daniel Boulud's short ribs braised in red wine

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By Leslie Brenner

We all need them — at least those of us who love to cook, and love to entertain need them. They’re the dishes we know we can count on to make everyone swoon. It might be for a family member’s birthday dinner, or an anniversary, or the occasion of entertaining someone you want to impress. Or hey — maybe you need an extraordinary dish for New Year’s Eve, in a season when it feels important to treat yourself to something nice.

Daniel Boulud’s short ribs braised in red wine has long been one of those dishes for me. Braised short ribs are always delicious (as well as very easy to make); what makes Boulud’s version special is that it’s dressed up with a spectacular celery duo — celery root purée and glazed celery — and bathed in a marvelously deep-flavored and silky sauce. It’s gorgeous on the plate, like it came from an incredible restaurant.

The wine-braised short rib dish is from ‘Café Boulud Cookbook,’ which (alas!) is out of print. With so many great recipes, it would be worth republishing!

I first fell for the dish sometime back in the 1990’s, at dinner at Café Boulud, one of my favorite restaurants in New York at the time. (It is temporarily closed, with plans to relocate.) And then, when Boulud published the Café Boulud Cookbook (co-authored with Dorie Greenspan) in 1999, there was the recipe in its pages — what a gift!

The dish is timelessly delicious. Fall-apart-tender, incredibly flavorful and rich short ribs melt into the purée, which is actually a gorgeously earthy, creamy blend of celery root and Yukon Gold potatoes — like potato purée with a PhD in philosophy. The sauce is made by sending the braising liquid through a fine strainer. The glazed celery on top celebrates and elevates a vegetable that used to be a luxury in days of yore.

There’s nothing difficult or tricky about putting it all together. There is a single pyrotechnic moment, when we’re asked to light some heated wine on fire, but if that makes you nervous, just skip that part — it’ll still turn out great. In fact, if you’ve never made short ribs before, this recipe will teach you about all you need to know about them: Brown them, then long-braise them, and you’ll be richly rewarded. You can play with the braising liquid, and it’ll still be good. It’s a perfect dish for entertaining, as it’s ideally made in advance, so you can chill it overnight, lift off the fat and have most of the work done.

Precede the show-stopping dish with a salad of winter greens (maybe with smoked trout, or crab and avocado), or oysters on the half-shell.

The recipe serves eight, but don’t let that bother you if you’re cooking for four or fewer: You’ll have the best leftovers imaginable.

RECIPE: Café Boulud Short Ribs

Looking for more festive dishes for New Year’s Eve? You might like these:

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Author Andrea Nguyen brings unforgettable Vietnamese flavor into every home cook's wheelhouse

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‘Vietnamese Food Any Day’ by Andrea Nguyen

‘Vietnamese Food Any Day’ by Andrea Nguyen

By Leslie Brenner

Editor’s note: Women have a history of writing the best cookbooks. That’s why throughout March — Women’s History Month (and maybe even into April!) — we’ll be featuring cookbooks by our favorite female authors.

Over the past year, I’ve been working on developing a few Vietnamese-inspired recipes with the invaluable help and guidance of my dear friend An-My Lê — Cooks Without Borders’ Vietnamese cooking advisor. I want to get them just right, so I’ve been moving slower than I meant to on them; they will be coming sooner than later, I hope!

A brilliant photographer by profession, An-My happens to be one of the best cooks I know — in many idioms, including French (as well as Vietnamese). When I asked her some months ago to recommend the best Vietnamese cookbooks for home cooks, she didn’t hesitate. Andrea Nguyen’s books, she said, along with Charles Phan’s Vietnamese Home Cooking.

Author Andrea Nguyen / Photograph by Aubrey Pick

Author Andrea Nguyen / Photograph by Aubrey Pick

An-My is not alone in her opinion, obviously; Nguyen’s work has been honored with many prestigious awards, including a James Beard Cookbook Award for The Pho Cookbook and an IACP Cookbook Award for Unforgettable: The Bold Flavors of Paula Wolfert’s Renegade Life, which she edited.

Nguyen, who lives in Northern California and describes herself as “a bank examiner gone astray,” has published five other books as well, including Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, Asian Dumplings, Asian Tofu and The Banh Mi Handbook, as well as her most recent, Vietnamese Food Any Day, with which I’m currently obsessed. One of the dishes in that last title — a rice-noodle salad number — was a dream-bowl for us last summer.

Happily for her fans (me included), she also has a fabulous blog — Viet World Kitchen — where you can find a wealth of delicious stories, videos and recipes.

