by Sam Tackeff | May 18, 2015 | Books
Hello! We are in full springtime mode here in New England. Things are starting to feel right again. I’ve been walking everywhere as much as possible, riding around the city with Hubway (Boston’s bike share program), wandering, and exploring. My weekends have been consumed mostly with cooking, reading books, and triathlon training, which is pretty much exactly how I want a weekend to be spent.
This week, instead of dreary lunch hours, I ate out with co-workers – a lobster roll eaten on the greenway! – grabbed a green juice with lemon at The Juicery, went for several brisk walks, listened to podcasts, met a friend for a Pimento cheese at the Clover truck, and picked up a new library book (Amarcord, by Marcella Hazan). It just feels so good to be able to be outside and doing things again.
Now, cookbooks. Where shall we start? First, I must mention that I won a contest that has left me rich in tea, teapots, and olive oil, rice, and generally speaking a number of California goodies. After pre-ordering my friend Annelies’ new cookbook Steeped, all about cooking with tea, I entered a raffle with the publisher, Andrews McMeel, and won! The cookbook is really just as lovely as I expected it to be. Shiny and pretty on the outside (it would make a great gift), it’s full of unexpected tea related recipes – including many dishes that I’ve book marked to try: Earl Grey Yogurt Parfaits, Chamomile Corn Chowder, Forbidden Chai Horchata, Cauliflower steaks with tea umami sauce, and California tea leaf salad to name a few.
Fortified with my new tea stash, and after several triathlon classes (a duathlon last weekend, and a sprint tri this weekend) as one does?!, I spent the rest of my past few weekends reading through several of my new acquisitions.
The top of the stack there is my friend Adeline’s new cookbook: Global Meatballs. We met in San Francisco, just around the time that she started working for Tartine bakery. Which, on that note, did you see the news a few weeks ago about the Tartine and Blue Bottle deal? I must admit that I was gobsmacked. Adeline’s blog, Kitchen Roots, highlights her vegetable forward cooking style, and is a total pleasure to read. She has a lot of paleo and generally dairy-free recipes, but the focus is on vegetables! Which, of course, go particularly well with the dinner-time favorite: meatballs! Some of the recipes I put in my notes to try include the lamb meatballs with baked yogurt sauce, pistachio lamb meatballs with sweet and sour pomegranate glaze (I really love lamb!), and Scandinavian fiskeboller. There are actually a large selection of vegetarian balls in here as well. Good stuff!
Below Global Meatballs, we have James Ramsden’s Love Your Lunchbox, lunch, of course, being my favorite meal, and a few forays into modern cuisine and culinary theory with Cook It Raw, a retrospective book of the annual avant-garde chef gathering, and Christian Puglisi’s Relae: A Book of Ideas (so much in here!)
Vegetables really have been at the top of mind, because I took the plunge and re-signed up for my favorite work-share farm CSA again this year. Unlike the urban CSAs where a sanitized box is dropped off at your house, this farm requires that you actually come *pick* about half of your weekly (or bi-weekly share). While I don’t really have the time or resources to garden on a regular basis, I’ve been yearning for time spent in the dirt. I’ve already started stocking up on Ziplocks, pyrex, old yogurt containers, and plastic bags to deal with my forthcoming haul. In anticipation of a glut of vegetables, I read through Sarah Britton’s My New Roots, and have been thrilled with the truly phenomenal a modern way to eat by Jamie Oliver protegé Anna Jones. It’s currently making the rounds on the food blogs, and for good reason. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy this cookbook.
And finally, one last book to note: the brand new Yogurt Culture by Cheryl Sternman Rule. Cheryl is an internet friend who I was longing to meet in real life – and finally had the pleasure to last week on her book tour! This was another first for me – I finally made my way in to Boston’s very own cookbook shop – Farm & Fable. (Long story short, before working in startups in Boston, my dream had been to open my own cookbook store – when Farm & Fable managed to beat me to it. I had spent a year fretting about going in, thinking that I might have a meltdown, but not only was it lovely, but now I can’t even be grumpy anymore, because Abby Ruettgers, the owner, is pretty much the best.) If you like yogurt, you must buy this book.
