Cookbooks as Inspiration

For a number of years now, I have become a cookbook collector of sorts. It’s a natural gift I receive from houseguests, friends, and family (a tradition I completely adore!), and it’s become an obsessive habit to find THE cookbook that defines a cuisine when I travel. As I’m embarking on writing my own cookbooks, I flip through my favorites to check out everything from fonts to page layouts to important passages and, of course, recipes. Cookbooks have long served me as inspiration, and I wanted to share a few of my favorites with you here.

Now, these are rather wide-ranging, but I have to say some of my most treasured cookbooks have been sent or suggested by the individuals with whom I’ve had the privilege of cooking with in other countries. They swear by these cookbooks as “the real deal” – showcasing the cuisine’s authentic traditions – so I’m starting with those.

(1) Naparima Girls’ High School Cookbook: The Multi-Cultural Cuisine of Trinidad & Tobago & the Caribbean

I LOVE this book! This dives deep into West Indian food and its multitude of influences from Indian to Chinese to Latin. I definitely use it as a flavor reference, and it’s practical chapter divisions, glossary and intense indexing make it super easy to follow.

(2) The Art of Peruvian Cuisine I by Tony Custer

Visiting Peru earlier this year opened up a world of flavors, produce, and cuisine styles I hadn’t experienced. The country has so many different climates, and the food reflects the terroir – coastal, mountain, Amazon. This cookbook delves into a number of the dishes I loved while visiting the country – ceviche, tiradito, the rice dishes, and the famed aji de gallina to name a few.

(3) Exotic Ethiopian Cooking by D.J. Mesfin

This, to me, is the seminal text on Ethiopian food. Not only does it give in-depth, easy-to-follow instructions for how to make all of the beautiful stews, lentil dishes, and even breads of the country, it gives a clear history of the food and culture of Ethiopia. I love that the fundamental techniques (spiced butter, how to make berbere, etc) are all outlined in this book.

(4) Brasil: Gastronomia, Cultura e Turismo by Eva Ribenboim Steinbruch

A great cook in Rio de Janeiro recommended this book to me. She implicitly trusts the recipes and authenticity here and, most importantly for me, the book is written in both Portuguese and English! It has a ton of Brazilian favorites – feijoada, moqueca, farofa – and is divided by region, so it requires a little flipping through and imagination…

(5) All Cookbooks By Claudia Roden

Claudia Roden has to be one of the most impressive food writers out there – she was born in Egypt, studied in Paris, and writes from upwards of 45 years of experience. Her first Middle Eastern cookbook came out in 1968, and she is a woman after my own heart – she learned from home cooks! These aren’t glossy, just-for-looking cookbooks; they are straight utilitarian, and some have 800+ recipes!

(6) The Great American Cookbook by Clementine Paddleford

I recently received this cookbook as a gift, and it has shot up to one of my favorites! The story behind it is amazing – Clementine (a woman!) was the first American food journalist, writing for the New York Herald Tribune from 1936 onward. She also wrote a monthly column for Gourmetmagazine, published seven books, and traveled across the U.S. (when travel was not the easiest) to research and document immigrant, regional, and farm-to-table American cooking in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. Imagine! I love flipping through this book and seeing what the cuisine looked like then, how it has evolved, and finding inspiration for today.

(7) Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking by Nathan Myhrvoid, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet

So, the rest of these books are reasonably priced and have rather traditional procedures for the recipes – the geek in me had to give you my favorite food science-related book. This 6-volume behemoth required a team of chefs and scientists and years of research. What started out as a 150-page book on sous-vide cooking became a 2,400+ page manual detailing the science behind cooking and over 1,500 recipes. This set may seem daunting but contains invaluable information for the serious cook. An “At Home” version is on its way for this October by the way.

These are only a few of my favorites, and I hope you enjoy and glean as much inspiration from them as I do!

Announcement & Cookies for Everyone!

