Celebrate New Year’s like an Italian: Make a big pot of braised lentils and kale

By Leslie Brenner

In Italy, lentils — which represent abundance and good fortune — are traditionally eaten on New Year’s day. This Umbrian recipe — adapted from Jody Williams and Rita Sodi’s Via Carota cookbook — pairs them with lacinato kale (also known as Tuscan or dinosaur kale).

A generous cupful of diced pancetta gives the dish extravagant richness; the resulting dish is soulful, deep and makes your kitchen smell wonderful. Feel free to use less pancetta if that feels like a lot (half of that would still be great.) In fact, the recipe is extremely adaptable. Want to make it vegan? Just leave out the pancetta altogether. Want more greens? Go ahead and double the kale. Have a turnip in that produce bin? Dice it up and throw it in with the carrots and onion. In any case, it will be delicious.

Umbrian lentils or French green lentils both work well for the dish — and its appeal and good luck don’t expire after the holiday.

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Recipe of the Day: Rose Water Cream Roll

By Leslie Brenner

Festive, fun, transporting — and way easier than it might look, this Persian cake is just the thing for sweetening a special evening. Scented with both rose water and orange blossom water, it’s a sponge-cake roll strewn with dried rose petals and chopped pistachios. Slice it, scatter some of the petals and nuts on the slice and you’ve got a party on a plate.

The recipe is adapted from Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies, by one of my favorite cookbook authors, Najmieh Batmanglij.

To create it, you make a sponge cake batter, spread it on a sheet pan, bake it (it bakes in a flash), spread it with whipped cream flavored with the two blossom waters, plus sugar and vanilla, roll it up jelly-roll style, chill it, strew with petals and pistachios and slice.

It’s very light and fluffy — like diving into a creamy bottle of perfume.

Maybe tonight?

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What to make for New Year's Eve: a procrastinator's recipe trove

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Duck Breast (Magret) with Red Wine Sauce

By Leslie Brenner

Whether you’re keeping things cozy and small with your spouse or best friend, or you’ve invited the gang over for a blow-out, you want something special to be the star of your table on New Year’s Eve.

Here’s a trove of delicious ideas that don’t require having shopped or prepped anything the day before.

Andrea Nguyen’s Mushroom Pâté Puffs

Easy and elegant, these hot hors d’oeuvres are made using frozen puff pastry. They go great with Champagne!

Cacio e Pepe Cheese Coins

Savory cheese biscuits with their edges rolled in cracked pepper: These little pre-dinner bites are insanely good. They’re also ideal for bringing to someone else’s feast. They’re adapted from Nancy Silverton’s new cookbook, The Cookie That Changed My Life.

Buckwheat Blini with Crab Salad

Another one that’s great with bubbles! These tender little blini are just incredible. If crabmeat is too expensive, you can top them instead with a smear of crème frâiche and a bit of smoked trout or salmon.

Kate Leahy’s Harissa Deviled Eggs

Who doesn’t love deviled eggs? These are spiked with harissa for extra pizzazz.

Ecuador-Inspired Shrimp Ceviche

A light, beautiful and festive party-starter.

Celery, Endive and Crab Salad

The perfect winter starter salad.

Crispy-Skinned Striped Bass with Tangy Green Everything Sauce

Packed with herbs and shallots, the Tangy Green Everything Sauce is fabulous with nearly every kind of fish you can think of — and it’s great with roast meats, as well.

Scallops Grenobloise

Sea scallops are smashing, and pricey — New Year’s Eve is a great excuse to splurge on them.

Coconut Milk Shrimp (Yerra Moolee)

This gorgeously spiced dish from Kerala is a snap to make. It’s from Julie Sahni’s Classic Indian Cooking.

Duck Breast (Magret) with Red Wine Sauce

France’s favorite dish makes a delightfully celebratory main course. Pull out your best bottle of red to pair with it.

Café Boulud Short Ribs with Celery Duo

Fork-tender and saucy, these wine-braised short ribs are set on a celery root purée and topped with braised celery. It’s one of my favorite dishes ever.

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Vegetable-forward and wonderfully spiced or pickled: Recipes for the week in-between

By Leslie Brenner

Famously, the holiday season is a time of rich foods: prime rib, turkey, all manner of sweets. With one more big night ahead of us, this can be a nice week to eat lighter and more aromatically. Ginger sounds alluring; so do spicy, pickly things and anything green. Garlicky braised greens. Anything with herbs. Or deep orange. Sweet sweet potatoes roasted till they’re oozing caramel. Pulses — dried beans and other legumes; a big brothy pot of mayocoba beans.

Here’s some inspiration — and yes, these treats can all make January deliciously restorative as well.

Braised Lettuce with Ginger Sauce

This beautiful dish from Hannah Che’s The Vegan Chinese Kitchen marries lots of ginger with sesame oil and Shaoxing wine. You could serve it with brown rice (if you’re feeling virtuous) or Yangzhou Fried Rice if you’re not.

Frijoles de olla — we love to prepare mayocoba or bayo beans this way.

Frijoles de Olla

Simmer up a pot of vegan mayocoba or bayo beans. It’s comfort food that’s also healthy, and you can enjoy it for days.

