Cookbooks We Love: Dorie Greenspan makes us all better bakers with 'Baking with Dorie'

By Leslie Brenner

Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, Photography by Mark Weinberg, 2021, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $35

Backgrounder: With a career spanning three decades (her debut volume, Sweet Times: Special Desserts for Every Occasion was published in 1991), Greenspan is one of the most accomplished and trusted cookbook authors working in America today. She has won five James Beard Awards, and twice earned the International Association of Culinary Professional’s prestigious Cookbook of the Year award. She writes a column for The New York Times, whose editors chirp that “you can never go wrong with Dorie.”

Baking is her thing — it’s the subject of 8 of her 14 titles; she’s also a Francophile, and a great savory cook, too. She co-wrote one of my favorite French cookbooks, Daniel Boulud’s Café Boulud Cookbook (1999), and solo-wrote another fave, the monumental Around My French Table, with more than 300 recipes. (That was one of the two IACP Cookbook of the Year titles.) In 1998 she co-wrote a book with superstar Paris pastry chef Pierre Hermé (Desserts by Pierre Hermé), then in 2001 published a solo title, Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé, which she followed with Paris Sweets: Great Desserts from the City’s Best Pastry Shops (2002). So yep, she knows her way around a vacherin. And this book is a stand-out.

[Read “Dorie Greenspan knocks it out of the kitchen with books about baking and French cooking.’]

Apricot and Pistachio Olive-Oil Cake from ‘Baking with Dorie’

Why We Love it: First, because Dorie has so many delicious and original ideas — all based on sound technique and spinning off tradition. (Pardon the informality; it’s hard for me to keep referring to her as Greenspan, as I’ve known her for 30 years.) She holds our hands, understands our fears and guides us to delicious success. Second, because the book is largely inspired by Dorie’s travels, which makes it feel very Cooks Without Borders. And third because Dorie provides lots of room to play, and plenty of choices, as with the Apricot and Pistachio Olive-Oil Cake shown above. You can flavor this beauty with saffron or tea leaves, salted or unsalted nuts and orange or tangerine zest. Dorie provides directions for both stand mixer and hand mixer. I used a hand mixer, and went the saffron, unsalted nuts and orange zest route. Glazed with apricot jam (which also gets slathered between the layers), it’s insanely delicious.

The Breakdown: Dorie assigns hearts to her favorites in every chapter, starting with Breakfast (Brioche Sticky Buns! Chocolate Babka!) — but Cheddar-Scallion Scones and Breakfast-in-Rome Lemon Cake sound just as wonderful. Cakes come next, with a “How-To” intro filled with invaluable tips, followed by Cookes, a Dorie forte.

A “Two Perfect Little Pastries” chapter focuses on cream puffs and meringues, offering lots of fabulous ways to use them. It was here I found the recipe that alone makes the book worth its cover price — Gouda Gougères.

Dorie Greenspan’s Gouda Gougères, from ‘Baking with Dorie’

I’ve made thousands of gougères in my lifetime, and this recipe — which has you beating in the eggs with a mixer rather than the traditional wooden spoon — is by far the best of any I’ve tried. Enriched with aged Gouda (instead of traditional Gruyère), these cheese puffs are flavored with ground cumin, and whole cumin seeds go on top, along with flakes of sea salt. The texture is absolutely perfect and the flavor out-of-this-world. Dorie suggests making them up to the point just before you bake them, then freezing the raw puffs on a baking sheet and storing them in an airtight container. That way you have them ready to be baked at a moment’s notice. The fact that I have a batch frozen and ready for the sheet pan makes me almost weepingly happy.

Interested in a classic gougère? Dorie supplies her recipe for that, too (along with her invention pâte-a-choux cheese sticks) after the Gouda treats.

A chapter on Pies, Tarts, Cobblers and Crisps comes next, followed by “Salty Side Up: Satisfying Suppers, Sides and More.” Leave it to Dorie to end a book of sweets with something savory.

World Peace Cookies 2.0 from ‘Baking with Dorie’ by Dorie Greenspan. It was inspired by a chocolate sablé recipe given to the author by Pierre Hermé.

You Gotta Try This: I’m a sucker for a sablé, the buttery, slice-and-bake French cookie with a famously sandy texture, so I couldn’t resist the sweet Dorie calls World Peace Cookies 2.0. To tell the truth, I was a wee bit worried I wouldn’t love them, as they’re dolled up with freeze-dried raspberries, cacao nibs, bittersweet chocolate pieces and piment d’Espelette. I was so wrong — they’re incredible, with flavors that dance beautifully with the chocolate and a texture somewhere between a classic sablé and a brownie. I baked up half a batch, and the log I have in my freezer (which you leave out 15 minutes, then slice and bake) has improved my outlook on life about as much as the frozen gougères have. (I feel rich!)

Go ahead and make a batch and tell me if you don’t love ’em.

Tiny Quibble: I was really excited to find Dorie’s rethought version of Tarte Tatin — the classic French baked-in-a-cast-iron-skillet caramel apple tart. It’s a tart that has always intimidated me, perhaps because I’m not a confident caramel-maker. In the book’s introduction, Dorie calls her heart-notated innovation — which involves using a springform pan rather than a skillet — foolproof. Waah-waah; it made a fool of me. Probably it’s my own fault — I think I failed to take the caramel dark enough.

My pallid Tarte Tatin — a failure of caramel-making-skills, probably

The tart unmolded nicely, but where was the caramel? It all disappeared into the apples rather than enrobing them in burnished goodness. I saved it (ish) by making a Caramel-Cognac sauce from Chez Panisse Desserts and pouring it over the whole thing. Not terribly Tatin-esque, but passable topped with a dollop of crème fraîche.

No matter, I would still purchase Baking with Dorie a hundred times over, and will certainly give it as a gift to cooks and bakers I love. There are so many things in it I still want to make, and the Gouda Gougères, Apricot and Pistachio Cake and World Peace Cookies 2.0 that will forever figure in my repertoire.

Still Wanna Make: Lemon Meringue Layer Cake; Copenhagen Rye Cookies with Chocolate, Spice and Seeds; Pistachio-Matcha Financiers; Chocolate Eclairs; Mulled-Butter Apple Pie (more my speed and skill level?!); My Favorite Pumpkin Pie (that one will be soon!); Parisian Custard Tart; Candied Almond Tart; Asparagus-Lemon Quiche. And still more besides!

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I do.

Buy Baking with Dorie from Bookshop

Buy Baking with Dorie from Amazon

RECIPE: Apricot and Pistachio Olive-Oil Cake

RECIPE: Dorie Greenspan’s Gouda Gougères

RECIPE: World Peace Cookies 2.0

Cooks Without Borders hit the road to spotlight chefs and entrepreneurs doing fabulous things with heirloom maíz

Heirloom masa treats from For All Things Good in Brooklyn, New York (clockwise from top left): tlacoyo filled with pinto beans and salsa macha, topped with avocado, salsa verde and queso fresco; mezcal-mushroom tlayudita with black beans, Oaxaca cheese; tetelas fiilled with black bean & epazote; Chihuahua cheese & salsa verde; hibiscus flower & salsa chipotle; tlayudita with black beans, avocado, salsa macha and fried shallots

By Leslie Brenner

Here at Cooks Without Borders, we’ve been fairly obsessed with heirloom maíz since early last spring, when we hosted Masienda founder Jorge Gaviria and Dallas chef Olivia Lopez for a Makers, Shakers & Mavens talk about the next-wave masa movement (you can watch it here!).

Not long after that, we hit the road for Bon Appétit magazine — traveling from Dallas to Houston and to Brooklyn, New York, to visit a couple of new businesses (one a pop-up, the other a restaurant/cafe), centered around heirloom masa.

At long last, the story — “Here’s Why You’re Seeing More Masa on Restaurant Menus” — is published.

Matt Diaz (left) and Carlos Macías, owners of For All Things Good in Brooklyn, NY

We thought you might like to see some of the people who (in addition to Gaviria) have been important in pushing the movement forward, and the food they serve. (Head to our our Instagram feed to find more.)

Deliciousness from Tatemó in Houston (clockwise from top): a cheese-filled tetela; sope filled with chorizo and potato, topped with avocado and sea salt; infladita filled with cucumber pico and finished with uni, avocado crema and serrano chile. This is one course of Tatemó’s tasting menu.

Megan Maul and chef Emmanuel Chavez own Tatemó in Houston.

Olivia Lopez’s pineapple tamales. Lopez is founder of Molino Olōyō in Dallas, Texas.

Chef Olivia Lopez, founder of Molino Olōyō in Dallas, Texas

If you live in Houston, Dallas, New York City or the San Francisco Bay Area (home of Emmanuel Galvan’s Bolita Masa, which, alas, we did not get to visit personally), you can taste-experience the molinos spotlighted in the story.

