Here are the nine cookbooks, with my homemade binder of "Fa
1. The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (2011) by the Editors at America's Test Kitchen
If I'm having to rely on just one cookbook, this is it. They packed 2,000 recipes into this baby by replacing the introductory essays that accompanied each recipe in the "Best Recipe" series with a short paragraph on "why this recipe works" in this more than four-and-a-half pound behemoth. The trial-and-error discussion in the older books occasionally contained some interesting information, but it got repetitive, and the sheer number and variety of recipes (everything from appetizers to desserts and beverages) packed into this volume makes it the most useful Cook's Illustrated cookbook of all. And, of course, the recipes, though fussy, are unusually reliable. Also on the plus side is that the book was released in 2011, before Cook's Illustrated started recycling dishes they'd already covered, with seemingly more bizarre approaches each time. Picking one standout recipe from this smorgasbord of goodness is impossible, but our family will forever be grateful for the Potato Gnocchi that are high on everyone's list of favorite dishes.
2. The Zuni Cafe Cookbook (2002) by Judy Rodgers
This is the polar opposite of The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook—chatty recipes with a very individualized point of view, as opposed to the Cook's Illustrated recipes, which tend towards a more objective perspective due to the assimilation of feedback from tasting panels throughout the testing process. It takes 50 pages to get to the first recipe, including an introduction describing Rodgers' history and her journey towards the Zuni Cafe in San Francisco. Even better is the 20-page essay called "What to Think About Before You Start, & While You Are Cooking," which should be required reading for every home cook. The signature recipe, and the best way I know to make and enjoy chicken, is the Zuni Roast Chicken with Bread Salad (progenitor of the "Judy-Bird" dry-brined turkey). The Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes are also fabulous, as is the Pasta with Tuna and Pine Nuts.
3. The Art of Simple Food (2007) by Alice Waters
This is an even more fundamental book for beginning cooks. Part I encompasses more than 200 pages and covers "Lessons" such as "Getting Started" ("Ingredients and the Pantry" and "Equipment and Getting Organized"), and "Foundation Recipes" in a variety of categories such as salads, pasta, and desserts. Waters uses the foundation recipes to cover basic kitchen techniques. Part II contains a more traditional set of recipes employing the techniques conveyed in Part I. If The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook is the essential collection of recipes, The Art of Simple Food is the place to start building the knowledge used to make those recipes. The basic Cornbread (with some variations to change it up) is a good example of a simple recipe that works, and tastes, like it's supposed to.
4. Sacramental Magic in a Small-Town Cafe (1994) by Brother Peter Reinhart
This is something else entirely. The subtitle says it all: "Recipes and Stories from Brother Juniper's Cafe." The recipes are good, but the stories are even better. This is just a fun book to read from start to finish. If you make the recipes without reading the introductory stories, you're missing the point. The Spanish Lentil and Sausage Soup is delicious; the Coleslaw is a classic.
5. Cooking for Mr. Latte (2003) by Amanda Hesser
This is another good example of one of my favorite types of "cookbooks." Like "Brother Juniper" and The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz, Cooking for Mr. Latte is more about the stories than the recipes at the end of each chapter. In this case, the book tells the story of Hesser's relationship with Tad Friend (a terrific staff writer for The New Yorker referred to in the book as "Mr. Latte"), from their first date all the way through to their wedding. The recipes here are a lot better than in most books of this sort, though, because Hesser knows her stuff. A former food editor of The New York Times Magazine (where the stories from Mr. Latte were first published as a "Food Diary"), Hesser is also the author of The Essential New York Times Cookbook and the co-founder and CEO of Food52, one of my favorite food websites. We have made two recipes from this book dozens of times each: Haricots Verts with Walnuts and Walnut Oil and Bavette Cacio e Pepe.
6. Pasta e Verdura (1996) by Jack Bishop
Bishop has been part of the Cook's Illustrated team since it was first launched in 1993, but the cookbooks he has written separately, including this one and The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook, which is another winner, bear more of his personal stamp. Pasta e Verdura gathers 140 recipes for pasta dressed with various vegetable sauces, from A (artichokes) to Z (zucchini), with tips on how to select, store, and prepare each of the vegetables. One thing to remember in making the recipes: Bishop says in the pantry section at the beginning of the book that all the recipes were tested with coarse-grained kosher salt, so if you use a fine-grained table salt or sea salt instead, the dishes will be way too salty. We have a lot of pasta dishes in our rotation from this book, including Potato Pasta.
7. Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (2004) by Marcella Hazan
There is plenty of pasta (over a hundred pages worth) in this one as well, but Hazan's book is a much more comprehensive treatment of Italian cooking, covering everything from appetizers through dessert, including a Walnut Cake that Amanda Hesser made for Mr. Latte. This is the book that contains "the most famous tomato sauce on the internet"—Hazan's Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter—which is the "unsurpassed sauce" for our beloved Potato Gnocchi. I have to laugh every time I see the sauce discussed on the internet because there is always some philistine who leaves a comment saying it tastes like Chef Boyardee.
8. Made in India (2015) by Meera Sodha
This is the most recent of the nine cookbooks to make the list. This is the cookbook that's so good I gave it to Uncle Clint for his birthday in late July, and he'd already decided by early September that I needed a copy for my birthday ... and now Dylan is getting one for Christmas, too. I have a long list of things I want to try, but the Chana Masala is fabulous (much better with dried chickpeas).
9. Flavor Flours (2014) by Alice Medrich
Alice Medrich does for gluten-free desserts what she's previously done for chocolate. Instead of using a gluten-free flour blend like most others who've approached the subject, Medrich concentrates on one grain or nut at a time (rice, oat, corn, buckwheat, teff, sorghum, etc.). The results are uniformly excellent, including a great version of her famous Queen of the Nile cake and some really good Almond and Brown Rice Brownies.
Update: Cassie wins the special treat.
Because your birthday is 9/9!
ReplyDeleteWe have a winner! Mom is going to be so sad when she sees Cassie's prize, since she had the first shot at answering the question but didn't know me as well as her own daughter.
DeleteBecause you're still nine years old at heart
ReplyDeleteA good answer, but your sister beat you to the right one.
Delete