Seasons by the Sea: All the Tools You Need
There are three new cookbooks with local ties — “Plated: Weeknight Dinners, Weekend Feasts, and Everything In Between” by Elana Karp and Suzanne Dumaine, “Tiki With a Twist” by Lynn Calvo with James O. Fraioli, and “It’s All Easy” by Gwyneth Paltrow with Thea Baumann.
“Plated” is an offshoot of a company by the same name that provides fresh, pre-portioned ingredients with chef-designed recipes. The company uses local, sustainably sourced ingredients, and the focus is on seasonality. Ms. Karp comes with a background in school-based food education programs, and Ms. Dumaine was a recipe contributor for the Food Network. There is certainly plenty of gravitas to those backgrounds, but when you read “we discuss our lunch options before we eat breakfast, spend hours contemplating the best melty cheese, posit hundreds of recipe ideas a week — and light up in the presence of a new restaurant, dish, or food destination,” you know you are about to go on a journey with real foodies.
The book begins with basics: the tools you need, pantry items, the importance of knife skills, etc. It is not intimidating or overly descriptive. Next are dry rubs, marinades, dressings, sauces, and condiments — again, simple, direct, and doable. The best section is next: weeknight dinners. The recipes range from simple roast chicken to risottos, steak, fish, and pastas. Each page has the master recipe and includes seasonable vegetable add-ins, a la Mark Bittman’s columns from The New York Times. For instance, your spring risotto could include asparagus and fava beans, while in the fall you could add seasonably available chanterelles or cremini mushrooms.
Next comes a chapter on leftovers, always a good idea and occasionally a challenge. There are weekend feasts, a bit more labor-intensive, dishes for a crowd, and a few themed meals like “date night.” The menus range from the cozy and relatively simple — Sunday night roast chicken with apple and fennel salad, green beans, and chocolate brioche bread pudding — to the more elaborate — Peking duck with sweet chile eggplant. I did find one boo-boo, however. In the recipe for Key lime pie, the ingredients list calls for 50 Key limes to yield a half cup of juice. I have made many Key lime pies in my life, with the real Key limes, and while they are small, I assure you, you do not need 50 to get a half cup of juice.
This would be a good book for beginner cooks as well as the more experienced. The emphasis on tailoring a basic dish to what is seasonably available is a welcome twist.
When I first skimmed through “Tiki With a Twist,” I thought, “Oh, c’mon, how many variations on a sugary rum drink can you come up with?” Then I read the book from cover to cover and discovered that this isn’t just a book with “75 cool, fresh, and wild tropical drinks,” it is a travelogue, an adventure, an education, and it is as fun as can be. Ms. Calvo, the proprietor of Montauk’s very cool Lynn’s Hula Hut located at the Montauk Marine Basin, has had many, many adventures in her life and shares anecdotes from motorcycle trips through the Mayan Riviera to the Virgin Islands and more.
The book begins with the basics like glassware, infusions, juices to have on hand, purees, and how to tell if a pineapple is ripe. She helpfully points out how long these concoctions will last in the fridge and that many — such as fennel and orange or hot mango puree — can be used as salad dressings and seafood toppers. If you are inclined to go the whole tiki couture route, Ms. Calvo shares resources for cocktail umbrellas, goofy glasses, coconut shells, edible orchids, sparklers, and so on.
The chapters go from the Hula Hut’s signature cocktails to martini-style, coconut-based, frozen Bloody Mary variations to “classics with a twist.” Ms. Calvo has an herby garden nearby and shops at the Montauk farmers market for ingredients, so freshness is emphasized in a most inspiring way.
When you find yourself dog-earring pages, dreaming of tropical oases, and buying the ingredients you just read about, that is the sign of a good recipe book. The tone is breezy, the narrative informative, and the drinks delicious.
Good news, everybody! Gwyneth Paltrow’s new book, “It’s All Easy” is way mo’ better than the last one. You may recall the last book was a punishing, ill-informed litany of blood parasites, panic attacks, psychospiritual nutrition (WTF?), anthroposophical medicine, and one cup of xylitol. Gwyneth was forbidden by one of her doctors from indulging in coffee, alcohol, oats, dairy, sugar, shellfish, gluten, and soy. Well, guess what? This new book is full of gooey grilled cheese sandwiches, bacon, spaghetti carbonara, truffle oil, and chicken tenders with barbecue sauce. She drinks wine and coffee.
Dare I say this book is verging on “Barefoot Contessa Lite”? Ina Garten’s last book was “How Easy Is That.” Like a bird’s call and response, this new book is titled “It’s All Easy.”
Similar to her previous cookbooks, this one is filled with photos of the author in cozy sweaters, in bare feet, in staggeringly beautiful settings. Unlike many celebrity parents, she is not averse to also having a gazillion pictures of her children, Apple and Moses, in the book.
The premise of the book is meals that “can be made in the time it would take to order less healthy takeout.” It is a “self-help book for the chronically busy cook.” I don’t know what that means. Stress is mentioned a lot, as are soccer practices, soccer matches, and soccer. I get the feeling this book is geared towards super busy, stressed out soccer moms who can’t figure out what to put on the table, just like Gwyneth and her friends Beyonce and Jessica Seinfeld. Really? Really?
The book is co-authored by Thea Baumann, the food editor of GOOP, and is laid out by pantry staples, then breakfast, “On the Go,” “Pick Me Ups,” “in a pinch,” and so on. The pantry suggestions are waaaay more than the average cook needs, so don’t feel compelled to buy every esoteric ingredient listed. The “Plated” book’s list is far more realistic for the home cook.
Some of the “On the Go” recipes, such as bibimbap — full of kimchi, scallions, and garlic — are said to be “good for airplanes.” Something tells me Gwyneth is not going to be flying coach class next to me with that uber-fragrant concoction!
Aside from a few painful proclamations (of both the grammatical and culinary variety) like “I try to eat healthy and detox my body as much as possible,” the book really is filled with some delicious-sounding items. I tried two recipes, the Szechuan-style green beans and zucchini cacio e pepe, a riff on spaghetti but substituting zoodles (spiralized zucchini). The Szechuan green beans were excellent, although offering only an eighth of a pound per person makes this recipe more of a garnish than an actual portion. The zucchini cacio e pepe had good flavor (thanks to the whole cup of grated Parmesan cheese!) but acquired a gluey texture from the moisture of cold zucchini strands mixed with cheese. I baked the leftovers and it was then quite tasty, if a bit watery.
There’s not a lot of originality: The basic tomato sauce recipe is the exact same one from the previous book, but dishes like miso turnips and cauliflower tabbouleh (a favorite at the annual GOOP detox!) sound worthwhile.
I am glad that G.P. is no longer punishing her body with a bunch of ascetic hooey; her avocado toast now has bacon, and the taquitos have shredded Mexican cheese blend, and pancetta has its rightful place in her rich carbonara.
“It’s All Easy” isn’t necessarily all easy, but it is a lot more palatable.
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