RECIPE: Vegan Frijoles de Olla

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Taquería Carrots

Want something pickly to go with that? Try these quick pickles — also known as zanahorias escabeche.

Hooni Kim’s Marinated Spicy Cucumbers (Oee Muchim)

Muchim are Korean quick-pickles; this one comes from New York-based chef Hooni Kim. This one is known as a summer pickle, but it sounds really good right now — and unlike long-fermenting kimchi, you can eat it the day you make it.

Hooni Kim’s Japchae

Speaking of Korean flavors — and Hooni Kim, whose cookbook we love — his japchae also sounds fantastic this week. Its stretchy sweet-potato noodles (dangmyeon) are gluten-free (use gluten-free tamari instead of soy sauce, and the whole dish is as well). It’s laced through with spinach, fresh shiitakes, garlic and peppers; toasted sesame seeds add earthy dazzle.

Chickpea and Kale Curry with Fresh Turmeric and Ginger

This dish is made for the moment — literally. Turmeric is super restorative, and it’s so nice with ginger. I’ll be making this many times this winter.

Quick Pickles with Turmeric & Fenugreek

Turmeric marries fenugreek in this delightful quick pickle from Reem Kassis.

RECIPE: Quick Pickles with Turmeric & Fenugreek
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Spinach with Dill (Dakhini Saag)

How does an easy, beautifully spiced saag (Indian braised greens) sound? This one is from Madhur Jaffrey’s wonderful Vegetarian India.

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Baba au rhum may be the most fabulous French dessert of them all

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By Leslie Brenner

“A forkful of rum-soaked baba and Chantilly is one of life’s great pleasures.” Coming from Aleksandra Crapanzano, that’s really saying something: The food columnist for The Wall Street Journal counts Gâteau, a volume filled with recipes for 117 French cakes, among the three cookbooks she has authored. She grew up in Paris and New York, and currently lives in New York, and no doubt she’s eaten some pretty delicious forkfuls.

Nor is she the only one who feels that way about baba: For eons, whenever I’d ask my husband Thierry what dessert he would like for various special occasions, he’d say “baba au rhum.”

If we were in France, fulfilling that wish would be easy: You find baba au rhum in just about every pastry shop, and pastry shops are everywhere. Chez nous, in the U.S.? Not so easy. I’d gladly have been baking babas all these years, but I didn’t have the requisite savarin mold — a speciality baking pan that’s not easy to source. Baba recipes aren’t exactly a dime a dozen, and one that read as legit never crossed my path. Until last year: For Christmas, Thierry finally got his baba.

I found the recipe in Crapanzano’s latest book, which had recently been published. (It is included in our Ultimate Cookbook Gift Guide.)

RECIPE: Baba au Rhum

It’s a splendid recipe, and Crapanzano solves the problem of the mold by calling for a Bundt pan. In fact, if you use a 6-cup Bundt pan, which I never knew existed, it’s the same size as a savarin mold. Eureka! I ran around the corner to the cookware shop and found one.

A year earlier, I spent many hours researching the history of the dessert, so that if one day I was able to make one I could provide background. I needn’t have bothered; Crapanzano supplies it:

“The history of this classic dates back to the early 1700s, when exiled Polish king Stanislas Leszczynski complained to his pastry chef, Nicolas Stohrer, that the kugelhopfs — the prized cake of Nancy, where he was living — were too dry. Stohrer responded by brushing his next kugelhopf with a rum soaking syrup, and a classic was born. Stanislaus named it baba after his favorite fictional character, Ali Baba, and the name stuck. When Leszczynski’s daughter married King Louis XV, she moved to Paris and brought Stohrer with her — smart woman. He went on to open what remains today one of the great pâtisseries of Paris.”

In case you’re wondering about the Chantilly part of the equation, the stuff that’s on Crapanzano’s happy forkful, that would be crème Chantilly — French for whipped cream. You can either serve each slice, as Crapanzano suggests, with an “excessive dollop” of it, or just before serving you can fill the center of the Bundt-shaped cake with a giant cloud of it.

This, of course, would be a delightful extravagance to finish any kind of holiday dinner. But you could also make a baba between the holidays — or on a dreary afternoon in January or February — and invite friends over to devour it.

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Recipe of the Day: Olivia Lopez's Sweet Potato and Vegetable Picadillo Tamales

By Leslie Brenner

If you’re looking for a fun and delicious cooking project for the holiday break, look no further. These vegan tamales, filled with roasted sweet potato and a picadillo fashioned from onion, carrots, tomato, toasted almonds and golden raisins, are just right for the season. They come to us via Olivia Lopez, chef and co-owner of Molino Olōyō in Dallas, Texas, and Cooks Without Borders’ Mexican Cuisine expert.

Don’t be put off by the long instructions — we’re just holding your hand tightly.

The tamales are wonderful on their own, and even better with salsa macha — Olivia’s, or your own favorite.

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Saucy and luscious, pappardelle with duck and porcini ragù makes any gathering special

By Leslie Brenner

Some cooks like to celebrate the holidays in high fashion, with their best china, stemware and candles. Others prefer to be laid back, dressed down and comfy — focusing on deliciousness without the fancy trappings. Whichever you are — or maybe you fall somewhere in the middle (or celebrate New Year’s but not Christmas) — here’s a dish for you.

