Best of
Cuisine

2021

To Asia, with Love: Everyday Asian Recipes and Stories from the Heart


Hetty McKinnon - 2021
    McKinnon grew up in a home filled with the aromas, sights, and sounds of her Chinese mother’s cooking. These days she strives to recreate those memories for her own family—and yours—with traditional dishes prepared in non-traditional ways. It’s a sumptuous collection of creative vegetarian recipes featuring pan-Asian dishes that anyone can prepare using supermarket ingredients.Readers will learn how to make their own kimchi, chilli oil, knife-cut noodles, and dumplings. They’ll learn about the wonder that is rice and discover how Asian-inspired salads are the ultimate crossover food. McKinnon offers tips for stocking your modern Asian pantry and explores the role that sweetness plays in Asian cultures. Her recipes are a celebration of the exciting and delicious possibilities of modern Asian cooking—from Smashed Cucumber Salad with Tahini and Spicy Oil, and Finger-lickin’ Good Edamame Beans with Fried Curry Leaves, to Springtime Rolls with Miso Kale Pesto and Tamarind Apple Crisp. Featuring big, powerful flavours created from simple, fresh ingredients, these recipes are firmly rooted in the place where east meets west and where tradition charts the journey to the modern kitchen.

One: Pot, Pan, Planet: A greener way to cook for you, your family and the planet


Anna Jones - 2021
    These super varied every night recipes celebrate vegetables and deliver knock-out flavour but without taking time and energy.There are one-tray dinners, like a baked dahl with tamarind-glazed sweet potato, quick dishes like tahini broccoli on toast, one-pot soups and stews like Persian noodle as well as one-pan fritters and pancakes such as golden rosti with ancho chilli chutney. One brings together a way of eating that is mindful of the planet. Anna gives you practical advice and shows how every small change in planning, shopping and reducing waste will make a difference. There are also 100 recipes for using up any amount of your most-eaten veg and ideas to help you use the foods that most often end up being thrown away.This book is good for you, your pocket and the planet.

Flavors of the Sun: The Sahadi’s Guide to Understanding, Buying, and Using Middle Eastern Ingredients


Christine Sahadi Whelan - 2021
    Urfa pepper. Halvah. Pomegranate molasses. Preserved lemons. The seasonings, staples, and spice blends used throughout the Middle East offer deliciously simple ways to transform food—once you know how to use them. In FLAVORS OF THE SUN, the people behind the iconic Brooklyn market Sahadi's showcase the versatility of these ingredients in over 120 everyday dishes, including starters, salads, soups, family-friendly meals, and desserts. With sections devoted to recipes boasting Bright, Savory, Spiced, Nutty, and Sweet accents, it offers inspiration, techniques, and intensely flavorful ways to use everything from Aleppo pepper to za'atar with confidence. Throughout, "no-recipe recipes" help build up your flavor intuition so you can effortlessly incorporate any of the featured spices, condiments, and preserves into your daily repertoire.120 RECIPES WITH A PUNCH: From an updated take on nachos and mac and cheese to a spectacular pistachio cheesecake and tahini-enriched brownies, FLAVORS OF THE SUN features dozens of the store's most-requested dishes as well as Sahadi family favorites. Simple yet loaded with flavor, these recipes will inspire you to make these distinctive Middle Eastern ingredients essential components of your pantry.OPTIMUM VERSATILITY: Each section addresses a specific flavor profile and offers a set of essential ingredients for achieving it along with helpful tips on how to use them separately or in combination. Look-and-cook mini recipes provide even more ideas for using distinctive ingredients like tahini, Aleppo pepper, and preserved lemons to give a fresh new spin to everything from salad dressings to cocktails.EXPERT KNOWLEDGE: Family owned, Sahadi's has been a beloved resource since its founding by Abrahim Sahadi, an immigrant from Lebanon, more than 100 years ago. Now welcoming a fifth generation into the business, the Sahadi family's authentic imported goods and exhaustive knowledge continue to inspire local chefs and adventurous home cooks to taste and explore the diverse world of Middle Eastern spices and sundries.FOR FANS OF PLENTY: Much like PLENTY, this cookbook dives deep into core ingredients and provides intimate insights into flavorful spice blends like dukkah, berbere, ras el hanout, shawarma spices, and more. Each ingredient profile includes an informative buying guide so you can build your pantry like a pro.Perfect for: home cooks to seasoned chefs; fans of PLENTY; JERUSALEM; SHUK, and ZAHAV; Sahadi's loyal customers; those interested learning about spices and new ways to use them in everyday dishes

Let's Eat Italy!: Everything You Want to Know About Your Favorite Cuisine


François-Régis Gaudry - 2021
    With a mix of gastronomy, food science, history, cultural references, legend, lore, charts, graphs, photos, and illustrations, every one of the 400 pages in Let’s Eat Italy! is an alluring and amusing journey into Italian food.   Readers will find recipes for classic Italian dishes spanning all regions, like pappa al pomodoro, Bolognese, risi e bisi, risotto, focaccia, frittata, and so much more—all accompanied by photos and delightfully entertaining information on the origins and modern uses of the foods. There’s an ode to the panettone, the traditional Christmas sweet delight. A dedication to the magic of basil, Italy’s “royal” herb. A love story between pasta and potatoes that examines the many dishes that marry these two starches in delicious harmony. And, of course, pasta information aplenty; it’s featured in guides like that on the ultimate noodle, spaghetti, which includes all the different forms, the top spaghetti artisans in Italy, and the semolina flour mills and farmers. True Italians speak espresso, so readers will delight in the poster-like graphic that depicts 27 different types of espresso drinks. Tips for the kitchen include cooking beans in a chianti bottle—a trick Tuscan nonnas have been using for ages in the dish known as fagioli al fiasco. Learn how contemporary food trends (like the oh-so-hip orange wine, which Italians have been drinking for nearly 8,000 years) trace their roots to Italy. But the influence of Italian food doesn’t stop at the table—an entire spread looks at the Italian Mafia’s favorite dishes as seen in Hollywood, through the lenses of Scorsese, Leone, and Coppola. Let’s Eat Italy! is a splendid exploration of this beloved cuisine, from pizza to gelato, Milan to Sicily, and from the many kitchens of Italy to your own.

