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I’ve been chatting about Good Things (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) here and there and apparently I’ve convinced @Smithy to pick up a sale-priced copy so I figured I should share my thoughts. This is Samin Nosrat’s second book, following Salt Fat Acid Heat (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) which was quite successful and spawned a 4 episode TV series. The first 4 chapters of that book are an excellent intro to the elements of cooking. There are plenty of recipes that follow but IMO, the real meat of the book is in those first chapters. In a way, Good Things is similar with a lot of interesting condiments up front and less interesting recipes that follow. I see it as an “Idea” book rather than a “Recipe” book. I was initially frustrated by how many of the recipes I wanted to try required one or several of the condiments or dressings in the front of the book. I reset my focus, spent a few hours making a few of those “good things” and set off to use them. The pickled Thai chiles and pickled red onions were hiding in the fridge but were also part of my first prep session. The preserved lemon paste takes a lot of hands-off time to make the preserved lemons but that NYShuk brand is readily available at Whole Foods or online. The Calabrian Chile Crisp requires a fair amount of hands-on time but it’s awfully good. I ordered the Calabrian chiles from Oaktown spices but she offers substitutions. Back to the book, most of the recipes for these condiments are followed by multiple suggestions for their use and the index is very complete in listing all the uses of each condiment, sauce or dressing. A lot of my cookbooks have similar sections of basics, condiments etc used throughout the book but such a complete index is fairly rare. I’ve spent hours with some books basically making my own index for stuff like this. The Good Things index is complete and greatly enhances the utility of the book. There’s a section of vegetable “recipes” by season that are mostly simple cooking suggestions and ways to incorporate those condiments. Nothing fancy, but I picked up a few tips like roll cutting carrots for roasting. I routinely do that for stir-frying but it also makes perfect thin edges to brown while roasting. I make marinated or pickled beets often but her use of the preserved lemon paste instead of vinegar was intriguing to me. Included in those veg sections are a number of flow charts for assembling salads or cooked veg dishes. Generally, I don’t find flow charts, diagrams or spreadsheet arrangements to be the best way to communicate recipes but for some reason, these have resonated with me and I’ve been using the roasted veg salad pages in particular for lots of salad ideas. These matrix pages are accompanied by examples that demonstrate restraint in choosing a few ingredients and not something from every category. Those are my highlights of the book, so far. I intend to work through all the salad dressings and play around with her uses for each. There are plenty of other recipes, a whole chicken chapter, and desserts, too. The harissa chickpea stew and spicy tuna pasta were both excellent but the ideas I’ve gotten from those condiments, dressings and salad matrix pages are the best parts of the book for me. The book’s not perfect. Its use of metric measurements is spotty which is annoying since it was published at the same time overseas with complete metric measurements so they could easily have been included. I thought the popcorn was way too salty, the olive oil fried bread was too oily and my first pass at the preserved lemon paste was inedibly salty but the wins exceed the misses by a lot.

Sounds like a recipe for a soggy bottom, but there are plenty of people who don’t mind that.

I made another roasted veg salad from the Good Things matrix: roasted sweet potato wedges, lentils, pickled red onion, goat cheese and Calabrian chili crisp on baby kale & frisée lightly dressed with house dressing. The Calabrian chile paste from Good Things is kind of a PITA to make. At first, I thought I’d just as soon but one of the many ready-made versions, but it’s growing on me and the crispy crunch from all the nuts and seeds is especially nice in this salad. Not sure why @Darienne hasn’t arrived yet. Perhaps she is waiting for @Smithy to give her a lift in the Princessmobile?

Another salad based on the roasted vegetable salad matrix from Good Things. Roasted cauliflower, roll-cut carrots and chickpeas on a bed of baby kale with pickled onions, dressed with the tahini sbagliato dressing and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds. The first time I used this dressing, I found it overly garlicky, surely due to my use of a huge garlic clove, but happily that flavor didn’t intensify and the roasted vegetable salad stood up to it just fine.

Have you read Samin Nosrat’s book, Salt Fat Acid Heat (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)? The first 4 chapters span 200 pages and are the most accessible intro to cooking that I know of. The book also has recipes but those first chapters are the most valuable, in my opinion. That section of the book ends with this cartoon that may help you focus on the specific areas you want to explore AFTER you’ve taken the time to read the background.