Duck ragùs — made by braising duck in red wine with aromatic vegetables then shredding or chopping the meat and reincorporting it into the sauce — are traditional in central Italy and in the north, strongly associated with Tuscany and the Veneto region. They’re the same regions where porcini are beloved, so they make a fine addition — adding umami depth and earthiness.

RECIPE: Pappardelle with Duck and Porcini Ragù

Traditionally, a duck ragù (ragù all’anatra) is used to sauce a few kinds of pasta.

One is bigoli, a long extruded shape like a thicker spaghetti, originally made with buckwheat flour, often with duck eggs (and now sometimes made with whole wheat flour).

A second is pici — one of my favorite shapes because it’s fun to make at home and it has beautiful texture. Fashioned from a combination of 00 flour or all-purpose flour and semolina flour, without eggs, it’s also like a fat spaghetti, but uneven and rustic, as it’s formed by rolling with your hands on a board. I highly recommend it if you’re not cooking for too many people; for me, four would be the max.

Pici with duck ragù

The third is pappardelle: another of my favorite shapes because it’s so luscious. The broad, long egg noodles are also fun to make, and you can do it easily by rolling out the dough in a pasta maker.

Pappardelle is nice for a bigger crowd — six or eight (or even more) — because of the help provided by the pasta machine. (You have one of those, right?) You make the pasta in the morning, making the dough, letting it rest about 45 minutes (very important!) then rolling it out, letting it dry just a big, and using a knife to cut it into wide strips. It can hang out, dusted with flour, for hours, till you’re ready to cook it.

Alternatively, you can buy dried pappardelle, of course! It’ll still be really good, as the ragù is so luscious.

Next the ragù. It starts with soaking dried porcini in boiling water to reconstitute them; that liquid and the plumped mushrooms will both go into the sauce. While you’re doing that, brown seasoned duck legs in either duck fat or olive oil, then cook onion, carrot and garlic in some of the fat. Add herbs and red wine, chicken broth, the porcini and their broth and crushed tomatoes — along with the duck legs — and let it all braise together for about two hours (maybe a little less), till the duck is very tender. Now and then, skim the fat off the top — there will probably be quite a bit. When the duck is done, pull out the legs, remove the skin, pull the meat from the bones, shred it, stir it back into the ragù, season it, and cook another 15 minutes or so. It will be amazing.

Once the ragù’s done, it can sit as long as you want (in the fridge, if it’s more than an hour or so); just reheat it when you’re ready to make the pasta.

When you cook the pasta, whether it’s freshly made or store-bought, be sure to add a little of the starchy pasta water to the sauce to loosen it up; then drop the cooked pasta into the ragù to let it cook a minute or two in the sauce — where it’ll soak up tons of flavor. Pass a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano and a grater with it at the table.

Start things off with a salad of winter greens or arugula — or dive right into the pappardelle.

Up for a bottle of wine? An Italian red such as barbera, nebbiolo, or Chianti (or other sangiovese) are fantastic, but really anything you like — and you’re headed to pasta heaven.

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This perfect creamed spinach recipe is a holiday classic

By Leslie Brenner

Looking for a green vegetable dish to make your holiday dinner shine? Look no further! Our recipe, which uses whole milk rather than cream, makes creamed spinach that’s gloriously lush, but not overly rich or heavy. It’s wonderful with fish or fowl, with prime rib or leg of lamb, — or as a key player in a fabulous assortment of vegetarian dishes. (Sweet Potato and Vegetable Picadillo Tamales! Warm French Lentil Salad!)

We first wrote about it nearly three years ago; it never goes out of style. Here’s the recipe:

Looking for something stupendous to go with the spinach? Try these on for size:

RECIPE: Lacquered Roast Duck (depending on how this is accessorized, it can feel Chinese or French)

RECIPE: Dry-Brined Roast Turkey with Really Good Cognac Sauce

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Recipe of the Day: Fuchsia Dunlop's Yangzhou Fried Rice

By Leslie Brenner

I have a weak spot for fried rice (is there anyone who doesn’t?!). And I’m extremely suggestible, always with a song-worm snaking around in my brain. So when I read a crazy story by Li Yuan yesterday in the New York Times about a chef in China who offended the powers-that-be with an innocent video about how to make egg fried rice, that was it. All I can think about is fried rice.

The one I most enjoy making comes from Every Grain of Rice. Fuchsia Dunlop’s book is one of my all-time favorite cookbooks, included in our Ultimate Cookbook Gift Guide.

Here’s the recipe — and yes, it includes egg. It’s also a fantastic cooking lesson: Make it once, and you’ll have a splendid technique to pull out whenever the craving hits.

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Recipe of the Day: Ultimate Ragù Bolognese

By Leslie Brenner

I’ve been craving pasta with ragù bolognese lately, and I’ll bet I’m not the only one. (Maybe I’ve been eating too many healthy beans and greens!)

