2013 is already fading history, but there were several books that made it into my annual pantheon of cookbooks I think worthy of note. The first is Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy.
Deborah Madison has long been known as the American guru of vegetarian cooking and her latest book will only add to her reputation. She lives near Santa Fe and our paths cross from time to time at various food-related events. I overheard her tell a friend that this book was tremendous fun to work on. It is also tremendous fun to read and cook from.
She explores vegetables by families, noting the similarities among them that we might not have noticed before. Chapters have intriguing titles such "The Knotweed Family:Three Strong Personalities" or"The Sunflower Family:Some Rough Stuff from Out of Doors." I was intrigued to find that plants I had never thought of as being related belonged to the same family. (A bit like human families I suppose. ) So in the nightshade family we find belladonna, datura, eggplants, husk tomatoes,mandrake, pepino, peppers and chiles, petunias, potatoes, tomatillos, tomatoes, tobacco. Some plants are poisonous (belladonna, datura and tobacco). Others are prized and we look forward to their appearance at the markets--peppers, chiles, eggplants and tomatoes.
In her introduction she writes:
"When we look closely at the plants we eat and begin to discern their similarities, that intelligence comes with us into the kitchen and articulates our cooking in a new way Suddenly our raw materials make sense. We can see how we might substitute related vegetables when cooking or how all the umbellifer herbs, including cilantro, parsley and chervil, flatter umbellifer vegetables, such as carrots and fennel. And when we encounter plants with all their leaves,roots and maybe even flowers intact, we can observe the shapes of leaves, the patterns of petals, the changing forms as they progress from their first true leaves to the perfect stage for eating to maturity and, finally, their going to seed. Curiously,we might discvoer that broccoli leaves and stalks are quite edible, or that a neglected leek makes the same flower as a chive when it finally blooms. Bringing plants' features into view can free us as cooks, make us unafraid to use some amaranth that's going full guns in the garden in place of spinach, which has bolted and dried up. They are, after all, related."
Vegetable Literacy is more than a cookbook. It is also a reference work and,although not intended as such,a course in gardening. It's well worth its hefty price tag.
Regular readers may groan and mutter something like "What?! Another book on preserving food?" Yes, another book on preserving food. Kevin West's Saving the Season is a masterpiece of this sub-genre and it is so good that Celia Sack of Omnivore Books told me that I would never need another book on the subject. I pointed out that need and the desire to acquire weren't the same thing. Back to the book.
There are a number of unusual recipes here that sound delicious. I tried his recipe for Pepper Relish and it was a definite winner. Quite literally. The NM State Fair judges thought it was pretty tasty. What I really love about this book is the way that West weaves poetry, history, literature,and the visual arts into his cooking narrative. This book is a gold mine for the cook and the student of the food culture. Saving the Season should be on the shelves of everyone who fancies herself a Food Preservationist.
There was a lot of competion this year in southern titles.Edward Lee's Smoke and Pickles and Andrew Ticer's and Michael Hudman's Collards and Carbonara were strong contenders and could easily have made this list. But John Currence's Pickles, Pigs, and Whiskey won out.
John currence holds a special place in my heart for his work on Willie Mae's Scotch House in New Orleans. After Katrina, the Southern Foodways Alliance organized the reclamation project on Willie Mae's and we spent a weekend in NOLA kocking down walls, removing mold and whatever else needed doing in the first stages of the work. The project was way more involved than anyone intially thought and John kept the work going and practically single handedly saw it through to completion. He has great dedication, determination and heart. He is also a great cook. Breakfast at his City Grocery in Oxford Mississippi is one of my happiest culinary memories.
My favorite chapters might be the ones on condiments -"Slathering, Squirting and Smearing"-and "Pickling and Canning." These alone are worth the price of the book. When I finish writing this post,I'm going to be making some Roasted Red Pepper Harissa and Worcestershire Sauce. I'll let you know how they turn out.I love this book. It captures John Currence's talent as a chef and his quirky personality. Even if I never cook a thing from this book, I get a kick out of reading it.
I was determined to keep this list to three books this year and there were wonderful books that didn't make the cut. I solace myself with the thought that any such list is idiosyncratic and tells more about the person doing the selecting than the books themselves. In any case, I think all of these books deserve attention and study. I'm jus' sayin'....
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