Stir Crazy

Umbra on cookbooks 16

Dear Umbra,

I am trying to eat local foods within the seasons, but most of my cookbooks include ingredients from multiple seasons in a single recipe. Can you offer any cookbooks or advice for finding more seasonal recipes?

Yours locally (and in season or preserved),
Katie
Somerville, Mass.

Dearest Katie,

Good for you -- and good for you. Isn't it too bad Gristmahanukwanzakah comes after Thanksgiving? Cookbooks make great gifts, but we need them in advance. I feel thanksgiving for the library, where we can test drive before committing to a wish list.

Cooking local: easy as pie?

The eat-local notion has settled into full-on movement status, which means there are blogs, websites, how-to guides, maps, and ... cookbooks. It's important to also remember that in the days before refrigerated trucks, container freight, and canned food, all cookbooks were fairly local -- which means the classics are still useful. No kitchen should be without a few cookbooks of simply prepared, traditional foods, whether that is the Joy of Cooking, The Silver Spoon, or any book from a culture with a climate similar to yours (the Larousse Gastronomique is the French cooking bible, which is encyclopedic and would be useful if only French cuisine were "simple").

The cookbooks I use most, down here in the Grist CSA-supplied basement kitchen, are Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food, the Joy (aka "What would Irma and Marion do?"), and now Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Bittman's previous book, How to Cook Everything, is out in a new edition, just in time for the winter cooking blitz. These books work because they show the basics but also give tips for expanding recipes. And though they suit those who like to shop based on a recipe, they also work well when you need recipes that work with certain ingredients.

Here are a few other books I'm curious about: Deborah Madison also wrote Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets. Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian has good word-of-mouth. Alice Waters wrote Chez Panisse Vegetables and Chez Panisse Fruit, which will help with vegetable- and fruit-inspired dishes in some areas (and are filled with gorgeous prints). The Victory Garden Cookbook is apparently filled with recipes based on the home garden year. On eatlocalchallenge.com, I came across mention of The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. First, what's not to love about his last name?, but second, those of us who spent years cooking veg and are now wrestling with local meats need help (I'll be looking to How to Cook Everything as well to solve the meat dilemma). Hugh's book sounds promising (although I'm not sure pigeon is on your problem recipe list), and is part of a series focused on farm-based eating.

After this brief introduction, you will be able to continue hunting for your perfect cookbook by searching the web for "local food" and "eat local cookbooks." Sites that may prove helpful include Locavores, reader lists on Amazon (I quickly found a Budding Locavore list and a Seasonal list), and eatlocalchallenge.com.

One issue is that your seasonal is not the same as Deborah Madison's or Alice Waters' (no winter fig and persimmon hash for you, my dear). So aside from my potluckish list, you should look in good area libraries and bookstores for specific local cookbooks -- in your case, something about traditional Boston cooking, or eating through the seasons in New England. Your farmers market or community supported agriculture farm should have recipes to recommend, if not entire cookbooks. Or you may have some locally famous chef-authors who focus on area foods. A better cook than I could give you advice on recipe modification, and anyone you know who's a more experienced cook might be able to give you actual useful recipes; instead of raiding their fridge, raid their files!

Best of luck, and happy times at the hot stove.

Baked beansily,
Umbra

 

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Send your green-living questions to Umbra.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

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  1. jamesbritton Posted 9:23 pm
    11 Nov 2008

    Recommended 'eat local' bookI'd also recommend Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. It's an excellent book about eating locally with some great recipes to boot.

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  2. 11frogs Posted 10:44 pm
    11 Nov 2008

    From Asparagus to ZucchiniAnother great book written by CSA farmers and activists in Madison, WI is From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm Fresh Seasonal Produce.

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  3. spinneo Posted 11:33 pm
    11 Nov 2008

    Two ideas!I find that magazines make cooking for the season easier.  By definition they arrive in my mailbox (or email inbox) at just the right time.  Cooks Illustrated is particularly good.  Christopher Kimball's magazine isn't local per se, but as a Vermonter he is well in tune with seasonal and local cooking.
    Also-- for the coming months-- The Ski House Cookbook is VERY seasonal!
    Cheers,
    Spin

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  4. skaclmbr Posted 11:57 pm
    11 Nov 2008

    Another Recommended BookOne book that is great is Simply in Season.  It has a great index in the back where you can look up a dish by the ingredients.  Dishes are based on foods that are available in a particular season.  Other companion books that are also good are More with Less and Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook.

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  5. chrissyking Posted 3:29 am
    12 Nov 2008

    Great seasonal cookbookI bought a great book called Simply In Season Cookbook from Lehmans.com.  It is available at the following link, http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?it ...
    Happy Cooking!

    Chrissy

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  6. Expat Chef Posted 3:33 am
    12 Nov 2008

    Seasonal CookingI hear you! A couple good reads are Simply in Season, and also I just reviewed a book, Outstanding the Field, by Jim Denevan. One to add to the Alice Water's books. I do like Chez Panisse Vegetables.
    Then again, you could spare the trees and find over 200 recipes based on seasonal and local eating at my site. http://expatriateskitchen.blogspot.com. Free.

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  7. hikuwai Posted 4:50 am
    12 Nov 2008

    locavoraciousI'd look at cookbooks by Didi Emmons or Toni Fiore, both New Englanders.  I also really like A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen, by Jack Bishop, who works for Cooks' Illustrated.  Christopher Kimball, the head honcho for that magazine, has a farm in Vermont and writes extensively about food in any of several e-newsletters that you can sign up for.  As Expat Chef mentioned, food blogs are also a great place to look.  (Mine included!  http://parsnipsaplenty.com/)  Happy localling!