I have some exciting news and want to share it with you all. Hopefully, from reading my site over the past few years, you’ve had the opportunity to see that I have an incredible passion for culture, food and cooking. I love bringing together all of the travels and experiences that make up my life – combining flavors, textures, techniques and ingredients into my own personal style of cooking. I’ve recently signed on to do my first cookbook! I’m extremely thrilled (and a bit nervous, honestly…) to bring together and share the flavors of my Exotic Table in a lasting work, and over the next six months I’ll be cooking, writing, and photographing each step of the process. As you can imagine, my creative resources will be dedicated to the book, but I hope to share with you the experiences, inspirations and trials and tribulations here (p.s. I will from time to time to post interesting recipes you won’t be able to find in the book).

I want to thank you all for your continued support! None of this would be possible without the feedback and confidence I receive from you guys. As a token of my appreciation, I want to share with you my most treasured, secret, best cookie recipe ever! I’m a huge fan of how oatmeal changes the texture of a cookie and the combination of that with some dark chocolate and a touch of cinnamon and salt is heavenly… Enjoy!

Ingredients

Yields approximately 2 dozen cookies (size-dependent)

¾ cup all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp baking powder

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature*

¼ cup shortening

1/3 cup white sugar

½ cup light brown sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ¼ cup dark chocolate chunks or chips

1 cup oats**

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer using a paddle attachment, cream together butter, shortening and both sugars. Add the egg and vanilla extract. Add flour mixture and mix until almost completely incorporated. It should mostly be sticking to the paddle at this point. Scrape down, add in chips and oats and mix for another 15 to 20 seconds until uniform.

At this point, I like to turn the cookie dough out onto plastic wrap, form into a cylinder, and freeze for about 10 minutes. This makes it easier to cut into even sized, round cookies. Conversely, you can just drop rounded spoonfuls a few inches apart onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes depending on how chewy or crunchy or what size you made the cookies. Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

*If you are feeling extra ambitious, browning the butter (heating the butter over medium heat until the foam subsides, little brown flecks appear in the bottom of the pan and it smells like hazelnuts) is a great step to add depth of flavor. Just cool down before the creaming step.

**Quick-cooking oats are fine here.

Lemon-Orange Blossom “Pots de Crème”

As a chef, one of the most thrilling things I experience is when I learn a new little trick or technique that makes a dish that much better (or that much easier!). I remember when I was in Turkey and witnessed a shortcut that would make baklava a quick and easy affair. And how in Ethiopian cuisine, warming chopped beef and bathing in spiced butter made a steak tartare truly legendary. It’s those little technique plays that are gratifying and why I’m so happy with this week’s lemon-orange blossom “pots de crème” recipe…

I recently read a recipe where lemon juice set a custard by simply being added to hot cream and then refrigerating. ?!?! I’ve used lemon juice in hot milk to break it and form cheese – it causes curdling, so to hear you could just add it like that and create a custard seemed quite frankly magical!

The good news is…it’s true! And so, of course, I tested a few recipes and came up with this one, which I think creates the best texture and combines the lovely citrus-y lemon with one of my favorite secret ingredients, orange blossom water. With traditional pots de crème, you have to make the custard one of the old school-styles (the two ways are, roughly: stirred on the stovetop or baked in the oven), which is to say scald cream and flavors, add egg yolks and bake in a low slow water bath until jiggly perfection like this one…. This is waaay simpler: heat cream with flavors, add lemon juice, refrigerate for a few hours…and that’s it! Enjoy!

Ingredients

Yields 6 5-inch oval ramekins

2 ½ cups heavy cream

1 vanilla bean

¼ tsp salt

¼ cup sugar

3 tbsps honey

2 ½ tbsps orange blossom water*

1 tbsp lemon zest

7 tbsps lemon juice

Procedure

In a small saucepan, bring heavy cream, vanilla bean, salt, sugar, honey, orange blossom water and lemon zest up to a boil. Remove from the heat, cover and let steep 20 minutes. Gently stir in lemon juice and strain cream mixture. Refrigerate for a minimum of 4 to 5 hours until thickened (these can definitely be made a day or two ahead of time).

Serve well-chilled with fruit, if desired.

*The amount of orange blossom water really depends on the brand you are using. For mine, I used 2 ½ tablespoons, but taste yours as you add to make sure it doesn’t become too cloying.