A few years ago, I became obsessed with the dish, and could not move on with my life until I tried every important or famous recipe the ragù and found out which was the best. Finding lots to love in many of them but unable to settle on one that did it all, I created my own — and wrote about it for the Washington Post.

Along the way, I learned a lot about how ragù bolognese is enjoyed in Italy. Quick digest: In Emilia-Romagna, where it’s from (Bologna is in that region, hence “bolognese”), purists insist on putting the ragù on fresh egg pasta — tagliatelle, to be exact. That’s also the first choice for people outside of Bologna. After that, anything goes — it’s A.O.K. to plop it on spaghetti, or anything pasta you boil up from a box of dried.

READ: We have achieved optimum Bolognese and (are you sitting down?), we grant you permission to put it on spaghetti

Here’s the recipe for Ultimate Bolognese Ragù, along with one for fresh egg tagliatelle:

RECIPE: Ultimate Ragù Bolognese

RECIPE: Fresh Egg Pasta

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Got fresh turmeric? Make a vibrant chickpea-kale curry and cups of warm ‘golden milk’

By Leslie Brenner

“Buy the beautiful turmeric roots, grind them up, put them in your food and enjoy it.” That’s the advice Dr. Mahtab Jafari, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of California Irvine, recently provided the New York Times, for an article about turmeric’s health benefits.

Most of us, especially here in the West, know turmeric as golden powder that comes in a spice jar, but more and more, we’re seeing it in its root form in supermarket produce sections. Usually it lives near the ginger, its relative. Both are rhizomes.

Ginger is also turmeric’s culinary friend; the two play gorgeously together. And when black pepper joins in the fun, things explode — with deliciousness, and with health power: Piperine, black pepper’s active ingredient, optimizes the bioavailability of curcumin, turmeric’s active ingredient. Curcumin is responsible for turmeric’s proported anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

Organic turmeric in the produce section of a Whole Foods Market in Dallas, Texas

Health advantages aside, cooks love turmeric because it brings aromatic, earthy warmth and a beautiful golden hue to everything it touches — literally; it’s also used as a dye.

Indian cooks have appreciated and celebrated turmeric for eons; its use has been an important part of Ayurvedic medicine and cooking for more than four thousand years. In the intervening centuries, it has made its way around the globe in both directions, to southeast Asia eastward and the Middle East, Africa and Europe westward.

Now, of course, it’s everywhere.

Here in the United States, turmeric in its root form is becoming more and more available. Turmeric root is a “rising star” in the American organic farming world, with most of the crop coming from Hawaii, and some from California and Oregon. You’ll generally find it November through July, so yes, ’tis the season, to trot out the threadbare cliché.

Cooking with fresh turmeric

Turmeric root may be popping up everywhere, but enticing recipes using it aren’t exactly a dime a dozen.

Happily, you can swap fresh turmeric root in for ground turmeric in many recipes. (Ground turmeric is the rhizome that has been dried, then ground.) To use it, just peel it (with a vegetable parer, paring knife or your fingernail), then grate it, and use it much like you would ginger. Most sources say to use three times as much fresh as you would ground. If a recipe calls for a teaspoon of ground turmeric, go ahead and grate a tablespoon of fresh. You can stir it into soups, braises and curries.

Or use it to make golden milk — an Indian treat (haldi doodh in Hindi) that’s also sipped to sooth colds or sore throats. The basic ingredients are milk (cow’s milk or nut milk), turmeric and honey; some people add ginger, black pepper or other spices. Want to try it? Put 250 ml / 8 ounces of almond (or other) milk in a small saucepan with a generous teaspoon and a half of grated turmeric, five or six grinds of black pepper and a teaspoon (or more) of honey. Stir to combine, bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, remove from the heat and let it infuse, covered, for five minutes. Strain it through a fine-mesh strainer into a cup or cups, moving the solids around with a spoon so the infused milk flows through, and enjoy.

Fresh turmeric enlivens a vegan curry

Want to try it in a dinner dish? Inspired by a recipe for a curry of chickpeas and kale by the British food writer Meera Soda, I put together one using fresh turmeric instead of ground, and adding a generous dose of freshly ground black pepper. To start, I made a paste of grated turmeric root, ginger and garlic, which got stirred into onions browned in virgin coconut oil. Ground cumin and coriander went in next, followed by chickpeas (from a can — for an easy weeknight vibe), a can of diced tomatoes, cayenne pepper, water, salt, the black pepper, and finally a lot of lacinato kale. That all gets simmered till the kale is tender.

My family loved it; I served it with sweet potatoes roasted till they were seeping caramel — a really nice match. I’m thinking we’ll have an encore soon.

RECIPE: Chickpea and Kale Curry with Fresh Turmeric and Ginger

I haven’t yet played with swapping fresh turmeric for ground in some of my favorite turmeric-happy recipes; I’ll let you know when I do! Surely it will be wonderful in my favorite vegan lentil soup.

