Cookbooks 2021

[blue_dolphin]

In my post above on recent acquisitions, I want to call out 2 books by Max Halley, owner of Max's Sandwich Shop in London.  I ordered them after listening to a Zoom author event hosted by cookbook shop NowservingLA in support of his recently published Max's Picnic Book.  Max was interviewed by Zach Brooks, market manager of Smorgasburg LA.  Max is an absolute hoot and didn't really need an interviewer.  I was laughing out loud through most of it.  An archived version of the Zoom session can be accessed at this link or on Nowserving's recorded events page here. 

Here's the publisher's blurb on the book:

Quote

Irreverent, eccentric, Max's Picnic Book is the follow up the Sunday Times Bestseller, Max's Sandwich Book. Both an ode to the art of eating outdoors, and an entertaining, frivolous reinvention of it, Max and Ben will first redefine what the picnic is, and celebrate its true potential, before creating 16 themed menus. Including ingenious hacks—think flavored salts for dipping eggs and soft-serve with a shot of espresso—as well as twists on familiar favorites, this book about how and why we should picnic. Interpreting the ways in which we can eat outdoors through the eyes of their picnicking heroes, such as Hunter S. Thompson, Mary Berry and Snoop Dogg, the reader will be left with a broadened perception of what a picnic truly is.

If it's a fraction as entertaining as the interview, it will be a very fun read. 

There's a preview of the book available here on Eat Your Books. 

 

Here's a video of Max making the Make a Ham, Egg, and Chips Sandwich from his shop.  

 

https://youtu.be/fsnSvcnrTJM

 

[AAQuesada]

@blue_dolphin My copy of Sonoratown just came in as well. I'm happy to support the restaurant and maybe make the Tortillas! How is the Kinch book? has it been released -I am definitely very curious and interested!

 

@paul o' vendange I love French humor lol -so the Cour de Cuisine came in, you may remember I bought it used on Amazon (condition rated 'Average') and thought nothing of it since the price was so low. Turns out it came from France and was brand new in shrink wrap! shipping from over seas was pretty fast. 

 

[Vapre]

13 hours ago, AAQuesada said:

@blue_dolphin My copy of Sonoratown just came in as well.

Gang, y'all aready got your Somekind releases? Haven't got mine yet.

Maybe it's because I did 4 (Sonoratown, Hop Woo, porridge + puffs, and Kato).

 

Edit: Looks like the holdups are Hop Woo and p + p: https://somekindpress.us/pages/pre-order-book-progress

Edited April 13, 2021 by Vapre
Researched (log)

[AAQuesada]

10 hours ago, Vapre said:

Gang, y'all aready got your Somekind releases?

Oh, nice! you got them all I think Hop  Woo is next on my list. 

[Vapre]

I passed on Holbox and Bub & Grandma’s, otherwise, yes.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

 

[paul o' vendange]

21 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

I’d forgotten it’s out!  Anything he does is gold imo.  Thanks for the reminder.

[Anna N]

11 hours ago, paul o' vendange said:

I’d forgotten it’s out!  Anything he does is gold imo.  Thanks for the reminder.

He was interviewed on CBC today and I was lucky enough to catch it. I’m not much up for cooking at the moment but if I were I would be grabbing this book for sure. 

[blue_dolphin]

Seems to be the peak of springtime cookbook publishing.  In addition to the Eric Ripert book mentioned above, yesterday was pub-day for a number of other cookbooks.  

 

My copy of Los Angeles baker Roxana Jullapat's book Mother Grains (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) arrived and looks good.  It's divided into chapters for barley, buckwheat, corn, oats, rice, rye, sorghum and wheat with an intro to the grain and its products used in baking followed by an assortment of both sweet and savory recipes using that grain. The chocolate chip cookie recipe from the book, including modifications for using each of the mother grains is available online here.  I'm looking forward to learning from the book. 

 

A 10th Anniversary "new edition" of Ferran Adria's Family Meal (eG-friendly Amazon.com link).  Not sure what makes this edition different from the original. 

 

Nigella Lawson's new book, Cook, Eat, Repeat (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) seems to be getting a lot of press. 

 

John and Catherine Pawson, a UK couple who both have careers in design rather than cooking have a stylish-looking cookbook,Home Farm Cooking (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), out from Phaidon, home of stylish-looking cookbooks. 

 

Blogger/YouTube creator, Molly Baz, has a cookbook out, Cook This Book: Techniques That Teach and Recipes to Repeat.  On Amazon's "Look Inside" feature, I noticed that several recipes have QR codes that take you to videos on her site that demonstrate the techniques she's teaching.  I don't think I'm the demographic for this book but it seems like a good way to provide visual instructional content without pages full of tiny photos.

 

Not a cookbook, but very food-related, I'm tempted by Michelle Zauner's memoir, Crying in H Mart (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), an expansion of her New Yorker essay of the same name.  Will ask my library to buy it. 