My Shanghai: Recipes and Stories from a City on the Water


Betty Liu - 2021
    “China’s crown jewel” (Vogue), Shanghai is an up-and-coming food destination, filled with restaurants that specialize in international cuisines, fusion dishes, and chefs on the verge of the next big thing. It is also home to some of the oldest and most flavorful cooking on the planet.Betty Liu, whose family has deep roots in Shanghai and grew up eating homestyle Shanghainese food, provides an enchanting and intimate look at this city and its abundant cuisine. In this sumptuous book, part cookbook, part travelogue, part cultural study, she cuts to the heart of what makes Chinese food Chinese—the people, their stories, and their family traditions. Organized by season, My Shanghai takes us through a year in the Shanghai culinary calendar, with flavorful recipes that go beyond the standard, well-known fare, and stories that illuminate diverse communities and their food rituals.Chinese food is rarely associated with seasonality. Yet as Liu reveals, the way the Shanghainese interact with the seasons is the essence of their cooking: what is on a dinner table is dictated by what is available in the surrounding waters and fields. Live seafood, fresh meat, and ripe vegetables and fruits are used in harmony with spices to create a variety of refined dishes all through the year. My Shanghai allows everyone to enjoy the homestyle food Chinese people have eaten for centuries, in the context of how we cook today. Liu demystifies Chinese cuisine for home cooks, providing recipes for family favorites that have been passed down through generations as well as authentic street food: her mother’s lion’s head meatballs, mung bean soup, and weekday stir-fries; her father-in-law’s pride and joy, the Nanjing salted duck; the classic red-braised pork belly (as well as a riff to turn them into gua bao!); and core basics like high stock, wontons, and fried rice.In My Shanghai, there is something for everyone—beloved noodle and dumpling dishes, as well as surprisingly light fare. Though they harken back centuries, the dishes in this outstanding book are thoroughly modern—fresh and vibrant, sophisticated yet understated, and all bursting with complex flavors that will please even the most discriminating or adventurous palate.

French Pastry Made Simple: Foolproof Recipes for Éclairs, Tarts, Macarons and More


Molly Wilkinson - 2021
    Trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, Molly takes the most essential techniques and makes them easy for home bakers, resulting in a collection of simple, key recipes that open up the world of pastry. With friendly, detailed directions and brilliant shortcuts, you can skip the pastry shop and enjoy delicious homemade creations.Master base recipes like 30-minute puff pastry, decadent chocolate ganache and fail-safe citrus curds, and you’re on your way to making dozens of iconic French treats. You’ll feel like a pro when whipping up gorgeous trays of madeleines and decorating a stunning array of cream puffs and éclairs. Along with classics like The Frenchman’s Chocolate Mousse, Profiteroles and Classic Mille-Feuilles, learn to assemble exquisite showstoppers such as Croquembouche and Caramel Mousse Tartelettes with Poached Pears in Ginger. This go-to guide shows you all the tips and tricks you need to impress your guests and have fun with French pastry.

The Emperor's Feast: A History of China in Twelve Meals


Jonathan Clements - 2021
    We follow Chinese flavours to the shores of Europe and America, where enterprising chefs and home cooks created new traditions and dishes unheard of in the homeland.From dim sum to mooncakes to General Tso’s chicken, The Emperor’s Feast shows us that the story of Chinese food is ultimately the story of a nation – not just the one that history tells us, but also the one that China tells us about itself.

Cheese, Wine, and Bread: Discovering the Magic of Fermentation in England, Italy, and France


Katie Quinn - 2021
    Katie Quinn spent months as an apprentice with some of Europe’s most acclaimed experts to study the art and science of fermentation. Visiting grain fields, vineyards, and dairies, Katie brings the stories and science of these foods to the table, explains the process of each craft, and introduces the people behind them. What will keep readers glued to the book like a suspense novel is Katie's personal journey as an expat discovering herself abroad; Katie's vulnerability will turn readers into fans, and they'll finish the book feeling like they're her best friends, trusted with her innermost revelations.In England, Katie becomes a cheesemonger at Neal's Yard Dairy, London’s preeminent cheese shop—the beginning of a journey that takes her from a goat farm in rural Somerset to a nationwide search for innovating dairy gurus.In Italy, Katie offers an inside look at Italian winemaking with the Comellis at their family-owned vineyard in Northeast Italy and witnesses the diversity of vintners as she makes her way around Italy.In France, Katie meets the reigning queen of bread, Apollonia Poilâne of Paris' famed Poilâne Bakery, apprentices at boulangeries in Paris learning the ins and outs of sourdough, and travels the country to uncover the present and future of French bread.Part artisanal survey, part travelogue, and part cookbook, featuring watercolor illustrations and gorgeous photographs, Cheese, Wine, and Bread is an outstanding gastronomic tour for foodies, cooks, artisans, and armchair travelers alike.