If you’re not lucky enough to live near a next-wave molino (there are many others mentioned in the story!), you can still be part of the movement: Masienda makes heirloom masa harina that’s super easy to work with. It’s the next-best thing to masa ground from fresh nixtamal.

Interested? Here’s a story to get you started:

Read: “The Masa Life: How heirloom masa harina and a new (old!) world of beans can transform every day eating”

And here’s a recipe for a tlayudita inspired by one I loved at For All Things Good.

RECIPE: Avocado Tlayudita with Salsa Macha

Watch this space — or sign up for our free newsletter — there’s lots more coming!

Find more Mexican recipes at Cooks Without Borders.

This glorious plum-and-blackberry buckwheat tart is way easier than pie

By Leslie Brenner

Lazy bakers, this one’s for you.

If you know anything about galettes, you know that the free-form pastries are super-forgiving, nearly foolproof. Hard to imagine, then, that the enticing tart shown in the photo above is actually (ahem!) a failed galette.

Here’s how it came to be. (I promise to make the story snappy and get right to the super-easy recipe.) On a recent trip to France, my husband Thierry and I lucked into a kilometers-long stretch of wild blackberry vines. After picking our way into purple-fingered, mûre sauvage happiness — with about a kilo of wild blackberries as our prize — I thought, time to bake a galette. I was looking for ease, didn’t want to make a pastry cream, and didn’t have a tart pan (or a rolling pin, or measuring tools, or a full-size oven) in Thierry’s mom’s kitchen.

I reached for Melissa Clark’s excellent New York Times master recipe for Fruit Galette. I had to make the galette oval, not round (to fit in the tiny oven!) but the wild blackberry galette was pretty damn wonderful! In fact, quick and easy as it was, it was one of the best tarts I’d ever made.

Wild blackberry galette

And so, when I returned home to Texas and wanted to make a lazy-person’s dessert featuring summer-into-fall blackberries and plums, I thought — naturally — of a galette.

Thing is, I’m crazy about whole grains and ancient grains, and love to incorporate them in baking projects whenever possible. Buckwheat, I thought, would be particularly nice with those deep early autumn fruit flavors, so half the flour would be buckwheat flour (and the rest all-purpose flour). I’d cut back the sugar and cornstarch — as I did with the wild berry galette — expecting success.

But when I tried rolling out the dough, it refused to hold together.

Aha!, I thought. Buckwheat does not have gluten, so the dough is not elastic enough to roll, even after resting an hour.

I pivoted, grabbed a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, and pressed the dough into it: a perfect fit. Much easier than pie. (Anyone with fear of crust-rolling should be delighted!)

I chose not to blind-bake the crust, and didn’t give the dough time to rest after pressing it into the pan: This is truly a lazy baker’s tart. No need to peel any fruit, nor meticulously arrange carefully cut fruit into concentric circles. Just cut the plums in eighths (removing the pits), toss them with blackberries, sugar, cornstarch and a pinch of salt, dump the mixture into the crust, scatter sliced almonds on top (no need to toast first), and bake. It’s that simple.

And it was amazingly good. I’ll be baking this baby again and again. (Can’t wait, in fact!) The buckwheat flavor was right on; the crust was tender and flaky; the almonds were lovely with the the fruit, whose flavors concentrated gorgeously.

Want to try? Here’s the recipe.

Happy autumn!

Cooks Without Borders to host a (free!) 'Wine Style' book party with award-winning cookbook author Kate Leahy

Award-winning cookbook author Kate Leahy, with her new book ‘Wine Style’ / Photo by Patrick Kim

By Leslie Brenner

Do you love wine, and wish you knew just a bit more about it — for instance, what’s up with orange wines and natural wines, how to appreciate them, what to serve with them and how to find worthwhile bottlings? Are you a comfortable and confident cook who would love some new recipes that are great for laid-back, easy entertaining — from one of the country’s most interesting and accomplished cookbook authors?

If so, you’ll want to join us — next week, on the first day of autumn — for the next Cooks Without Borders Makers, Shakers & Mavens event: Wine Style Book Party with Kate Leahy.

An outstanding cook with a great palate, as well as a wonderful writer, Leahy has been the co-author of a number of cookbooks we love, including A-16 Food + Wine (which won the IACP Cookbook of the Year award and the Julia Child First Book award following its publication in 2008); Burma Superstar (2017); Lavash (2019) and La Buvette (which we reviewed last year when it was published).

Wine Style is her first solo cookbook, which is cause for big-time celebration. We reviewed it shortly after it was published in late July.

[Read the review: “Kate Leahy’s ‘Wine Style’ is a delicious solo debut from a seasoned (and fascinating) cookbook pro”]

Because the event is a book party, there will of course be food and drink! We invite you to whip up a batch of this super-quick and easy recipe for roasted edamame, adapted from Leahy’s book.

Make the edamame just before the event, have on hand a bottle of orange wine, and you’ll be set to party in style with us. Leahy will talk us through the pairing, as well tell us about orange wines, other natural wines, how to think about wines and wine pairings from a cook’s point of view. She’ll also walk us through plenty of recipes for laid-back, wine-centric entertaining — exactly the kind of socially-distanced, often outdoors gatherings we’ll all be drawn to this autumn.

We’ll toast the new book, and a lucky wine-loving cook (who must be registered and online for the live event) will win a copy of Wine Style. (It could be you!!!)

What kind of orange wine should you grab for the party? Any orange wine will do. You can find them in shops specializing in natural wine, other outstanding wine shops, and even in some supermarkets. They are often not identified as orange wines on their labels, though (Leahy will explain why), so unless you know what you’re looking for, you’ll need to ask for help from a knowledgeable merchant. (Meanwhile, here’s a 2020 story about orange wines from The New York Times’ Eric Asimov.) Don’t have time to find one? Grab your favorite crisp white, or even a bottle of sake.

Register for the event through the link below. We look forward to seeing you there!

Cooks Without Borders Makers, Shakers & Mavens: ‘Wine Style’ Book Party with Kate Leahy

Date: Wednesday, Sept. 22
Time: 5 to 6 p.m. Pacific Time; 6 to 7 p.m. Mountain Time; 7 to 8 p.m. Central Time, 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern Time
Format: Live Zoom talk, hosted by Leslie Brenner and Juliet Jacobson, with audience Q&A
Registration: You must register in advance through this link. Limited to 100 participants.

Want to watch past Makers, Shakers & Mavens events? Find them on Cooks Without Borders’ YouTube channel.

For the best (and easiest!) ratatouille, capture the fabulous flavor of late summer by roasting those vegetables

By Leslie Brenner

Ratatouille — the famous French stew of zucchini, eggplant, peppers and tomatoes — always sounds so much better than it winds up tasting. It took an actual trip to France for me to discover how to make one that’s actually pretty fabulous.

One evening on my recent sojourn there, I needed to make dinner for my French in-laws, whose gastronomic leanings present a challenge. Belle-mère and beau-père, my parents-in-law, require old-fashioned food (yes, French —what else is there?), while belle-soeur, my sister-in-law, is vegan. My husband Thierry and I? We just want something good.

Thierry had the answer: ratatouille.

Visions of courgettes and aubergines (so much more beguiling than zucchini and eggplants!) danced in my head, which I lost for a moment, conjuring next an image of a gorgeous dish of perfectly cooked late-summer deep greens and reds and golds.

And then a panic-pause as reality set in: Come to think of it, I’d never had a ratatouille I’ve loved — including, but not limited to the ones produced in my own kitchen. Liked OK, yes. Loved, certainly not. The result, achieved on the stovetop and not terribly fun to make, is usually kind of watery, tomatoey and monotonous, with pillows of eggplant that skew either spongy or sodden.

Not seeing an alternative, and after all, it was late summer, I committed to the project and headed to the supermarché — actually, a lovely supermarché bio (organic) that had sprung up in the four years since I’d last visited the small seaside town, not far from Bordeaux. In any case, I’d buy some good crusty bread to sop it up; some great cheese post-ratatouille would probably be the highlight of the meal.

Necessity, I’d forgotten to remember, is the belle-mère of invention. And my belle-mère’s kitchen is not terribly well appointed. Therefore, failing to find a skillet large enough for ratatouille for five, I turned on the oven. I’d roast the eggplant, which might actually be an upgrade from cooking in a pan. (It was!) While I was at it, I’d roast a red bell pepper, and half of the zucchini, thereby saving room in the skillet. Why did I not roast all the zucchini? Because the oven was too tiny. (Go ahead and mentally insert that forehead-slap emoji.)

