The Best Cookbooks List

COOKBOOK REVIEW: Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home

 

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer

This is my new Bible for making ice cream. I live on the East Coast and can't get to a Jeni's ice cream store, but I can as of this month buy Jeni's amazing cookbook for making her inspired artisinal ice creams at home. She even suggests using the exact ice cream maker I have, making it even more encouraging.

You see, I have a lot of ice cream recipe books. I have old ones. I have retro ones. I have almost every one I could find. I also have hand-written notes from my grandmother for her favorite homemade icy concoctions. They all go to the bottom shelf for now. The only other one I am keeping close at hand is David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, also a great reference for anything frozen.

This is by far the one that offers flavors an adult would crave. This is by far the easiest to follow, makes the most sense, and is the most exciting. I was turning the corners of pages to bookmark ice cream recipes I wanted to try when I realized I was bookmarking every page. Can you tell I love it?!

Think of making Sweet Basil & Honeyed Pine Nut ice cream, Pineapple Piment d'Espelette, Goat Cheese Ice Cream with Cognac Figs, or Cucumber Honeydew Cayenne Frozen Yogurt, Sour Beer Sorbets, Star Anise Ice Cream with Candied Fennel Seeds, or Riesling Poached Pear Sorbet. I plan on starting at the front and making each and every single one. 

Those of you that follow this blog know how much I love macarons. There is a whole section on how to make your own Macaron Ice Cream Sandwiches!

And what about that old fashioned favorite of mine, Baked Alaska? Jeni offers us a guided tour on how to easily make a Baked Alaska Pie. If the results are as good as the pictures look, I am going to be very very happy!

This is a heart-felt book, one written with thoughtful care, attention to detail, compassion for the uninitiated, encouragement for the timid. Jeni speaks about ice cream the way a sommelier speaks of wine. "Fudge like texture and a pleasingly dry finish" ....."cardamom, with notes of citrus and pine, adds a blunt floral perfume."

But there is more. Recipes for "Swanky Cocktails" using the ice cream or sorbets, Vino Santo Sauce, rainbow colored terrines, and the story of how Jeni came to this place in her life running throughout the book, so by the end you feel as if you have taken the journey with her. Bravo Jeni. A truly valuable and entertaining anthem to making creative artisanal ice creams at home. I am so happy to have this new cookbook!

Such a fun video to watch of them making Jeni's ice cream! Click below to watch!

Good Time from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams on Vimeo.

SIMPLY GREAT BREADS by Daniel Leader

 

Simply Great Breads: Sweet and Savory Yeasted Treats from America's Premier Artisan Baker by Daniel Leader

Wine in pizza crust?! I love this book! Beyond the intrigue of using wine instead of water when making my pizza dough, it was the great taste I achieved that sold me on this method. The recipe from this new book is a charmer. My rediscovered passion for making yeasty treats is well catered to by the easy to follow recipes that yield complex tasting breads, sweet breads, rolls, and variations thereof.

 
One of my favorite weekend projects is to make a Breakfast Basket of breads so I was delighted to see the very first chapter of Daniel's book dedicated to the same. I tried the Brioche Muffins: excellent. And I am now looking forward to playing with his variations on that theme, including trying Fig Brioche Muffins. 

Although Daniel specializes in organic baking with whole grain breads, he provides classic "regular dough" recipes for bagels and ciabatta as well as guidance on making not so well-known breads like Navajo Fry Bread and Mana'eesh.

My mood recently was for something very homy and comforting, so I tried making his Angel Biscuits from the book. I liked that the night before I could simply combine a few ingredients and then in the morning add a few more ingredients and pop it in the oven to yield heavenly light flaky biscuits which I slit open, slathered with sweet butter and added a dollop of fresh jam (also a recipe from his book!). I was so happy! They were perfection. 

For newbies to bread baking, Simply Great Breads: Sweet and Savory Yeasted Treats from America's Premier Artisan Baker is a wonderful quick introduction that strips away the mystery of the process. For experienced bread makers, it is a delight in that it offers the platform of basic proven recipes that can be added to and experimented with. This is a valuable addition to anyone's cookbook collection.

 

 Food architects Sam Bompas and Harry Parr of the UK have a delightful new book about jello (jelly) that is as colorful and crazy as the jello creations they love to make, Jellymongers: Glow-in-the-Dark Jelly, Titanic Jelly, Flaming Jelly.

