The New American Cooking: 280 Recipes Full of Delectable New Flavors From Around the World as Well as Fresh Ways with Old Favorites: A Cookbook

by Joan Nathan

Joan Nathan, the author of Jewish Cooking in America, An American Folklife Cookbook , and many other treasured cookbooks, now gives us a fabulous feast of new American recipes and the stories behind them that reflect the most innovative time in our culinary history.

The huge influx of peoples from all over Asia--Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, India--and from the Middle East and Latin America in the past forty years has brought to our kitchens new exotic flavors, little-known herbs and condiments, and novel cooking techniques that make the most of every ingredient. At the same time, health and environmental concerns have dramatically affected how and what we eat. The result: American cooking has never been as exciting as it is today. And Joan Nathan proves it on every page of this wonderfully rewarding book.

Crisscrossing the country, she talks to organic farmers, artisanal bread bakers and cheese makers, a Hmong farmer in Minnesota, a mango grower in Florida, an entrepreneur of Indian frozen foods in New Jersey, home cooks, and new-wave chefs.

Among the many enticing dishes she discovers are a breakfast huevos rancheros casserole; starters such as Ecuadorean shrimp ceviche, Szechuan dumplings, and Malaysian swordfish satays; pea soup with kaffir leaves; gazpacho with sashimi; pasta dressed with pistachio pesto; Iraqi rice-stuffed Vidalia onions; and main courses of Ecuadorean casuela , chicken yasa from Gambia, and couscous from Timbuktu (with dates and lamb). And there are desserts for every taste.

Old American favorites are featured, too, but often Nathan discovers a cook who has a new way with a dish, such as an asparagus salad with blood orange mayonnaise, pancakes made with blue cornmeal and pine nuts, a seafood chowder that includes monkfish, and a chocolate bread pudding with dried cherries.

Because every recipe has a story behind it, The New American Cooking is a book that is as much fun to read as it is to cook from--a must for every kitchen today.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

464 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joan Nathan doing what she loves to do: talking to people to gather their stories & their recipes. If you want to understand how diverse out country is, this is a good place to start.

[S Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cookbook includes recipes from all different countries.

[Catwalker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently got this book at a used-book store, so I'm just getting to know it. The book covers a broad range of cuisines, both from immigrant nationalities as well as less-widely-known regional cooking. Recipes are sorted into ingredient types (except for breakfast, soup, and dessert), not by country-of-origin. Just like the roast beef, olive oil, tacos, stir-fries, and strudel from long-ago immigrants, the foods of more recent immigrants (mango lassi, pho, fatoush) are becoming regarded as American. It's going to be fun to learn to make these dishes that previously I've mostly had at restaurants.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am only giving this three stars since it is a quiet attempt of recategorizing American cuisine before it became mainstream to do so and thus is a quiet book. I copied quite a few recipes and very much enjoyed the preserved lemon dressing.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of interesting stories and pictures all about food in America and the people behind it. Not many pictures of the recipes themselves, though. And I didn't mark very many to try myself. Still- good reading.

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent new cookbook from an old favorite

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories of interesting 'ordinary' people, the way they live, the food they eat -- and the recipes: so far, excellent.