The Cookbooks That Sustained Us

 The best sellers of 2020 were not thrillers or romance - although they certainly had thrills and love in them. They also had flavor. What sold during the pandemic year? Cookbooks. Thousands of them. They helped us get through some of the most difficult times.

Kim Severson wrote about this phenomena of sorts in today's New York Times Food section.Cookbooks were everyone's go to , starting almost exactly a year ago. They comforted us, taught us how to cook comfort food as well as exotic dishes,Best of all they were simply a friend to home chefs, looking for an escape from a scary new normal.It's no wonder that sales were up seventeen per cent from 2019. The stars were predictable. Joanna Gaines and Ina Garten were at the top. Samin Nosrat, a regular contributor to the New York Times Food section. Her Salt,Fat, Acid, Heat, (Simon and Schuster) was number five on The New York Times non fiction best sellers list. Others, like Claire Saffitz's Dessert Person: Recipes and Guidance for Baking with Confidence (Clarkson Potter) also rose to the top ten, speaking to our need for sweet comfort last year. Trends emerged too. Sales of vegan cookbooks soared as did  ones revolving around health. This was due to people concerned about the planet and their own Covid-19 threatened lives. Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes by San Francisco chef, Bryant Terry sold 30,000. African American cookbooks like   Toni Tipton -Martin's Jubilee Recipes From Two Centuries of African American Cooking, a mix of history and cooking also sold.

Of course books about baking bread soared. People wanted to join the sourdough trend. Yet other trends emerged too. There was a run on canning and preserving books because many home chefs went out and bought canning equipment. The same was true for grilling. The sales of pellet grills and smoking cookbooks were simultaneous. That's why Franklin Manifesto : A Meat Smoking Manifesto written by Aaron Franklin and Jordan Mckay was a breakout hit. The book sold a whopping 360,000 copies with 500,000 in print.Pizza cookbooks were other big sellers. Flour,Water, Salt, Yeast : The Fundamentals  Of Artisan Bread and Pizza written by Ken Forkish and published by the food centric Ten Speed Press became the top selling baking book on Amazon with 600,000 books in print. Home chefs wanted to travel too and they did it through cookbooks.In Bibi's Kitchen: The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers From the Eight African Countries That Touch The Indian Ocean shows  the different comfort recipes from Eastern Africa along with Dan Buettner's The Blue Zones Kitchen which combines lush photography from around the world with international recipes.

Cookbooks will always be a source of comfort. They not only teach us but take us away from what had been the scary normal. They were godsends in a truly turbulent year.

Away From The Sauce

 A homemade tomato sauce is many a home chef's go to. It's an easy make and cook. Yet it can be too much , especially if it's made often. I had to break away with a mushroom. sauce that works perfect with polenta or pasta. I decided to go with the polenta  - again because sometimes too much pasta is just that - too much.

I started out with sixteen ounces of spinach and two pounds of chopped baby bellas.

I added Morningstar Farms soy chicken strips for protein and flavor.

The sauce was going to be served  with grilled polenta slices.

The sauce was an easy make. The mushrooms and spinach were washed and put into a mix of simmering olive oil and tablespoons of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. 

Use about three glugs of olive oil and about three to four generous tablespoons of I Cant' Believe It's Not Butter. I also added a Not Chick'n bouillon cube and half a cup of water to make it more gravy like.

Try to get fat cloves of garlic I used two for optimum flavor. They're then chopped.

The chicken was cooked separately in the microwave for about three minutes

Then as all these components were cooking I sliced and fried the polenta.

They were fried in olive oil for a few minutes.

The finished product was a tasty light sauce that was chock full of flavor. The mushrooms and spinach  are a perfect marriage and adding the fake chicken broth was inspiring. I even dunked some Italian bread into the sauce.It was that good. I plan on making this with fettuccine the next time around.

If you're tired of tomato sauce, then try this tasty mushroom, spinach and chicken sauce. It's a nice departure from the usual tomato sauce. It's refreshing and light, perfect for pasta or polenta.s

The Versatile Vegetable Garden

 It is March and that means Spring planting is just around the corner. Yet what to plant? The answer is simple - veggies  that will be the most versatile and the most useful. Plant produce that can be used in several different recipes - not just one.

You can start your versatile garden right away and expect crops in late April or early May. One of the best to plant relatively soon is lettuce. Try Romaine and butterhead because they're the most hardiest right now, Romaine lettuce is the base of Caesar salad but it's also good grilled and then tossed for a different spin. Lettuce can be used for Asian style wraps and cups along with gracing BLT's and any cold hero. Another early and versatile veggie you can plant in a few weeks is spinach. This is a home chef's best friend.It's perfect giving color and flavor to soups such as the Italian classic stratticiella  but it also is great filling a crepe or omelet. The leaves can also be wrapped in a buttery dough for spinach tart or turned into a filling but delicious salad. Just add hard boiled eggs and bacon along with a tangy vinaigrette to the last.Keep in mind that spinach can be added to smoothies  and juiced on its' own for extra iron. Beets are another versatile veggie that can be planted right now. They can be transformed into a tasty borscht or be served cold in a mouth watering salad.

