This list is almost embarrassing, but I’ve been on a sort of spree lately.
Plant-Based Himalaya, by Babita Shrestha
Cozy Vegan Pies and Tarts, by Helen Au
Mission Vegan, by Danny Bowien
The Vegan Chinese Kitchen, by Hannah Che
Chinese Homestyle, by Maggie Zhu
I Am From Here, by Vishwesh Bhatt
The Modern Tiffin, by Priyanka Naik
Mumbai Modern, by Amisha Dodhia Gurbani
Nistisima, by Georgina Hayden
Masa, by Jorge Gaviria
The Gracias Madre Cookbook
It’s so nice not to be alone in my addiction.
I’ve been looking at Mission Vegan and Masa. Please let us know what you think when you get around to them.
Masa, by Jorge Gaviria. It’s already indexed in EYB.
I made nixtamal once using hominy corn and lime purchased from Anson Mills, and then went on to make fresh masa and tortillas. It was a revelation…once of the best things I have ever eaten. A long process!
I started buying Masienda masa harina and making masa and tortillas the short way. Their masa harina is delicious. I was excited to hear about the cookbook before it came out earlier this month and caved to buying it right away. The book is beautifully written, with gorgeous photos, wonderful narrative, and great recipes. It will be a couple of weeks before I can delve into it, but I am already committed to nixtalmalization using Masienda heirloom corn in several of the beautiful colors available.
@Aubergine mentioned a book called “Snacking Cakes”, I want that for Christmas. I’ll mention it to my girlfriend and maybe Santa will get it for me.
Last night (after the football game) I had to make up a mini-batch of Chocolate Peanut Butter roll candy, as my girlfriend had a “Chocolate Emergency”. I would have preferred to flip through a cookbook (like Snacking Cakes) and whipped up something different for her.
Snacking Cakes is excellent, the recipes are all one-bowl cakes mixed by hand, designed to be baked in your choice of an 8x8” square, 9” round, or standard 8-cup loaf pan. Nice variety of flavors.
Just today I made the Strawberry-Glazed Passion Fruit Cake from Snacking Cakes. I had made several recipes from the book before - all excellent and easy - but I never would have thought to make that one had not my niece with a preference for fruit flavors chosen it.
Snacking Cakes is one of the few books I want access to when I travel, so I own it in both hard copy and ebook. Great choice for a Christmas request!
This is one of the two recipes I keep repeating from that book. I use a passion fruit glaze instead of strawberry. The other cake I make a lot is the simple sesame cake. It might be my favourite cake.
Voting is underway right for Cookbook of the Month, as well as Cuisine of the Quarter, and Dish of the Quarter — come join in and cook along!
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Two more, both with a Spanish inspiration.
Moro East, by Sam and Sam Clark. I really don’t need another Middle Eastern/Eastern Med cookbook. This one is Spain and the Muslim Mediterranean based on the former East End allotment Manor Garden in London that was bulldozed in 2007 for the 2012 Olympics. Sam and Sam befriended Turks and Cypriots and Kurds who also grew food there. There are some recipes new to me here and the people stories are so interesting, so after I previewed from the library, I “just had” to purchase it used on Amazon (the hardback is selling for $305.61 there; my used was around $30, and worth it to me).
Sephardi: Cooking the History. Recipes of the Jews of Spain and the Diaspora, from the 13th Century to Today Hardcover – June 15, 2021 by Hélène Jawhara Piñer
I have several older Sephardi cookbooks; this is to me an enthralling account of history and recipes. She has a PhD in Medieval History and Food History and this book emerged from her doctoral research, much from original medieval documents.
For example, she cites an original 13th century recipe in Arabic for Peot, a braided bread from Spain (where it was fried) that went with the expelled Spanish Jews in the 15th century through Italy to Eastern Europe, where it blended with Ashkenazi cooking traditions to become the challah we know today.
I previewed this one, too, from the library and it’s now on my Amazon cart “saved for later.” Photographs and writing and recipes are all lovely.
Recently I was wondering about Moro East. Sounded interesting. Have you cooked from any of their other books?
Spurred by recs on a food forum, I checked “Six California Kitchens” (Sally Schmidtt) from the library. I LOVE this book! Other than the minor fact that she became someone, our cooking histories are similar. Learning from the family kitchen, Betty Crocker and Julia, cooking fresh and simple, respecting produce, no nonsense “family and friends” cooking. She and her husband started and outgrew 6 restaurants in the Napa area, finally retiring from the original French Laundry, selling it to Keller.
I think I cooked from the first Moro decades ago. I was an early fan of Paula Wolfert and cooked from all her books “since the beginning.” Then into the Maloufs, Ottolenghi, Honey & Co., Ana Sortun. I thought the later cookbooks were a bit more authentic than Claudia Roden, when she started out as a pioneer for US cookbooks before a lot of the ingredients were readily available.
So I ended up donating the Moro book I had until I became aware of Moro East. It has a particular slant that isn’t covered by all my other Middle Eastern books. All of them are indexed on EYB so you can see the recipes in all even if you aren’t a member.
Moro was a much-loved COTM on Chowhound.
I ordered it many years later, but wasn’t excited by much - maybe it’s just that those flavors and similar dishes are much more mainstream now (or maybe the missing piece was the fun of cooking along with other folks when it was COTM).
As well as recipes I like good stories. Moro East sounded like it might contain them along with the perspective of immigrants to a different region.
Adam Schatz has nice interview with Claudia Roden on his podcast from last year. It’s an hour or so long, but I found it a worthwhile listen. She discusses her childhood in Cairo, as well as her work collecting recipes and so on.
Thank you for this link. This was so interesting. I have 2 of her books I’ve never gotten around to reading. My books are such a mess and in boxes it probably won’t be easy to find them, but I definitely want to read them now.
I finally bought Kachka (Bonnie Frumkin Morales) after having borrowed it a bunch of times from the library.
Also got Chetna’s Easy Baking: With a Twist of Spice (Chetna Makan).
Please let us known what you think of this, when you have a chance to bake from it. I’ve really enjoyed The Cardamom Trail, but there’s a lot more in it that I’d like to explore, beyond the few recipes I’ve made (all of whic( have been lovely).
