Cooking with Katniss!

​Never has the adult world gone so over the top rabid for a young adult book trilogy.  Except maybe that one other time with the Mormon-inspired sparkly people.  But as the movie for theHunger Games, the first installment of Suzanne Collins' trilogy about a dystopian future approaches and the media surrounding it whips expectant viewers into an unsightly froth, we noticed an interesting food-related trend.

More >>

"We emphasize taking pleasure in the doing," Lynne Rossetto Kasper says. "This is not about 'it's got to be right and it's got to be perfect.' "

​One of the very best things I ever ate was an appetizer made by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. She cracked open a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano and drizzled it with a syrup-thick balsamic vinegar. That's it. Creamy and sharp, sweet and salty, the shards of cheese and vinegar startled my senses awake. It was exactly what I wanted at that moment. It was perfect.

The spanking-new cookbook that she and Sally Swift have written, The Splendid Table's How to Eat Weekends: New Recipes, Stories & Opinions (Clarkson Potter, $35), is like that deceptively simple dish.

More >>

Salad Days can be yours

​Pam Powell, an alum of Brenda Langton's Cafe Kardamena and owner of the Salad Girl Organic Dressings line, has a new cookbook out. Salad Days outlines a few salad-making basics--a useful guide to the various green types, plus tips on washing and storing produce, and stocking dressing ingredients--and then gets straight to the recipes, arranged by season.

The secret to many an excellent salad is an ingredient list that gets beyond the basic vegetable list, and Powell's selections incorporate all sorts of fruits, nuts, cheeses, beans, and meats. So if you're in a salad rut and need some inspiration, how about Nectarine and Nasturtium Salad, or Crab-stuffed Artichoke with Lemon Tarragon Dressing?

The Hot Dish has two copies of the book. Say why you like your favorite salad--either one you make at home or eat at a local restaurant--in the comments for a chance to win. (Leave your email address, too, it won't be visible.)

Salad Days may be purchased at one of these retailers or signed at one of the following events:

More >>

Modernist Cuisine

"The cookbook to end all cookbooks." -David Chang

​Copies of what is surely the most epic cookbook of the contemporary world--the six-volume, 2,438-page, 39.5 pound, five-years-in-the-making Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking--are currently on their way to the hands of the nearly 3,000 people who pre-ordered. The authors--three men with backgrounds in science, technology, and cooking--worked with a 20-person team at their Cooking Lab to thoroughly investigate contemporary cooking techniques, including the molecular gastronomy practiced by restaurants such as elBulli, The Fat Duck, Alinea, and wd~50.

More >>

Your Scandinavian grandmother substitute.

​Are you lacking a Scandinavian grandmother and tired of waiting for church bake sales to get your hands on some sandbakkels? A new book, Scandinavian Classic Baking, by local cookbook author Pat Sinclair, rounds up recipes for the best baked goods from northern Europe, including Norwegian julekake, Danish aebleskiver, and Swedish princess cake.

If you'd like to learn to make lefse, Sinclair will be hosting two upcoming cooking demos and book signings. Details follow:

More >>

Andy Lien

Shefzilla- The Book

​An elegantly dressed man in mirror aviator shades guarded the entrance to the stony patio. A small crowd gathered on the sidewalk in Uptown. Hipsters, tweed-suited men, and bedazzled, cowboy-booted women were all waiting their turn to grab a copy of the cookbook Shefzilla: Conquering Haute Cuisine at Home and get their first glimpse inside the hotly anticipated reincarnation of Heidi's.

More >>

andrew brusso

Alluring green and crunchy bits

​Mom wasn't kidding when she told you to eat those veggies.  Distressing statistics about the American diet seem inescapable these days.  Turns out the burger 'n' fries way of life is harming not only our families but the planet.  The University of Minnesota is addressing these issues at the upcoming Healthy Foods Summit to be held Thursday, September 30, and Friday, October 1, at the University Radisson and the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum respectively.
Day one of the summit culminates in an evening with New York Times columnist and author of How to Eat Everything, Mark Bittman.  Bittman will discuss his latest book Food Matters: 500 Revolutionary Recipes for Better Living.   Chef, restaurateur and local food enthusiast Lucia Watson will provide an introduction.  Tickets are available online for $35 and are first-come, first-serve. Hors d'oeuvres, wine, and beer will be available before the discussion, while a book-signing and Q&A session will be held after.

Voyager Press

​Author Shelley Holl, a former travel columnist and illustrator for the New Orleans Times Picayune, recently published a book celebrating locally produced food. The Minnesota Table: Recipes for Savoring Local Food Through the Year, documents more than just recipes, the book is also a memoir of Holl's travels all over our great state in search of all things unique in our food culture. Holl interviews local gardeners and farmers --even gardening nuns-- forages and explores all things sustainable during all four seasons, and includes recipes by B.J. Carpenter that make the most of her discoveries. The book is broken down month by month, harvest by harvest, and features useful information like how to preserve and dry your produce and herbs. The book also features lovely watercolor illustrations by Holl.
 
You can order The Minnesota Table: Recipes for Savoring Local Food Throughout the Year from Voyageur Press.

Holl and Carpenter will be at the St. Paul Farmer's Market this Saturday, May 29th, from 9am to noon to talk about the book and show you a few recipes.

​A new cookbook, Eating Local: The Cookbook Inspired by America's Farmers features Minnesota's very own Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm as one of the country's best small farms. The book releases on June 1, but I have my hands on an advance copy, which could be yours if you tell us your favorite locally grown produce and how you like to prepare it in the comments section. I'll pick a winner next Wednesday, so be sure to leave your email address (it won't be visible on the site).

Also, Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm owners Robin Raudabaugh and Gigi Nauer have nearly three decades of agricultural experience, and they'll be speaking about their farm and the cookbook on Sunday, May 23, from 2 to 3 p.m., at Sur La Table in Edina.

​We're a captive audience for cookbooks and books about food in general, but sometimes it's still surprising to see what gets published. Is there really a readership for the history of ice cream making? Really? The International Association of Culinary Professionals seems to think so. The organization named the book Of Sugar and Snow: A History of Ice Cream Making one of three finalists for a 2010 Cookbook Award in the "culinary history" category. Fortunately, the nomination of books from familiar names like Ruth Reichl, Mollie Katzen, and Thomas Keller made us stop rubbing our baffled eyes. Here's the nominees for our own categories:

More >>