Buy, Borrow, Skip Cookbook Review

*Please ignore the Zingerman's Bakehouse Cookbook in the photo above. It snuck in by mistake!

I am not a chef, a food critic or someone who preps a show-stopping meal every weekend. I am a home cook trying to navigate the politics of the table (in all the sense of the word). These reviews reflect my love of baked goods and my need to get dinner on the table at 6:30. The three questions I ask when I read a cookbook are:

Utility: are most of the ingredients, pans, and cooking strategies easily obtainable?

Ease of Use: is the book (and are the individual recipes) well organized and readable?

Appeal: does this book inspire me to get into the kitchen?

With these 3 questions in mind, I recommend:

Buy: purchase the book

Borrow: get it from a friend or your library whenever you’re in the mood

Skip: Have a cup of tea and relax instead

I do not receive any proceeds from these reviews. I have not received free copies of these books. I do not receive commission from any of these links. 

King Arthur Baking Company: Big Book of Bread by Jessica Battilana, Martin Philip, and Melanie Wanders (2024) Skip

This book feels like it was written by committee, or maybe by AI. This book is clearly for “home bakers,” but its intro and help sections are wordy and condescending and, even worse, the “key take aways” are buried within giant paragraphs. The first recipe I tried, and then had trouble finding later was “Basic Brioche Bread,” located in the index under “basic” not “brioche.” This recipe actually omitted an initial rise before refrigeration! The bread was an absolute failure. I went and looked up other brioche recipes and every single one requires an initial rise before refrigeration. The next recipe I tried, their pain de mie/pullman loaf requires a half pullman pan. Most recipes offer amounts so that you can use either size pan. While the recipe worked as written, it had a very short rise time and little flavor. In fact, I really prefer the pain de mie/pullman recipe listed on the King Arthur website. It has way more flavor and works with different pan sizes. Lastly, I made their focaccia, and again there were problems. The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the ingredients list and doesn’t mention the 3-4 more tablespoons you will need to finish the bread! The focaccia was fine, but again, there are better recipes elsewhere. SKIP this cookbook. If you’re really curious, borrow it, but there are way better bread recipes out in the world.

Hot Sheet: Sweet and Savory Sheet Pan recipes for Every Day and Celebration by Olga Massov and Sanaë Lemoine (2024) Buy

Olga Massov is a Washington Post Food Editor and Sanaë Lemoine is an author who worked at Martha Stewart. Hot Sheet has a hint of the old charm of Martha Stewart “one pot” recipes but modernized for more adventurous palates. The recipes in this book are generally easy. They use pantry staples with a little bit of (occasionally unnecessary) extras. I made “Chicken with Clementines,” “Arrabbiata and White Bean Cheesy Ravioli,” and the “Gnocchi with Broccoli and Lemony Ricotta.” Although I made tiny changes to each recipe, (and the amount of ravioli was clearly wrong in the “White Bean Cheesy Ravioli",) each recipe was a burst of flavor with little mess. In fact, the Gnocchi with Broccoli was so good it didn’t need the Lemony Ricotta that is offered as a dressing. My only complaint about “Hot Sheet” is that even though the recipes all rely on one sheet pan to be cooked, they use more bowls than are really needed. I bought a copy of “Hot Sheet,” and I don’t regret it at all. I’ve got lots more to cook out of it. BUY

AfriCali: Recipes from My Jikoni by Kiano Moju (2024) Buy

I LOVED cooking from this cook book. Kiano Moju’s “AfriCali” is home cooking at its best. Moju relies on a mixture of local ingredients and flavors combined with flavors, ingredients and cooking techniques of her immigrant parents. Her recipes are quite spicy and there is a lot of frying things in oil, and that’s fine with me. However, even if that’s not your style, there will still be recipes here that will make your day, but your use of this book will be more limited. My only note about this book is that Moju offers no help on how to adjust peppers for the heat to be appropriate for most American kid temperaments. You’ll have to google your own pepper substitutions. The first recipe I made was “Swahili Chicken Biriyani.” The flavor depth was fantastic for how few ingredients were in it and it was a winner with everyone. Next, I made “Chai cookies” and I had some quibbles with the amount of work and texture of the cookies, but my eldest son and husband liked them enough to ask me to make them again. For breakfast I made “Koko’s Pancakes” which were absolutely perfect. My family has decided that these thin and fluffy pancakes are their new favorites. The last recipe I made had mixed reviews: Moju’s “Berburger Pasta” is a take on “hamburger helper” style pasta seasoned with Berbere seasoning. My husband and younger two kids thought it was “not the best.” BUT this recipe both fulfilled a deep childhood craving for me and gives my palate the zing that I love (even though I did cut the spice in half). My 10 year old and I ate so much of this pasta that we both had to skip dessert. It was worth it. Buy It.