It sounds lovely to me! If your hostess is expecting platters of shared appetizers, this might not be what she had in mind but I think it’s much more interesting than those Costco shrimp cocktail platters that I avoid like the plague!

I dunno what’s wrong with me. I keep a list of grocery items I need on my phone. Here’s what it said this AM: Farmers Market: Garlic Parsley Cilantro Gorgonzola Brussels sprouts Celery Kumquats Kale Squash Cabbage Potatoes Eggs Sourdough bread Grocery: Olive oil Fava beans Asparagus Artichoke hearts Here’s what I got at the farmers market: Lemons Meyer lemons Oranges Pears Baby kale Frisée Cauliflower Snap peas Manzano peppers Avocados Eggs Sourdough bread Lord knows what will happen at the grocery store! In my defense, a few vendors were missing from today’s farmers market, including the ones I wanted to get the kumquats and Gorgonzola from. Everything else, except garlic, was there but my shopping bag was so full of stuff that wasn’t on the list that I deferred them to tomorrow when I can stop into a local farmstand. Sheesh!

Yeah, my chances of eating a salad increase dramatically if there’s a dressing prepared and greens washed. I’ve been using escarole & radicchio a lot lately because they’ve been looking great at the farmers market but importantly, they’re really sturdy so I can wash enough for a few days, spin dry, and store wrapped a towel. I should branch out and get some other options. Salad du jour was roasted honeynut squash and pear, escarole and radicchio dressed with the house dressing from Good Things, baked goat cheese and pecans.

Thanks! You are most welcome to swing by! Good Things was the book of the month for December in the cookbook group I participate in. It didn’t grab me right away. It’s not a book to pick up at 5:30 when you’re already hangry but I spent a little advance prep time making a few condiments, dressings, etc and have been very much enjoying Samin’s creative ways of using them…and my own, too! I need to write a little review over in the Cookbooks topic.

I’ve been remiss in posting recent salads I’ve made from Samin Nosrat’s Good Things. I may have posted this Crunchy Cabbage Slaw dressed with the Creamy Sesame- Ginger Dressing so apologies for the repeat but I’ve repeated it several times as it’s quite good. This is the White Bean, Celery and Tuna Salad, dressed with Creamy Oregano Dressing Chickpea salad with cucumbers and dill, also dressed with the Creamy Oregano Dressing. Two marinated beet salads. The first is dressed with the Tahini Sbagliato dressing and includes avocado (which blends into the greens so it’s hard to see) and a topping of crispy fried shallots. The beets are roasted, then marinated simply in rice vinegar. The second is a marinated goat cheese salad, featuring the marinated goat cheese, breaded in panko (I pre-toasted the panko) baked and served over greens dressed in the House dressing with marinated beets. This salad was assembled with the “Roasted Vegetable Salad Matrix” in the book. Yeah, It’s a lot. Roasted cauliflower, celery for crunch, Royal Corona beans and pickled onions, all dressed with the creamy lemon-miso dressing that includes poppy seeds. Last up is the Snap Pea Chopped Salad, also dressed with the creamy lemon-miso dressing. This one includes fennel, aged Gouda, Medjool dates and herbs. The recipe calls for pine nuts but I used chopped, toasted almonds.

Thanks! Beans and pasta can be stodgy but I think the greens help out here!

Today is National Bean Day in the US so here’s Pasta Fagiole Number Three: The New Classic from Six Seasons of Pasta by Joshua McFadden and Martha Holmberg This is a very easy but flavorful version of pasta fagiole. As usual with this book, I made a half recipe for 2 very generous servings. I followed the suggestion in the header notes to add leafy greens and went with baby kale. I also added extra bean broth to lighten the sauce.

I quite like the idea of an eggplant preserve with a caponata vibe but if I made this one, I’ve forgotten! Eat Your Books recently reminded me, via their CookShelf app, that I’ve made 154 recipes from this book, but I haven’t tagged this one.

I probably should have clarified that my reason for taking a little taste wasn’t that I could detect spoilage but that I could see if I liked it enough to make again!

I’d probably give it a taste out of curiosity but that’s me and based on your previous post, you were already worried as soon as you made it so I’d say yes, there is a reason to fear it.