Emerging Writers Network

Book Review 2019-006: Milk Street Tuesday Nights by Christopher Kimball

Book Review 2019-006
Milk Street Tuesday Nights by Christopher Kimball
2018 by Little, Brown, 393 pages

(We purchased a copy of this book).

 

A cookbook isn't something we'd normally review. But we can honestly say that we've read a great deal of this title and not just followed the recipes. In Kimball's introduction he notes:

Look at cooking elsewhere in the world and you'll find that flavor is built with ingredients, not time. For anyone living outside Europe, this isn't much of a revelation. But for those of us raised on classic American cookery, heavily influenced by the cuisines of northern Europe, this is a watershed moment. Herbs, spices, fermented sauces, chiles, ginger, scallions, lemon grass, smoked meats and fish. These are the ingredients that make cooking quicker and easier. Likewise with pantry staples such as harissa, tahini, pomegranate molasses, salsas, chili paste and vinegars...For millions of people let it be said that we offer nothing new. To them, we are late to the game. But we hope that this book offers the home cook a new beginning and a break from the past when fast food meant bad food.

The collection of recipes is mainly sorted by the time it will take to cook the meals: Fast, Faster and Fastest, though there are some other sections that are a bit more specific (Easy Additions, Supper Salads, Sweets, etc.) to type rather than ingredients--you won't find a poultry, beef, and seafood sectioning of the recipes here. And Kimball is accurate with the fast, faster and fastest breakdown as none of these will take an hour from beginning to sitting down to eat. We've made somewhere around a dozen of these so far and typically were eating within 45 minutes of telling everybody else to get the hell out of the kitchen.

Each recipe has a photo (to mock our own final platings--the only negative of the book that we've found) and a bit of back-story. For example, for Georgian Chicken with Walnut-Cilantro Sauce the opening paragraph is:

In the country of Georgia, chicken and fish often are served with a creamy walnut sauce. In our version, braised bone-in chicken thighs are accompanied by a walnut-cilantro puree that's lightly spiced and spiked with a pomegranate molasses. If you like, scatter pomegranate seeds over the finished dish. You'll need an oven-safe 12-inch skillet for this recipe. Served warmed flatbread alongside.

Then there is always a tip before moving on to the actual instructions--in this case:

Don't fully submerge the chicken thighs in the sauce when returning them to the pan after browning. Keeping the skin dry and exposed helps it crisp and brown in the oven.Don't forget the skillet handle will be hot after it is removed from the oven, so be sure to use a pot holder.

And from there forward it's typically half a dozen steps or fewer, none of them ever leading to the question we sometimes ask when dipping into other cookbooks (How the eff do I do that?).

What the folks behind Milk Street have done is found great recipes from around the world, especially places one might be less familiar with like say Peru, or Georgia (the country), or Viet Nam, or the Philippines, and find ways to create similar dishes, with maybe a few easier steps, or easier to find comparable ingredients. Even if you're familiar with American restaurants of certain ethnicities, odds are high that the dishes you'll cook and plate from this collection will not be the standard fare from those places.

If you've gotten a little bored with meatloaf, spaghetti, baked chicken and the like, and are looking for easy meals to make that will introduce new flavors to your table, this is an excellent way to do so.

Favorite Foods of 2018

Not an overly literary post here--but I look at food much like we look at writing, music, film and television, not to mention comics, painting, sculpting, etc. we think of it as an art form. One we like to dabble in rather poorly, but an art form that we truly enjoy.

This year's favorite new food experience came after a reading, so there is SOME literary aspect to it--this would be the Duck Empanadas at Bolero in Detroit. Actually on their menu the item is Empanada de Pato and described as Shredded duck empanadas made with peppers, onion, garlic, sofrito. Served with spicy rocoto sauce. These were fantastic--crunchy, spicy, stuffed with duck meat. Just really good and a place that we will be going back to.

Other out of the house new favorites this year would include Stuffed Lamb from Al Ameer in Dearborn Heights, the Alamo Black Bean Burger combined with Tater Tots from Hermann's Olde Town Grille in Plymouth--black beans, pepper jack, chipotle mayo, tortilla strips, jalapenos, lettuce and tomato, and the Spinach Artichoke Melt at Honest John's in Detroit (spinach, artichoke, Swiss and Parmesan, roasted red peppers on grilled pita with a side of chipotle-basil mayo).

In terms of the home cooking this year:

--3rd time was the charm. After overcooking the turkey two attempts ago, and inadvertently smoking it (long story) the previous effort, this year's turkey came out just about perfect. 

--Morroccan chickpea couscous stew has remained a favorite in the household

--Coriander Roasted Chicken was actually enjoyed to the point that all three women at the table had seconds (never in the history of this table has that happened)

--Pistachio Encrusted Cod was a surprising hit

--Risotto has been a mainstay, maybe once per month, and the last one from December, a simple asparagus effort with some garlic and a couple of squeezes of lemon juice at the end was surprisingly the best of the lot.

Yes, that's right, if you look closely enough you'll notice a few of the favorite did not include meat. Trying to work that in at least a couple of times per week these days.