 

 

 

[Anna N]

I do hope you have better luck with The Family Meal than I did! Or perhaps they have fixed the problems. 
See.
 

Looking forward to the meals that I know you will prepare from these books. Hope both the books and the meals bring you joy. 

[Toliver]

Coming in October:

 

Dorie Greenspan's "Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple" (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

[liuzhou]

Looking forward to reading (inactive) eG member @Carolyn Phillips's new memoir / cookbook, At the Chinese Table: A Memoir with Recipes (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), due June 15, 2021 .

 

[liuzhou]

15 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Is it just me that thinks popcorn is a stretch for vegetables?

 

I think it's a stretch for food!

[liuzhou]

49 minutes ago, Anna N said:

The title is Vegetable Simple so should I be gob smacked when one of the recipes is for green beans with butter? It is almost vegetables 101. Is it just me that thinks popcorn is a stretch for vegetables?

 

One long gone, unlamented legacy member once tried to convince me that mussels were vegetables, as I recall. But that oysters weren't.

Or vice versa.

Also, one website promoted the top 10 vegetarian Chinese dishes. Half of them contained meat or meat by-products.

 

Edited April 23, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

25 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

Amazon cookbook reviews are always a mixed bag but there are quite a few that echo your thoughts, one of them quite thorough and well-written. 

Even though I did not expect to be cooking from the book I could not resist and did buy the Kindle edition. It’s very strange to me. But I think that one should have some realistic expectations from a book with “simple” in the title. It’s just hard to put simple and Ripert together. But there can be no doubt in anyone’s mind about his intentions.

 

The head note for his recipe for stuffed cabbage reads as follows:

 

There is an exception to every rule, and this recipe, contrary to the title of the book, isn’t actually that simple. In fact, it requires quite a lot of attention. This classic French stuffed cabbage is a staple in the winter. Here, the obvious twist on the classic is that there is no meat. However, it’s packed with flavor and making it comes with the added bonus of mastering a complex recipe—your guests will be dazzled!

[weinoo]

If Sokolov can write "How to Cook," Eric can write "Vegetable Simple."

 

I wonder if canola oil is the oil of choice at Le Bernardin the restaurant?

 

It appears to be such a simple book, he may be making it as easy as possible for people easing into cooking vegetables.

 

In the 1998 Le Bernardin Cookbook (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), for sautéing "thin pieces of fish," corn oil is used. Not butter nor olive oil. 

 

In 2010, however, Avec Eric (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) proposes the use of canola.

 

In this video, he uses "vegetable" oil; once again, no butter nor olive oil.

 

 

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

Perfectly cooked green beans dressed with butter can be sublime and perhaps that is the message of the book. 

 

As some/many French cooks have been doing and telling us about for a long time.

Perfectly cooked being the operative phrase. As Jacques mentions...

 

 

 

 

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, weinoo said:

Perfectly cooked

I believe that Jacques and I concur in what we mean by perfectly cooked. Eric, in his new book, calls for the beans to be cooked in boiling water (for about 5 minutes), drained and dressed with butter. This is an even simpler method than offered by Jacques. The timing In my experience would produce perfectly cooked green beans (the operative word being “about”).

[weinoo]

Both of those cooks would really tell us to “cook them till they’re done.”

[JoNorvelleWalker]

47 minutes ago, weinoo said:

Both of those cooks would really tell us to “cook them till they’re done.”

 

Neither of them would probably care much for Jo's 30 second green beans.  Green beans are on the menu for tomorrow night.

 

 

[weinoo]

8 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Neither of them would probably care much for Jo's 30 second green beans.  Green beans are on the menu for tomorrow night.

 

 

 

Nor would I! How do you cook green beans in 30 seconds? (that's the setup!).

[JoNorvelleWalker]

9 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

Nor would I! How do you cook green beans in 30 seconds? (that's the setup!).

 

Fissler Vitaquick and timer traceable to NIST.

 

 

 

Old picture from the night the Darto warped.  (They were that fast.)

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

On the subject of my gag reflex, Ripert torches poor innocent vegetables.  Vegetable Simple is on its way back to amazon.  In twenty something years Vegetable Simple is the first amazon book I have returned.

 

 

[Katie Meadow]

Perfectly cooked is only half the trick. Note that Jacques tosses off the words "fresh from the garden" as if we all have our plot just outside the kitchen screen door. Getting fresh tender and tasty beans is at least half the battle. Mediocre beans do better the long-cooked southern way with something porky and ripe tomatoes.

 

One thing I didn't know: beans no longer have strings. No wonder my husband is so fast at string bean prep.

[Toliver]

To be released on Nov. 9th...

 

Rose Levy Beranbaum's "The Cookie Bible" Kindle Edition (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)