New Smitten Kitchen Book; Kenji's Kids Book
Plus Samin Nosrat launches a podcast.
Howdy cookbook fans!
Sorry for disappearing on you like that. I’ve been out sick—not corona-related, but still a very stressful time to be sick! Anyway, back at it this week with a ton of news to get to, so here we go. I hope you’re hanging in there. I was lucky enough to be on the Cookbook Love Podcast, so go listen to that if you like. Plus we have a recipe from Irina Georgescu’s gorgeous new book, Carpathia. It’s about Romanian food and the recipe is for a bean dip with caramelized onions. I think the world needs more bean dip right about now, don’t you? Now for the good news!!
Deb Perelman Announces New Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
Deb Perelman aka the blogger/recipe developer behind Smitten Kitchen has announced a third cookbook in the works. I reached out to Perelman for more info and she told me:
I am very slow at writing books. My first book came out in 2012, my second in 2017, this will likely be out in the fall of 2022 — 5 years between each. It gives me a lot of time to think about where I am and where I'd like this book to be. For this third book, I've been thinking about how there's a lot of recipe noise out there. There are more places cranking out food content™ than ever. But the right recipe is an oasis in a storm, the place where you can stop scrolling the feed and close the browser. The goal is for these recipes to have this effect — "Stop! This is what we are making for dinner." I'm working on a collection of recipes I hope will be instant classics that fit seamlessly into our real lives, but with a bit of escapist energy too, because relentless practicality — in cooking or in life — is boring as hell.
This will be Perelman’s third book, the first being The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook and the second being Smitten Kitchen Every Day. Knopf 2022 (?). Can’t wait.
Kenji Lopez-Alt’s Kids Pizza Book Coming in September
Man, I WISH every night was pizza night. Currently eying my last frozen pizza contemplating if its day has come. Anyway! Serious Eater and cookbook author J. Kenji López-Alt is coming out with a kids book this fall called Every Night Is Pizza Night, about a little girl learning about the global foods in her neighborhood. There’s also a recipe for pizza. Illustrations by Gianna Ruggiero. Pre-order here.
Samin Nosrat Launches Home Cooking Podcast
Cookbook author and food TV person Samin Nosrat has announced a new podcast with podcaster Hrishikesh Hirway (Song Exploder, West Wing Weekly). Called Home Cooking, it’s a call-in/email-in show where Nosrat answers questions about cooking during quarantine. They’re planning four episodes, the first came out Friday. I could use a little Samin Nosrat in my life right now.
Check this out!
My Twitter pal Bill Childs put together a thread of photos from this frankly incredible rock n roll cookbook from 1995. [Twitter]
Ten Speed and Clarkson Potter put together a little PDF pantry cookbook with recipes from all their spring releases. [Random House]
Literally rice soup tofu, a recipe comic. [Popula]
Chef John Fleer on the essential Southern food books. [Local Palate]
A profile of author Bill Buford, ahead of his new book Dirt, which explores the world of French cuisine. [The Millions]
The Covid Cookbook: a crowd-sourced pandemic cookbook.
Elizabeth David and the joys of Greek food. [Neos Kosmos]
Fasole Bătută
Romanian lima bean dip with sweet caramelized onions
Recipe excerpted with permission from Irina Georgescu’s Carpathia, Interlink 2020.
This is a gorgeous, garlicky dip that is very popular throughout the year and often served the night before St. Andrew’s Day. It’s believed that the garlic keeps evil away and spiritually cleanses the house. Serve on thick slices of bread topped with the addictive caramelized onions.
Serves 4-6.
For the lima bean dip:
3 garlic cloves
2 x 14 oz (400 g) cans lima beans, drained
1/4 cups (60 ml) olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon thick plain yogurt
For the caramelized onions:
Vegetable oil or sunflower oil, for frying
2 white onions, finely sliced
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
Scant 1/2 cup (100 ml) tomato passata or puree
To make the dip, pulse the garlic briefly in a food processor, then add the lima beans. Gradually add the oil, combining well after each addition, until fully incorporated. Finally, add the salt and yogurt and combine well. Set aside.
To make the caramelized onions, cover the bottom of a frying pan with a thing layer of oil and turn the heat to high. When it’s hot, add the onions and stir to ensure that they are well coated in oil. Add a splash of water to avoid burning. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for around 10 minutes, stirring from time to time, until soft and golden. Add paprika, sugar, and passata. Cook until everything melts into a deep orange color, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Serve the dip in a bowl topped with the caramelized onions.
Okay that’s it! Thanks for being here with my, friends. Hopefully will get another newsletter out this week but honestly things have been kind of tough over here and I’m trying to be kind to myself. I hope you are being kind to yourself, too.