Onto the stove’s electric heat went the medium skillet, then a glug of olive oil, into which I pressed, once it was hot, the remaining zucchini. I seared those rounds nice and golden-brown, so they’d maybe keep their integrity and some texture (they did!), then set them aside. Next I sweated diced onion, adding garlic, which I’d minced with a paring knife sharp as a spoon. Ding! The eggplant was roasted. (No, I didn’t use a timer, but felt this story could use a sound effect.) A fork poked into the thick rounds found little resistance, so out it came — and hey, turned out the red bell pepper and those darling courgettes were done, too. While the onion softened, I cubed the soft eggplant (not a problem with the spoon-knife!), peeled and cut up the pepper.

Now the pressure was on: The table was set, the entrées (first courses in France) were in place. I don’t even remember what the entrée was, so focused was I on the plat. Maybe the starter was saucisson, a crowd favorite for all but my belle-soeur. The clock was ticking perilously close to 8:00. I felt grateful that my 95-year-old parents-in-law were an ocean apart from the early-bird proclivities of America’s seniors.

Into the pan went the aubergine, along with the courgettes (roasted and pan-seared) and peppers for a brief hot mingle together, and then a couple cut-up tomatoes. I tasted and seasoned, and wow — that ratatouille was pretty damn good! I sent it to the table decorated with torn basil.

The verdict? They loved it.

You might be saying, of course they said they loved it. They’re your family-in-law. But it was ratatouille: It’s never that good.

It was very good. Nicer than any I’d probably ever had, with better texture and deeper flavor: Late summer concentrated in a luscious, light, saucy, tasty, vegan, traditional French dish.

Ten days later, I was back home, and Thierry — who remained in France for a bit — texted me that he wanted the recipe. (Thierry, who doesn’t even cook!) I wrote him out a recipe. He cooked it. He loved it again, and texted photos — also something he never does with food.

Craving it suddenly (how weird!), I made it again — at home, in my own kitchen, with sharp knives and full-size oven, and weights and measures for recipe building. Also a practical tweak or two, such as all the zucchini gets roasted, along with the garlic. The resulting method is simplicity itself. Everything roasts for the same length of time, and altogether it’s quicker, easier and less fussy than the traditional way. And yes, more delicious.

Traditionalists may scoff. To them I say: dudes. Try this. A hundred euros says you’ll never go back.

RECIPE: Roasted Ratatouille

Flavors of summer: 10 favorite (produce-forward!) recipes bursting with exuberant tastes and scents

By Leslie Brenner

In our kitchen (and outside on the grill), late summer cooking stars big, bold, ripe flavors that express warmth and sunshine. The dishes we’re in love with this season are about simplicity and ease, and — whether or not they’re vegan or vegetarian (not all are) — letting the naturally exuberant personalities of vegetables and herbs take center stage.

Here are the 10 recipes that deliciously express the moment:

Olivia Lopez’s Aguachile, Colima-style

If you’re dreaming of a Mexican beach vacation but not quite ready to hop on a plane, this marvelous recipe from Molino Olōyō chef-owner (and Cooks Without Borders Mexican cuisine expert) Olivia Lopez will get you there lickety-split. Add coconut water (served in its shell), beer or tequila on the rocks for the complete effect.

RECIPE: Olivia Lopez’s Aguachile, Colima-Style

A Perfect Salmorejo

Thicker and more velvety than gazpacho Sevillano, salmorejo is traditionally garnished with serrano ham and hard-boiled-egg. It’s a dreamy way to feature peak-season tomatoes. This one’s adapted from a recipe from super-chef José Andrés.

RECIPE: A Perfect Salmorejo

Eggplants roasting directly on coals in a Weber grill

Baba Ganoush

Set directly on live coals outside on the grill, eggplants roast until melty then combine with tahini, garlic, lemon (and sometimes cumin) to become the luscious, smoky treat sometimes called “burnt eggplant” dip. (Achieving the effect in a broiler gets you pretty close, though it won’t be as smoky.) Make it the center of a summery mezze spread of cool apps and salads.

RECIPE: Baba Ganoush

Ottolenghi’s Stuffed Zucchini with Pine Nut Salsa

Stupendous either as a vegetable-forward main course or a super-jazzy side, this dazzling dish from Ottolenghi Simple eats like a special event, which is why we keep returning to it again and again. Zucchini boats are filled with a mixture of zucchini flesh, ripe cherry tomatoes, fresh oregano, grated parm and bread crumbs, and topped with a salsa of toasted pine nuts, oregano and lemon. It has been the most popular recipe at Cooks Without Borders this summer.

RECIPE: Ottolenghi’s Stuffed Zucchini with Pine Nut Salsa

Charred Okra with a Little Spice

Here’s an okra dish for people who think they don’t like okra! The secret: Charring it does away with the slimy thing. It’s so simple you don’t even need a recipe (though we’ll give you one, of course!). Heat a grill (outdoor or stove-top), slice okra in half vertically, toss in a bowl with a little olive oil and salt, grill on each side till lightly charred, then toss with a touch of sambal oelek or other chile sauce. We wrote about it late last summer, in a story about the meaning of okra.

RECIPE: Charred Okra with a Little Spice

Salade Niçoise

Whether for a festive Sunday lunch or a refreshing, light weeknight dinner, the south of France’s iconic salad is a favorite all tomato-season long. Use the best olive-oil-packed tuna you can find — but it’s even lovely with inexpensive skipjack packed in water. Pro tip: pronounce the S at the end of niçoise — it sounds like a Z: nee-swazz.

RECIPE: Salade Niçoise

Adán Medrano’s Camerón con Fideos de Calabacita (Shrimp with Squash Noodles)

We fell in love with this recipe, an example of Texas Mexican comida casera, when we wrote about Adán Medrano, a chef, filmmaker and scholar who produced and directed “Truly Texas Mexican.” The recipe is adapted from his 2014 book, Don’t Count the Tortillas: The Art of Texas Mexican Cooking. The recipes call for calabacitas — the summer squash that look like streaky, chubby zucchini — but regular zucchini work fine as well.

RECIPE: Adán Medrano’s Camerón con Fideos de Calabacita

Rosa de la Garza’s Texas Chicken

In a similar flavor-vein as the shrimp with calabacitas is Rosa de la Garza’s Texas Chicken, one of our all-time favorite summer chicken dishes. It’s a dish I grew up with, and my mom always served it with rice, but corn tortillas would be great with it, too.

RECIPE: Rosa de la Garza’s Texas Chicken

Nectarine Sorbet

Super-easy to make, the recipe for this sorbet captures the gorgeous flavors of ripe nectarines. It’s adapted from The Perfect Scoop by one of our favorite cookbook authors, David Lebovitz, who suggest serving it in wine glasses, and passing around red wine to pour over it. We agree wholeheartedly!

RECIPE: Nectarine Sorbet

Showstopper Rolled Pavlova with Peaches and Blackberries

This one’s a little more work to achieve, but as baked desserts go, it’s pretty easy — and it so beautifully features summer fruit that we had to include it. Adapted from Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh, the pavlova’s made with egg whites — good to know if you’re also making a custard-based ice cream, like Strawberry-Mezcal or Gianduja-Straciatella. Do try it when you want to make a dramatic impression!

RECIPE: Showstopper Rolled Pavlova with Peaches and Blackberries

Kate Leahy's 'Wine Style' is a delicious solo debut from a seasoned (and fascinating) cookbook pro

By Leslie Brenner

Wine Style: Discover the wines you will love through 50 simple recipes, by Kate Leahy, Photographs by Erin Scott, 2021, Ten Speed Press, $22.

Her name may not ring a bell — yet, anyway — but Kate Leahy is one of the most interesting cookbook authors around.

Leading up to the publication last week of her first solo cookbook, Wine Style, her publishing career had been one of collaboration; she’d been a co-author, working with chefs, restaurateurs and others on 10 wide-ranging titles over the past 13 years. Her first effort — A16 Food + Wine — won the IACP Cookbook of the Year award and the Julia Child First Book award following its publication in 2008. A16 is a captivating romp through the wines and foods of Southern Italy as expressed in Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren’s beloved San Fransisco restaurant of the same name.

If you could spend some time with that first book, along with Leahy’s most recent ones — Burma Superstar (2017), Lavash (2019) and La Buvette (which we reviewed last year when it was published) — you might sense a delightful sensibility running through all — Leahy’s it would seem, as she’s the common denominator. Those books all have an underlying intelligence, grace in the writing and overarching deliciousness. Each expresses a passion for deeply exploring culinary cultures, including the people who uphold the traditions, the places from which the traditions spring.

