June 2019 Cookbooks

The Little Swedish Kitchen by Rachel Khoo

I guess I'm just not into Swedish food because nothing in here really jumped out at me as something I wanted to try. I did like that it was organized seasonally instead of by appetizers, entrees, etc. I'm not saying it's a bad cookbook, just not my thing.

Whole Hog BBQ: the gospel of Carolina Barbecue with recipes from Skylight Inn and Sam Jones BBQ by Sam Jones

I mainly checked this book out because of the subtitle - the gospel of Carolina barbecue. Being from NC I know the importance of good pulled pork barbecue. I wasn't familiar with Sam Jones and the long-running Skylight Inn barbecue restaurant in Ayden, NC. But, after checking out this book I think I may need to take a Eastern NC food trip and visit Skylight, Sam Jones BBQ, and Vivian Howard's Chef & Farmer. While I'm not quite in the place to start barbecuing whole hogs, if you are this book gives detailed instructions on how to build a pit and how to barbecue an entire hog. So, while I won't be building a whole hog pit anytime soon, this was a fascinating look at one family's role in NC BBQ.

Where Cooking Begins: uncomplicated recipes to make you a great cook by Carla Lalli Music

I don't consider myself a professional chef, but I guess I'm not quite a beginner either because this book was a little too basic for me. The first section is about planning and preparing for cooking, the second section illustrates various cooking techniques like steaming, pan-roasting, making pastry dough, etc. The third section is the actual recipes using the techniques described earlier. One thing I did like is that each recipe has "spin it" options that give other ways to use that recipes either with different ingredients or ways to use ingredients you already might have on hand. There just weren't any recipes that jumped out at me that I really wanted to try. I do think this would be good for someone who is a VERY beginner because the photos of the cooking techniques would be very helpful.

Pesto: the modern mother sauce by Leslie Lennox

I love pesto, so when I saw this cookbook I knew I wanted to check it out. Lennox gives information on how she started her pesto business and also about mother sauces and why she thinks pesto is the modern mother sauce that can be the foundation or an addition to many dishes. She gives a basic pesto recipe, ways to vary it, several ways to use pesto in salad dressings, and tips on growing basil at home. Then she gets into the recipes - some use pesto as more of a garnish, but many include pesto in a larger way. There are several recipes I'd like to try and I have a TON of basil at home in my garden, so this cookbook was good timing.