THE Cookbook That Makes You Want To Cook Every Recipe

[yakima]

Last couple of years have been traipsing around in Mediterranean, Asian, North African, Chinese cooking. Accumulating books.
Am now stuck on Fuchsia Dunlop and China. Have had her Every Grain Of Rice for sometime, but just now sorting thru it.
Will be working thru the recipes. Need to eat more vegetables. This is the entry.

This past year, have tried, reasonably successfully, to buy more local products. Have never, as some of you heathens, ordered fresh food, frozen or not, on line. (Well, as a secret Santa, will be sending something fresh.) (The exception which proves the rule.)

So, your favorite must have must make all recipes cookbook?

[SheilaAnn]

yakima you kinda figured I might be first to respond......

off the top of my head, Sunday Suppers (as you know) and 101 Asian Recipes by Lucky Peach Team

https://www.amazon.com/Sunday-Suppers-Lucques-Seasonal-Recipes/dp/1400042151

https://a.co/d/8kbpZns

I will continue to review when I get home later.....

[TripleB]

I was given the 101 easy Asian recipes from Lucky Peach, but have not cooked anything from it. What recipes did you make and like or what recipes would you recommend?

Thanks

[SheilaAnn]

TripleB
Chineasy cucumber salad
Oshitashi using spinach
Summer rolls, but not shaped like a hand
Soy sauce eggs
Okonomiyaki
Hot and sour soup
Almost Al the noodles - japchae being my fav
All the ragus
All the fried rice
All the “eat your greens”
Roasted squash
All the roast chicken
Chicken adobo and hainan chicken
Korean grilled chicken 🫶🏻
Pretty much all the meats, especially lions head meatballs and red roast pork
Most of the seafood

No curries for me

[Huskee]

You've never met someone as lazy as me. Not a cookbook exists- Kenji's, Franklin's, or even Meathead's- that I must make every recipe from. Maybe "most", but certainly not "every".

Side note, buying meat online may be expensive, but often you can get stuff you can't find in-store, and it's usually top-tier stuff. Give Porter Road and CreekstoneFarms a look if you ever decide to break that barrier. We have Porter Road discounts too.

[Allon]

Not that I wasn't exceptionally lazy but now I just can't do anything except basic functions.

So, I'm not lazy. I just APPEAR to be....

[Mosca]

Just so you know, my favorite activity is sitting in a chair and doing nothing.

[yakima]

Huskee. I would buy online, but we have excellent local sources. My restaurant buddy can get about anything. Our most recent splurge was a case of outside skirt. Excellent. The most interesting was a 34 lb suckling pig.

[58limited]

I don't think I would do every recipe from a cookbook but Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen and the Rancho de Chimayo cookbooks would be near the top.

[barelfly]

I saw the Rancho de Chimayo book this weekend. It’s a nice collection of food!

[STEbbq]

If we could shrink down a book to do about 10 recipes of meat-based street food type things with an international bent, I think I could do 9/10.

[au4stree]

Chris Lilly has 2 books that I love to cook out of on a regular basis.

[barelfly]

For me, it would be this book (not a surprise to some I would imagine ) - which I’ve made a number of these tacos and salsas over the years. But there are so many unique tacos presented in this book that would be fun to make. This book has inspired a number of tacos that I have made and shown on the board as well, which has been really fun!

[STEbbq]

The only question in my mind was what taco book you’d pick.

[barelfly]

STEbbq 😂 🌮 🌮 🌮

[Mosca]

I’m with barelfly on the tacos book; I read it cover to cover for enjoyment.

But as much as I love tacos, burgers are my #1 favorite food. So I give it up for George Motz’ The Great American Burger Book. And anyhow burgers are stupid easy, and I might actually be able to make every one in this book.

[yakima]

I realized, shortly after posting this thread, that I was opening up to further book temptations.
OK, I will survive. Fortunately, already have the TACOS book, which fits very well with our Mexican influence here.

An aside. The white folks tend to say Hispanic, to be politically correct. Around here, the Hispanics refer to themselves as Mexican. It is a point of pride. I had a client who despised the Tex-Mex characterization. He was Mexican. Tex-Mex were impostors.

[yakima]

And I am a native Central American. Born and raised in Nebraska, USA.

[acorgihouse]

Here, we don't have so many Mexicans. Dominicans, Cubans, Central Americans, Venezuelans, Colombians, yes, all that. Most I know call themselves Latino, but some Hispanic, and more often by their native country.

[Huskee]

Funny the different perspectives. I am German, Irish, and mostly Cherokee Indian. Born & raised in central Michigan. I knew someone who is Filipino, and this person would write & share recipes but got frustrated when people would call those recipes and food "exotic", the word was a trigger. This person forgot that people use these terms based on their own perspective compared to something new. If someone in The Philippines said my BBQ sauce recipe was exotic I would be thrilled not offended.

[SheilaAnn]

American Pie I have done all the doughs and most of the pizza preps and most of the sauces.
The Food of Italy by Claudia Roden the book is divided by each region. I’ve prepared most of the dishes.

I read cookbooks like novels.

[DTro]

This is the one!

https://www.amazon.com/Holms-Quick-Easy-Chinese-Cooking/dp/B0026OTRIO#customerReviews

[acorgihouse]

Like SheilaAnn, I "collect" cookbooks, and read them like novels. Usually one by my bed at any given time. Last count was over 200, no idea now. I don't have a fav, and I've never tried to cook every recipe from one (like that movie). I went through a period when I pulled out a random cookbook every month, and used it through the month. Not for every meal, but when I was looking at recipes, making shopping lists, etc, I stuck to that one book. Helped me try out a lot of things. I've recently restarted that. When I thought about your post, the cookbooks of Jose Andres (esp the Veg one) and Ina Garten come to mind, as most everything is something I'd cook and eat. My current fav, on deck this month, is an ATK called "Just Add Sauce." It is officially a book of sauces, salsas, marinades, chutneys, etc. I like it very much, because each section has, say, chutneys, the standard and then interesting take offs, and then recipes to use. Never had one recipe in this book, thus far, that I didn't like or that didn't appeal. I also like The Woks of Life cookbook, I loved that family when they were on Andrew Zimmern's Family Dinner, and I have tried a lot of their recipes. Love them all, and they use stuff I can get at my Asian market. I do have a number of the Fuchsia Dunlop books, not all though (I think) and they are great. There are so many recipes, though, that I'm not sure I could cook them all in this lifetime. Love reading them though. I have two more coming to me, delivery on Sat, but one is a dog food cookbook so.... The other is an Ina Garten I don't have, which should be good but not life altering.

[SheilaAnn]

Exactly! I have a bread book and an Elizabeth David next to the bed. After all the hundreds of standard cookbooks, then we have culinary history… food writers….

I used to have BF pick a number (1-5 for the shelf location), pick a number (book location) pick a number (page). And that would be the weekend project.

[Michael_in_TX]

Here's a link to the story of the couple that decided to cook all 500 recipes in Steven Raichlen's The Barbecue Bible: https://barbecuebible.com/2024/11/18...success-story/

They started a club and as of last month, one couple is close to 500, one is close to 300 and several had hit the 100 recipe mark.

[Mosca]

I actually joined that group, before I realized what it was. It’s fun, but those people are different.

[Carolyn]

I think my palate is too limited to make every recipe in a cookbook even if it is a small, local recipe booklet.

I look at recipes and think, "Do people really eat this?" You know, something like, Calamari,blue cheese risotto with bitter greens and Kalamata, caper tapenade. 😬 (Yeah, I just made that up using a bunch of things I won't eat.)