I’d recommend Vietnamese Food Any Day for anyone wanting to dive into Vietnamese cooking, whether you’re a newbie or have lots of experience. The book is wonderful for teaching us how to bring the Vietnamese spirit and style of cooking and eating into our American home kitchens, starting with what to keep on hand — including brands: Red Boat or Three Crabs fish sauce! Three Ladies rice paper and jasmine rice!. But Nguyen has a great palate and delightful creative flair, with plenty to offer even someone like An-My (who can make spectacular bánh xèo with her eyes closed).

Nguyen’s parchment parcels of fish baked with ginger, garlic, baby bok choy and scallions is a great example — a quick and easy dish that’s as appropriate for a weeknight dinner as it is for a special evening (post-vaccine reunion?!) with friends when you want to really celebrate.

Halibut and baby bok choy with ginger, garlic and scallions roasted in parchment, from Andrea Nguyen’s ‘Vietnamese Food Any Day’

Halibut and baby bok choy with ginger, garlic and scallions roasted in parchment, from Andrea Nguyen’s ‘Vietnamese Food Any Day’

It’s just the thing to keep in mind to as we come into halibut season. It’s so damn easy to overcook or otherwise ruin halibut (which is expensive!), and this foolproof method gives you an impressive, fabulous slam-dunk. Let your guests or family tear open the parcels at the table, and they’ll find fish that’s gorgeously silky throughout, absolutely elegant, bathed in umami-rich and gingery-bright sauce that melds marvelously with the bok choy. I can’t recommend the recipe highly enough. It’s a great example of why you need this book.

Want something fancy to start that’s also easier than it might seem?

Mushroom pâté puffs from Andrea Nguyen’s ‘Vietnamese Food Any Day’

Mushroom pâté puffs from Andrea Nguyen’s ‘Vietnamese Food Any Day’

I’m a sucker for puff pastry, especially the all-butter frozen, buy-it-at-the-supermarket variety, and Nguyen’s Mushroom Pâté Puffs take full advantage. Their filling is a simple yet perfect mix of rehydrated dried shiitakes, white button mushrooms, shallots, butter and thyme. Nguyen’s recipe, which yields about 30, is meant to serve 8 to 10, but unless you are far more restrained, reasonable and mature than the four of us still-sequestered together (though not for long!), you will devour them like some insane, puff-pastry-starved maniacs. I shouldn’t be admitting this, but just want you to know how good they are.

On tap, for the very near future, I have bookmarked recipes for Baked Shrimp and Celery Toasts; Grilled Trout Rice Paper Rolls; Shaking Tofu; and Grilled Lemongrass Pork Chops.

All of which is to say many thanks, Andrea Nguyen, for improving the quality of our lives.

Looking for a new cookbook to make your spring and summer light, elegant and delicious? Look no further.

RECIPE: Andrea Nguyen’s Ginger Halibut Parcels

RECIPE: Andrea Nguyen’s Mushroom Pâté Puffs

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Author Najmieh Batmanglij is the revered ‘goddess of Iranian cooking'

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By Leslie Brenner

Editor’s note: Women have a history of writing the best cookbooks. That’s why throughout March — Women’s History Month — we’ll be featuring cookbooks by our favorite female authors.

The Washington Post called her “the grande dame of Iranian cooking.” Yotam Ottolenghi called her its “goddess.” Super-chef José Andrés has called her “a wonderful guide to the Persian kitchen.”

We’re talking, of course, about Najmieh Batmanglij — the author of seven books, including Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies; Joon: Persian Cooking Made Simple; Cooking in Iran: Regional Recipes and Kitchen Secrets and other titles.

I’m embarrassed to say that Batmanglij’s wisdom only came into my life last year, when I started exploring Persian cooking in earnest. Food of Life — the magnum opus that she first published in 1986, revised for a 2020 25th-anniversary edition and is once again updating — is a great place to begin, if you want to explore this magnificent cuisine.

Sabzi polow — rice with fresh herbs — prepared from Najmieh Batmanglij’s ‘Food of Life’

Sabzi polow — rice with fresh herbs — prepared from Najmieh Batmanglij’s ‘Food of Life’

Some of my happiest memories of annus horribilus 2020 involved Food for Life. For my late-September birthday, a masked celebration in the backyard of dear friends, my son Wylie and his girlfriend Nathalie prepared (at my request) an elaborate, insanely delicious rice dish from the book: Sabzi Polow,* Rice with Fresh Herbs. There are a full seven cups of fresh chopped herbs in the dish: dill, chives, parsley and cilantro, and it sports a crisp tah-dig crust. (Once I prepare it myself — soon! I’ll be sure to write about it.)

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A couple months later, I spent a luxurious afternoon preparing abgusht-e morgh ba kufteh-ye nokhodchi — Persian chicken soup with chickpea-and-lamb meatballs. The aromas of dried rose petals, cardamom, saffron and fresh herbs lifted my spirits and transported me to another time and place.

