Five fabulous new cookbooks for giving this holiday season and beyond!
By CINDA CHAVICH
It’s a holiday tradition to give books in my family — something to sit down and peruse during those leisurely days off.
And for me, a new cookbook is always in the cards.
This year, I have some new cookbook suggestions for the food lovers on your list, from Canadian authors and those further afield. It's like taking a culinary vacation with new recipes to inspire, from coast to coast:
Tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine by Shane M. Chartrand with Jennifer Cockrall-King (House of Anansi Press)
This book, tracing the culinary journey of prairie Cree Chef Shane Chartrand, was first published in 2019 but came to me more recently. And with Chartrand, now the executive chef at Nehiyaw Cuisine in Edmonton, and a competitor in the latest season 10 of Top Chef Canada, its high on my radar.
A “sixties scoop” kid who was adopted by a Metis family in central Alberta, Chartrand found his way back to the Enoch Cree Nation before pursuing his culinary training. With accomplished food writer Jennifer Cockrall-King at his side to help tell his story and organize his progressive indigenous recipes, Chartrand has created a beautiful book filled with new ideas and inspiration.
From basic bannock (fry bread) and the revelation of crunchy puffed wild rice (to garnish soups and salads), to his award-winning “War Paint” plate of roasted quail legs and wheat berries on a savoury red pepper sauce (pictured on the cover), Chartrand shares his secrets for creating a new aboriginal cuisine focused on wild, seasonal Canadian ingredients.
Whether it’s bison, venison, quail, duck, oysters, salmon, wild mushrooms or whole grains, there are elaborate dishes — think cured Stained Glass Salmon, Albacore with red onion petals and horseradish chips, or Brined and Roasted Quail with highbush cranberry compote and honey comb — and simpler ideas. I’m leaning toward some home-style combinations this month, like the warming Three Sisters Soup he makes with dried white beans, corn and spaghetti squash “noodles”, with his Metis Galette flatbread, a baked bannock that’s dimpled like focaccia and served with roasted garlic.
Throughout the book, Chartrand talks about his family and upbringing in rural Alberta, his struggle to connect to his Enoch Cree roots, his inspirations, fears and anxieties, and all he’s conquered to get to this point. It seems that Chartrand’s work as an indigenous chef has inspired other culinary entrepreneurs, too — with new products in the market like Mitsoh maple saskatoon berry pemmican and smoky dry bison meat from Edmonton, Vancouver’s Mr. Bannock food truck and other indigenous eateries popping up across Canada.
Chartrand straddles the indigenous and non-indigenous world, and the stories that he tells about growing up on the prairies — and the ingredients and traditions that inform his recipes — speak to anyone from this part of the country.
It’s definitely an important book to explore the indigenous perspective when it comes to our food, and a delicious addition to the Canadian cook’s canon.
Another chef who made her debut on Top Chef Canada this fall is Lisa Ahier — someone we know well here on Vancouver Island as the owner/chef of the late great SoBo restaurant in Tofino.
Ahier, who originally hails from the US, first made her mark more than 25 years ago with the “purple bus” food truck in the Tofino Botanical Gardens where her polenta fries, smoked salmon chowder and tofu pockets became legendary. Eventually she opened the popular full-service SoBo restaurant in downtown Tofino, which sadly for many of us, closed its doors in the fall of 2023.
This is Ahier’s second cookbook — her original recipe collection, The SoBo Cookbook, came out a decade ago, featuring all of those classics — and this represents her latest delicious doings. Some recipes are inspired by SoBo's “daily specials” like Chinook Salmon with Cauliflower Puree and Parsnip Puffs but she also shares her mother's recipes for Southern Fried Chicken and Grilled Peach and Raspberry Melba, and ideas from the cooks who have worked with her at SoBo.
A master of melding her southern sensibilities with wild West Coast ingredients and the laid back vibe of Tofino, Ahier’s riffs on the home-style foods we all love eat have made her an important force in the island’s culinary landscape.
There’s a whole chapter devoted to the SoBo pizza that locals love — a slow-ferment dough augmented with dark Hoyne beer and topped with everything from her red sauce with braised lamb; acorn squash sauce and kale; clams, kale and ricottoa; or caramelized onions and goat cheese. Add a range of the kind of seasonal soups, salads and mains that made SoBo a go-to destination for breakfast, lunch and dinner in surf season and beyond, and there’s plenty of moreish ideas to send you straight to the kitchen.
