2020 #16: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (Nosrat)

 

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you loved the Netflix show, think of this as all the entertainment of that and twice the learning. I freely admit to referring to the author as "St. Samin of my Kitchen" and this book is my Kitchen bible. If you are a person who thinks they can't cook, read this book. But really read it--absorb it, take notes. Then PRACTICE. Eventually you will understand that those four elements: salt, fat, acid, heat are TRULY the keys to not just decent cooking, but great cooking. This book gave me a lot of confidence to go "off book" and start improvising more. A few of her recipes are now staples, like the Borani Esfanaj (Persian Spinach Yogurt), which takes me back to my childhood growing up in Los Angeles and frequenting Persian food restaurants with my dad. Also--that recipe alone is worth its weight in gold for this tip: placing cooked spinach on a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet to prevent overcooking and discoloration (see p. 372). I've only just begun to try the actual recipes (the first half of the book is a how-to guide to cooking), but I can also highly recommend the Glazed Five-Spice Chicken (338-9), which is well-worth the overnight marinade.

Nosrat's writing style is welcoming and humorous--Wendy MacNaughton's illustrations keep things light and whimsical but still informative. Nosrat is self-effacing in recounting tales of her own learning and even if you think you don't LIKE to cook--spend some time with this book. You may change your mind.

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2020 #15: Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? (Tatum)

 

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is one that I will return to time and time again as a reference, but it is also just an outstanding read to understand race and how it operates in society. Dr. Tatum makes statistics resonate with profound impact in how those statistics translate to our daily lives and interactions. The revised edition with the extensive prologue is well worth reading. The different sections of the book explore not only definitions and statistics, but most importantly--contexts. Anyone who teaches (Kindergarten through college) should read this book. The sections on identity development and formation are absolutely key to creating an anti-racist context for teaching.

I found Chapter 10, "Embracing a Cross-Racial Dialogue" to be particularly potent. I've been struggling with how to negotiate the fear of fellow White people that I encounter regularly in many of the anti-racism initiatives in which I participate. Dr. Tatum suggested to a White woman who feared "anger and disdain from people of color" and thus kept silent: "that she needs to fight for herself, not for people of color." (332) This is key. Approval should not be the motivation for the work. Dr. Tatum makes clear that social justice is for ALL of us, not just for people of color. I also appreciated that she addresses the idea--one that I've heard MANY times--that somehow younger people have an "easier" time talking about racism. It is not EASIER. It may be, if anything, a sense of urgency that compels them to be more vocal.

There is so much nuance here as well--the section on multiracial identities is particularly helpful in really understanding the multiple levels in which race can operate within a person's identity. Dr. Tatum's work challenges White people to seek out and recognize the lived experience of people of color and to expand our social networks beyond our shared racial identities. Of all the books I've read this year, I think this is the one that is the most comprehensive (not that one can actually be completely comprehensive...) and is a must read for parents, teachers, and ANYONE who wants to have a better understanding of our social circumstances.

2020 #14: Oh She Glows Everyday (Liddon)

 

Oh She Glows Every Day: Simply Satisfying Plant-Based Recipes to Keep You Glowing from the Inside Out by Angela Liddon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Between this one and Liddon's first book, The Oh She Glows Cookbook: Over 100 Vegan Recipes to Glow from the Inside Out, it is this one I reach for more often. Having given a basic primer of pantry ingredients and techniques in the first one, she basically cuts to the chase and gets right to the recipes. The book has a more modern feel to it -- probably the lack of orange and green on the cover and the more elegant font. The cutesy titles persist, but I will tell you that the Green-Orange Creamsicle Smoothie does actually taste like a Creamsicle. My favorite recipe here is the Curried Chickpea Salad, which I could basically eat every day (and frankly, you'll skip the more boring chickpea salad in her first book once you try it). The Best Marinated Lentils are actually pretty spectacular and quite miraculously are single-handedly responsible for making me enjoy lentils. I was not that excited about the "Go-To Gazpacho". The Cast-Iron Tofu is very good, but a bit tedious to prepare. The Oh Em Gee Burgers were a lot of work without the return on investment that I would expect--stick with the burger recipe in the first book. The Comforting Red Lentil and Chickpea Curry is a showstopper and I recommend using the lentil-walnut filling for her "Green Taco Wraps" in actual tortillas, rather than lettuce leafs. I'm not much of a dessert person, so I haven't explored that section.