Here are a few of our favorite recipes using ground turmeric

Try swapping 1 tablespoon freshly grated turmeric for every 1 teaspoon of ground turmeric in these recipes (or, just make them with ground turmeric):

RECIPE: Reem Kassis’ Artichoke Shrimp with Turmeric and Preserved Lemon

RECIPE: Red Lentil Dal (Masoor Dal)

RECIPE: ‘Kolkata’ Shrimp with Poppy Seeds

RECIPE: Claudia Roden’s Chicken with Olives and Lemon

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Dueling Brussels sprouts: Via Carota's brilliant salad versus Ottolenghi's black-garlic, brown-butter beauties

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

By Leslie Brenner

Help me decide: What’s the best way to eat Brussels sprouts?

Last night, friends came over, and I made the marvelous Insalata di Cavoletti from the Via Carota cookbook. It was like a delightful farewell to autumn, as it stars apples, walnuts and pomegranate seeds; small chunks of aged cheese (Manchego or Parmigiano) add richness and umami, and a brilliant, shalloty sherry vinaigrette pulls it all together. It’s the last chance to eat it this season; pomegranate are still in many stores (they’re harvested through November, but they keep a long time).

READ: Greatest vegetable rehabilitation ever: Brussels sprouts’ 23-year rise to culinary power

The downside: The salad is a wee bit labor intensive, as it requires taking the leaves off the Brussels sprouts.

The upside: It’s really good. It’s also ideal for entertaining, as you prep most of it in advance — dismantle the Brussels sprouts and put the leaves in a bag in the fridge; toast the walnuts; liberate the pomegranate seeds; make the fantastic, shalloty Via Carota sherry vinaigrette. (You get twice as much vinaigrette as you need, so that’s a plus, too, as it keeps a few days and it’s excellent on any green salad.). The vinaigrette gets massaged into the B sprout leaves a few minutes before you serve it, which relaxes the leaves.

RECIPE: Via Carota’s Insalata di Cavoletti

And then there’s Ottolenghi’s umami-happy, roasted blockbuster, from Ottolenghi Simple. Hard to argue with it (almost seems like the match is fixed!). It’s easy to make, crunchy with pepitas, a little creamy and rich from tahini. Caraway seeds add a measure of romance and mystery.

Halve the sprouts, toss with olive oil and salt, and roast. Crush caraway seeds with black garlic and thyme leaves, add that to a pan of browned butter, toss in the sprouts and pumpkin seeds and mix it all up over heat. Add lemon juice, drizzle on tahini and serve.

The two contenders are so different — and both amazing. Try them both, and tell us who wins.

RECIPE: Ottolenghi’s Brussels Sprouts with Browned Butter and Black Garlic

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Recipe of the Day: World Butter Chicken

By Leslie Brenner

The Indian dish murgh makhani — also known as butter chicken — is one of our favorite things to eat in the universe. Rich, creamy and warm with spices, it’s perfect for enjoying with friends or family on a Sunday evening.

Our recipe is based on on one by Delhi-based chef, restaurateur and author Monish Gujral, whose grandfather created the dish in 1920. Over the years we’ve streamlined and refined it; chef Gujral has given it his stamp of approval.

READ: “Celebrate World Butter Chicken Day with the real thing — made quicker, easier and lip-smackingly delicious”

Serve it with basmati rice, and — if you want to get fancy — cucumber raita, coriander chutney and a green vegetable such as sautéed spinach or buttered peas (go ahead — use frozen ones!).

Our recipe serves four to six, but it’s wonderful reheated and served the next day or later that week, so it’s worth making even if you’re just one or two.

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Holiday entertaining: These fabulous finger foods will be the stars of your party

Gouda Gougères with cumin seeds from‘Baking wtih Dorie’ by Dorie Greenspan

By Leslie Brenner

Let’s get this party started!

Whether you’re planning a drop-by-for-drinks-and-bites open house, or you’re scheming tasty nibbles to lead off a sit-down dinner, you’ll want finger foods that delight.

Here are our current faves — including two from new cookbooks.

Gouda Gougères

Light, airy, cheesy and tender, gougères are a favorite finger food in France. We love Dorie Greenspan’s spin — using aged gouda in place of the traditional gruyère, and adding the wam spice of cumin. Place them in a napkin-lined bowl or basket to keep them warm — and be ready for them to disappear quickly

RECIPE: Dorie Greenspan’s Gouda Gougères

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Five-Spice Mushroom-Walnut Pâte

Earthy and umami-ful, this splendid spread comes from Ever-Green Vietnamese by Andrea Nguyen — one of the most inspiring and useful cookbooks published this year. It can be made either vegetarian or vegan.

RECIPE: Five-Spice Mushroom-Walnut Pâté

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Jubilee Pickled Shrimp

Pickled shrimp are always crowd-pleasers. Our favorite version comes from Toni Tipton-Martin’s award-winning cookbook, Jubilee.

RECIPE: ‘Jubilee’ Pickled Shrimp

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Cacio e Pepe Coins

We’ve fallen — hard! — for these tender savory snacks from Nancy Silverton’s new cookbook, The Cookie That Changed My Life (another of this year’s most exciting titles). Make a quick dough packed with three kinds of cheese and enriched with crème fraîche, no mixer required, just hands. Roll, chill, coat with crushed black pepper, slice and bake. They’re incredibly tender and rich, and one recipe makes four dozen — a treasure trove. Serve them all, or bake half, and keep the other roll in your freezer, a secret stash.