Leahy is at once an expressive, talented writer and an outstanding, accomplished cook with a great palate — an unusual combination. Dig into her background a bit and you begin to understand: She began her career as a cook, and worked on the line at James Beard Award-winning restaurants including A16 (aha!), Terra in the Napa Valley and Radius in Boston. Later, she went to journalism school — at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Author Kate Leahy / Photograph by John Lee

Her projects beautifully and compellingly capture worlds, whether it’s Armenia and its diaspora (Lavash); the cult of laphet — edible fermented Assam tea leaves as practiced in the border regions around Myanmar, China and Thailand (Burma Superstar); or a cave à manger (a wine bar where you can eat) in Paris’ branché 11th Arrondissement (La Buvette). If you want to get an idea of the sensibility at work, check out 1000 Meals, the video series Leahy produces with John Lee, a wonderful photographer and videographer who’s Leahy’s frequent collaborator.

‘Wine Style’ Marinated Mushrooms

Because there’s such depth and expansiveness in Leahy’s work, I was eager to dive into Wine Style, her first book as a solo author.

Quickly and irrevocably, I was hooked. Wine Style is chock full of smart, enticing recipes that not only pair well with your favorite reds, whites, and oranges, but are easy and delicious enough that they’re sure to become perennial favorites — dishes you’ll constantly be tossing together when friends are unexpectedly stopping by, when you’re heading to a picnic, hosting book club, or even on harried weeknights when you want an effortless yet satisfying dinner.

The first recipe I tried, a ridiculously simple dish of garlicky marinated mushrooms that cooks in a snap, was so good I made it twice more in a matter of days.

RECIPE: ‘Wine Style’ Marinated Mushrooms

What to drink with that? Leahy suggests an earthy red — a Nebbiolo from Alto Piemonte or a mellow, traditional Rioja. Right she is; a Cune Rioja Crianza I’ve been been picking up for less than $15 was perfect.

Pretension is not part of Wine Style’s picture. “Most of the wines I seek out fall into the ‘charming and affordable’ camp,” Leahy writes in her introduction, “the kind of wines that make people smile without taking over the conversation.” These are the wines she and her friends bring when they gather every month for “Porch Time” — laid-back potluck dinners pulled together from unfussy recipes, often to be served room-temp (or backyard temp, as the case may be; none of them actually have porches).

And it’s in the spirit of Porch Time that she has created and pulled together the recipes that make up the book.

Types of wine (“wine styles”) serve as the organizing principle for those recipes: There are chapters on bubbles, whites (“crisp” or “rich”), orange wines, rosés, on through reds characteized as “picnic,” “reasonably serious” or “big” and finishing with sweet wines.

Leahy suggests pairings without getting hung up on them. The brief opening chapter, Wine Basics, is one of the best things I’ve read for beginners, or for food people who want to learn more about wine. I love that she focuses on texture and acidity — a welcome departure from the puffed-up lists of aromas that have infected wine writing for decades. Leahy provides an excellent section on natural wines, explaining the low-intervention winemaking philosophy (using sourdough as an analogy) and how it’s expressed in the glass.

Kate Leahy’s Harissa Deviled Eggs, from ‘Wine Style’

And so, for Harissa Deviled Eggs — an idea I couldn’t resist — eggs’ propensity to coat the tongue propensity has Leahy reaching for scrubbing bubbles. Bingo! Prosecco was just the thing. And again, super simple; you don’t even really need a recipe if you can remember a third-cup of mayo, a tablespoon of harissa, a splash of lemon juice and half a dozen eggs. OK, here’s the recipe anyway:

RECIPE: Harissa Deviled Eggs

Another winning pairing: Poached salmon set on a charmingly disheveled fennel-celery salad, with caper mayo — sipped with Provençal rosé. I love the play of the fennel and celery, so similar in texture and different in flavor; I’d never thought of putting them together before, and it totally worked. Next time I’ll try it with Leahy’s other pairing idea: unoaked Chardonnay.

RECIPE: Poached Salmon with Fennel-Celery Salad and Caper Mayo

Freestyling with the recipes

I haven’t always managed to conjure Leahy’s suggested pairings; sometimes a dish sounded good, and I just went for it, wine or no.

Roasted edamame spoke to me: It’s something you can whip out on demand if you keep bags of it in the freezer and own a jar of furikake, the nori-and-sesame seasoning mix. Slightly defrost a bag of frozen shelled edamame, toss with olive oil and soy sauce, roast for 20 or 30 minutes, then toss with the furikake. For this, I pulled out a bottle of sake (which I had on hand) rather than orange wine (which I didn’t). Really good. (It’s also fabulous made with edamame still in their pods.)

Recently I was in Massachussetts visiting Cooks Without Borders’ design director, Juliet Jacobson, who put together Wine Style’s Beet and Potato Salad with Tarragon — another winner. We both loved the unlikely combo of the tarragon with dill pickles, though maybe if a reprint is ever in the works Leahy might consider adding a weight measurement for the pickles; “2 large or 3 small dill pickles” led to confusion. Were the pickles in our jar large? Medium? Who’s to say? We probably guessed wrong, as we wished it were a wee bit more pickle-y.

Juliet had also made Leahy’s Chocolate Olive Cake — which we’ll both be making again (and soon!). Made with almond flour, it gets moistness and fruitiness from the inclusion of prunes — and the combo of nuts and dried fruit certainly sounds fabulous with the Banyuls rouge or port Leahy suggests.

Wine or no wine, all those recipes are keepers — and Erin Scott’s engaging photos capture the dishes deliciously.

And there’s so much else that entices. Green Olive Tapenade and Baked Feta with Olives and Lemon both sound fabulous to smear on crusty bread. Ginger Chicken Salad, inspired by the Burmese salads Leahy fell in love with writing Burmese Superstar, looks enticing, as does oil-packed Tuna with Potatoes, Olives and Lemons. Leahy calls A Really Good Pasta Salad “handy for lunch, picnics, and dinners on hot nights.” It’s a match, she writes, for richer orange wines, “though no one would complain if you poured them a glass of lightly chilled Gamay instead.” Baked Peaches with Coconut and Sliced Almonds, which sounds terrific on its own or with its suggested Moscato d’Asti or dry or demi-sec Prosecco.

Italian Sausages with Roasted Cauliflower and Greens, from ‘Wine Style’ by Kate Leahy

Because autumn will be here before we know it, I thought I’d leave you with a recipe I’ll certainly be making again as the weather cools: Italian Sausages with Roasted Cauliflower and Greens. Made on a sheet pan, it’s just the kind of effortless yet delicious one-dish dinner I’m always looking for. Red onion and capers roasted with the cauliflower and sausages, along with a squeeze of lemon at the end, give it just the right zing.

And the wine? Leahy assures us there’s no short of reds that go with it, “but those with sunny dispositions, like Argentine Malbec or the Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre blends of the southern Rhône Valley, have a juicy quality that matches well with the sweetness of the caramelized cauliflower and sausages.” Indeed they do! And those sunny dispositions are always welcome — any time of year.

Wine Style: Discover the wines you will love through 50 simple recipes, by Kate Leahy, Photographs by Erin Scott, 2021, Ten Speed Press, $22.

RECIPE: Italian Sausages with Roasted Cauliflower and Greens

RECIPE: Poached Salmon with Fennel-Celery Salad and Caper Mayo

RECIPE: Harissa Deviled Eggs

RECIPE: ‘Wine Style’ Marinated Mushrooms

Make this showstopper summer dessert: Rolled Pavlova with Peaches and Blackberries, from Ottolenghi's 'Sweet'

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.

RECIPE: Showstopper Rolled Pavlova with Peaches and Blackberries

Recipe from Sweet: Sweet: Desserts from London’s Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh, with an assist from our friend Tara Wigley.

The masa life: How heirloom masa harina and a new (old!) world of beans can transform everyday eating

A tlacoyo filled with beans and cheese and topped with avocado, salsa macha and queso fresco

By Leslie Brenner

[Editor’s note: This is first in a series of Cooks Without Borders stories (with recipes) about how to live the masa life. Find all The Masa Life articles here.]

Heirloom-corn masa + great beans = a new way to eat

In the old days, the before days, tuna salad sandwiches were the default lunch in our household at least twice a week. Maybe thrice. 

Now we’re living the masa life — routinely making masa from masa harina (which takes all of about three minutes), pressing tortillas for tacos or tlayudas, folding tetelas or patting tlacoyos. These endlessly variable masa manifestations often become the vehicles for scratch refried beans, which have become a household staple. With simple enhancements like sliced avocado, a drizzle of always-in-the-fridge salsa macha, fresh herbs or a crumble of cheese, their simple pleasures are insanely satisfying. Add leftover roast chicken, salad greens, easy-to-make pico de gallo or salsa verde, grilled meats or fish or braised anything into the equation, and the delicious possibilities are infinite. We can also easily keep them plant-based, if that’s our desired vibe.

