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Serious Eats rounds up the best cookbooks of 2012
With some picks from yours truly!
Serious Eats rounds up the best cookbooks of 2012
Back in the days when Drew was still running the show here at Meal Ticket I had a different food-related gig going on. For the past four years I was the official "cookbook czarina" at Serious Eats, a job that entailed vetting recipes from newly published cookbooks and sharing my experiences on the site.
Now that the bulk of my meals take place in restaurants and my fridge is perennially bare and recipe testing is a distant memory it's easy to forget that I spent the first half of 2012 cooking my way through all sorts of cooking, baking and cocktail books.
Being that it's end of the year best-of list time Kate Williams, my cookbook successor has put together a top ten that includes some of my favorite picks, all of which are perfect gift-giving material.
Eat with Your Hands by Zakary Pelaccio
There aren't too many cookbooks out there that are peppered with the F-word, but Eat with Your Hands by Zakary Pelaccio, the leader of the Fatty family of restaurants—including Fatty Crab, Fatty 'Cue, and Fatty Snack—is at the top of that list. Eat with Your Hands is a guide to replicating Pelaccio's cool take on Southeast Asian eating at home. It is unique but also accessible, written in a tone that makes even the most exotic ingredient or unfamiliar technique seem doable, and fun even. Eat with Your Hands also annotates each recipe with not only a beverage pairing but also suggested listening.
Asian Tofu by Andrea Nguyen
A whole cookbook devoted to tofu? Yes, please. Andrea Nguyen's Asian Tofu is a gorgeous guide to all things bean curd. Beginning with recipes for making your own tofu at home, Nguyen acts as a guide through the world of tofu enjoyment, a world that goes way beyond tofu's hippie health food staple reputation. She's put together a colorful selection of tofu recipes designed highlight the wonderfully versatile world of bean curd, including dishes as disparate as Fermented Tofu, Lemongrass, and Goat Skewers and Tofu Blancmange with Cured Pineapple and Lime.
My Pizza by Jim Lahey
Revolutionary is a word that gets tossed around a little too frequently in the world of recipe writing. Really, how many recipes are truly revolutionary? Well, Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread really is. It's a recipe that got everyday folks (read apprehensive bakers) into the kitchen with the confidence that they, in fact, could bake really great artisan bread within the confines of their home kitchens. With his 2012 release, My Pizza, Lahey lets all the pizza nerds get in on the no-knead action. The book adapts recipes from his New York pizzeria Co. using his no-knead method. It's full of creative pies topped with gorgeous and unexpected combos like corn and tomato, squash and pumpkin seeds, and brussels sprouts and chestnuts, as the non-pizza offerings that make Co. such a gem.
The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila
Whether to save money or follow the latest trend, making pantry staples from scratch is an exercise de rigueur in many home kitchens these days. And while there were quite a few books offering DIY recipes this year, Alana Chernila's The Homemade Pantry was certainly the most comprehensive. With simple recipes for everything from ketchup and mustard to ricotta and mozzarella, The Homemade Pantry is not only a really fun cookbook, but also a real eye-opener. After all, when was the last time you whipped up a batch of butter at home? It's not only easy but thrilling and not nearly as time-consuming as you'd imagine.
Ripe by Cheryl Sternman Rule
If Skittles hadn't already trademarked the slogan "taste the rainbow," we would be nominating it for Ripe, the produce-centric cookbook from Cheryl Sternman Rule, the voice behind 5 Second Rule. Ripe takes you on a colorful journey through the world of fruits and vegetables, making it a perfect gift for your artistic friend. It begins with reds and pinks (think cranberries, tomatoes, and grapefruits), meanders through oranges and yellows (hello, butternut squash and persimmons), moves onto greens (like kale and favas), blues and purple edibles such as eggplant and blackberries, and ends up in the earthy toned realm of onions and mushrooms. It's not only a gorgeous book, but it's also full of great tips as well.
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