Cherry-Pinot Paletas

When cherry season rolls around each year, I get oddly giddy. Maybe it’s a remnant of childhood – the feeling that these little fruits are the nectar of the gods (and thus you only get one of them on top of a sundae), that they are a privilege to eat (I remember fighting for the last one…), or that they were hands-down the best hard candy (Blow-pop, Ring Pop, Lifesaver, Jolly Rancher) flavor out there. Whatever the case, as an adult, I definitely go a bit dessert crazy around this time of year, working cherries in wherever I can, and here is one with a decidedly un-childlike spin….

The weather here in New York City has been absurdly hot, so naturally my thoughts turn to ways to cool off. Paletas are basically Latin American popsicles, and THE way to do it. They are usually made with fresh fruit juice, sometimes with bits of fruit, or can be milk-based. I thought cherries would be the perfect ingredient until I became overwhelmed by the thought of having to pit and stem them…And then it struck me, why do I have to?!?

The adult spin here is that I use a bit of red wine. I had a popsicle phase last summer where I was freezing everything from fresh juices to my St. Lucian rum punch (which didn’t freeze by the way because of the alcohol!), and I love serving these as dessert at a summer bbq. It’s a light treat after serious grubbing and happens to keep the party going… These pops not only have cherries and red wine, a heavenly combo, but also a host of spices – black peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon and vanilla bean – that create gorgeous flavor. You may end up just wanting to reduce the liquid to a syrup and pour it all over ice cream! Enjoy!

Ingredients

Yields 3¾ cups juice or 10-12 popsicles

2 lbs fresh, sweet cherries, washed*

2 cups water

¾ cup sugar

½ cup red wine (Pinot Noir or whatever red wine you like)**

3 black peppercorns

2-3 whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

Procedure

The best part about this recipe is that you just throw in the whole cherries here, stems, seeds and all. The whole bits get strained out at the end.

In a medium-sized pot, bring all ingredients up to a boil. Lower to a simmer and simmer half-covered for 10 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.

Using a potato masher, mash up the mixture until the cherries are completely broken down. Strain liquid through a mesh sieve extracting as much of the juice as possible. I like to use the back of the spoon to push on the pulp.

Pour into popsicle molds and let freeze until solid (about 7 to 8 hours).

*I used bing cherries here but feel free to use whatever is in season nearest you. Pitted, frozen cherries would also work wonderfully here – without the pits or stems, you could blend up the whole mixture to get bits of the cherry in there and change up the texture. Just remember you’ll likely have more than 10 to 12 popsicles at the end!

**Of course, if you are making these for the little ones, you can replace the red wine here with some juice or water.

Ras El Hanout

Today I’m sharing with you one of the spice blends that is a key part of my cooking arsenal….ras el hanout! This blend hails from Morocco and is used throughout North African cooking. Ras El Hanout quite literally means “top of the shop” and is supposed to represent the most coveted blend the spice merchant has to offer….I like to think of it like a Moroccan curry.

And, like curry, there are countless variations of this North African specialty. My chicken thighs from earlier this week feature one version of this spice blend, but each shop, family, and region has its own list of ingredients sometimes reaching upwards of 40 spices! The flavor is nuanced and complex, a heady mixture that’s difficult to describe. It tastes to me like the smell of walking into a spice shop! Rosebuds may be added for a floral touch, grains of paradise for a peppery note, lavender for aromatic purposes; some spice merchants go so far as to add spices, herbs or other extractions that have aphrodisiac effects…clearly trying to get repeat customers.

That said, my shortened blend from this week is an easy one, and I keep a big batch on hand for summer grilling, to spice up a rice dish or flavor a quick pot of lentils. Ras el hanout is the basis for many a Moroccan tagine and lends itself to a slow braising process. I particularly like it with chicken, pork and certain hearty fish – it benefits from pairing with a meaty base but not one that will overwhelm the combination of delicate flavors. It’s also beautiful with starchy vegetables – particularly squash and corn – where it highlights the vegetables’ own natural sweetness.

