In the I’m so busted thread, I confessed to my desire, interest and addiction to buying cookbooks. It gives me great joy, but also takes up a lot of room.
Was just wondering which new to you cookbooks you may have acquired recently that you’re particularly happy with.
Some of my new ones are the updated Land of Plenty by FD, The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking by Barbara Tropp and Fresh India by Meera Sodha. Although I haven’t cooked out of them yet, all of them are impressive IMO. Oh, and Flour, which knocks my socks off. I have a couple more on the way, including Meera Sodha’s first book, an M Jaffrey book and Turquoise by Greg Malouf of the former duo who wrote Hot, Sour, Sweet and Salty. Evidently they split a while back.
Thanks to Christina M (Meera Sodha)and Saragema (M Jaffrey) for the Indian books rec.
How about you guys - bought anything recently?
ETA, was just about to pull the trigger on Flour Too, but looked through the Kindle version I have, and will just stick with that. It has mostly breakfast, lunch and dinner type options which looked good but not amazing, and didn’t seem to have a lot of recipes. I’ve been making her banana bread for years and now it’s the only recipe I use for that.
For you in the Boston area, have you been to her bakeries/cafes and if so, what did you think?
I, like you, had a bit of a cookbook problem. I think I currently have over 300 cookbooks. I love reading them, flipping through them, looking at the pics, and reading the recipes. I had to just try to stop cold turkey - and I’ve done pretty well.
The last cookbook I purchased was . . . (a little embarrassed to admit on here) . . . . Modernist Bread. It is great resource and I need to cook out of it more.
I was recently gifted a couple of cookbooks from friends (past few days so its okay that I haven’t cooked from them yet).
Oaxen Adieu and Swedish Fika - both Swedish books (the first more of a food memoir with recipes, the second a more traditional cookbook).
Do you read Swedish? I believe Oaxen Adieu doesn’t have an English version. Are the recipes for restaurants or are they suitable for home cooking? Ate at one of the Oaxen restaurants back in 2015.
I’ve been eyeing at another Swedish book Året På Gastrologik for a while, I like the style of the chefs, but the book is only available in Swedish and I don’t have the courage!
The problem, I have as more magazines than books, how the mags multiply in months! These days I’m only getting ebooks (search rules!), unless the books worth a physical copy.
I do not read Swedish - don’t even speak it. The book is dual language (both Swedish and English in the same book). I just received it a few weeks ago, so haven’t cooked from it - and really only flipped through it so far.
The ingredient lists look small but I haven’t gotten into techniques yet. So not sure how doable they are at home yet.
Why - it is a great cookbook (set) with tons of information and recipe, similar to the original one ? Looking forward to the next Modernist set hopefully soon
They are great, I love flipping through them and the level of detail is amazing. But, they are insanely expensive for a home baker (IMHO) - not saying the amount of research and even production doesn’t warrant the price tag, but for a cost per use standpoint . . . . its a lot. Recently I’ve been reevaluating where my “fun” money goes, so I guess my priorities have shifted slightly since I bought them, thus the little embarrassment . . . . But they are beautiful (and full of an insane amount of information) and I’m not getting rid of them!
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
13
Recent acquisitions:
Saffron Tales - Yasmin Khan. Excellent on Iranian dishes.
Taverna - Georgina Heyden. Not yet read but anything on Cypriot food is worth a read.
Made at Home - Giorgio Locatelli. Always worth a look. And his restaurant was OK when we visited some years back.
And a couple bought for next to nothing at the remainder shop. And I’m afraid you can see why they were remaindered. Pinch of Nom - Allinson & Featherstone. The Big Family Cooking Showdown - Shrager (an awful book from the even more awful TV series)
Greg Malouf was not married to Naomi Duguid. That was Jeffrey Alford. He was married to Lucy Malouf, with whom he wrote a number of books. Hot Sour Salty Sweet was by Duguid and Alford.
I haven’t bought a new cookbook in, maybe, 5 years, but got sucked in on this hopefully practical book on pizza and flatbreads.
Following my current mandate, I took it out of the library first and then decided I needed to keep it. Wild stuff like dropping ice cubes on an undressed pizza before putting in the oven, mixing up the resulting sludge on top, adding salt and pepper for a caccio e pepe pizza. Huh? Oooookay.
I stand corrected @Zataar and thanks for pointing it out! I should have known it as I have some of their books, respectively. I also made a cookbook error on the slow cooker thread, which I corrected yesterday.
There are several former couples out there with books. Easy to confuse them.
I love the Malouf books!
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
18
Father Christmas brought Saliha Ahmed’s Khazana. Subtitled “A treasure trove of modern Mughal dishes”. Should be fun.
Ahmed was the surprising (to me) winner of the BBC Masterchef series in 2017. She is a doctor by profession and my recollection was that she was interested in “healthy” food which makes a book on Mogul cuisine an interesting one. The Moguls were not known for their restraint in anything and my expectation would be that the food is very rich.
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Presunto
(Return To (durian) Paradise ~ Pulau Pinang 2001-2025 ... [Fleeced Taxpayer :@)) :@)) ])
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Apologies. My ignorance is staggering. At first I thought “what is this cuisine and skiing?”.
And then you wrote
This describes me! Now I’m intrigued. Cook the book and educate me.
