More quality time spent in the kitchen? Yes, please.
What do avocado toast and kitten heels have in common? They both reflect trends: one in food, one in fashion. Two new appealing spring cookbooks, Nigella Lawson鈥檚 鈥淐ook, Eat, Repeat鈥� and Roxana Jullapat鈥檚 鈥淢other Grains,鈥� reflect the times we鈥檙e in right now 鈥� as do Zoom calls and Etsy masks. 聽
During the long months of sheltering in place, baking emerged as an absorbing distraction, filling homes with delicious comfort. 聽
Los Angeles baker Jullapat鈥檚 鈥淢other Grains鈥� provides plenty of reasons to continue doing just that. It鈥檚 a welcome primer on the increasingly popular, ancient, heirloom, and artisan whole grains that might have filled the hole when all-purpose flour was hard to find, and will help us now add interest and nutritious variety to our baking. 聽
I have long rated cookbooks by what I call their IQ 鈥� short for irresistibility quotient 鈥� based on the number of recipes I can鈥檛 wait to try. 鈥淢other Grains鈥� is at the Mensa level, right up there with Maida Heatter鈥檚 and Yotam Ottolenghi鈥檚 books.
Jullapat highlights eight grains: barley, buckwheat, corn, oats, rice, rye, sorghum, and wheat. All can be considered ancient 鈥� that is, unaltered by domestication 鈥� and all are grown domestically and available nationwide; though, without resorting to mail order, I have yet to find the Sonora flour or blue cornmeal called for in several recipes.聽
Jullapat鈥檚 multiple versions of chocolate chip cookies are a good place to start 鈥� and worth the price of the book. An enticing two-page photo spread of what might arguably be America鈥檚 greatest gift to baking (sorry, apple pie lovers) graphically shows the different depth of color depending on the grain used.聽
Her basic version, made with half sorghum flour and half all-purpose, came out perfectly: flat, crisp on the edges, chewy in the middle, and beautifully golden. But I preferred the slightly less sweet all-rye version, also gorgeous, which she sells at her Friends & Family bakery in Los Angeles.聽
My only complaint is that Jullapat鈥檚 16-cookie yield is not enough. I doubled all recipes, and froze balls of dough to bake fresh as needed.
This was my first time baking with sorghum, which is also featured in what she calls Trouble Cookies 鈥� not that they are any trouble to make, but because they鈥檙e an irresistible mix of dark brown sugar, cashews, shredded coconut, and English toffee bits.聽
I鈥檝e cooked with buckwheat before, though my previous attempts at buckwheat pancakes and crepes tasted like papier-m芒ch茅. Jullapat鈥檚 baked buckwheat pancake was actually pillowy.聽
There are savory recipes, too. A shiitake, leek, and toasted barley soup solved the problem of mushy barley. There鈥檚 a whole-grain pizza dough, several oatmeal recipes, bagels, and, of course, Danish rye bread. A freekeh dish with shiitake mushrooms, leeks, and sugar snap peas is on my to-cook list, though ginger scones are likely to take precedence.聽
Lawson, known for big celebratory layer cakes and roasts in books like 鈥淔east鈥� and 鈥淣igella Christmas,鈥� offers homey, adaptable ideas in 鈥淐ook, Eat, Repeat.鈥� The title of her 12th book, which features easygoing recipes she prepares regularly, nails the way many might summarize this past year鈥檚 relentless cycle of home cooking. It鈥檚 a chatty, meandering 鈥渃ulinary stream of consciousness鈥� punctuated by recipes, geared as much to armchair reading as to goal-directed kitchen forays.聽
Lawson acknowledges that during lockdown, procuring ingredients could be a challenge. 鈥淣o one has the stifling luxury of inflexibility,鈥� she writes. Nor are we hosting parties. Many of her suggestions are for solitary eaters, including a fried chicken sandwich, which 鈥淪erves 1, ecstatically.鈥� A chapter meant to be called 鈥淗ow to Invite People for Supper Without Hating Them (or Yourself)鈥� became 鈥淢uch Depends on Dinner.鈥� Cooking, she argues, can be drudgery, 鈥渂ut it is also a way to make a substantive difference to the emotional temperature of the days,鈥� offering 鈥渂oth immersion and escape鈥� 鈥� and a modicum of control. 聽
Lawson makes a case for some of her favorite ingredients, including anchovies, rhubarb, celery root, and 鈥渂rown food,鈥� which encompasses meat stews. Anchovies, the flavor bombs that have been called the 鈥渂acon of the sea,鈥� turn up in dips and canap茅s, and are combined with celery root in a creamy gratin.聽
Rhubarb gets put to use in that quintessentially British dessert, trifle, as well as a beet, rhubarb, and ginger soup, which my tasters either loved or loathed. It will not be entering my repertoire.
Lawson has a fondness for comforting, 鈥渟quidgy鈥� nursery foods, which leads to plenty of mashes, peas, puddings, pastas, and plain loaf cakes. There鈥檚 even a rice pudding cake and a dish made with frozen, breaded fish sticks. She also offers vegetarian and gluten-free adaptations for many recipes.聽
One amusing twist with potential child appeal features roast chicken served on a bed of potato chips right from the bag. Here鈥檚 how she sells it: 鈥淭he chips under the chicken pieces become gooily sticky and sodden with savory juices; the potato chips around the edge remain crisp and crunchy.鈥澛�
Fun. Which is what both of these cookbooks succeed in doing: sparking joy in the kitchen, even after a year of seemingly endless home cooking.