North African-Spiced Chicken Thighs with Oranges, Marcona Almonds, & Summer Vegetables

Crispy, chicken thighs, as of late, are fast becoming one of my favorite weeknight meals. I cycle through trends in cooking like a lot of people and I just can’t resist how easy and fulfilling these are. I’ve tried countless different spice blends and ways of cooking them (my friends and husband are partial to my Cajun ones…) but I love the flavor in these North African-inspired ones.

The technique I use here is a go to – crisp the thighs, cook the vegetables in the flavored chicken fat, layer the chicken back on top, throw it all in the oven and prep a salad, make the table or do whatever else you need to do! The result is beautifully, tender chicken with really flavorful vegetables. I love this method.

The North African blend here is called ras el hanout. I’ll write more about this later this week but think of it like a Moroccan curry. The roasted cumin powder – white cumin seeds I toast up in a pan before grinding to a powder – creates a lovely, smoky undertone. The cinnamon adds a bit of sweetness, the black pepper rounds it out, and I love the gentle aroma of the saffron here. When these spices mingle with the julienned zucchini and squash, the natural sweetness in the vegetables really come through, highlighted by the orange slices and zest. The almonds plump and add a nutty bite. When the season warms a bit I like to throw in some gorgeous grape or cherry tomatoes as well….Enjoy!

Ingredients

Serves 4 to 6

4 or 5 zucchini or summer squash, julienned

1½ – 1¾ tsp salt

2 lbs chicken thighs, skin-on with bone (4 to 6 thights)

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp ground cumin, toasted*

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp turmeric

½ tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground black pepper

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

pinch saffron

1 tsp unsalted butter

2 tsps vegetable oil

1 onion, julienned or finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup raw, unsalted marcona almonds, toasted

small bunch of thyme

5 or 6 thin slices of orange (~1/4 of an orange)

1 tsp orange zest

Salt to taste

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 400° F and place the rack on the top shelf.

For the zucchini, I like to use my mandoline fitted with the julienne attachment. You can also use a food processor or quite simply a knife to do this. In a large bowl, mix together the julienned zucchini / squash with ½ to ¾ teaspoon of salt and place in a colander over a bowl or in the sink. You want to remove as much water as possible, so let sit for 15 minutes and then wring out the vegetables using a kitchen towel, paper towels and your hands.

Let the chicken thighs come up to room temperature. Mix together the paprika, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, ground ginger, black pepper, cayenne, saffron and 1 teaspoon of the salt. Season chicken thighs on both sides with the spice blend – I personally add a bit more salt than this but I want to leave it up to you how salty you want these. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Add butter and oil and place thighs skin-side down in the pan. Let cook for 3 to 4 minutes until the skin turns crisp. Be careful not to let the heat creep up too high or the spices will burn. Flip thighs and let cook another 2 minutes. Remove to a plate and set aside.

Reduce heat to medium and pour off excess fat. Add onions and garlic with a bit more salt to draw out the moisture and cook for a minute. Switch off heat and add julienned zucchini, almonds and thyme and toss together. Layer slices of orange around the outside of the pan and place the thighs on top of the bed of vegetables. Sprinkle with orange zest and place on the top rack of the oven and cook for 20 to 25 minutes (until the juices run clear out of the chicken.

Serve chicken thighs hot with a side of the vegetables.

Note: The thighs should stay crisp but this depends on how much moisture is coming off the vegetables. If not, I have in the past popped them back in a clean sauté pan with a bit of oil for a minute over medium-high heat to crisp them back up.

*For this blend, I like to take whole cumin seeds and toast them in a pan over a low flame until they deepen in color and are fragrant. I then grind this to a powder.

A Forgotten Food, Seera

Last week, one of the chefs over at Junoon shocked me into taste memory. He cooked up a batch of seera (also called sheera or seero), which is a sweet, crumbly, buttery, cake-like dessert usually made with semolina or cream of wheat. My mom used to make it for me growing up, and I hadn’t thought about it in years! One bite…it’s amazing how the smell and taste of something can just transport you back. That night, I went right home and made my own, comforting batch that I thought I’d share with you.