RECIPE: Cacio e Pepe Coins

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Crudités and Dip

It’s easy to arrange a big platter of cut-up vegetables. Add a fun dip (or two!) and you’ve got a party right there. Red Pepper-Harissa Dip makes the season bright; you can pair it with a Remoulade Sauce or Green Goddess if you want to mix things up.

Or go for a Thai relish — intensely fragrant, umami-forward, tangy and a little sweet. Ours is adapted from Leela Punyaratabandhu’s outstanding cookbook Simple Thai Food.

RECIPE: Red Pepper-Harissa Dip

RECIPE: Remoulade Sauce

RECIPE: Thai Shrimp-Coconut Relish

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Buñuelos de Bacalao

Light, hot and delicious, these cod fritters come from Claudia Roden’s The Food of Spain. Unlike most cod fritters, they’re made from fresh fish, not salt cod, so no need to soak, wait and rinse — they’re quick to put together. And so good.

RECIPE: Buñuelos de Bacalao

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Recipe of the Day: Carottes Râpées, Ribbon-Style

By Leslie Brenner

It’s always great to have a pretty little something in your back pocket you can whip up quickly on the fly — a dish that doesn’t require a trip to the supermarket. For home cooks in France, the simple salad known as carottes râpées (literally “grated carrots”) fits that bill. Everyone owns carrots!

The problem is that the way most people make it, carottes râpées is kind of dull, as carrots subjected to a box grater behave like wood shavings. But use a vegetable peeler to shave the carrots into ribbons, and suddenly you’ve got a gorgeous salad that actually eats beautifully. Rags to riches on a plate!

We wrote about the dish last summer. Dressed with sunny lemon, it’s even nicer as a winter salad, wonderful to serve before a big pot of something rich and homey, like beef bourguignon, or coq au vin, or a saucy vegan bean stew.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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
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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
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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
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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
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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

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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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Want to make awesome tamales? Quick, order some heirloom corn masa harina, then follow our lead!

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By Leslie Brenner

[Editor’s note: This article was first published, in slightly different form, on Dec. 8, 2021.]

If you’ve always wanted to try making tamales for Christmas, but something inevitably got in the way (yep, it sounds pretty intimidating!), this is a great year to dive in with your maiden effort. It’s super fun, the rewards are great, and it’s easier than you might think. Christmas Eve falls conveniently on Sunday this year, so that can be a lovely day of cooking. More importantly, we home cooks now have heirloom corn masa harina at our disposal — which makes tamales that are about a thousand times better than those made with Maseca, or other commercial masa harina.

If you’re going to do this, you’ll need to quickly order some masa harina — we love the product from Masienda, which also now sells through Amazon and some Whole Foods Markets. Choose any color you like — yellow, white, blue, red, or more than one. King Arthur also sells an organic masa harina that’s much better than Maseca.

Got them ordered? (Or maybe you have some on hand because you’ve been living the masa life?) OK, good. Now let’s talk tamales.

How do blue corn tamales filled with duck in dark mole sound? Or vegan tamales filled with roasted sweet potato and vegetable picadillo — served with salsa macha? Yes, I thought so!

Why tamales, why now?

Until a few years ago, I thought that making tamales might not be worth the trouble. Most tamales I’d ever eaten — even those that came wrapped in great reputations — had just been OK at best. Usually the masa was not terribly flavorful, often on the heavy side, with not enough (or not delicious enough) filling.

Then I tasted Olivia Lopez’s tamales, made with masa fashioned from heirloom corn. (As you know if you’ve been reading Cooks Without Borders’ Mexican cooking features for any length of time, we are super fortunate to have Olivia as our resident Mexican cooking expert.) Of course much of her tamales’ lusciousness is thanks to her skill and palate — as chef and co-owner of Molino Olōyō in Dallas, the smashing tamales Olivia has been selling since last year through her Instagram feed quickly developed a cult following. (She doesn’t yet have a brick-and-mortar location.)

But another big part of the reason for Olivia’s tamales’ great flavor is the quality of the heirloom corn from Mexico that she nixtamalizes to make her masa.

For a story I published in The Dallas Morning News a few years ago, Olivia developed a recipe for a Sweet Pineapple Tamal using then-newly available heirloom masa harina from Masienda, and the tamales were spectacular.

And so (Christmas lightbulb illuminating — ding ding ding!) for the holiday season, Olivia developed and shared with us two savory tamal recipes using heirloom masa harina.

They’re out of this world — and believe it or not, not difficult to make.

First is the vegan tamal — one that gets its lushness from coconut oil, rather than the usual lard. It’s filled with roasted sweet potato and a vegetable picadillo. “That picadillo is inspired by the one my Grandma Margarita used to make,” says Olivia. The confetti-like sauté of onions, carrots, tomato, chiles, golden raisins and more is also versatile beyond tamales; if you have any left over, you can use it to fill tetelas, sopes or quesadillas. (I filled tetelas with a little extra picadillo and roasted sweet potato — fantastic.)