Of course the garden stars, peppers and tomatoes should be planted by mid April or early May. These are definite garden musts.Any color of bell pepper can be stuffed with any kind of ground meat and breadcrumbs for a tasty main course. Of course pepper strips are a wonderful snack with seasoned Greek yogurt and they add color and sweetness to any salad. They are wonderful charred on the grill with only a drizzle of olive oil and sea salt. Everyone should plant tomatoes. They are vital to any home chef's repertoire.A bumper crop is useful in making a winter's worth of freezable sauces. You can also turn them into homemade salsas and ketchup.Grow a variety.That way you have them for different dishes. Have one corner of the garden dedicated to grape or jelly bean tomatoes. These are perfect in summer salads and just good snacks on their own. Another patch can be staked out for Opalka or Black Prince varieties. These produce tomatoes with a deep rich flavor perfect for making tomato paste. The best of these tomatoes is , of course, the San Marzano. The ruby red gems can be eaten fresh from the vine or cooked into a mouth watering sauce. Then there's everybody's favorite  - the beefsteak. These are just the thing for that classic summer sandwich - sliced beeksteaks on mayo slicked ,salted and peppered white bread.

Now is the time to start planning your versatile vegetable garden. Pick kinds that you'll use in a variety of different recipes. Doing such is a great way of making that garden grow!!!

So Many Sheet Pan Recipes

 It's time to think about easy meals now that we're heading towards long and busier days. These are an easy assembly and cook in the oven. They require minimum fuss. Even better is that you can make them for any meal breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Where can you get these recipes? The Sunday New York Times  has a special section this Sunday This is a great keeper because it has twenty  recipes  of all sorts along with the history of the sheet pan dinner. We have Martha Stewart to thank for them. It started twenty years ago when she was regularly using them on her show. Viewers noticed. A sheet pan meal is easy to throw together.It's a cousin of those classic one pot meals where veggies, starch and protein are mixed together to form a tasty and substantial meal.Social media glorified this humble kitchen must have.Its' non reflective aluminum surface proves to be a good backdrop for caramelized carrots, burnished  or a roast chicken. As far as the sheets themselves, you can use a whole or a half. It doesn't matter. Sheet pans are also inexpensive. A good one is less than twenty dollars so it pays to have two or three. As for the recipes you can use these or be inspired and create your own. These are really good ones. Pati Jinich , the celebrity chef and star of the PBS series, Pati's Mexican Table offers the mouthwatering recipe for bricklayer nachos, a yummy blend of roasted tomatoes cooked with bacon, beef sirloin and chorizo.There is also homemade pizza , the first sheet pan meal made wholesome with the addition of arugula and asparagus.

Of course there is the original sheet pan recipe. This is a marriage of chicken, broccoli rabe and sweet potatoes, the chicken crunchy and juicy while the sweet potatoes are deliciously tender. The broccoli rabe becomes crispy and zingy thanks to being tossed with olive oil and hot pepper flakes.The  chicken gets its' flavor from being rubbed with mustard butter. However you can vary it. Try the chicken with squash and dates, Crispy chickpeas give it more protein and flavor You can even skip the chicken for a flavorful meal. Sheet pan meals aren't just limited to chicken. Try a shrimp boil that has seasoned shrimp, broiled corn and roasted potatoes. Another recipe involves cumin roasted pork chop with Brussels sprouts.It's a mix of sweet , thanks tot he brown sugar and spicy , due to the red pepper flakes and cumin. There are also tofu sheet pan dinners that are tempting tries. The tofu and green beans with chili crisp look like a great dinner to liven up a week night and there's also crisp tofu with sweet potatoes. This is a Melissa Clark recipe and she coats the tofu in cornstarch before roasting for a crispy bite.There are also breakfast recipes., One is a simple bacon and eggs one , perfect for larger families. The other one is buttermilk pancakes, made even more delicious with the addition of mini chocolate chips. The recipe is from chef Jerrelle Guy who makes the pancakes even more fluffier by cutting the cold butter into the flour.

Get tomorrow's Sunday's New York Times and keep the sheet pan section. These are keeper recipes that are easy to make any time of day, Try them and see what the whole fuss about sheet pan dinners are about

The Backbone Of Vegan Soup

 Many may think that vegan and vegetarian chefs have it hard especially when it comes to making homemade soups and stews. However , there's a little ingredient they use that helps tremendously. It's Not Chick'n and Not Beef bouillon cubes. They are a lifesaver.

I've been using the chicken flavored one for some time.This is great from making everything from the family classic pompeist - Piedmontese breadcrumb soup and straticciella. Italian spinach soup. It's also the base of my celery and cauliflower soups.

I've recently discovered the company's Edwards and Sons beef version. I love this on its' own .It has a rich , definite flavor exactly like the real thing.

I plan on using this in French onion soup and slow cooked beef stew. As you can see, the cubes are a little bigger than the average bouillon cube and two work added to five cups of water. You could use vegetable stock but to be honest it's not as flavorful as these. They can also be used for gravies  and even chilis, producing a much richer version than what most vegans make. Stop & Shop carries these but you can also get them at H-Marts and Shop Rites in the New York City metro area.

