Summer Arts Guide 2023: Cookbooks to inspire home chefs
The Coastal Forager’s Cookbook, Heaven on the Half Shell, and Rhubarb are hot picks this sunny season
SUMMERTIME, AND THE living is easy—as well as delicious. Here are three new cookbooks that might inspire you to try out some new tricks in—or outside—of the kitchen.
The Coastal Forager’s Cookbook: Feasting Wild in the Pacific Northwest (Touchwood)
Author Robin Kort is the chef behind Vancouver’s Swallow Tail Supper Club, an advocate of developing a closer connection to the land through food. While most people might make it as far as picking blackberries in terms of their foraging efforts, Kort has spent decades foraging for… You name it: stinging nettle, birch leaf, watercress, dandelion (for marmalade), evergreen tips (for ice cream), sorrel, miner’s lettuce, elderflower (poached pears), bullwhip kelp stem (ginger pickles), thimbleberries (jam), juniper (fish stew), sea asparagus (gazpacho)… The multitalented outdoorsperson-culinary artist isn’t just highly skilled and extremely knowledgeable (she includes information on responsible foraging); she also takes gorgeous photos.
Heaven on the Half Shell: The Story of the Oyster in the Pacific Northwest (Touchwood/Washington Sea Grant)
“Shuck, Slurp, Repeat”: Here’s a book with everything you ever wanted to know about oysters but were afraid to ask… Co-written by David George Gordon, Samantha Larson, and Maryann Barron Wagner, this second edition comes 22 years after it was first published, and lots has changed during those two decades. New types of the bivalves have emerged, while others have practically disappeared. One of the greatest shifts has been the rising popularity of people shucking, preparing, serving and savouring the seafood in their own home kitchens. There’s lots of history in these pages, the release having originated from a series of leather-bound scrapbooks by Earl Brenner, who spent more than 60 years growing oysters in Olympia, Washington. The authors take a deep dive into oyster lore, oyster culture, traditional Indigenous food gathering, cannery days, oyster farms, the effects of climate change, and so much more. Fascinating stuff, and the recipes are gorgeous: Olympia Oyster, Fennel, and Bacon Chowder; Oysters Margaret (a Pacific Northwest take on Oysters Rockefeller adapted by Margaret A. Pilaro; Warm Oysters with Prosecco, Cauliflower, and Sorrel Soup; Classic Oyster Stew; Oyster and Artichoke Pot Pie. Shuck on.
Rhubarb: New and Classic Recipes for Sweet and Savory Dishes (Touchwood)
The season is already well underway, and there’s nothing like a rhubarb pie to make an al fresco dinner complete. Danish chef Soren Staun Petersen has come up with all sorts of other ways to use the gorgeous veg in sweet and savoury dishes. Cases in point: added to a spicy quinoa, mixed into a pulled pork burger, on pizza, and in risotto, sandwich cookies, pancakes, wok dishes, and more. Then there are delicious sounding cocktails. High up on our list: a Light and Stormy, with rhubarb gin, lime juice, and ginger beer.
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