Happy week! What have you been cooking?
by Sam Tackeff | Jun 18, 2014 | Photography, Salads
Just a few images that I’ve been sitting on. These cookbooks ^ bringing in summer.
This lovely lady below, who just was featured in Food + Wine (her portrait on their site my very first contribution to Food + Wine!)
This summer salad: chopped cucumber, fennel, mint, and feta, with a sprinkle of sumac.
The driveway, in New Hampshire.
This jam that I won from Eat Boutique.
Happy Wednesday!
by Sam Tackeff | Feb 25, 2014 | Baking, Books
There was a period of time in the mid 2000’s when Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts was out of print, and there were rumors of it going for outlandish black market prices. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) it was republished in 2010, before I had to seriously contemplate selling my much loved copy for a large windfall. One of my favorite sections of the cookbook is the chapter on ‘Compotes and Baked Fruit’, because while most of the time I can’t be bothered to make elaborate desserts, cooked fruit is always easy, and feels virtuous.
Crinkly Baked Pears
adapted from Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts
with inspiration from Edible Boston
This recipe, more of a method, quite adaptable too, is for pears, slowly baked in their skins, in a bath of fortified wine, sugar, and spices. Preheat the oven to 300 F. In a shallow ceramic baking dish, mix a cup of Lillet – a citrusy fortified wine*– with half a cup of brown sugar, a cinnamon stick, a small knob of ginger, three or four allspice berries, and a few cloves if you have them. You could also add a strip of lemon zest and some vanilla, but I often make these without. Nestle 6-8 firm Bosc pears in the wine bath, stems up if you can, and bake for about two hours, basting every 15-30 minutes (or however often you’d like a taste of the luscious syrupy goodness) until the pears are tender, and the skins have begun to wrinkle. Remove from the oven, let cool slightly, and serve on their own, or with some ice cream, and plenty of the wine-sugar-syrup. Store the leftovers in the fridge, if you have them and reheat in the morning for a perfect breakfast.
*Sax’s original recipe calls for Marsala or dry red wine, but I opted for the fortified Lillet this go around. I’ve had success with Marsala, and Port as well. I also cut the amount of sugar in the recipe, and substitute brown sugar for white, because I find that brown gives it a little bit more depth of flavor that stands up well to the spices.
by Sam Tackeff | Dec 18, 2013 | Blogging, Books, Gifts, omnivore books
This review was originally published over at Medium – a new-ish publishing platform that I’ve been playing with for the past few weeks. Medium has a clean, streamlined user interface which is quite conducive to both reading, writing and editing. This was my first post on Medium, but I couldn’t help cross posting here as well – it’s too important of a topic for me to leave off of the second lunch.
Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese
When friends create something great — there is the perfect Yiddish word to describe it: naches.
Five years ago, working at Omnivore Books, I started collecting cookbooks in earnest. I do my best to acquire a wide variety of subjects for my collection to learn as much as possible, and while doing so I am picky. I do my research. I avoid superfluous acquisitions. At this point, due to constraints in space and time, every new cookbook needs to matter. At Omnivore, I was in the right place at the right time — surrounded by people who cared about food as much as I did, and my desire for cookbooks became as voracious as my appetite. (It didn’t hurt that I could acquire books at cost — thank you Celia — and received many a review copy). My favorite cookbooks are the ones that tell great stories, are personal, and are unique to a time and a place.