Overall the book is really useful and a lot of the recipes can be de-veganized (e.g. real cheese) if so desired. I think that smoothies take up too many pages because once you have an inspiration, you can really just improvise a smoothie, but that's a small complaint.

2020 #13: The Oh She Glows Cookbook (Liddon)

 

The Oh She Glows Cookbook: Over 100 Vegan Recipes to Glow from the Inside Out by Angela Liddon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you had told me a few years ago that I'd ever own a vegan cookbook, I might have laughed. It isn't that I have anything against veganism, but I am a fairly committed omnivore. But my best friend had been exploring moving increasingly toward a plant-based diet, so she got me this book for Christmas. As someone who actually does READ cookbooks, I feel confident in reviewing it here. Liddon has a very approachable, non-preachy style. She gives an overview to different types of oils, flours, and nuts, etc as well as techniques. I could do without some of the cutesy names for the recipes, but Liddon is also fairly self-aware of her tone: "I'm sure it sounds cliché coming from a vegan..." she tells us when she tells us how excited she is about the "Salads" section. The recipes are divided into sections: breakfast; smoothies, juice & tea; appetizers; salads; soup; entrées; sides; power snacks; desserts; and homemade staples. Very useful is the "basic cooking chart" which gives basic cooking times for lentils, quinoa and the like. The food photography is quite nice, and there are photos of Liddon and her husband peppered throughout the book. She does, in fact, seem to glow.

Of the recipes, strong standouts (that I tried) are: Healing rooibos tea, Sweet potato & Black bean enchiladas with avocado-cilantro "cream" sauce (scare quotes mine); Crowd-pleasing Tex Mex casserole, Our Favorite Veggie Burger. The Lentil Walnut loaf that some folks claim is "better than traditional meat loaf" is well...not better or worse, but definitely different. I felt it could have had better flavor, and I think I'd make the lentils in curry next time. I prefer more of the recipes in Oh She Glows Every Day: Simply Satisfying Plant-Based Recipes to Keep You Glowing from the Inside Out, Liddon's second book, but this is a solid cookbook for anyone looking to get into plant-based cookbook.

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2020 #12 A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal (Macintyre)

 

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you aren't a lover of tales of espionage (fictional or not), or if you don't have a vested interest in the historical figure of Kim Philby, this might be a slow read. I wound up with a copy of this book as a duplicate Christmas gift for someone else, and I decided to give it a go. It definitely picks up speed, but the first half of the book takes a (very) deep look at the intricate "good-ol-boy" networks of Great Britain's intelligence agencies and introduces us to the suave and sneaky Kim Philby and the very intelligent, but eventually-duped Nicholas Elliott. The book toggles between a story about relationships and a run-down of espionage systems and tactics.

If it weren't for the extensive notes at the end of the book it would be hard to believe that it is all true. Ben Macintyre's narrative is detailed, well-researched, and compelling. It becomes increasingly hard to believe that Philby was allowed to betray his country for so long, but more to the point--he had so many people charmed by his je ne sais quoi that they conveniently overlooked not just his espionage, but his abhorrent behavior as a human being.

It is a cautionary tale now -- networks such as these are not a thing of the past. Politics and intelligence agencies still run on nepotism. It is all to easy to characterize these as "Cold War" stories and fail to see the resonance in our present time. The suspense aspect grows exponentially as the book comes to a close, and it is an artful exploration of psychological manipulation and human frailty.