 

 

It is unlike any cookbook I have come across and I find it utterly entertaining! Their imagination is beyond wild. Consider their glow in the dark jellos, like little green emissaries from outer space.

Or their jellos of massive proportions in the form of stately buildings.

If I looked no further I would guess they are staging crazy jello experiences to get attention.

But as I got further into the cookbook I fell under their spell and eventually totally got what they are doing. I love it. So retro and yet so modern at the same time. So fantastical and fun. And desert should be fun!!

 There was a section on historic jello molds and the veritable history of jello:

"By the start of World War II, the jelly-mold industry in England had effectively ceased....at Bompas and Parr we're changing all that. We've made molds of everything, from nuclear submarines to skyscrapers. Making our own molds allows us to explore jello's heritage and to push the boundaries of the medium."

The photography is exquisite and the step-by-step instructions so confidently given that it seems genuinely possible to make some of the most difficult looking jellos. It begins with "easy jellies" including a pink pink pink one called Rhubarb and Rose Jelly that sounds delicious. 

I think my first attempt is going to be to set fruit into jelly by making their Elderflower and Raspberry Jelly. I love the idea of using Elderflower Cordial to make it. Sophisticated and smooth.

On the right occasion, I am going to definitely try the Absinthe Jelly, wicked and green though it is. And the summer won't go by without my trying my hand at Campari & Orange Jelly. 

I just love the breath of fresh air this book is. It has my mind whirring with possibilities and shapes. Can I find an impossibly long rectangular shape to make one in an unexpected color and flavor? Can I think of a savory one that would make sense? Can I achieve their deep jewel like colors? I'm on my way to try.

I totally recommend this book. Moms will find super easy, healthy real fruit jellos to whip up in minutes for their children. Dreamers will find inspiration. All good.

Jelly Monger's Recipe for Easy Lemon Jelly

Serves 4.

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

scant 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1/2 cup sugar syrup

2/3 cup water

5 leaves of gelatin

Method:

1. Pour the fruit juices into a bowl and add the sugar syrup and water.

2. Cut the leaves of gelatin into a few pieces and place in a heatproof bowl. Add a few tablespoons of the juice mixture so that the gelatin is just covered. Let the gelatin soften for 10 minutes while you bring a small pan of water to a simmer.

3. Place the bowl of gelatin over the simmering water and stir from time to time until totally melted. This takes about 10 minutes. Then pour the remainder of the juice mixture over the melted gelatin and stir in to combine.

4. Pour through a sieve into a large measuring cup and then carefully fill your mold. Refrigerate until set.

 

 

FRENCH CLASSICS MADE EASY: by Richard Grausman

French Classics Made Easy: More Than 250 Great French Recipes Updated and Simplified for the American Kitchen by Richard Grausman.

Can I just say how totally in love I am with this cookbook??!! I think I have to admit that right now, because I am going to regale you with my delight at owning this new updated version of the original 1998 cookbook, At Home With The French Classics.

First of all, let me tell you about the author. Richard Grausman is a Cordon Bleu trained culinary instructor and cookbook author. He is founder of the non-profit Careers Through Culinary Arts Program, and has been educating young chefs and home chefs about the culinary arts for almost forty years. He is a pro. He is a wonderful communicator. And he know exactly how to explain a recipe so that you want to drop everything and try it. 

This is my kind of cooking. I love classic French cuisine. I love whipping up souffles and terrines, or a Tarte Tatin or rows of puff pastries. However, I was merely skimming the surface. 

For instance, take souffles. I learned from Richard's book that I could prepare them in advance, and bake them at the last minute. I learned a technique where they don't necessarily need the paper collars I envelope them in. And I received a pat on the back for still using my huge copper bowl to hand beat the whites.

Next chapter: fish mousse! In all its glory and variations. Then quiches, soups, main courses and desserts. Almost every recipe is a favorite of mine and offers a different spin on how to make it, causing me to write up a long list of recipes I want to try from this book: Savory Gruyere Pastry Ring Filled With Cheese Souffle, Stretching Noodles (!), Truffled Chicken, Chicken With Riesling, Cream Puffs Filled With Chocolate Souffle,Ladyfingers, and a classic Paris-Brest. And I want to try Richard's Chocolate Genoise With Grand Marnier Ganache (plus its variation, the Sachertorte).

I love the way he explains a recipe, then provides illustrations of how to visually build it, asides that describe variations on the main dish, and short interesting bits about other ways to use the same ingredients for other dishes or the special molds or dishes needed to make the dish: resulting in a delicious discussion thread that makes each chapter a pleasure to read.