The book has been on my mind lately because Nowruz — Persian New Year — begins this coming Saturday, the first day of spring. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than with Batmanglij’s Fresh Herb Kuku, which is traditional for the holiday. It’s like a Persian frittata packed with dill, parsley, cilantro and spring onions, beautifully spiced (more rose petals!) and garnished with quick-confited barberries.

[If you’re cooking with kids this weekend, consider quick-ordering Batmanglij’s Happy Nowruz: Cooking with Children to Celebrate the Persian New Year.]

Fresh Herb Kuku.jpg

Najmieh’s other six books are all on my wish-list(Joon is at the top.)

Still if I had to choose only one cookbook to cook from for the rest of my life, I would seriously consider Food of Life. The 330-recipe volume has enough delicious culture in its 640 pages to keep me delighted cooking and discovering Iran for a long time.

RECIPE: Najmieh’s Fresh Herb Kuku

RECIPE: Persian Chicken Soup with Chickpea and Lamb Meatballs

Related story: “Take a moment to honor 98 year-old Diana Kennedy, the “Queen of Mexican regional cooking”

Related story: “Outstanding cookbook author Toni Tipton-Martin puts history at the center of the American table”

Related story: “Dorie Greenspan knocks it out of the kitchen with books about baking and French cooking”

*The dish is the vegetarian variation of Sabzi Polow Ba Mahi — Rice with Fresh Herbs and Fish. We dropped the fish as the dish was meant to accompany delicious lamb kebabs my friends grilled outside on the Weber.

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Take a moment to honor 98 year-old Diana Kennedy, the "Queen of Mexican regional cooking"

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By Leslie Brenner

Editor’s note: Women have a history of writing the best cookbooks. That’s why throughout March — Women’s History Month — we’ll be featuring cookbooks by our favorite female authors.

International Women’s Day feels like exactly the right part of Women’s History Month to celebrate Diana Kennedy. The trailblazing cookbook author — who turned 98 last week — has devoted no less than six decades of her life to studying and documenting the richness, tradition and techniques of the regional cuisines of Mexico.

If you haven’t seen Elizabeth Carroll’s 2019 documentary about her, “Nothing Fancy,” do treat yourself. The 1 hour, 8 minute film does a wonderful job at explaining why British-born Kennedy is widely regarded — even in Mexico — as the world’s foremost expert in traditional Mexican cuisine.

“I think she’s a legend,” says Gabriela Cámara, chef and owner of Contramar in Mexico City and Cala in San Francisco, in the film. “Many Mexicans are against admitting that Diana knows more than they do about their food.”

“I think Mexico as a country will be eternally indebted to her efforts,” was celebrity TV chef Pati Jinich’s take.

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The author of eight books on Mexican cooking, including the seminal 1972 book The Cuisines of Mexico, Kennedy was the pioneer who evangelized to the English-speaking world about the depth, breadth and fabulousness of traditional Mexican cooking, the way it is done in cities and villages throughout Mexico. That book is out of print, but it is collected — along with The Tortilla Book and Mexican Regional Cooking — in The Essential Cuisines of Mexico. It is a must-have for anyone interested in Mexican cooking.

It was The Cuisines of Mexico that prompted me to buy an aluminum molcajete and a tortilla press 36 years ago, when I was in my 20s. I still have both, though I’ve graduated to a giant wooden tortilla press.

I’ve learned so much from Kennedy’s books over the years, starting with the proper way to make guacamole, grinding white onion, serrano chiles, cilantro and salt in the molcajete — and no garlic, as Kennedy emphatically exclaims in the documentary. Her books are always the first place I go whenever I have any question about any Mexican dish.

I had the amazing opportunity, back in the early 1990’s, not just to meet Kennedy, but to spend a long weekend cooking with her at my friend Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch’s house in Dordogne, France. As you’ll see if you watch the documentary, Kennedy is famously crotchety, which was my experience as well. But I’ll always treasure the time, which I wrote about a few years ago, in a story about making tortillas.

If it’s interesting or vexing to contemplate the idea of honoring a British-born woman as the “queen of Mexican regional cooking,” as a Los Angeles Times story by Daniel Hernandez did last year, consider the comments in the documentary of Abigail Mendoza. The chef and owner of Tlamanalli, a restaurant in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, had been friends for 35 years at the time the documentary was filmed. “Ella está una hija adaptiva en México — She’s an adoptive daughter of Mexico,” she said.

“She’s very Mexican in her soul and heart. I believe Diana is a Mexican, who does not have to have been born in Mexico. But she is in Mexico and lives in Mexico, is working in Mexico and is a Mexican.”

Happy International Women’s Day. I’m off now to make a batch of guacamole.