Sweet Potato and Vegetable Picadillo Tamales, prepared using Masienda heirloom masa harina, from Olivia Lopez’s recipe

In Mexico, Olivia tells us, tamales are usually eaten on their own, generally not with any salsa. “Usually you just have them with atole,” she says. “Masa on masa!” (Atole is a sweet, hot drink made with masa.) But she loves the late-autumn/early winter flavors of the vegan tamal with salsa macha — and we happen to have a great recipe for that, as well (Olivia’s!).

Our second tamal — blue corn filled with pato en mole oscuro (duck in dark mole) — has a saucy flourish as well: a quickly put-together chimichurri-like salsa made from dried tart cherries, chives (or scallion tops), parsley and lime. “It balances the rich, earthy mole,” says Olivia. Beautifully, I would add.

Tamales de Pato en Mole Oscuro (duck in dark mole), with Tart Cherry-Chive Salsa — prepared from recipes by Molino Oloyo chef and co-owner Olivia Lopez

The tamal’s filling is achieved by roasting duck legs (easy), then saucing the shredded duck in a dark mole that’s also easier to put together than I imagined. (Empowering!) You can use the duck fat that renders when you slow-roast those legs to enrich the masa, or use olive oil — again, no lard. Our instructions have you wrap the tamales in banana leaves before steaming, but corn husks work just as well. The vegan tamales call for corn husks, but they’re also interchangeable — as is the color of heirloom masa harina you use, yellow, blue, rose or white.

Don’t freak out when you see the long recipes — the reason for their wordiness is we’re holding your hand tight, to make sure you’re comfortable with what may be a new process, and to ensure you get great results. To that end, we put together a tip sheet.

And finally, here is the recipe for Olivia’s Sweet Pineapple Tamales. We love pineapple’s sunny and bright flavor during winter’s chill — makes us (almost!) feel we’re in Colima, Mexico, Olivia’s home town. If only!

Want to keep the Sweet Pineapple Tamal vegan? Easy to do — the crema garnish is optional. And all three are gluten-free.

Happy Tamalidays!

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Cacio e pepe cheese coins may be the dreamiest aperitivo snack ever

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By Leslie Brenner

Tender and buttery as shortbread cookies, but savory, cheesy and rolled in cracked pepper, these “cheese coins” are the brainchild of Nancy Silverton. I found the recipe in her new cookbook, The Cookie That Changed My Life and More Than 100 Other Classic Cakes, Muffins and Pies That Will Change Yours.

Technically, the coins are probably cookies, and yes, I do feel the recipe has changed my life. Meaningfully. Aperitivo hour will never be the same — especially if it involves white wine.

They’re not hard to make if you don’t mind grating cheese; you’ll need Pecorino Romano, Parmigiano-Reggiano and white cheddar. Pulse flour in the food processor with cold butter, along with quick-to-make confit garlic cloves and garlic oil. Add the cheeses and crème fraîche, smoosh with your hands and a dough comes together. Roll into a log, chill, brush with garlic oil, roll in cracked pepper, slice and bake.

What could be more rewarding? Who needs spaghetti?

The recipe makes two logs. The cookbook says they each make a dozen coins, but in fact each makes two dozen. For me that meant one for slicing and baking right away, and another for stowing in the freezer. Just the thing for a rainy or snowy day.

Aperitivo lovers, you’re in for a treat.

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Cookbooks We Love: Vegetables are the stars of Andrea Nguyen's 'Ever-Green Vietnamese'

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By Leslie Brenner

Ever-Green Vietnamese: Super-Fresh Recipes, Starring Plants from Land and Sea, by Andrea Nguyen, PHOTOGRAPHS BY AUBRIE PICK, Ten Speed Press, 2023, $35.

Light, fresh, tangy and enticing: Doesn’t that sound like just what’s needed between the turkey, the latkes and the bûche de noël? Southeast Asian flavors are a natural antidote to richness, and Andrea Nguyen’s Ever-Green Vietnamese is a title we’re loving now — one we’ll keep turning to when January kicks us in the butt and healthy eating becomes a thing again.

Backgrounder

Nguyen is the preemient authority on Vietnamese cooking in the United States, and this is her seventh cookbook. Her ambitious debut volume, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, broke ground when it was published in 2006, and it remains the best introduction to Vietnamese cooking in English on the market. Since then, Nguyen — who is also a cooking teacher, editor, the publisher of Viet World Kitchen and author of an outstanding Substack newsletter, Pass the Fish Sauce — has evolved into one of the U.S.’s best cookbook authors in any genre. In 2018 she won a James Beard Award for The Pho Cookbook, along with an IACP Cookbook Award for Unforgettable: The Bold Flavors of Paula Wolfert’s Renegade Life, which she edited.

Nguyen’s recipes work beautifully, she explains them clearly and thoroughly, and she’s a wonderful writer who’s brilliant at providing cultural context. She also has a great palate. Whether she’s offering up a traditional Vietnamese dish or something of her own creation, chances are excellent that it will be fabulous and you’ll be able to execute it beautifully in your own kitchen. We profiled Nguyen in 2021, and featured her (with the photographer An-My Lê, who is also Cooks Without Borders’ Vietnamese cooking advisor) in a live CWB video event.