I mean, who wouldn’t crave her Dungeness Crab Louis, Grilled Halloumi and Sundried Tomato Tapenade on Focaccia, Spaghetti Squash Patties with poached eggs and salsa verde, or the Seafood Saffron Risotto with local clams, shrimp, scallops and wild sea asparagus?
Along with the recipes, this book celebrates some of Ahier’s neighbors and friends from Tofino, whether Sharon Whalen, the local “Sea Wench” known for locally foraged lotions and potions; local artist and raven carver Dan Law; her book editor, poet Susan Musgrave (not an official “Tofician” but longtime visitor and SoBo fan); recycled metal and driftwood sculptor Susanne Hare; or Jeremy Koreski, the gifted Tofino-born photographer who illustrated this book. Like Ahier, many are vocal advocates for saving the old growth forests and wild salmon that make this corner of the world so special.
Together at SoBo bookends Ahier’s journey at her famed restaurant, featuring the “sophisticated bohemian” fare that helped put Tofino on the culinary map.
Another book I’d like to recommend that crossed my desk this year is Chef Michael Smith’s Farmhouse Vegetables.
I like it because it reminds me of the last time I had a chance to dine with this personable Maritime chef at his farm and Inn at Bay Fortune on Prince Edward Island — a summer evening of cocktails on the lawn and a long table FireWorks Feast of smoky dishes from his wood-fired grills, that began with a stroll down into the gardens, a corner of his farm where an array of vegetables thrive.
Smith, as ever, in apron and gumboots, is the farm-to-table chef who walks the talk. Though his menu includes seared island scallops, lobster, wood-grilled steak and pork belly, there’s also sunchoke fries, strawberry rhubarb shortcake and blueberry grunt on the menu.
This is the vegetable-forward sequel to the meatier Farm, Fire & Feast, a book dedicated to the communal dinners the chef hosts at the country inn, set near the eastern tip of PEI, and his meat-centric live-fire menu.
But Smith’s inn sits on eight fertile acres, dotted with herb gardens, vegetable beds, greenhouses and fruit trees, and all of that farm produce makes it to the plate, too.
This latest collection — shortlisted for the 2024 Taste Canada awards — features moreish homey recipes like Kabocha Squash and Ancho Cider Broth with sage, pumpkin seed goat cheese pesto, and spicy roasted chickpeas; Melted cabbage, Turnip and Ham Hock; and Ice Cream Sandwiches with carrot cake cookies and parsnip ice cream. But there are also some chef-style inspirations — whether the potato crusted smoked salmon cakes with arugula dill salad, smoked salmon celery root brandade with caraway rye crackers, shiitake cabbage tacos with green lentil smear, or cucumber gin ice pops with borage blossom confetti — all sure to impress the most creative culinarian.
It’s veg-forward Canadian cuisine, combinations inspired by what’s growing in the garden or stored in the root cellar at any time of the year.
And as Smith notes in his introduction, we’re all omnivores who could do with a little less meat in our daily diets.
“My family regularly derives protein from plants, just as animals do,” he writes, “and we often enjoy the vegetables that accompany the meat more than the meat itself.”
Here’s to that farm-to-table ideal, where the seasons can be your guide to a vegetable-centric diet that’s rich in flavour, colour and good health!
The Davison Orchards Cookbook: Favourite Recipes from the Farm and Family by Rachel Davison, Tamra Davison and Laura Shaw (Touchwood Editions)
Everyone who comes from a family of good cooks dreams of publishing a comprehensive collection of favourite family recipes. Some people simply scribble them out on recipe cards or in a notebook for their kids, but these days you can also publish your recipes online, or in a bound book created by the photo department at the local big box store.
But the Davison family went one step beyond, with The Davison Orchards Cookbook, a love letter to their extended family and the Okanagan orchard that grew from a small family farm operation in the 1930s, to today’s multi-generation operation, with its Davison Orchard Country Village, a farmstand turned agri-tourism business complete with petting zoo, tractor tours and Farmhouse Café, famed for its pies, soups, jams and other farm-to-takeout foods.
With a variety of fruits and vegetables grown on the farm, the book features seasonal produce in every form, from apricots to zucchini, squash, green beans and hot peppers. There’s a comprehensive section devoted to storing, freezing and preserving the harvest, and a selection of recipes ranging from muffins, scones and quick breads, to farmhouse soups and salads, country stews and casseroles.
But my favourite part of this book is the second half, devoted to Desserts and Coffee Breaks, Cookies, Sweets and Treats, and Preserves — where the Davison family features their home-style recipes for all things created with BC tree fruit. With memories of growing up sorting apples and plums in the packing shed, and devouring Nana’s Apple Slice and Plum Cake, they offer old-fashioned recipes that will take you back to your own grandmother’s kitchen.