The life-change hasn’t come because I just learned how to make masa from masa harina (flour made from masa, the corn dough used to make all these shapes); I’ve been doing that for most of my life. It came because CWB’s resident Mexican cooking expert, Olivia Lopez, introduced me to two life-changing things: superior masa harina and a new way to think about beans. 

We’ve already written about the bean part of the equation.

[Read: “Bring on the bayos: Showing some love for Mexico’s creamy, dreamy other bean — and its kissin’ cousin mayocoba”]

Now let’s dive into the maíz (corn) side.

Masa harina gets an upgrade

Tortillas made from Masienda masa harina

Although the handmade tortillas I used to make were much better than the corn tortillas I could buy in a supermarket, the mass-produced masa harina I was able to buy did not have much character, and I knew most of it was likely to involve genetically modified corn, which I was not happy to purchase or consume. 

A fabulous new product on the market turns that equation on its head: masa harina made from heirloom corn from Mexico. Sourced from small farms, the non-GMO, landrace maíz is nixtamalized, milled and turned into masa harina by Masienda, a Los Angeles-based purveyor that supplies forward-looking chefs (including Olivia) from coast to coast. Get yourself a bag (it’s readily available online), stir in water, knead for a moment, and you’ve got shockingly good masa: the building block for all those shapes, and many others. 

 [Read “Next-wave masa: A forward-looking purveyor and passionate chefs bring heirloom corn from Mexico to their tables and yours”]

Red, white and blue non-GMO heirloom corn masa harina from Masienda

I’m not the only one who considers this new heirloom masa harina to be a game-changer for home cooks. Gonzalo Gout, one of the four authors (including super-chef Enrique Olvera) of the superb 2019 book Tu Casa Mi Casa: Mexican Recipes for the Home Cook, seems equally excited.  

Because many of the recipes in Tu Casa Mi Casa are heavily reliant on masa, and the book was published just before the Masienda masa harina came on the market, I wondered if Gout would have seen its appearance as a game-changer, and what he thought of the product.

In an email, Gout — who along with his co-authors is involved in a number of the world’s most outstanding Mexican restaurants (including Pujol, Ticuchi and Eno (Mexico City), Criollo (Oaxaca), Cosme and ATLA (New York City), Damian (Los Angeles)  — told me: 

 “We definitely cook with Masienda’s masa harina. I use it at home! Although we make all the fresh masa in-house at the restaurants because we are privileged enough to have a molino, we use the masa harina in dessert tuiles, in batters — like the fried fish taco at Damian — or to quickly dry up some overly wet masa. I mentioned it briefly in the book, but I genuinely believe that the problem with masa harina is not necessarily the process but the quality of corn behind it. Masienda solves that problem. For a home cook without access to a molino, making fresh tortillas from a good quality masa harina is far superior to buying industrial tortillas. Few things beat a fresh tortilla, and a good masa harina gets you pretty close to perfect.”

Blue corn tetelas topped with roasted salsa verde, crema and salsa macha

That’s so true, and the possibilities heirloom corn masa harina opens up for making tacos and tamales — and a whole bunch of other masa shapes — at home are cause for celebration: 

• Homemade tortillas have a life beyond tacos: Dry them out in the oven or on the comal until they’re crisp, and they become tostadas — a base for ceviches or salad-y assemblages.

• Triangular tetelas are not-yet-cooked tortillas folded around a filling (often beans and cheese) then griddled on both sides. Simple and delicious, you can dress them up with salsas — or not.

• Tlacoyos are eye-shaped masa patted or pressed a bit thicker than a tortilla and folded up along the middle also to enclose fillings. Flattened out before griddling, these make wonderful canvases for toppings like avocados or grilled sliced meats. If you make them in advance (including the griddling part), you can reheat them by pan-frying them, which makes the bottom wonderfully crispy.  

• Small, round masa cakes known as sopes are easy to form (no tortilla press necessary) and super versatile. A ridge around their edge holds fillings (beans, meats, cheese, salsas, etc.) in place.

• My current obsession is the tlayuda, or rather a mini-version, a tlayudita. In its home in Oaxaca, a tlayuda is a pizza-sized corn tortilla griddled till it’s crispy-chewy, then spread with refried black beans while it’s still on the comal. Once off, it’s topped with meats, cheese, sliced tomato or radishes, or whatever you like. 

Avocado Tlayudita with Salsa Macha, inspired by a tlayudita at For All Things Good in Brooklyn, NY

The tlayudita: a deliciously chewy-crunchy little canvas

In coming stories, we’ll individually explore each of the above. For today, let’s talk more about the tlayuda/tlayudita. As long as you have a tortilla press, it’s easy to achieve and allows for endless improvisation with the toppings — much like a pizza.

Do a Google image search of “tlayudas in Oaxaca” and you get an instant sense of how they’re eaten and riffed on there: On top of the beans go any combination of cheese (often quesillo, Oaxacan string cheese), sliced tomatoes, crumbled chorizo or other meats, avocados. No doubt you’ll have your own ideas.

To make a legit tlayuda, you’d need a tlayuda press, which is like an oversized tortilla press — it’s a piece of equipment most of us home cooks do not own. (Though you could buy one if you’re deep-pocketed and dedicated to making full-sized tlayudas.) I’m sure it would be heresy to say this in Oaxaca, but I think a mini-version is just as nice — and you can use your regular tortilla press to make them.

Lately I’ve been loving a really simple tlayudita. Rather than black beans, I usually make refried mayocoba, bayo or mantequilla beans, as they cook much more quickly than frijoles negros. Their creaminess makes them ideal for quickly turning into quick vegan refritos. Just sweat a little chopped white onion and garlic in olive oil, add cooked beans and mash with a potato masher or bean masher, adding in some bean-cooking liquid as needed to get the right consistency. (I also keep cans of refried beans in the pantry for when I don’t have an hour or two to make mayacobas. Not as fabulous to be sure, but for quick lunches or weeknight dinners, I occasionally go that route.) 

On top of that I arrange slices of avocado (a squeeze of lime sprinkled over), a drizzle of salsa macha, a few cilantro leaves. Inspired by a tlayudita I enjoyed at a wonderful cafe and masa shop in Brooklyn, For All Things Good, it makes a fabulous vegan lunch. 

RECIPE: Avocado Tlayudita with Salsa Macha

Tlayudita with a garden vibe

Chicken Salad Tlayudita

My personal riffing often takes me more salady. I’ve become addicted to a version that’s like a cross between a tlayuda and a chicken tostada — a crispy-chewy tlayuda base spread with refried beans while it’s still on the comal, topped with a handful of tender salad greens, diced avocado, shredded chicken, cilantro, pico de gallo and a crumble of queso fresco. Even thinking about it puts me in a good mood. 

RECIPE: Chicken Salad Tlayudita

Provisioning the masa life

Ready to start exploring the masa life by diving into tlayuditas? Get yourself some heirloom corn masa harina and (if you don’t already have one) a tortilla press. (Olivia has the one Masienda sells; it’s on my wish-list. We’re featuring that press in the Cooks Without Borders Cookshop, where you can also find an inexpensive starter model, the Masienda masa harina, and other cool tools and ingredients.) To cook the tlayuda base, a comal is great, but any griddle or cast-iron pan also works fine.

Then consider ingredients. If you fall in love with the masa life as quickly and irrevocably as we have, you’ll start stocking your pantry and fridge accordingly. Here’s what I try to keep on hand: 

• Dried beans — any or all of the following: mayocobas, bayos, mantequillas, frijoles negros, pintos (note that frijoles negros and pintos take longer to cook than the first three). I prefer to buy heirloom varieties of any of the above (Ranch Gordo is our favorite source), but even using supermarket beans is pretty great. If you cook up a big pot, you can have beans to quickly turn into refritos for the whole week.

• A salsa or three: salsa macha, roasted salsa verde, salsa roja. I like to make my own salsa macha and roasted salsa verde, but you can also purchase them.

• White onions, limes, serrano or jalapeño chiles, ripe tomatoes, cilantro, avocado, garlic, salt. Chop one ripe tomato with onion, serrano, cilantro and salt and you’ve got a fabulous pico de gallo. Avocados can be sliced or turned into guacamole or avocado purée, all great tlayudita toppings.

• Salad greens for making my salady spin: spring greens, romaine (for shredding) or baby arugula.

• A cheese or two. Queso fresco, quesillo and cotija are my masa-life faves; I find the best of those at a supermarket specializing in Mexican products. Confession: Mexican-style cheese blends usually lives in my fridge for when I run out of the first three. (Queso fresco doesn’t stay fresh very long.)

Here are some things I like to have on hand as well, but don’t find as essential:

• Crema (Mexican-style sour cream) or American-style sour cream — these can be super nice to squiggle on for added richness.