These are should be the backbone of any vegan soup and stew. They are perfect for creating copies of much loved and tasty meat stock based ones. Try them today.

The Perfect Plate Of Scrambled Eggs

 Who doesn't like a plate of scrambled eggs? They're the perfect breakfast, lunch, and dinner meal, on their own or with any kind of breakfast meat. The key is creating a mix of creamy and firm curds together. Can it be done? Yes!

Chef J. Kenji Lopez Alt decided to experiment with this humble dish and write about his findings in yesterday's New York Times Food section. You would think a dish that only requires eggs butter and sometimes water would be a snap to create. It's not. Scrambled eggs can have textures that range from drippy to rubbery and sometimes with no in betweens. Chef Lopez Alt breaks down the recipe to give a dish of scrambled eggs something creamy and flavorful.  He first analyzes the egg - namely their proteins. All eggs contain ovalbumin and transferrin which start to denature as they're cooked over heat. The hotter these proteins become, the tighter the matrix becomes, resembling a sponge with all the moisture wrung out of it. Then there's the cause of this heat - the pan. It's best to start cooking in a cold pan which will result in dense and creamy eggs. The rising steam from it will give the texture an airy souffle like mouth feel. You could also preheat the pan with a bit of water in it, swirling it as the water evaporates., This also lets you know that the pans temperature is about 212 degrees Farenheit, the perfect temp for cooking eggs.

What about add in like salt and butter? Eggs that are salted before cooking will retain moisture better. Salt them and let them sit awhile. As for butter, yes use small cubes of it. Doing so will result in a more French style omelet. The eggs surround the butter cubes are kept cooler causing them to set more cooler. This creates a rich buttery sauce that mingles and coats the firmer curds. You could use creme fraiche or heavy cream too but butter is your best bet.Now, here's an ingredient you may not think of adding but it is vital in Asian egg dishes - cornstarch. Food blogger Mandy Lee was making a scrambled egg dish for her sick puppy and added cornstarch. She noticed how creamy the eggs were even though they were set. From there she experimented, adding a cornstarch slurry  to her own scrambled eggs , to keep them creamy and tender.Also the cornstarch, which can be replaced by potato and/or tapioca starch keeps moisture from escaping. The eggs will maintain their moisture thanks to the starch granules expanding during cooking. This means a scramble that's not dried out or tough.

Can you create the perfect plate of scrambled eggs? Absolutely! Follow Chef Lopez Alt's advice and you'll be enjoying a bite of creamy , scrambled deliciousness. It's easy now to turn something so simple into something so sinful!

Your Personal Spice Mixes

 Spices are a home chef's best friends. They add zing and oomph , giving any dish from dinner to dessert flavor. Imagine creating your own blends to be used as much as you like . You can. even the most complex blends can easily be replicated. 

Melissa Clark write the article and how to on them in today's New York Times Food section. She hits on some of the most popular such as za'atar and Chinese Five spice. There are a multitude of different recipes that are vital to flavorful cooking and baking. Best of all even a novice home chef can create these at home without any problems. Why make them at home? Because you get better flavors when you mix them yourself.  Also spice blends can be pricey, especially if you go for the organic ones.Once you've mastered the blends you can experiment with variations. Those that hate licorice can nix fennel seeds while those who love a good heat can amp up the chilis and peppers.Once made, keep the blends away from light and heat because they'll lose their flavor. Don't store them by the stove. Think a cool pantry or even your basement.As far as buying the spices, get them from a reputable spice purveyor. Ms. Clark has found out that spices tend to be passed from the distributor to the middleman , then stashed in stores for years before they finally get to the consumer. Try a company like the online Spice House for your basic blends (although they also sell blends too).

The blends are amazing and easily made. For those who make a lot of Chinese dishes, especially duck and goose along with pork belly there is the famed Five Spice. This is a mix of cinnamon stick or cassia bark, fennel seeds, star anise pods and Szechuan peppercorns. Cloves are added for a numbing sweetness.  Of course, there is garam masala, the must have for those who love Indian cooking. This is a marriage of black and green cardamon pods with mace blades, cloves and cinnamon sticks,Indian bay leaves are also added.One of the best spice blends out there is za'atar. This is flavorful mix of sesame seeds, marjoram, thyme and oregano, all dried. Sea salt is added to bring out these flavors. Then there's the lesser known Baharat blend. Cumin, coriander and peppercorns are ground with cinnamon sticks,cardamon, and allspice. Whole cloves, nutmeg and cloves are also put into the blend. This is an Egyptian blend that's great in meatballs and pilafs.  For bakers there's  sweet baking spice. This is a mixing of broken cinnamon sticks, cardamon, nutmeg allspice berries and white peppercorns. The last is for a jolt of heat that adds definite zing to anything you make with it. Try it in a shortbread recipe or to zing up hot cocoa and cappucino.

Mixing your own spices is a rewarding and flavorful way to flavor up recipes. Try these or create your own once you;ve mastered the basic recipes. They're a way to excite any type of dish , whether sweet or savory.