The sheet pan-sized Apple Slice is labelled a “Farm Favourite” and feeds 24 apple pie lovers, and there are recipes for Apple Hand Pies (turnovers) for your kid’s lunchbox, juicy Pear Cardamom Crisp, rhubarb cake and Pumpkin Snickerdoodles served as ice cream sandwiches — the kind of homey fare families love. The Davison’s also share their recipes for the kind of canning you’ll love to put up in summer, from canned peaches and pickled beets to mustardy Lady Rose Relish and Okanagan Summer Salsa.
Each generation has contributed something to this collection — from matriarch “Nana” Dora Davison to her daughter-in-law Tamra, and Tamra’s daughter Laura and daughter-in-law Rachel, now fourth generation members of the Davison family and working on the farm in Vernon, BC. This is a book that will doubtless become dogeared, smeared with jam and dripped with beet juice, designed for the home cook who’s drawn to sharing old-fashioned, seasonal food from the garden.
Delicious TONIGHT: Foolproof Recipes for Easy Dinners by Recipetin Eats Nagi Maehashi (Countryman Press)
This is not a local, or even a Canadian, cookbook, but I’m going for “separated at birth” for my anonymous, long-distance connection with this Australian food blogger and her delicious, doable recipes.
Like most of her legions of fans, I first encountered Australian food blogger Nagi Maehashi on her Recipetin Eats website. It’s filled with her easy and tasty recipes, recipes that are obviously well tested and which work, with lots of good advice, how-to photography and attention to detail.
I’ve literally reviewed hundreds of recipe books over the years, and though many are interesting for specific regional cuisines, celebrity chefs or ingredients, few make it to the small shelf in my kitchen to be referred to regularly. This is fast becoming one of those treasured books.
Because these are the kind of well-tested and streamlined recipes that I write, too.
As a long-time newspaper and magazine food writer, I'm constantly researching and developing recipes, with the goal of making something doable and delicious. Whatever food story, ingredient or topic I’m writing about always requires lots of research — whether speaking directly with chefs and cooks, taking inspirations from books, online stories or my travels around the world .
But it's uncanny how many times my research leads me to Nagi's website — we're recipe writers separated by age and distance, but so often on the same soup-stained page.
When I received a copy of Naehashi’s new Delicious TONIGHT (and her earlier Recipetin Eats DINNER) I was amazed at how closely her recipe collections reflect so many of the same (or very similar) recipes I have published over the years, and that I still love to cook today.
Like her, my recipe collections are wide-ranging and eclectic — home-style versions of everything from black bean chili and prosciutto-wrapped proteins to ramen, vegetable stir-fries, quick Asian pickles for Vietnamese subs, cauliflower mash, savoury bread puddings, and chicken stew with dark beer. Like me, she's a creative culinary recycler, and turns her own pulled pork into other recipes — think noodle bowls and banh mi — and uses the kind of ingredients that you can find in the supermarket.
But that said, there are new recipes on every page of this lavishly-illustrated book that I want to try, too, whether it’s her Ginger Salmon Quinoa Salad, Halloumi Burgers, stunning French Onion Brie Mushroom pie (a whole cheese baked in brioche pastry with caramelized onions, mushroom ragout and potato gratin), or the Spinach and Feta Borek, savoury coils of filo pastry, her modern version of a classic recipe with roots in Eastern Europe.
Many are everyday dishes, easy enough to make on a Tuesday, but also impressive enough to serve to friends and family anytime.
I love this collection and, like her Recipetin Eats website which offers me constant inspiration, this is a book I’m sure I will return to again and again.
Based in Australia, she now has a team to help her produce her Recipetin Eats website. But Maehashi started small, just a woman who liked to cook and share her recipes, and a chartered accountant who gave up her career, climbing the corporate ladder, to focus on writing everyday recipes that work, and photographing the process in her home studio.
Now, just over a decade in, she’s a best-selling author, with more than 5 million followers, and even shares the love with her own charity foodbank, RTM (Recipe Tin Meals), that prepares more than 130,000 meals annually for people in need in Sydney, Australia.
Maehashi is on a world tour promoting her book now, and I’m looking forward to speaking with her in January when she’s here in Canada. But meanwhile, I’m sure I will continue to enjoy bumping into her every time I am researching another story and looking for the best way to cook some of my favourite foods!
©CindaChavich2024
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