MAKE IT FANCY: Cooking At Home With Sad Papi by Brandon Skier, 2024 Skip

I generally avoid cook books by “restaurant” chefs, but Sad Papi’s recipes looked well explained and so I decided to give it a go. First, I made his “Roasted Baby Carrots with Spiced Labne and Pistachio Dukkah.” It was good, I really liked the savory roasted carrots with the Pistachio Dukkah. The “Spiced Labne” was heavily spiced to the point where I felt like I was eating a jar of spices with some yogurt mixed in. The next recipe I made was Dukkah-Crusted Lamb Rack with Burnt Honey Gastrique. The Gastrique was a failure. It tasted burnt in a bad way, so I used a pear reduction that I happened to have on hand in its place. The lamb tasted uninspired. Nobody hated it but the Dukkah didn’t stand up to the lamb. The last thing I made was the “Leek and Herb Butter.” I was frustrated by how little butter is left after all of the straining. It’s personal preference but I’d rather have some bits of herbs and leeks in my butter rather than waste butter. Overall Skier’s instructions were clear, I didn’t see any errors in the ingredient lists, and none of the recipes were absolute failures, but none were all that good. Unless you’ve got a thing for Sad Papi and a desire to do restaurant level sauces, reductions and prep, SKIP.

Goat Cheese Torta Appetizer

When Erich and I were in graduate school in Chicago we would often drive to Huron, Ohio for the holidays. Erich's mother was (and is) so generous and welcoming and her home was (and is) so lovely that we nicknamed it, "Rancho Relaxo." It was a house busy with family and often full of young niblings. In spite of all the family activities, when in Ohio, Erich and I would nap until noon, go for runs in the woods, and then sit around sipping coffee or cocktails and marveling at how people with children got through their day. I'd like to kick my 23 year old self in the shins.

One of my favorite things about cocktail hour at "Rancho Relaxo" was the giant goat cheese torta that Erich's aunt would bring almost every time she drove up from Cincinnati. It was a feast of goat cheese, pesto, and sun dried tomatoes layered six inches high, and I would studiously apply myself to its consumption. (If you're in Cincinnati you can get a slice of this Torta at Piazza Discepoli.)

I have not had a piece of that torta in 10 years, but I haven't forgotten about it. The other day I got up the nerve to try and make it myself. There are a few recipes for similar tortas online, but none of them seemed right, so I came up with my own ratios and added my own secret ingredient to elevate the whole thing.

NOTE ABOUT GOAT CHEESE, CREAM CHEESE AND VEGAN CHEESE

This is not the place to use your fanciest goat cheese. Save that to serve on its own. A medium quality cheese is absolutely fine. That said, a good quality and full fat cream cheese is imperative here to achieve a creamy and seductive texture. Could you use vegan cashew cheese for this? I have not tried, but my instinct is that you could and it would be fantastic.

NOTE ABOUT SIZE

This recipe can be doubled. You can either build the layers higher or use a 8 inch cake pan for a mold.

NOTE ABOUT USING A STAND MIXER

I did not test this recipe on a stand mixer, but my gut tells me it would work just fine for whipping your cheeses and buter together. If you use a stand mixer you're going to have to mince your sun dried tomatoes by hand.

Rancho Relaxo Goat Cheese Torta

Time: 1 hour for goat cheese, cream cheese, and butter to come to room temperature. 15 minutes to make. 2-24 hours to firm in the fridge.

Equipment: food processor or stand mixer. bowl or small cake pan, plastic wrap. Serves 6-8 as an appitizer.

Ingredients

4 ounces goat cheese

8 ounces full fat cream cheese

2 tablespoons unsalted European style butter

optional 1 ounce grated Asiago cheese (about 1/4 cup)

1/4 cup prepared pesto. (2 ounces) You can make your own, but your favorite store bought brand is fine

1/2 cup or 3.5 ounces sun dried tomatoes packed in oil

1/3 cup (1.5 ounces) thin sliced toasted almonds divided

STEP ONE

Set out goat cheese, cream cheese, and butter to come to room temperature. Line a 6 inch cake pan or cereal bowl with plastic wrap and set aside. Toast your sliced almonds in a pan over medium low heat until they just take on color and start to smell. Set them aside to cool.

STEP TWO

Remove your sun dried tomatoes from the can allowing most of the oil to drip off. If you're using a food processor place sun dried tomatoes in the bowl of the processor and pulse until they form a chunky paste. Remove tomato paste and set aside in a small bowl. Clean the food processor bowl and blade to use for cream cheese. (Otherwise you'll get pink cheese). Grate your Asiago if using.

