The bookshelves at Food HQ have been sagging under the weight of the covetable cookbooks released this year. So when it came time to pick out our must-keeps, we went through a Marie Kondo “does this book bring me joy” decluttering moment and arrived at this tightly-edited treasure collection that we’ve been cooking from fervently and will keep on doing so over the many years to come.
When how you like to eat is how you like a travel …
Persian cuisine (spanning Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan) topped our must-eat list (if you love Ottolenghi’s way with flavours, then you’ll fall for Persia’s spice, sweet and tart interplay). These Persian-cooking companions – Naomi Duguid’s Taste of Persia, The Saffron Tales and Sirocco – have us stocking the pantry with dried barberries, date molasses (excellent with granola and labne, BTW), dried limes and orange blossom water. Our next intrepid guide is The Gefilte Manifesto by Jeffrey Yoskowitz and Liz Alpern, a compendium of “new recipes for old world Jewish foods” - sour dill martini, anyone? Halal food blogger Yvonne Maffei flips halal food on its head for the modern Muslim in My Halal Kitchen – yes, you can make “Coq Without the Vin”. My Nordic Kitchen by Noma cofounder Claus Meyer takes us on a year of family cooking through the Scandi seasons – the winter chapter is pure comfort. Get schooled in Polish cooking (it’s not all dark, gloomy and hearty y’know) thanks to Zuza Zak’s inspiring Polska - Zak’s young spring cabbage with dill and bacon is our Dep Ed’s new favourite side. Just when we had retired our woks, along came a trio of tomes that made us fall in love all over again with Chinese cooking, through the delicious storytelling of Fuschia Dunlop, who explores the cuisine of Jiangnan in Land of Fish and Rice. While China: The Cookbook by Kei Lum Chan and Diora Fong Chan is – as we’ve come to expect from Phaidon titles – a bible at 650 recipes. Not to be outdone, Carolyn Phillips’ (you may know her from her excellent dim sum field guide that appeared in Lucky Peach and is now a stand-alone book) All Under Heaven, the only English-language cookbook to cover all 35 cuisines of China (our Managing Ed’s personal pick - but she’s biased because China is her mother country).
Polska's young spring cabbage with dill and bacon. Source: Hardie Grant Books
When food has no borders and culinary mash-ups are intuitively how you like to cook …
My Two Souths by Asha Gomez and Martha Hall Foose is a fusion (no longer a dirty F-word) of the foods of the American South and the author’s native Kerala in southern India – and represents the best of when two cuisines collide to make a more-delicious tasting whole (why didn’t we think of fried chicken with cardamom rice waffles?).
When a healthy home-cooked meal is calling you …
Love a grain bowl with sorrel pesto? A sprouted legume salad with pickled turnips? California’s Sqirl restaurant is where all these trends (that have been copied the globe over) started. The book title Everything I Want to Eat says it all. We would add: Now.
For those days when you’re a part-time vegan …
Turn to Melbourne restaurant duo Mo Wyse and Shannon Martinez, who are as well-known for their tatts as their Latin-influenced eats at Smith & Daughters – now a cookbook, too. We've no beef with these jalapeno and corn fritters.
Smith & Daughters jalapeno and corn fritters. Source: Hardie Grant Books
When technique is what you need …
And we’re not talking about how to cook a 65-degree egg. We’re talking about those pro tricks that make cooking more efficient, more joyful for us chef-wannabes. Turn to Best Kitchen Classics by Sydney chef Mark Best, who has focused his culinary flamboyance to improving humble much-loved classics, like banana bread that doesn’t turn speckly black. At the other end of the pro spectrum is recipe developer and cookbook ghostwriter to the stars Julia Tershen (Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow are her BFFs – and she co-authored The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook, keep reading below), whose Small Victories, “all about finding the little moments of success in the kitchen”, delivers confidently on its premise, offering up practical advice that makes cooking that much easier for the domestic cook.
When Google is a dud, turn to this incomparable reference volume ...
Australian Fish & Seafood Cookbook – a powerhouse from fin experts John Susman, Anthony Huckstep, Sarah Swan & Stephen Hodges.
When you’ve pickled your way from the A to Z of vegetables, and looking for a new obsession ...
We're calling it: Preserving the Japanese Way is the restaurant trend of 2017. Hello, miso-cured egg yolks!
When you make a resolution to quit sugar but still have doughnut cravings …
These almond, rosewater and chocolate numbers from Incredible Bakes That Just Happen to be Refined-Sugar Free will ease you into alternative-sweetener nirvana.
Almond, rosewater and chocolate donut cakes. Source: Chris Middleton
Then, when you realise quitting sugar is not for you ...
Renounce your resolution with any one of the 300 cookies in Dorie’s Cookies, from the godmother of baking. Every cookie is just-so freakin’ ’grammable – you’ll need social support that you’ve made the right decision.
And if you’re going to fall off the sugar wagon, then fall all the way into a haystack of musk sticks from Milkbar Memories.
Musk sticks, from Milkbar Memories. Source: Murdoch Books
When cooking fuels not only your family but also those in need …
Hands together for the The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook, an homage to one woman’s dream to run a social enterprise bakery in New York, providing work and training for migrant women from across the globe, featuring the unique and oft-rare indigenous breads from their various homelands, including this Moroccan m’smen. There hasn't been a more important time than now, with the bombings in Aleppo last week, that collabs like Cook for Syria, with recipes and stories from the region and 100 per cent of profits dedicated to helping children affected by the conflict, remind us we are global citizens; what we cook is what we stand for and plays a small part in bringing the world and its people to a shared understanding.
And, of course, these titles from our SBS Food family of cooks and chefs will always have a sticky, sauce-splattered place by our stovetop.
Happy cooking over the holidays!
Love the SBS Food team.