• Cooked chicken — I often pick up a supermarket roast chicken when I feel tlayuditas coming on. One breast is more than enough for two generous Chicken Salad Tlayuditas, and the rest of the chicken can be used for tacos. Or make an easy roast bird.

• Dried avocado leaves or fresh epazote: One or the other is excellent for flavoring home-cooked dried beans.

• Tomatillos — in case I want to blitz up a quick, fresh salsa verde in the blender. 

• Canned refried black or pinto beans — I buy organic ones. For when a tlayudita craving hits and I don’t have time to make dried beans.

• A jar of store-bought salsa — for emergencies!

 Got it? We can’t wait for you dive in. And we’re happy to answer any questions — about ingredients, techniques, equipment or whatever. Drop us a note in comments below. And look for the next installment of The Masa Life!

RECIPE: Avocado Tlayudita with Salsa Macha

RECIPE: Chicken Salad Tlayudita

READ: “How to make tetelas — those tasty, triangular masa packets that are about to become super trendy.”

Cookbooks We Love: David Lebovitz's 'The Perfect Scoop' is the only ice cream book you'll ever need

Our photo of ‘The Perfect Scoop’ shows the 2007 first-edition paperback, but our review refers to the 2018 updated and revised edition.

By Leslie Brenner

The Perfect Scoop: 200 Recipes for Ice Creams, Sorbets, Gelatos, Granitas and Sweet Accompaniments (revised and updated), by David Lebovitz, photographs by Ed Anderson, 2018, Ten Speed Press, $24.99

Backgrounder: Paris-based former Chez Panisse pastry chef David Lebovitz has a wonderful blog and website (which you should be following if you love sweets or French cooking); we always refer to his section on Paris restaurants when we find ourselves in the City of Lights. He is the author of many excellent books, including Drinking French, Ready for Dessert, My Sweet Life in Paris and others (he has published nine in total), and The Perfect Scoop is our favorite of them all. Originally published in 2007, Lebovitz revised and updated it in 2018, adding a dozen new recipes, and it is that edition that’s the basis of this review and the recipes we’ve adapted.

Why We Love it: Lebovitz is the undisputed king of ice cream, and we’ve been making his frozen desserts since way back when the book was first published. The recipes always work perfectly as written, but they’re eminently riffable, and even provide such a strong foundation that if you’re a confident cook, you can probably start creating your own recipes. Besides chapters on the frozen desserts themselves, there are also chapters on Sauces and Toppings (Classic Hot Fudge, Cajeta, Candied Red Beans), Mix-Ins (Butter Pecans, Peppermint Patties) and “Vessels” (Ice Cream Cones, Crêpes, Profiteroles, Brownies).

We’ve made or tasted probably at least a dozen frozen desserts in the book, which besides ice cream, also includes gelatos, sorbets, sherbets and sorbettos, frozen yogurts, ices, granitas and ice pops. Recently, we made up a batch of Lebovitz’s Watermelon Sorbetto, pouring into ice-pop molds and turning it into not-too-sweet watermelon paletas (so good!). His Lavender-Honey Ice Cream is one of our favorites ever; Peach Ice Cream is a Philadelphia-style (no eggs) classic you’ll love all summer long; Cinnamon Ice Cream is classic as well. At Christmastime, Egg Nog Ice Cream is killer, and any time of year, Lemon Sorbet is a terrific version of classic lemon Italian ice. (You’ll have to buy the book to get those recipes, but believe me, you won’t be sorry.)

Gianduja Gelato with Straciatella from ‘The Perfect Scoop’

Recently we fell in love with (and wrote about) the Gianduja (hazelnut-chocolate) Gelato swirled with the Stracciatella (Italian-style chocolate chips) found in the Mix-Ins chapter.

Matcha Ice Cream from ‘The Perfect Scoop’

Lovers of Japanese sweets will adore Lebovitz’s green tea ice cream. Made with matcha and rich with egg yolks, it is quite simply the best we’ve ever tasted.

You’ll have to save for the winter, when mandarins (also known as tangerines) are in season and at their most flavorful, to fully appreciate Lebovitz’s Tangerine Sorbet. But do keep it in mind — with an incredible purity of flavor, it’s one of our all-time favorite winter desserts.

Nectarine Sorbet from ‘The Perfect Scoop’

You’ve Gotta Try This: In Southwest France, where I’ve spent a lot of time over the last three decades, my French in-laws have a delightful custom of slicing a ripe peach into their red wine glasses at the end of dinner. The peaches get macerated, turning them into a glorious, light dessert, so fab with the red wine. A few years ago, I tried to develop a peach ice cream recipe that would replicate those flavors, but never succeeded. Lo and behold Lebovitz’s recipe for Nectarine Sorbet, which he suggests scooping into wine glasses and letting everyone pour in red wine to their taste. Dare I say it’s even better than the real thing!? The sorbet on its own is pretty magnificent — and easy to make, especially as nectarines don’t require peeling.

Nectarine Sorbet is marvelous in a glass of red wine.

Still Wanna Make: Oh, man — where do I start?! Chartreuse Ice Cream is high on the list (will do that soon!), and so are Toasted Almond & Candied Cherry; Aztec Chocolate; Toasted Coconut; Dried-Apricot-Pistachio; and Prune-Armagnac (all ice creams). Among the dairy-free recipes, I feel a batch of Pineapple Sorbet coming on soon. And doesn’t Cucumber-Gin Sorbet sound like fun?

I’m guessing you’re half-way out of your seat and ready to churn; make sure your ice-cream-maker insert is in the freezer.

If You Don’t Yet Have an Ice-cream Maker: Do spring for one — it’s well worth it if you love ice creams and sorbets as much as we do. Our 15+ year-old Cuisinart finally died a month ago, and I bought a new one with a larger capacity — the Cuisinart ICE-70. It’s not inexpensive, at about $139 (at the moment), but I appreciate that it can churn up to 1 1/2 quarts of ice cream. (Note that it is not the 2 quarts its specs suggest; a full review is coming soon!) The New York Times Wirecutter highly recommends the much less pricey Cuisinart ICE-21 (my purchase was also based on a positive Wirecutter review, among others), but at three-quarters capacity, I believe that would cause overflow problems with many recipes, including some of Lebovitz’s.

RECIPE: Gianduja Gelato with Stracciatella

RECIPE: ‘The Perfect Scoop’ Matcha Ice Cream

RECIPE: ‘The Perfect Scoop’ Tangerine Sorbet

RECIPE: Nectarine Sorbet

Recipe for today: Beat the heat with zingy, cool and refreshing Gazpacho Sevillano

By Leslie Brenner

Yipes! The mercury reached 112 degrees in Portland, Oregon yesterday! Let’s hope for quick relief for our friends in the Pacific Northwest.

Until the outdoor thermometer cooperates, delicious relief can be a cool bowl of Gazpacho Sevillano. Down here in hot-as-blazes Texas, it feels like this week opens gazpacho season, as our friends with gardens and farms have been gifting us with gorgeous heirloom tomatoes bursting with flavor. When a windfall like that happens faster than you can gobble up the treasures (or when finally start seeing tasty-looking tomatoes in the markets), it’s the moment to grab some cukes as well, pull out your sherry vinegar and plug in the blender.

Our recipe for the classic Spanish summer refresher is a smooth-as-silk, elegant, purist version; the headnote offers a couple of short-cuts for a quickie version that gratifies instantly and deliciously.

Pro-tip: You don’t even have to wait for it to chill in the fridge — just drop a couple of ice cubes in each bowl and enjoy right away!

RECIPE: Gazpacho Sevillano

Cookbooks We Love: ‘Tu Casa Mi Casa,’ from Enrique Olvera and co., is the Mexican cooking primer you need

By Leslie Brenner

TU CASA MI CASA: MEXICAN RECIPES FOR THE HOME COOK, BY Enrique Olvera, Luis Arellano, Gonzalo Goût and Daniela Soto-Innes, Photographs by Araceli Paz, 2019, Phaidon, $39.95.

Backgrounder

Anyone who’s a fan of contemporary Mexican cooking knows that Enrique Olvera is its most famous chef, with restaurants including Pujol, Ticuchi and Eno (Mexico City), Criollo (Oaxaca), Cosme and ATLA (New York City), Damian (Los Angeles), Manta (Cabo San Lucas) and others. He’s also widely considered to be one of the most outstanding chefs in the world. A counterbalance to his gorgeous 2015 coffee-table chef book, Mexico from the Inside Out (also published by Phaidon), this flexibound book is aimed toward home cooks. Olvera’s coauthors are involved in some of his highest profile restaurants. Luis Arellano was the opening chef at Criollo , and has served as creative director at the flagship, Pujol. Gonzolo Goût, who specializes in researching Mexican food cultures and worked on both books, was opening general manager of Cosme, and is Olvera’s partner at Ticuchi. Daniela Soto-Innes is chef-partner of Cosme and ATLA.

