April 2023 Cookbook of the Month - Nominations

Time to get going with some nominations for April. April for me brings on a change in my cooking. My CSA starts up at the beginning of the month, so my cooking becomes driven by the produce in the box. I’ll be looking at asparagus, cabbage, lettuces, and of course strawberries. Spring strawberries are maybe a little less special now that local farms are growing berries all year long using day-neutral plants under hoops. But still… I think the seasonal berries taste better. Spring can be a tricky time to navigate our COTM selections, with people in the southern climes ready to jump into produce while those up north are still in stew mode. So what will it be?

To nominate a book, put the title in ALL CAPS in the comments below. Nominations not in all caps will not be counted. You may nominate as many books as you like, but please do so with the intent of cooking along if one of your nominees is selected.

Nominations will close on Monday, March 20, at 9am EDT. After the nominations are tallied, a voting thread will be posted.

To see a list of our previous selections, visit the COTM archive. And remember, there is still plenty of time to participate in the March COTM, Shannon Martinez month.

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POLPO & VENICE by Norman Russell

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DIASPORICAN A PUERTO RICAN COOKBOOK by Illyanna Maisonet

I think this book will be better for summer, but I want to start putting it on the radar now. I AM FROM HERE by Vishwesh Bhatt. Bhatt is the executive chef of Snackbar in Oxford, MS, and won the Best Chef: South James Beard award. The book is organized by ingredient, similar to Vivian Howard’s, but with an Indian twist. I haven’t cooked from it yet, but the food looks immensely appealing.

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SMITTEN KITCHEN KEEPERS by Deb Perelman.
GO-TO DINNERS by Ina Garten.
MESA MEXICANA by Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feiniger.

SMITTEN KITCHEN KEEPERS by Deb Perelman

I was able to get this as an ebook loan from my library … no waiting! … and have been reading through it, really enjoying it!

I AM FROM HERE is nominated.

I love POLPO. If I can get it at the library, then VENICE too.

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I wouldn’t normally think of Italian as great, light Spring fare. But Polpo and Venice are SO summery and fresh to me. I am thinking of some of his white anchovy dishes and his other seafood dishes. Like the scallops in their shells and stuff. And plus, he has some great Italian cocktails as well.

I’m going to dig a little deep. These are books I haven’t used in a while, never got very deep into, or never cooked from at all. Each one remains appealing and worthy of a revisit or deeper exploration.
ISRAELI SOUL
SABABA
A UPSETTING BOOK ABOUT SANDWICHES
FRESH INDIA
ADVENTURES IN STARRY KITCHEN
CHEERS TO THE PUBLICAN

ISRAELI SOUL is a great book.

I second SMITTEN KITCHEN KEEPERS and
GO TO DINNERS
as I have been on the library hold list for SKK
and am getting close to my turn
and got GTD as a gift and need inspiration to find something to make so I can thank the giver

I also have CHEERS TO THE PUBLICAN.

@articshark, have you cooked from Venice? If we do Polpo and Venice, I would mainly be cooking from the latter because I cooked soooo much from Polpo when it COTM before that there just isn’t much new for me to try in there.

I have cooked a few things. I did the polenta triangles with various toppings. I LOVED the mushroom one. And I served them at a large party an everyone LOVED them. I have to go dig out the cookbook and look through.

I know, I’ve cooled from Polpo so much as well. But weirdly, there are dishes I still haven’t made. I would probably split my time. I can taste the battle of two Risi e Bisi in my near future.

I am extending nominations until 5pm tonight. Right now we have a lot of nominations, but little consensus, and I don’t really want to put 5 books with two nominations each into the voting round.

And I’ll go ahead and throw in for POLPO & VENICE.

For any of you who weren’t around in the Chowhound days, Polpo was probably the most popular COTM of all time. I cooked over 30 recipes from it, all fantastic. Completely unexpected, because at first glance the book didn’t seem particularly exciting. But it had a way of drawing us all in, and once you got started, you would see the genius in it and just want to keep cooking and cooking.

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Slightly sad that my library doesn’t have Venice. Still, plenty to make from Polpo.

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Mine doesn’t either, but based on my experience with Polpo, I’m willing to buy the book. IIRC, when Polpo was COTM I started off with a library copy, but quickly decided the book was worth the price.