STEP TWO

Combine room temperature goat cheese, cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until fully combined. Add your grated Asiago cheese, if using and pulse until incorporated.

STEP THREE

Spread out a layer of about 1.5 tablespoon almonds so that they just cover the bottom of your plastic wrap lined bowl or pan. Then cover the almond layer with half of your pesto. Then layer in half of your cheese mixture and use your fingers to spread it out. Layer about 1 tablespoon of sliced almonds next, then the sun dried tomato paste. Finish with the rest of the cheese blend. Cover the top with another sheet of plastic wrap and set in the fridge for 2-24 hours.

STEP FOUR

Remove your goat cheese torta from the fridge about 30 minutes before you intend to serve it. unwrap it from the plastic wrap and invert it on a plate. You can then cover the sides and top of your torta with sliced almonds to give it a more elevated look. Just gently press the almonds to the top and sides, and brush away any crumbs that do not adhere.

Enjoy this torta spread on crackers or sliced baguette. It will keep in the fridge for about 3 days.

10 Minute Salmon Rillettes

I first discovered Salmon Rillettes via an interview with Eric Ripert. (Rillettes are like a looser and more textured version of Pâté). Ripert's recipe requires poaching the salmon in white wine, which is great, but I cannot be bothered. I've found that using salmon leftovers either from takeout or home made works just as well, and since my kids really like roasted salmon, I just roast extra salmon and use the cooled leftovers the next day for salmon rillettes. It's fantastic gussied up as an appetizer for your next party, or heaped on a bagel for brunch.

Salmon Rillettes in a bowl

Note about Cooking Salmon

The easiest way to make this is to use leftover salmon. If you're cooking your own salmon just for this, then I highly recommend using whatever method you're most comfortable with to cook your fish. That said, the goal is to avoid those hard/dry edges that you often get with improperly cooked fish. I'm talking about that hard and dry garbage that restaurants dump on top of a salad. To me, roasting your salmon is the easiest option. Simply oil the bottom of a cast iron pan and preheat it in the oven to 420 degrees. Once the oven and pan have come to temperature, remove the pan from the oven and carefully place the salmon, skin side down, on the pan. Drizzle a a few teaspoons of oil over the salmon, and then sprinkle about 1/4 teaspoon of corse salt and a few grinds of pepper over top. Cook your salmon to preferred doneness (this depends on the quality of your salmon but I prefer medium rare about 120-125 degrees). Once salmon is cooked, carefully remove the cast iron pan from oven and immeidately remove salmon from pan so that it does not continue cooking. Place salmon in the fridge to cool.

Note about Smoked Salmon

I prefer Nova smoked salmon for this recipe. I wouldn't use a smoked salmon with a strong wood-smoked flavor as I suspect that the smoke would dominate everything else.

Note about Quantity

This recipe makes a lot of salmon rillettes, but it halves easily. If you have a quarter or half pound of salmon in the fridge, just adjust the other ingredients proportionally.

Salmon Rillettes

Adapted from SEAFOOD SIMPLE (2023) by Eric Ripert

Serves 8-10 as an appetizer. Takes 10 minutes to make.

Ingredients

about 14oz or 2 cups cooked salmon (skin and any bones removed). That's about 1 pound when raw)

1-2 tablespoon minced shallot

3 oz smoked salmon

2 tablespoons chopped chives plus 1-2 teaspoons reserved for topping.

1/2 half of a lemon juiced (plus 1/2 lemon in reserve)

1/2 cup mayo (or a combination of 1/4 cup mayo and 1/4 cup crème fraîche)

fine sea salt

1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper or black pepper

hearty crackers, baguette, or bagels for serving

STEP ONE

Mince 1-2 tablespoons shallot and place in a small bowl. Add juice of 1/2 lemon and a pinch of salt and set aside.

STEP TWO

Place cooked salmon in a medium bowl. Use a fork to break up the salmon into bite sized pieces. Set salmon aside. Chop smoked salmon into small bite sized pieces. Then add smoked salmon pieces to the bowl with the cooked salmon. Add your 1/2 cup mayo, shallots and lemon juice, and ground pepper. Stir to combine, then taste and adjust seasoning and maybe add another squeeze of lemon or dollop of mayo.

STEP THREE

If you're going to serve right away, gently fold in your chopped chives and then garnish with your reserved chives. If you're going to serve the salmon rillettes more than an hour or two later, wait to add the chives. Instead, refrigerate the salmon mixture until you're about to serve it and then add it chives. This will keep the chives from looking bruised and sad, and will keep the chive flavor from taking over the whole dish.

Enjoy with crackers, sliced baguette, or bagels. Or be like my kids and just eat it with a spoon. Keeps covered in the fridge for 2-3 days.