Why we love it

Tu Casa Mi Casa is delightfully approachable and useful, filled with easy, often quickly made recipes that even beginning cooks can make any night of the week. Cooking from it, you have the impression this is how the world’s most accomplished and talented Mexican chefs would put together laid-back dinners at home; it charmingly conveys how people in Mexico really cook and eat at home.

I found three such recipes I love in a chapter called “Weekday Meals.”

I’d been looking for ages for a worthwhile version of tinga de pollo (chicken tinga), usually put off by how seemingly too simple the recipes were. Tu Casa’s headnote explains why: “The first recipe any Mexican will cook as soon as they move out of their parents’ home and live on their own is chicken tinga.”

Made from ingredients you can get at any supermarket, Tu Casa’s version is delicious.

To achieve it, poach a chicken breast in salted water with white onion and garlic, shred the meat, add it to sautéed sliced onion and garlic, along with chipotle chiles chopped to a paste, lots of roughly chopped plum tomatoes and some of the chicken’s poaching liquid, then cook about 10 minutes, till the tomatoes break down. That’s it.

We had it both ways suggested in the headnote: The first night we loved it served on rice with tortillas; Next day for lunch, I cooked down the leftover tinga a bit to thicken it, then used it make chicken tinga tostadas. To make them, I layered corn tortillas dried for an hour in a low (200 degree F.) oven with shredded lettuce, the tinga, crumbled queso fresco, a drizzle of crema and a spoonful of Raw Salsa Verde. I’ll make these again and again.

Chicken tinga tostada with queso fresco, crema and raw salsa verde — what a lunch!

Another weekday recipe — fish fillets wrapped in banana leaves with citrus and herbs then baked — was equally simple, but impressive enough for a dinner party.

Banana-Leaf Fish from ‘Tu Casa Mi Casa’ by Enrique Olvera, Luis Arellano, Gonzalo Goût and Daniela Soto-Innes.

In making the dish, you learn how to make a banana leaf square pliable enough to fold (hold it over an open flame a few seconds till it blushes emerald green), and how to fold it around the fish, herbs and citrus tamal-style. (We give you the step-by-step in our adaptation of the recipe.)

I also enjoyed a simple dish of Calabacitas a la Mexicana — Mexican-style summer squash — that vegans will love.

Its headnote explains that the dish is “one of the most classic expressions” of the mexicana style, which it defines:

“A la Mexicana — a preparation with tomatoes (red), onions (white) and serrano chiles (green) — gets its name from the colors of our flag.”

For more experienced cooks and those who want to dive deeper into the cuisine, Tu Casa Mi Casa is super strong on technique — explaining how to judge when masa is the right consistency for tortillas or tamales; how to season and maintain a clay comal; how to press and cook a tortilla or tlayuda, fold a tetela and shape a tlacoyo. It runs down how to cook beans and explains how make requesón (fresh cheese). It lays out the different types of salsas, gives basic recipes and explains how to use them and riff on them.

The salsa verde, which I used on the chicken tinga tostada, is so simple you don’t need a formal recipe: Put 5 large tomatillos (husked, washed, quartered), a quarter of a large white onion, 1 or 2 seeded serrano chiles, a charred then peeled garlic clove, and half cup of chopped cilantro in a blender or food processor with salt to taste and blitz.

‘Tu Casa Mi Casa’ aguachile, with halibut swapped out for the hamachi

Still wanna make

I loved an aguachile with charred corn and avocado, but couldn’t get the hamachi the recipe called for so used halibut, will try that again with hamachi. High on my list of dishes to try: Cream of Squash Blossom Soup (Sopa de Flor de Calabaza); Cactus Salad (Ensalada de Nopal); Seafood Cocktail (Vuelve a la Vida); Raw Fluke with Salsa Macha; Broccoli Tamales; Chiles Rellenos (those beautiful ones shown on the cover); Barbacoa; Sweet Corn Tamales; Mexican Chocolate Ice Pops (Paletas Heladas de Chocolate); Cashew Horchata. That’s a lot of still-wanna-makes!

One tiny wish, if there’s ever a new edition

Buried on the very last page, in a tiny “recipe note,” is one that says “All chiles should be destemmed, seeded and deveined unless otherwise specified.” Would be much more useful to have that up front.

And I very much hope there is a new edition because it was first published in the spring of 2019, only months before Masienda began selling masa harina made from heirloom corn. Now that this fabulous masa harina is easy to purchase, I’d love to see how the authors — who played an important role in the founding of Masienda — would incorporate the ingredient.

In any case, I can’t recommend this book more highly. It belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in Mexican cooking, whether a dabbling beginner or an experienced chef.

BUY Tu Casa Mi Casa at Bookshop

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RECIPE: Tu Casa Mi Casa Chicken Tinga

RECIPE: Banana-Leaf Fish (Empapelado de Pescado)

RECIPE: Calabacitas a la Mexicana (Mexican-Style Squash)

For a luscious frozen treat this weekend, make Gianduja-Stracciatella (hazelnut-chocolate) Gelato

By Leslie Brenner

Given the unwanted Covid-19 pounds I’m still carrying around (dieting soon, promise!), I have no business making ice cream like it’s going out of style. But recently when I made a batch of fresh Bing Cherry Ice Cream and put it in my ice cream maker, the ancient yet trusty machine chose that moment to die.

I bought a new ice cream maker — a bigger, better version of my beloved Cuisinart machine that had been with me for something like 15 years. (I’ll write about that soon.)

The maker worked perfectly for the cherry ice cream, but then I suddenly had to know whether it also made perfect gelato, as it has a dedicated gelato setting. Although gelato is simply the Italian word for “ice cream,” as David Lebovitz points out in my favorite ice cream book, The Perfect Scoop, it is “usually less sweet than traditional ice cream, and it is very thick and somewhat sticky.” He goes on to explain that its “distinctively dense texture” is the result of very little air being whipped into it.

Lebovitz’s recipe for Gianduja Gelato jumped out at me, as I love classic gelato flavors, and you can’t get much more classic than giandiuja. Pronounced jahn-doo-yah, the Piedmontese hazelnut-chocolate confection (which is sometimes spelled gianduia) is the sweet that inspired Nutella — but it’s a hundred times better, with much purer flavors.

Although traditionally gianduja is made with dark chocolate (along with ground hazelnuts), Lebovitz’s recipe calls for milk chocolate. It sounded wonderful, but I wondered whether the four ounces of milk chocolate would make the gelato as chocolately I hoped it would be.

Then I noticed that the photo in the book showed Gianduja Gelato with an upgrade: stracciatella, or chocolate chips. Made by pouring melted dark chocolate into the gelato just as it’s finishing its churning routine, stracciatella may be one of the most important inventions every to come out of Italy — easily as significant as the radio, the Julian calendar, or confetti. “The flow of chocolate immediately hardens into streaks, which get shredded (stracciato) into ‘chips’ as the ice cream as stirred,” Lebovitz explains.

Yes! I had to have stracciatelli in my hazelnut gelato. And man, oh, man, is it awesome.

I’ve been parsimoniously rationing the gelato, allowing my husband Thierry as much as he’d like, but myself just very small scoop every couple of days. Not much help for my waistline, of course, but it is definitely making our heat wave here in Dallas a wee bit more delightful. In fact, it’s one of the best desserts to come out of my kitchen in a long while.

RECIPE: Gianduja-Straciatella Gelato

Capture Bing cherries' spectacular flavor in a glorious ice cream (sugar cone and bare feet, optional!)

By Leslie Brenner

Bing cherries bursting with flavor. Santa Rosa plums, with their tart-taut skins and juicy-sweet interiors. Blushing ripe peaches whose juice runs down your arm when you bite into them.

These are the things I love most about summer.

Santa Rosa plums don’t show up where I live in Dallas, Texas, but fabulous cherries are easy to find, and I devour them like they’re going out of style. They’re not — in fact, scientists are more excited than ever about their likely health benefits.

Curiously, great cherry desserts are not easy to come by. I love the idea of clafoutis — France’s famous cherry-packed eggy baked thingy — but I’ve never found one I’ve loved. (Got one? Please send it our way in a comment!)

Cherry ice cream always sounds so wonderful, but most of the recipes I find either require candying the fruit or contain much more cream, milk and sugar than fruit. I want cherry ice cream that’s seriously cherry-packed.