He sealed the deal when I came to his chapter containing recipes for dessert omelets, one of my weaknesses! I adore making a deep chocolate omelet for weekend breakfasts. Richard's become after dinner desserts: Orange Souffleed Omelet, Apple Omelet With Calvados, and Strawberry Filled Omelet With Cointreau. Yum!!!!!! Sign me up! Oh, and the recipe for Riz A L'Imperatrice, something you definitely won't find on restaurant menus anymore, is divine and worthy of a special occasion. And a final round of applause for Richard's recipe for Floating Island (Ile Flottante), a dish that has always eluded me (although it is a simple farm house dish) and which Richard solves by baking the meringue rather than bathing it. Easy! 

So you see, this wonderful cookbook is perfect for beginners who want to learn the basics, as well as for people like me who have "cooked French" forever and still have a few new tricks to learn!! I am thrilled with this book, the closest thing I have to a Julia Child cookbook. Interesting to read, breaking down difficult French recipes so they are totally easy to make, and appreciating that in America we have to use substitutes for a lot of the classic ingredients we can't get here. A plus: Richard takes time with each recipe to relate how he has "lightened" it up from its classic rich butter and cream origins, preserving the flavor and reducing the calories. All in all, I would say this is a just about perfect French cookbook.

 

CULINARY TEA by Cynthia Gold and Lise Stern

These authors crack wide open the amazing world of tea in their new cookbook Culinary Tea: More Than 150 Recipes Steeped in Tradition from Around the World by Cynthia Gold & Lise Stern.

Tea is anything but the bags packed in cardboard boxes you buy in grocery stores. That pallid version misses the aroma, fragrance, color, and integrity a good tea has. In fact, if you walk into a Chinese supermarket you will see teas kept under lock and key behind glass doors, some hundreds of dollars a pound. It is this world of tea that has always fascinated me and brought me quickly to this wonderful cookbook.

One of the authors, Cynthia Gold, is a tea sommelier at The Boston Park Plaza Hotel. I had never heard of a tea sommelier! So cool. And the other author, Lise Stern, is a foodie and food writer. Together they created a masterly cook book of over 100 recipes using tea, as well as a compendium of the history of tea, bound together with luminous photography.

They even explore the many different types of teas, their flavor and aroma profiles, and how to steep tea.

"White teas are the least processed teas, and in certain ways remain the closest to the original fresh tea plant."

"Lapsang Soughong: This earthy tea is smoked with pine needles, giving it a distinctive smoky, tarry flavor that is sometimes an acquired tasted. It is very well suited to cooking and will impart its characteristic smokiness into a dish---without needing to actually smoke the food."

Fascinating! I snuggled down into a comfy chair with a freshly brewed cup of tea and kept reading.

"Creating home blends of tea is another aspect of culinary tea. You can combine a variety of teas, as well as non-tea ingredients such as spices, flowers, herbs, and dried fruits to create personal signature tea blends that you can use for both sipping and for cooking."

I decided not far into the book that I absolutely loved it. There are so many things I want to try, that I started to make a list: Tea Marbled Eggs, Jasmine Dumplings, Earl Gray Cream Tea Cake, Chai Ice Cream, Tea Toffy with Tea Smoked Salt, Salmon in Black Tea-Coconut Sauce.

I am going to share with you the first recipe from the book I am going to try. It is for Oolong Mayonnaise. I see it generously slathered on home made bread for an intriguing turkey sandwich. I can't wait!

Oolong Mayonnaise

Makes 2 1/2 cups

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons loose-leaf oolong tea leaves

1 tablespoon chopped dried cranberries

1 cup steaming water (about 185 F/85 C)

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

2 cups canola oil

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method:

1. Combine tea and cranberries in a bowl. Pour the steaming water over them and steep, covered, for 3 minutes. Strain the tea. Discard the liquid and reserve the leaves and berries and let cool, about 15 minutes. When cool, coarsely chop the tea leaves and berries.

2. In the bowl of a food processor or blender, combine the eggs, yolk, ginger, and rice vinegar. Process to combine. With the processor running, slowly add the oil in a steady stream through the feed tube over the course of about 2 minutes. When all the oil has been emulsified stop the processor and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the cooled, chopped tea leaves and berries to the mixture in the food processor and continue processing for another minute. Scrape the bowl, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Continue processing for 30 seconds more. The chopped tea leaves will produce a mayo that looks like tartar sauce---but it will taste infinitely more interesting.