After years of reading brilliant works: Nigel Slater, Paula Wolfert, Melissa Clark, Suzanne Goin, and Patience Grey to name a few, I started getting the itch. I wanted to write my own cookbook. I wanted to contribute to the literary canon. To write a cookbook you need a topic, an outline, and a collection of recipes. To write a great cookbook, you need a purpose, a sense of wonder, passion, and adventure, work ethic, and commitment to creating something truly marvelous. You need community — the people around you are just as much a part of the story. Anyone can write a cookbook, but to write a great cookbook takes so much more. For me, the task seemed daunting. After fretting about the magnitude of taking on a cookbook, I decided to repress my urges.
Over the past year, several of my acquaintances and friends have had proposals accepted, their first cookbooks published, and have even made the New York Times and Amazon bestseller lists. The flickering desires may be returning.
———
I met Stephanie Stiavetti in 2009, soon after I moved to the West Coast — I remember it vividly: I was invited to wine dinner at a swank San Francisco restaurant where I knew no one, and immediately felt awkward walking through the door. Wide-eyed and a little panicked, I stepped out into the hallway to breathe and there was this tiny force who saved me from loneliness. Her blog was called Wasabimon (now The Culinary Life), and I knew immediately that I’d like her. We passionately discussed food, technology, family, and then somehow this new acquaintance in an instant became a dear friend. It wasn’t until after I left San Francisco that I started reading Garrett’s blog — this too I remember clearly, because I read a single weekly post and proceeded to start right from the beginning and read the blog for hours over the course of a weekend like a novel. (Incidentally, I love doing this, but I feel like most bloggers would cringe at the thought of someone reading a post of theirs from five years back.)
When Stephanie and Garrett sold their proposal, I was thrilled! And, yet, I’ll be quite honest here: when I heard that it was going to be about macaroni and cheese, I was skeptical. There’s a fine line with monographs — single subject cookbooks have a tendency to be flash in the pan, trendy topics that end up remaindered. The lucky ones though, rise as the true authority on the topic, and these are the ones that I spend a good amount of time trying to collect. [Spoiler alert: Melt is the latter].
Melt isn’t really a book about macaroni and cheese. It’s a book about cheese, about discovery, and pushing boundaries in the kitchen. It’s a book for people who truly love food, who will seek out new flavors, and take risks. The recipes, while many of them are quite simple to make, are new, innovative, and may even seem a little bizarre. Risk in a cookbook is hard — as a home cook with a new book in hand you have to place a good deal of trust in the author. And with these two, I do.
At the core of this book is cheese. And it comes at a good time — cheese lovers these days have much to get excited about. In Boston, we are truly lucky to have Formaggio Kitchen in the neighborhood, where Ishan Gurdal and his family have been building something very special these past twenty years. Formaggio is one of my second homes; their cheese cave rivals none.
For those not lucky enough to live by big city shops, no longer does one have to suffer with supermarket brick cheese as the primary option — many of the great cheesemongers including Formaggio, Murray’s, and Zingerman’s will ship. (I’d be remiss not to mention that Kirsten Jackson, who helped develop many of the pairings in this cookbook book has just started her own cheese of the month club.)
Photos shot and styled by the talented Matt Armendariz /Adam Pearson— make every recipe stand out
The truth is, I don’t usually write much about cookbooks because reviews make me nervous. To do a book justice, you have to write critically — and writing critically of people you hero-worship is a challenge. But here I’ll try to do my best, to share a taste of the cookbook, and the recipes within.
Melt is divided into five main chapters — the first one is 25 pages about the basics — how cheese is made, types of cheese, sourcing cheese, cooking with cheese, pasta, and cooking methods. The second chapter is completely devoted to salads with cheese and pasta. The third ‘Stovetop Delights’ has many of the more classic recipes you’d think of as macaroni and cheese. There are hearty recipes, and a chapter of desserts.
Each recipe has suggestions for alternative cheeses, wine pairings, and additional pairings for the cheese. The breadth of information in this book is quite impressive, but to give a better picture, I cooked through several recipes.