This season, I came upon a Serious Eats recipe that sounded seriously wonderful, so I dove in. The recipe does without eggs, to focus the cherry flavor, which sounded wise. Unfortunately, the cherries exploded in the oven after about 35 minutes of roasting with sugar (40 minutes did sound long!), leaving my oven walls caked with the aftermath. I free-styled my way through the rest, loving the idea of steeping the cherry pits in the cream, but not getting why we’d strain the juice and not use the pulp (especially as the recipe noted that it’s delicious to eat as a jam or dessert topping). So I threw it back in. The ice cream was fabulous, with super-intense cherry flavor, but the recipe needed lots of tweaking. Roasting was smart, but I’d roast mine half the time — just long enough to intensify the flavor and make pitting easy.

As I was putting it together, it occurred to me that a little fresh bay leaf flavor could be lovely with the cherries, so I steeped a couple of fresh leaves with the cream. Then, as I was whirring up the cherries, black pepper suggested itself as a complement, so I added that as well. If you want to go more purist, you can certainly skip these; alternatively, you can amp up the pepper a bit, as the amount called for is very subtle.

It’s delicious on its own, but also goes well with thin, crisp almond wafers. What I really want, though, is to scoop some into a sugar cone and lap it up like a kid. Maybe I’ll even take it outside, so I have to eat it before it melts.

Hope you enjoy it.

RECIPE: Bing Cherry Ice Cream

Recipe for Today: A super-light spring vegetable soup for purists — vegan or not!

By Leslie Brenner

Memorial Day has come and gone, which means true summer is just around the corner.

Meanwhile, the delightful produce of spring — asparagus and peas, leeks and tender young carrots, and spring-happy herbs like dill — still taste so right. Before we know it they’ll be yesterday’s news, and we’ll have moved onto corn and tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and okra.

So, quick — make this soup, which eats like a poem about springtime. You can make it vegan, as it was conceived, or swap store-bought chicken broth for the leek broth, if you want more instant gratification.

Either way, if the longest intensive cooking spree in American history has left you a few pounds over, it’s a beautiful way to eat light and pure.

RECIPE: Vegan Spring Beauty Soup

Potato salad season opens today! Here are 5 you'll love

By Leslie Brenner

Today is the official unofficial season opener for summer’s most craveable side dish — the underdog show-stealer of every picnic or potluck. We can all pretend we can do without it, and then boom! A great potato salad blindsides us with deliciousness.

Here are five — three American, and two Japanese-style — that will round out your celebrations from now through Labor Day. (And probably beyond!)

Why Japanese-style? Because potato salad is a delicious example of yoshoku — Western dishes that migrated to Japan in the late 19th century and became truly Japanese. There’s something truly fabulous about this particular yoshuku fusion; Japanese flavors really make potatoes sing.

1. Herb-Happy Potato Salad

Red potatoes, red wine vinaigrette and either shallots or scallions come together under a flurry of fresh, soft herbs with this light, quick potato salad that’s a snap to make.

2. Salaryman Potato Salad

Salaryman Potato Salad: Each portion of the Japanese potato salad gets topped with half an ajitama marinated egg

Mayonnaise-based and built on russets, this cucumber-laced Japanese potato salad gets umami from HonDashi (instant dashi powder — a secret weapon of many a Japanese chef). Each portion is topped with half an ajitama, the delicious (and easy-to-make) marinated egg that often garnishes ramen. We fell in love with the salad at Salaryman, Justin Holt’s erstwhile ramen house in Dallas, and chef Holt was kind enough to share the recipe.

3. Jubilee Country-Style Potato Salad

When I came upon this recipe in Toni Tipton-Martin’s award-winning book, Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking, it was so luscious it sent me into a potato-salad binge that went on for weeks. Eggy, mayonnaise-y and old-fashioned (in a good way!), it reminds me of the potato salad my mom used to make. Try not to eat the whole bowl.

4. Sonoko Sakai’s Potato Salada

For a different style of Japanese potato salad, try Sonoko Sakai’s “Potato Salada” from her award-winning book, Japanese Home Cooking. It’s dressed with homemade Japanese mayo and nerigoma (Japanese-style tahini), but sometimes we cheat and use Kewpie mayo (our favorite brand of commercial Japanese mayonnaise) and store-bought tahini. We love the carrots, green beans and cukes in this one!

5. Best Potato Salad Ever

I cringe a little every time I see the moniker of this bad boy, which I named before discovering Toni Tipton-Martin’s, Justin Holt’s or Sonoko Sakai’s. Still, I do think Best Potato Salad Ever is worthy of at least tying for the title. The secret to its wonderfulness is New Wave Sauce Gribiche — soft-boiled eggs tossed with chopped herbs, capers, cornichons and shallots, plus Champagne vinegar, lemon juice and Dijon mustard. How could you go wrong, right?

Have an excellent, potato-salad-filled Memorial Day weekend!

Recipe for Today: Heading toward the weekend, we’re thinking endless guacamole

By Leslie Brenner

Is there anything more festive than a molcajete filled with guacamole? As a party-starter — whether it’s a party of two or twenty — it can’t be beat.

Our friends who garden seem to all have cilantro that’s gardening at the moment, and its delicate lacy blossoms make the nicest garnish, if you can get them.

Of course you’ll need ripe avocados, which is why we’re talking about this now. Memorial Day weekend — summer’s unofficial kickoff — is just about here, and if you grab a few avocados that are not quite ripe, you can put ‘em in a paper bag and they’ll be ready to smash just when you need them.

Whether your Memorial Day festivities skew toward carne asada or burgers on the grill, or even a fabulous vegan mixed grill, you don’t need to overthink the party-starter. Haven’t made plans? Mash up some guac, tear open a bag of chips and invite a friend. See? The party’s here.

RECIPE: Guacamole, the traditional way

Recipe for Today: Try Mely Martínez's Chicken Veracruz-Style for a vivacious weeknight lift

By Leslie Brenner

One of our favorite recipes from Mely Martinez’s delightful cookbook, The Mexican Home Kitchen, this easy weeknight dish gets its verve from a tomato sauce revved up with pimento-stuffed olives, raisins and capers. That combo may sound unlikely if you’re not familiar with the flavors of Veracruz, but give it a try anyway — we think you’ll be surprised and delighted.

Martínez’s original calls for fresh tomatoes, but you can substitute a can of chopped ones if you’re not finding nice ripe ones yet.

Enjoy your Recipe for Today!

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Recipe for Today: Ginger, garlic, fish and greens in parchment takes us to our happy place

By Leslie Brenner

How does this sound: a dish that’s light, easy and quick to prepare, that features whatever fish looks best in the market, that’s super healthy and creates no mess to clean up? And what if it’s not only perfect for a weeknight, but so delicious and lovely to behold that you’d happily present it to someone you truly wanted to impress?

Well, that’s how we felt too, the first time we made the gingery halibut parcels from Andrea Nguyen’s Vietnamese Food Any Day. To achieve it, toss sliced baby bok choy in sesame oil, set a portion’s worth on a sheet of parchment, top with fish (the award-winning author suggests halibut or salmon), spoon onto it a quick sauce of ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, soy and a touch of oil and seasoning, scatter on slices of scallion, wrap it up, and slide it into the oven. Fourteen minutes later you have something wonderful.

How wonderful? I’ve made it four times in the last six weeks. It’s crazy that this simple combo of ingredients turns into something this delightful; the whole is much more than the sum of its parts on this one. Every fish I’ve used so far — halibut, petrale sole and striped bass — cooked perfectly in that package. In that 14 minutes the bok choy achieves ideal texture, the flavors all come together and the sauce envelops all in gingery, umamiful happiness. Salmon will be next. Or scallops. Or snapper.

I like to serve it with brown rice, spooned right onto the parchment to mingle with the sauce; jasmine rice is wonderful with it as well, and gets to the table much quicker.

Enjoy your Recipe for Today!

If you like Recipe for Today, please share it on your social channels or email it to a friend who will enjoy it. Thank you!

Recipe for Today: The Greenest Gazpacho

By Leslie Brenner

Cucumbers, celery, green bell peppers, parsley and a serrano give this green gazpacho its gorgeous color. Raw almonds or cashews add body, and sherry vinegar provides zing and olive oil (use your best, freshest one) makes it silky and deep.

Because there is no bread in it, it is not technically a gazpacho, but that vinegar-and-nut vibe definitely makes it eat like one — not the vibrant tomatoey kind that’s the word “gazpacho” usually brings to mind, but its cousin ajo blanco, or white gazpacho. (Ajo blanco, beloved in its birthplace of Málaga, Spain, is made with bread, garlic, almonds, salt and sherry vinegar — and in summer, garnished with green grapes.)

Our Greenest Gazpacho is just the thing for a meatless Monday. (It’s vegan! And gluten-free!) It’ll keep you cool and happy all through the summer.

RECIPE: The Greenest Gazpacho