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  8. jmaiser Posted 5:02 am
    12 Nov 2008

    Cookbooks by Ingredient are great for LocavoresThanks for the Eat Local Challenge mention -- we did a wrap up of great locavore cookbooks and it is linked below.  I have a particular fondness for books that are organized by ingredient.  They play to my way of shopping, as I often end up bringing home an ingredient from the farmers market before I've decided what to do with it.
    Books like Schneider's Amaranth to Zucchini (mentioned above) and Jeff Cox's Organic Cook's Bible are both used a lot in my kitchen.  
    This post has a lot more suggestions:

    http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/2007/10/the-best-eat-lo. ...
    Jen Maiser

    Founder, Eat Local Challenge

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  9. LFLindell Posted 1:18 pm
    12 Nov 2008

    Simply in SeasonLike a couple of other readers here, I use the cookbook "Simply in Season" a lot. It has color-coded page edges to visually group recipes suitable for cooking in each of the four north American seasons, plus a fifth "all seasons" section for dried beans, dried fruit, whole grains, tofu/tempeh, dairy and meats.
    The cookbook is also indexed by key ingredients, with lists for such things as sweet potatoes, strawberries, mint, dandelion and other wild greens, quinoa, rabbit, persimmons, and many more. Not all ingredients will be local to all parts of the U.S. but most cooks will find something relevant.
    Simply in Season's recipes are consistently easy, practical, and economical by intention; this is not a gourmet-type cookbook, and you probably won't have to do any special preparatory shopping if you have the usual basics on hand, stick with the appropriate seasonal section, and choose recipes that match your most available fresh ingredient(s). (The most complicated recipe, in my opinion, is one called "Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake": it's tasty, but I wrote in my cookbook margin that it barely qualifies for the "simply" part of cooking simply and in season.)
    Simply in Season also includes stories, reflections on cooking and eating, information on maximizing nutritional value, and lists of "invitations to action" at the end of each section. The book is subtitled "Recipes that clebrate fresh, local foods in the spirit of More With Less," which refers to a predecessor cookbook that my mother, and then I, have cooked from for decades. (I also love the international recipes in the second book in the trilogy, "Extending the Table", although as I work to increasingly eat more food grown locally, I have had to regretfully give up some long-standing favorites from that cookbook.)
    All three cookbooks were commissioned by Mennonite Central Committee, a relief, community development and peace organization, and can be purchased directly from the publisher at http://www.worldcommunitycookbooks.org.  

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  10. mishath5 Posted 1:26 pm
    12 Nov 2008

    Cook's ThesaurusThis is a fun online resource that offers descriptions of ingredients and suitable substitutes.

    http://www.sonic.net/~alden/

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  11. seohara Posted 3:24 am
    13 Nov 2008

    Simply in SeasonI bought the Simply in Season cookbook after using the More With Less for a couple of years. The recipes are truly simple, and delicious. Recommend it to everyone, my family's favorite recipes are the peach platz and potato soup, oh and the rhubarb muffins, and the . . . you get the picture :)

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  12. KMPathome Posted 5:34 am
    13 Nov 2008

    Cooking in seasonMadison's CSA From Asparagus to Zucchini (mentioned above) - dog eared and dirty with remnants of recipes done in my kitchen. My favorite!

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  13. twilight Posted 6:04 am
    14 Nov 2008

    seasonal recipesThe Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA) also has an online database of seasonal recipes by Bay Area chefs.

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  14. Joanna Posted 6:13 am
    14 Nov 2008

    more recommendationsI want to second Alice Waters' Chez Panisse vegetables. The book is organized alphabetically by vegetable, and every single recipe is made of ingredients that are grown at the same time as the main vegetable.
    A book not mentioned by anyone is Russ Parson's How to Pick a Peach. This one's organized by season, with a fruit or vegetable focus for each chapter within the season. What I like most is that each chapter provides some nice history on the cultivation of the fruit or vegetable of that chapter.
    Deborah Madison's Local Flavors (mentioned in the article) is a nice one; full of photographs of farmers, ingredients, and dishes, and every recipe is inspired by a visit to one of the nation's farmers' markets. While Chez Panisse uses the local crops available to us here in Northern Cali, Deborah Madison's takes you all over the country, and has stuff particular to each region, across the whole year.
    Thanks everyone for the other suggestions! I'm definitely going to check out Simply in Season!

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  15. Laurel from Simple Spoonful Posted 12:06 pm
    15 Nov 2008

    Great CookbooksI enthusiastically second Mark Bittman's book, as well as the Madison From Asparagus to Zucchini.  I'd also like to toss in Russ Parson's How To Pick a Peach, which I just read.  It's not a straight cookbook, but rather a seasonally organized volume covering over 40 fruits, veggies, bulbs, tubers and general dirt-growing items.  He describes them, tells how to choose and store them, and provides recipes.  I loved it!

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  16. ParentheticalSam Posted 8:41 am
    24 Nov 2008

    A Year in a Vegetarian KitchenI'm also from Somerville (hi, Katie!), and I love Jack Bishop's A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen for recipes that follow northeastern seasons (he's from upstate NY).  I tend to be a recipe-tweaker, and his are great for both tweaking and following exactly.

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