———
After reading through Melt from cover to cover, the first recipe that I tried was one of Garrett’s (the two split headnote writing duties) — soba noodles with parmesan and pan-seared brussels sprouts (pictured up top), one of those dishes that I almost always have the ingredients for: soba, oil, brussels sprouts, salt, pepper, chili flakes, garlic, and cheese. I loved the recipe because it was simple — and lately simple has been all that I’ve had time to make.
The case at Formaggio Kitchen
After the first attempt was a success — I wanted to push the boundaries a little bit, explore new cheeses I hadn’t tried. There are flavor combinations in Melt that are unlike anything I’ve ever tasted, and so many of them looked enticing. Would it be the chocolate pasta with Bucherondin, hazelnuts, and cherries? Or the Rogue River Blue with crab sauce over fettucine which looked awfully good, as did the Beecher’s Flagship Cheddar, with avocado, lime, and shell pasta. And then there was the Roquefort macaroni with beets, shallots, and poppy seeds. Or maybe thepaneer korma with idiyappam noodles. And then there were the smoked Idiazabal mason-jar potpies with lamb and tomato sauce. These were so cute, I couldn’t stand it.
I finally landed on a dish that was too exciting to pass up: the chicken breast stuffed with Leonora goat cheese, star pasta, and crushed gingersnaps. Leonora was a new-to-me cheese, a citrus-y goat cheese from the Léon region of Spain. The headnote, Stephanie’s this time, was alluring — magical.
The only tweak I made was to use chicken thighs instead of breasts, because, well, I think that white meat chicken is a waste of time, and the thighs are so much more robust. Heh.
Leonora cheese
Leonora, Rosemary and Gingersnaps
Chicken stuffed with Leonora cheese, rosemary, orzo, and gingersnaps.
I admit that while making this recipe, I was nervous— sure everything smelled delicious, but could I convince my better half that a dish that included a good amount of pungent goat cheese rind (you keep it in), and crushed cookies would actually be edible? Knowing that perception is half the battle, I decided to bite my tongue and just serve our meal. We tucked in, the bowls were finished, and the only critique being that the meal was a tad rich. (In my excitement, I had neglected to cook any vegetables.) Score #2 for my testing.
Another evening, the weather was cold, and I decided to try the tomato soup with star pasta and Vella dry jack crisps. I couldn’t find Vella Jack anywhere, so I ended up making the crisps with parmesan, one of the suggested alternatives. Normally when I want tomato soup, I take a jar of Rao’s tomato sauce, and thin it down with a little water. It does the trick, but comes at a steep cost, as Rao’s is priced high enough to put one into debt, quickly. This recipe was easy to make, getting depth of flavor from roasting canned tomatoes in the oven before starting the soup.
The cheese crisps too are remarkably easy: preheat the oven to 350 degrees, line a baking tray with parchment or a silicon mat, and bake little mounds of shredded cheese for 13-15 minutes until they crisp up. (I only had foil, and this still worked brilliantly.)
After three successes, and so many more recipes that I’d like to try, I’m able to say confidently that this book is well worth the purchase. It’d make a nice addition to the piles of cookbooks you’ll be giving underneath the Christmas tree. Or maybe consider it for a late Hanukkah gift. Or New Years. Or screw gift giving, and buy it for yourself.
What I’m even more excited about is that this is the very beginning — I’m already looking forward to the next volumes of Stephanie and Garrett that will grace my shelves.
Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese
by Stephanie Stiavetti and Garrett McCord
Published by Little, Brown and Company
224 pages
by Sam Tackeff | Apr 10, 2013 | Books
I was listening to NPR last week in the car on the way to the gym – that’s when I do the bulk of my NPR listening – and the oddest piece was on ‘This American Life‘ about people who get a tingle feeling in their brain from listening to whispering and other noises. This tingle has a name – it’s called “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response” or ASMR for short. And apparently some folks with ASMR get so addicted to the tingle that they spend a lot of time actively seeking out videos that activate said tingling. Which, curiously, has led to the proliferation of whispered “haul videos” where bloggers (vloggers?) go over a haul of things which they just purchased, except in a whispered voice.