Why We Love It

Ever-Green Vietnamese adopts a loose, omnivorous interpretation of “plant-based.” Following a health scare she had in 2019, Nguyen wanted to change her own eating habits, so she doubled down on vegetables and minimized her consumption of animal protein. The approach felt natural to her: Traditional Vietnamese cooking so strongly emphasizes plants. It uses meat largely as an accent, and relies on fish sauce for umami. A book was born.

The 125 recipes and variations in Ever-Green Vietnamese are vegetable-centric; some 100 (by Nguyen’s count) are vegetarian, and most of those are vegan. Importantly, for vegans, Nguyen offers a recipe for a fishless “fish” sauce — made with two kinds of seaweed, pineapple juice, salt, MSG or Asian mushroom seasoning and Marmite. That gives vegans access to recipes like the Bánh Cuốn Chay, the beautiful rice-paper rolls shown below.

The book’s omnivorously plant-centric vibe is one reason why we love it; that’s the CWB way as well. We also appreciate the excellent introductory material on ingredients, including the fact that Nguyen calls out her preferred brands. There’s a fantastic spread of Vietnamese herbs — keep a photo of it in your phone to help with shopping.

Vietnamese herbs explained in ‘Ever-Green Vietnamese.’ The book was photographed by the late Aubrie Pick.

Speaking of spreads, the book was gorgeously shot by Aubrie Pick, a talented, San Francisco-based lifestyle photographer who died of lymphoma at the age of 42 last month. Pick also photographed Nguyen’s Vietnamese Food Any Day.

Mostly, we love Ever-Green Vietnamese because everything we’ve made from it so far has been absolutely delicious.

Do Try This at Home

Bánh Cuốn Chay — Shiitake-Cauliflower Steamed Rice Rolls — prepared from a recipe in ‘Ever-Green Vietnamese’ by Andrea Nguyen

Bánh Cuốn Chay — Shiitake-Cauliflower Steamed Rice Rolls — are a case in point.

In her headnote, Nguyen calls this type of roll, bánh cuốn, “more delicate than Chinese cheung fan rice-noodle rolls.” They’re served either warm or at room temperature, topped with fried shallots and and eaten with nuoc cham — Vietnam’s ubiquitous dipping sauce — plus herbs, cucumber and blanched bean sprouts. These particular bánh cuốn are filled with a mixture of finely cut-then-cooked cauliflower, shiitake mushrooms, carrots and shallots. Spoon nuoc cham over them, scatter fresh herbs and fried shallots and pass more nuoc cham at the table.

Traditionally, cooking bánh cuốn wasn’t usually attempted at home, Nguyen explains. That’s because it involved the elaborate process of making rice sheets. Recently, though, clever cooks in Vietnam and elsewhere have figured out how to use easy-to-purchase rice paper (steamed rice sheets that have been dried), soaking them to rehydrate and roll, and then briefly steaming or microwaving them with excellent results. Nguyen includes instructions for both in her original recipe in the book. We tested it by steaming, so that’s what our adapted recipe reflects. The recipe is long nonetheless, but that’s because Nguyen holds your hand tightly every step of the way. Do it once, though, and the next time it’ll be easy.

RECIPE: Banh Cuon

Want something simpler?

Vietnam’s beloved dipping sauce also animates this easy weeknight number — Roast Chicken and Broccoli with Nuoc Cham Vinaigrette (Gà Rô Ti). A paste of garlic, shallots, cilantro and seasonings is rubbed on the chicken and stuffed under its skin, then you roast a sheet pan of that, along with a sheet pan of broccoli florets. Dress it all in a nuoc cham vinaigrette and finish with mint leaves and you’ve got a terrific dinner with little effort that deliciously satisfies cravings for umami-tang.

Five-Spice Mushroom-Walnut Pâté

Feeling a need for a mushroom pâté in my life, I had been developing a recipe for one in my head, and then boom — Nguyen beat me to the punch. So glad she did — hers is perfect, simple to achieve and can be made either vegetarian (with butter) or vegan (with canola or peanut oil). It’s perfect for setting out with drinks all through entertaining season.

Try this Comforting Braise

This dish, Peppery Caramel Pork and Daikon (Thịt Heo Kho Củ Cải), is one Nguyen says she craves and prepares often — an example of what she calls “món ăn người nghèo (poor people’s food).

Caramel sauce for savory dishes is a cornerstone of Vietnamese cooking (along with nuoc cham and rice); it’s also technically a bit challenging, and needs to be made with care and attention. There’s a full recipe for the sauce early in the book, but Nguyen is all about practicality, and she offers a quickly made substitute within the recipe for the braised dish.

Mastering Vietnamese caramel sauce is definitely on my meters-long to-do list; meanwhile, I appreciate the workaround, and loved the resulting easy dish — which I served with brown rice.

RECIPE: Peppery Caramel Pork and Daikon (Thịt Heo Kho Củ Cải)

Ready To Dive in?

Try one or more of the recipes linked above. If you enjoy them as much as we do — or want a gift for someone who will — you’ll want to buy this outstanding book.

READ: More Cooks Without Borders cookbook reviews

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