3. Use, or store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Culinary Tea: More Than 150 Recipes Steeped in Tradition from Around the World by Cynthia Gold & Lise Stern

 

ANCIENT GRAINS FOR MODERN MEALS by Maria Speck

I know I only review here cookbooks that I love. And I know I always use superlatives. But I simply must tell you how very excited I am about this new cookbook by Maria Speck. It has guts and a depth to it that vaults it into the upper echelons of cookbook heaven. This is a cookbook food lovers will swoon over.

More than just recipes, Maria really talks to the reader. And it is fascinating to listen. She writes colorfully about her background and upbringing, her husband's influence on her cooking, her passion for whole ancient grains and how it came to be, plus history, methods, musings, thoughts, and tons of other recipes for dishes that would go well with the whole grain ones. Her enthusiasm jumps out at you from every single page. So you see, this is a book to read and savor. I learned so much from it. Now I am crazy to get a Masala dabba like Maria's. Don't know what it is? Neither did I. And it is brilliant. 

Now let me tell you about the recipes. They totally appealed to my tastes. Wouldn't you like to try the Purple Rice Pudding with Rose Water Dates; Roast Chicken With Orange, Lavender, and Thyme; Brie Cakes with Sun-Dried Tomatoes; Orange and Lemon Couscous; or her Fig Muffins with Creamy Goat Cheese Filling?! Yum!

I loved reading about her floating bread I can make that rises in water. When it rises to the top of the water, it is ready to bake!

This book has my over the top, total recommendation. I can't wait to try the Artisanal Fruit Bread so that I can present slices of it with a great artisanal cheese plate.

I made the Orange Polentina with Honey Mascarpone Topping for breakfast, and if all the recipes are as deliriously good as this one was, then I'm going to work through each recipe in this wonderful new cookbook!

I hope Maria doesn't mind, but I am going to share with you the recipe for Orange Polentina with Honey Mascarpone Topping.

Orange Polentina with Honey Mascarpone Topping

Ingredients for Polentina:

Printable Recipe

2 cups water

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 cup instant or quick cooking polenta or grits

Ingredients for Mascarpone Topping:

1 large orange

1/2 cup Mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons honey

Method:

1. Bring the water, milk and salt to a boil. Using a whisk, gradually stir in the polenta in a thin stream. Decrease the heat to maintain a gentle bubble and whisk continuously until the polenta thickens, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover, and let sit for 5 minutes.

2. Finely grate the orange until you have 2 teaspoons of zest. Pell the fruit, remove the pith, cut the fruit into 1/2 inch segments. Set aside. Using a fork, beat the Mascarpone, yogurt, 2 tablespoons honey, and 1 teaspoon of the orange zest in a bowl until smooth.

3. Whisk the remaining 1/4 cut honey and the remaining 1 teaspoon zest into the polentina. Spoon into bowls, crowning each with 1/4 cup of the Mascarpone topping, and a few pieces of orange. Serve.

Ancient Grains for Modern Meals: Mediterranean Whole Grain Recipes for Barley, Farro, Kamut, Polenta, Wheat Berries & More by Maria Speck

 

Cookbook Review: uchi, The Cookbook

 

Every once in a while a cookbook comes along that takes your breath away. I felt that way about Charlie Trotter's Raw. I felt that way about Mark Bitterman's Salted. And I feel that way about a new cookbook I just got, Uchi: The Cookbook by Tyson Cole and Jessica Dupuy.

Tyson Cole, the chef who wrote the book, owns Uchi Restaurant in Austin, Texas. The cookbook tells his story and that of the evolution of the restaurant as much as it offers us his recipes, which makes it a hard to put down read. His story is compelling. Starting as a dishwasher in a local Japanese restaurant, Tyson was first introduced to sushi and became fascinated by it. He worked his way up from dishwasher to sushi chef in time, and became close personal friends with his fellow sushi chefs on the line.

He moved on to work as a sushi chef at the best sushi restaurant in town. One customer became so enamored with his work that he convinced Tyson to open his own restaurant, and he would find backers. Uchi was born. And many years later, this, his new cookbook, is born, celebrating his craft and his restaurant.

Uchi, The Cookbook is illustrated with luscious photography that will have you running to book a flight to Austin so you can personally taste his beautiful food.