So after listening to this story, and poking around the internet for more ASMR videos, I realized that I have the tingle. But apparently I just hadn’t noticed it very often – but now that I know what it is, I definitely do, and it’s weird. Whispering will set it off, but so does the whistling of my old metal heaters, and a host of other sounds. I don’t know how I feel about this new realization – I’m just glad I don’t feel obsessed to watch hours of videos every day to activate it.
Where am I going with this? Oh, yes. Haul videos. Okay, so here’s my version of the haul – cookbooks. I’m not going to whisper them to you, but here’s my most recent acquisitions, from a trip to the glorious (and very dangerous) New England Mobile Book Fair. It’s not actually mobile. It’s a bookstore full of new, old, and obscure books housed in a warehouse. They have a massive amount of cookbooks, including a huge selection of remaindered and out of print titles. Usually when I purchase cookbooks these days, it’s older books which are out of print, or UK titles that haven’t come out in the states yet.
{FYI – this is what your photos turn out like if you try to balance on a rolling office chair to take a shot.}
1. Alan Davidson ‘Mediterranean Seafood’. This came out in the early ’70’s, and is a useful compendium of seafood, part encyclopedia, with a handful of recipes. I’m a sucker for the more ‘educational’ title like this one.
2. ‘Kettle Broth to Gooseberry Fool’ – Jenny Baker. I was unfamiliar with Jenny Baker, but enticed by this little book of simple English cooking.
3. ‘Honey & Spice: A Nutritional Guide to Natural Dessert Cookery’ – Lorena Laforest Bass. This one will sit on my shelf next to my worn ‘Laurel’s Kitchen’, and Tassajara cookbooks. Nothing quite like the late 70’s/early 80’s hippy genre – mostly because I find myself actually inspired to cook from these titles. They were on top of the home made Lara Bar before I was even born.
4. ‘Nothing Fancy’ – Diana Kennedy. Diana Kennedy is one of my heroes, and I hadn’t seen this one before. There’s one review on Amazon for this book – “The recipes are unusual and not what I would cook. It is fancy. This book is mis-titled. The title does not tell how the recipes are.” Clearly the reviewer would not enjoy Diana’s most recent ‘Oaxaca al Gusto’ either.
5. ‘Stephanie’s Seasons’ – Stephanie Alexander. I’ve been on the hunt for an inexpensive copy of Stephanie Alexander’s ‘The Cooks Companion” for quite some time now, but this is a nice consolation prize. Similar to my favorite cookbook of all time (Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries), this cookbook is a snapshot of her year in food.
6. ‘Uncommon Fruits & Vegetables’ – Elizabeth Schneider. Another encyclopedic food book that I’m so fond of. I loved recommending this title at Omnivore, and finally came around to getting myself a copy.
7. ‘Cézanne: A Taste of Provence’ – Naudin, Plazy, Saulnier. One of my favorite cookbooks growing up was Monet’s Table, and since then I’ve actively tried to collect books about artists and food. Artists, who operate with a higher level of criticism of the world, tend to be highly opinionated about cuisine.
8. ‘Bought, Borrowed and Stolen’ – Allegra McEvedy. Allegra was one of the founding members of Leon, a healthy restaurant empire in the UK. This cookbook is about her extensive traveling, collecting knives!, recipes, and stories from around the world.
9. ‘Leon: Family & Friends‘ – Kay Plunkett-Hogge. Leon, the aforementioned restaurant in the UK has their newest cookbook out, and it’s just as stellar as the previous three. (Some of my favorite cookbooks!) I’ve already spent a good deal of time flipping through this and using it as inspiration for dinners. Highly recommended!
10. ‘Foods I Love’ – Neil Perry. I love Neil Perry’s style, and this book is full of simple recipes with detailed explanation of technique and variation.
I read cookbooks like novels, and I’ve already made my way through half of these. All great so far! What are your most recent cookbook acquisitions?