Seera belongs to a dessert family called halvas – these are desserts served throughout South, Central and West Asia, parts of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Oftentimes, they are flour-based as you see here, but they can also be made from dense nut pastes and be more of a confection.

I had a full-on debate with my mom about the pros and cons of using semolina vs. cream of wheat, when’s the right time to add the cardamom, what the resulting color should be, and how no one should feel guilty if they want to eat this for breakfast (it’s cream of wheat after all!). She even whipped out my grandmother’s old recipe written out in mugs! I love that….Well, this is what I came up with. And the reality is farina or cream of wheat will result in a slightly softer, more crumbly halva and the semolina, depending on the grind, will be a bit more dense and cake-like with a brighter yellow color. Buttery, with the aromatics of saffron and cardamom, pure comfort, and whips up in less than 10 minutes…enjoy!

Ingredients

Serves 4 to 6

1 cup milk

½ tsp vanilla extract

pinch saffron

pinch salt

¾ cup palm sugar*

1 stick + 2 tbsps unsalted butter

2 cardamom pods, cracked

1 cup farina, cream of wheat or semolina flour

Optional garnishes:**

Pistachios, toasted

Sliced almonds, toasted

Sultanas

A few dashes of rosewater

Procedure

In a small, nonstick saucepan, bring milk up to a boil. Lower to a simmer and add vanilla extract, saffron, salt and palm sugar, whisking to dissolve. Keep over a low flame.

In another nonstick saucepan over medium heat, add butter and cardamom pods. When the butter has melted and the foam subsides, add the farina and toast in the butter until golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. Lower the flame, add the sweetened milk mixture and stir until texture dries a bit, another 2 to 3 minutes or so.

Serve warm or room temperature.

*You can substitute white or brown sugars here, but I would adjust down the amount as palm sugar is a bit less sweet than those two (so closer to ½ cup).

**For the optional garnishes, you can add as much as you like right on top. For the sultanas, I like to throw them in with the simmering milk, so they plump up a bit.

Awaze Skirt Steak

Awaze. Pronounced Ah-wah-zay. Awaze is an Ethiopian chili paste, a staple in the cuisine, made with one of their more famous spice blends, berbere. It’s a sauce, it’s a condiment, it’s a marinade. And that last function is exactly how I used it here, to infuse flavor into some gorgeous, marbled skirt steaks in time for a bit of Sunday (almost) summer grilling.

And awaze IS full-flavored in all its multi-function glory. First, the base of it, the spice blendberbere, is made from aromatics like red onion, chilies and garlic, spices like fenugreek, cardamom and ajwain, and even an herb called sacred basil. For awaze, berbere is traditionally mixed with Ethiopian honey wine (called tej) to form a paste or diluted a bit for more of a sauce consistency.

I only have one bottle of tej left and am saving it for a rainy day, so I approximated with some red wine and honey for the marinade. I also threw in a bit of lime juice for acidity, fresh garlic for flavor, and a pinch of cayenne for heat. The steaks took on the flavors beautifully and grilled up to perfection. It doesn’t take long for the marinade to kick in, so even if you only have a few hours to marinate, it’s worth the trouble (trouble being mixing a few items together in a bowl and pouring it over the steaks!). Rich, an intoxicating mix of spices, a touch of heat and sweetness from the honey…Enjoy!

Ingredients

Serves 4

6 tbsps berbere

generous pinch of salt

pinch of cayenne

juice of 1 lime

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 ½ tsps honey

1 ½ to 2 cups dry red wine

2 lbs skirt steak, trimmed cut into 4 pieces

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Procedure*

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the berbere, salt, cayenne, lime juice, garlic, honey and red wine. Place steaks in a ziploc bag and pour marinade over steaks. Remove as much air from the bag as possible before sealing. Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours and up to 24.

Remove steaks from bag, pat dry with paper towels, and let them come up to room temperature. Season both sides of each steak generously with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Heat a grill or grill pan over medium-high heat. Grill steaks 1 to 2 minutes per side for medium-rare and longer if you prefer them well done. Rest for about 7 to 10 minutes tented with foil before serving.

*To serve with the steak, I like to cook red onions down in olive oil and use some of the remaining awaze marinade to season them.

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