The pictures seem unattainable, yet when you read the recipes they are very attainable. Mine may not ultimately look as beautiful as these, but I know they will taste divine if I can find the highest quality ingredients to make them with. His instructions are clear and easy to follow.

And I think when you are exposed to a work of art like this cookbook, you are inspired to raise the bar on your own cooking and its presentation.

I know I am going to start in the desserts section. Why? Because they are so incredibly brilliant looking and they intrigue me. I want to try making all the little garnishes, like the Bacon Candy, Mango Paper, and Almond Glass. I want to try making the Pine Needle Sorbet with Candied Pine Nut; the Lemon Gelato with Beet and Sicilian Pistachio; the Mascarpone Sphere with Cured Strawberry, Pea Sorbet and Mint Chips. The words are sheer poetry to me. I'm being wooed. And I am falling in love with this book.

Lance Armstrong, an Austin native, calls Uchi "the best sushi restaurant in the world". I think he may be right, judging by this exquisite book.

Uchi: The Cookbook by Tyson Cole and Jessica Dupuy

SALAD AS A MEAL by Patricia Wells

Hi Everyone!

I am presently participating in a Food Challenge on my other blog, Marche Dimanche. For one month, I and eight other bloggers are cooking from recipes in Salad as a Meal: Healthy Main-Dish Salads for Every Season by Patricia Wells. So much fun! So I thought this would be a great time, while I have my apron on and am in the midst of testing twelve recipes, to review this new cookbook.

Let's just say that I am enjoying every recipe immensely. Why? Well, it is not a diet book, but I have now lost three pounds cooking from this new cook book. I am able to tumble together eye-catching ingredients into meals that look like it took a much longer time to make. And I know that I am treating my body very well by dining on the freshest and lightest foods.

Here are some pictures of the meals I have made so far. This first one is an egg crepe stuffed with spinach and mushrooms. How healthy is that?!! (OK, I cheated a little by making mini muffins to side it, but they are mini!) I made it for breakfast yesterday. 

This next one is a Cobb Salad that tasted better than any Cobb Salad I have ever had. It is going in my Keeper Recipe Box.

The following luscious salad made a hearty lunch. It was from the recipe: Turkey Breast With Lemon, Capers, Cornichons, and Mint. Bonus: I got two quarts of lovely turkey broth from cooking the turkey that I used the next day as a base for soup. And I had enough turkey leftovers for another day's meal. Perfect!

The next was a star attraction. A Crab Salad that was so moist and flavorful it transported me to the tropics for a day. I sided it with a chilly goblet of Riesling.

Now that I have tested these recipes and have a line-up of others to make this month, I can very confidently say to you that this is one cook book you will want to have on your shelf this Spring and Summer. These dishes are the kind of food you want to eat when it is warm out, when you are dining under the stars on a hot summer night, or when you want to pack a meal and take it with you as a picnic.

Come follow me on my food blog, Marche Dimanche, to see the other recipes I am cooking all month from Salad as a Meal: Healthy Main-Dish Salads for Every Season. Come get healthy with me! 

Salad as a Meal: Healthy Main-Dish Salads for Every Season by Patricia Wells

 

MY CALABRIA by Rosetta Costantino

How does a girl who lives in the southernmost region of Italy, whose father was a shepherd and winemaker, end up in California as a cooking teacher and author of one of the most satisfying and endearing cookbooks about Italian cuisine?

And where exactly is Calabria?!

I googled images of Calabria and my breath stopped. How have I not visited? How soon can I go?! It looks exquisite, and if the cuisine is as luscious as Rosetta's recipes and prose paint it, then it's my next culinary journey. As soon as I can make it happen.

And then there was the table of contents, normally pretty dry stuff. Reading the contents page of My Calabria made me want to dive right into each and every page. Handmade fusilli wrapped around a knitting needle.....featherlight fritters to accompany the evening's first glass of wine.....an exotic green tomato tart with ricotta ice cream.....

From this very first page my emotions were entwined with the pages before me. Rosetta is an evocative writer. So this, then, is more than a cookbook. It is great reading.

The opening paragraph of My Calabria:

"The home that so many Calabrians once had to abandon is a painfully beautiful place, a remote land of majestic castles and ancient fortresses; snow-covered highlands that resemble Switzerland; markets proffering salt cod, unusual salumi, and fresh ricotta cheese; and miles of beaches and unspoiled coastline, the longest in all Italy."

Wow. Makes you want to go, doesn't it?

