Your weekly book selection: Cookbooks to help you plan your holiday menus
Please any crowd with recipes in these 3 cookbooks, says CBC book columnist Jonathan Cheung
This week's selected cookbooks include two by Canadian chefs and will make great gifts for the holidays — or for yourself — as you plan your menus for the season.
From indulgent and over-the-top dishes to crowd-pleasing feasts and slow-food meals that are as good for you as they are delicious, there's something for everyone and for every celebration this December.
Everyday Dorie
In this 13th cookbook from beloved New York Times columnist, Dorie Greenspan shares the recipes that she cooks everyday to nourish her family and entertain friends.
Dorie's cooking approach is simple, adaptable and exciting, as she likes to add surprising pops of flavour into otherwise classic dishes.
Dorie suggests that her readers play around with the recipes by using what they already have on hand to replace a missing ingredient or to tweak the dish to better suit the meal.
This cookbook is full of winning recipes that celebrate playful and spontaneous cooking and invite you to get creative, to have fun in the kitchen and to not take things too seriously. The only rule in Dorie's kitchen is that there should always be dessert — a rule that is easy enough to follow.
Earth to Table Every Day
Earth to Table Every Day is the second cookbook from chefs Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann of the Hamilton, Ontario restaurant Earth to Table: Bread Bar.
The food served at Bread Bar is made using fresh produce from organic farms and natural ingredients sourced from local businesses. Bread Bar's philosophy that "good ingredients matter" is at the centre of every choice they make and has fostered a loyal community of customers and suppliers that care about good food.
The restaurant is a gathering place for everyone: it's a bakery, a café, a bar and a pizzeria, and offers a varied menu that follows the seasons and always values quality ingredients.
These recipes highlight an authentic and simple approach to food that starts with good produce and ends with a delicious meal on the table.
Jeff and Bettina encourage readers to buy ingredients from farmers' markets at every opportunity and to develop an engaged interest in where their produce comes from.
Above all, Earth to Table Every Day emphasizes the importance of buying local and seasonal, and of adopting a mindful attitude towards food that focuses on taking the time to enjoy cooking and eating together.
Matty Matheson: A Cookbook
This first cookbook by Canadian chef Matty Matheson is as hilarious, irreverent, passionate and enthusiastic as he is. This is as much a cookbook as it is a food memoir, tracing Matty's experiences through his childhood spent in the maritimes, moving to Fort Erie in the fourth grade, going to culinary school in Toronto and working at numerous restaurants.
The recipes in this cookbook are divided into these different parts of Matty's life, from comfort food and family recipes to the contemporary French food of the restaurants he worked in, and the most popular and over-the-top dishes from his restaurants Oddfellows and Parts & Labour.
Matty shares his love of food and cooking with recipes and anecdotes from his family history of farmers, butchers and restaurateurs, and the successes and failures of his culinary career.
He is dedicated to creating lasting memories and food traditions with his kids and hopes that this cookbook will inspire others to do the same with their families.
At the very least, he wants you to cook often, cook well and to do it because you want to — because cooking for others is an act of love and eating good food is what life is all about.
Recipe: Bologna Bowl
This recipe is from Matty Matheson: A Cookbook, published by ABRAMS Books.
Servings: 4
Prep: 5 minutes
Total: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
4 slices bologna
1 slice American cheese
1 egg
1 tablespoon margarine
2 slices white bread, toasted
Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
1. In the bottom of a microwave-safe bowl, place the bologna, then lay the cheese slice right in the middle, then crack an egg into the bologna-and-cheese cradle.
2. Place the bowl in the microwave and zap 45 seconds. Microwave another 30 seconds if the egg isn't cooked.
3. Spread the margarine over the toast evenly and cut each into 3 long slices for dipping into the yolk. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
