While we are at home, why not explore global cooking? Check out the following titles and plan your next grocery shop or try Amazon’s International Food Market or Penzeys for new ingredients or spices. This is also a great time to use some of those spices you bought in the past for a recipe, but have yet to use again. Livingston Public Library’s hoopla service offers borrowers 15 titles a month and their eBooks are available for a 21-day checkout. Enjoy the time to create something new and refreshing for your weekly meals. All you will need is your library card, then let the culinary adventure begin!
Myers + Chang At Home (Asian inspired cooking) by Joanne Chang
Recipes from the Beloved Boston Eatery
From beloved chef and author Joanne Chang, the first cookbook from her acclaimed Boston restaurant, Myers+Chang Award-winning and beloved chef Joanne Chang of Boston’s Flour bakery may be best known for her sticky buns, but that’s far from the limit of her talents. When Chang married acclaimed restaurateur Christopher Myers, she would make him Taiwanese food for dinner at home every night. The couple soon realized no one was serving food like this in Boston, in a cool but comfortable restaurant environment. Myers+Chang was born and has turned into one of Boston’s most popular restaurants, and will be celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2017, just in time for publication of this long-awaited cookbook. These recipes, all bursting with flavor, are meant to be shared, and anyone can make them at home-try Dan Dan Noodle Salad, Triple Pork Mushu Stir-fry, or Grilled Corn with Spicy Sriracha Butter. This is food people crave and will want to make again and again. Paired with the couple’s favorite recipes, the photography perfectly captures the spirit of the restaurant, making this book a keepsake for devoted fans.
Simply Pho (Vietamese) by Helen Le
A Complete Course in Preparing Authentic Vietnamese Meals at Home
Whether you are cooking for one or ten, Simply Pho brings healthy homemade pho noodle soup, with all the fixings, straight to your table. You’ll learn how to put together the perfect bowl of piping hot pho (both authentic and quicker weeknight versions) in a myriad of ways! To complete this introductory Vietnamese cooking course, author Helen Le, creator of the popular YouTube channel Helen’s Recipes, also shows you how to make Vietnamese classic favorites–fresh and crispy spring rolls and bahn mi sandwiches–along with those that will be new and inspired favorites, such as omelets, crepes, and pizza all made with pho noodles; vermicelli noodle salads topped with beef and pork; and a variety of mi Quang noodle dishes. Helen also shows you how to make fresh pho noodles from scratch, Vietnamese baguettes, dipping sauces, flavored oils, and broth and aromatics so you can craft the perfect bowl of pho noodle soup at home. Try your hand at: Pho Noodle Soup with Chicken. Pho Noodle Soup with Beef Stew, Vegan Crispy Spring Rolls, Chicken Curry with Vermicelli Noodles, Meatball Sandwiches and More. With easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions and stunning photos, Simply Pho will bring the mouthwatering and aromatic scents of your favorite Vietnamese restaurant straight to your kitchen!
The Italian Cookbook for Beginners (Italian) by Various Authors
Over 100 Classic Recipes with Everyday Ingredients
Italian food is the ultimate comforting homemade cuisine. Full of rich, robust flavors, enticing aromas, and exuberant colors, Italian cuisine is a celebration of love for both food and family. With The Italian Cookbook for Beginners, you won’t need to travel far and wide to enjoy the authentic flavors of Italy. Offering over 100 classic recipes, The Italian Cookbook for Beginners will show you how to cook like an Italian mama, using affordable everyday ingredients from your local grocery store. The Italian Cookbook for Beginners offers simple, delicious Italian recipes that bring the hearty flavors of Italy into your home.The Italian Cookbook for Beginners will show you how to easily create your own classic Italian cuisine, with: 105 authentic Italian Cookbook recipes that use affordable, easy-to-find ingredients. Simple Italian Cookbook versions of your favorites, such as homemade pizza, Eggplant Parmigiana, and Italian-style pork chops 4 basic sauces to liven up any dish.
Zahav (Israeli) by Michael Solomonov, Steven Cook
A World of Israeli Cooking
By a James Beard Outstanding Chef (2017), James Beard Book of the Year and Best International Cookbook (2016) The James Beard Award–winning chef and co-owner of Philadelphia’s Zahav restaurant reinterprets the glorious cuisine of Israel for American home kitchens. Ever since he opened Zahav in 2008, chef Michael Solomonov has been turning heads with his original interpretations of modern Israeli cuisine, attracting notice from the New York Times, Bon Appétit, (“an utter and total revelation”), and Eater (“Zahav defines Israeli cooking in America”). Zahav showcases the melting-pot cooking of Israel, especially the influences of the Middle East, North Africa, the Mediterranean, and Eastern Europe. Solomonov’s food includes little dishes called mezze, such as the restaurant’s insanely popular fried cauliflower; a hummus so ethereal that it put Zahav on the culinary map; and a pink lentil soup with lamb meatballs that one critic called “Jerusalem in a bowl.”
Bouchon (French) by Thomas Keller
Part of the Thomas Keller Library series
Thomas Keller, chef/proprietor of Napa Valley’s French Laundry, is passionate about bistro cooking. He believes fervently that the real art of cooking lies in elevating to excellence the simplest ingredients; that bistro cooking embodies at once a culinary ethos of generosity, economy, and simplicity; that the techniques at its foundation are profound, and the recipes at its heart have a powerful ability to nourish and please. So enamored is he of this older, more casual type of cooking that he opened the restaurant Bouchon, right next door to the French Laundry, so he could satisfy a craving for a perfectly made quiche, or a gratinéed onion soup, or a simple but irresistible roasted chicken. Now Bouchon, the cookbook, embodies this cuisine in all its sublime simplicity. But let’s begin at the real beginning. For Keller, great cooking is all about the virtue of process and attention to detail. Even in the humblest dish, the extra thought is evident, which is why this food tastes so amazing: The onions for the onion soup are caramelized for five hours; lamb cheeks are used for the navarin; basic but essential refinements every step of the way make for the cleanest flavors, the brightest vegetables, the perfect balance-whether of fat to acid for a vinaigrette, of egg to liquid for a custard, of salt to meat for a duck confit. Because versatility as a cook is achieved through learning foundations, Keller and Bouchon executive chef Jeff Cerciello illuminate all the key points of technique along the way: how a two-inch ring makes for a perfect quiche; how to recognize the right hazelnut brown for a brown butter sauce; how far to caramelize sugar for different uses.
-Melissa Brisbin, Associate Director