This is homey food. Comfort food. No foams, no tricks. It's about homemade jams and pasta and simple meat and fish dishes. Simple to make but complex in flavor, with a punch of spiciness. 

Today is Sunday, when I block off the entire day just for me to play with food. Today I am going to make desserts from My Calabria. And today, I share with you a recipe from this wonderful cookbook, so you too can have a taste of Calabria.

Ricotta Ice Cream with Strega

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups top quality whole milk ricotta

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons Strega liqueur

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

1 cup heavy cream

2 oz. candied orange peel, chopped (optional)

Method:

1. In a food processor, blend the ricotta, sugar, Strega, vanilla, and lemon zest until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the cream. Pulse to combine, then scrape down the bowl and pulse again until completely blended.

2. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream freezer and freeze according to the manufacturer's directions. By hand, fold in the candied orange peel, if using. Pack the ice cream in a freezer container and freeze until ready to serve.

Makes 1 1/2 quarts. "Because there is no egg in the ice cream, the texture does not remain velvety for long. If possible, serve the ice cream the same day you make it..."

My Calabria: Rustic Family Cooking from Italy's Undiscovered South by Rosetta Costantino with Janet Fletcher, W. W. Norton & Company

SALTED by Mark Bitterman

Mark Bitterman knows how to write.

Listen to his words, "Gradually the essence of my life took physical form: a lifelong pursuit of food and travel, curated in salt."

This wonderful book is at once both a historic and scientific reference guide to salt as well as a poetic expression of Mark Bitterman's passionate interest in it. Most of the stunning photography is his and shows that the creation of this book was a work of love.

Once you have read it, you will never look at or taste salt in the same way again.

He steers us away from the bland white industrial salt we find in cardboard boxes on supermarket shelves loaded with anti-caking aluminum and bleaching agents towards the artisanal all natural salts, still full of life-giving minerals and in colors of the rainbow.

"Let fall dark crystals of Cyprus black flake salt on medallions of seared pork and plantains and you will feel the turgid rush of Incan discovery."

The first part of the book covers the history of salt and how and where it is produced, including a valuable reference guide to over 150 artisinal salts.

"South African Pearl is basically a snowball of powdered salt. As you bite, the salt's pearlike shape vanishes before you can identify its presence; only the finest film of salt remains, and this, too, dissolves instantly into whatever moisture is present, be it your food or your mouth."

The second half of the book is recipes. The first one that I am going to try? Soft Pretzels with Hickory Smoked Salt! When I work my way to the recipes made on salt blocks, my first try will be the Fried Bacon and Eggs.

I was so enamored with this book that I went to visit his newly opened store, The Meadow, in New York City. It's small and packed with fresh flowers, chocolates, all kinds of salt varieties.....and apricot colored salt blocks to cook on.

I learned from reading Salted that these blocks can attain a very high heat of 600 degrees, making them excellent for searing, grilling and frying---not to mention making them an intriguing table presentation.

 
 
You can also buy large chunks of salt and finely shave them with these salt microplanes.

Between the book, Salted, and the store, The Meadow, you come away with a vastly improved understanding of the most common and most essential ingredient in cuisine. It may be a crazy idea, but I would love to see them go one step further and open a restaurant or cafe dedicated to celebrating all the many uses and types of salt. Salt Block Cafe?! 

Salted by Mark Bitterman

The Meadow, 523 Hudson Street, New York, New York

The Meadow, 3731 N. Mississippi Avenue, Portland, Oregon

Recipe from SALTED:

Printable Recipe

Honey Ice Cream With Sugar Maple Smoked Sea Salt

Ingredients:

2 vanilla beans

3 cups half-and-half

1/2 cup aromatic honey, such as eucalyptus, avocado, or heather

4 extra large egg yolks

2 two-finger pinches maple smoked sea salt

Method:

1. Cut the vanilla beans in half lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds. Put the seeds and the pods in a medium saucepan with the half-and-half and honey and stir to disolve the honey. Heat over medium heat until tiny bubbles form around the edges of the pan, about 8 minutes.

2. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool covered for 1 hour. Remove the vanilla pods. Mix in the egg yolks and cook over medium to low heat, stirring constantly, until lightly thickened and a thermometer reads 170 degrees (about 10 minutes). 

3. Remove from the heat and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Transfer to an ice cream maker and make according to the manufacturer's instructions. Scoop out and serve the ice cream. Serve sprinkled with a little smoked salt.