280 recipes full of delectable new flavors from around the world, as well as fresh ways with old favorites.
Winner of the James Beard Food of the Americas Award 2006
Winner of the IACP Award for Best American Cookbook 2005
A fabulous feast of new American recipes from one of our most popular cookbook author.
The huge influx of Asians, Indians, Middle-Easterners, and Latin Americans in the last 40 years has brought to our kitchens new, fresh, and spicy flavors. At the same time, health and environmental concerns have dramatically affected how and what we eat. As a result, American cooking has never been as varied and as exciting as it’s today—and Joan Nathan proves it on every page.
Crisscrossing the country, she talks to organic farmers, artisanal bread bakers and cheese makers, a Hmong farmer from Minnesota, a mango grower in Florida, an entrepreneur of Indian frozen food in New Jersey, home cooks, and innovative young chefs. Among the enticing dishes she discovers are a breakfast huevos rancheros casserole; starters such as Cambodian shrimp, Szechuan dumplings, Malaysian swordfish satays; pea soup with kaffir leaves; gazpacho with sashimi; pasta dressed with pistachio pesto; Iraqi rice-stuffed Vidalia onions; main courses of Ecuadorean casuela, Tunisian fish couscous, brisket, and rum ribs; and desserts fro every taste. Each recipe has a story behind it, and through these stories, Nathan gives us a portrait of out current wildly diverse national culinary character.
The New American Cooking is a pleasure to read and cook from- a must for every American kitchen.
Reviews
"Renowned cookbook author Nathan is back with an adventure in American cuisine that will prove even more memorable than her previous seven books.
Widely recognized for her chronicles of American Jewish cuisine, Nathan now takes on the country as a whole, using her extensive experience with the evolution of immigrant cooking to uncover an astonishing range of American dishes. Our country is a melting pot, and the modern culinary scene is a fascinating—and delicious—reflection of this great diversity. Nathan's research is impeccable, and the recipes that she provides are perfect renditions of regional favorites from across the country. She shows great respect for native ingredients, and clearly goes out of her way to find dishes that were built to honor them. But she also celebrates the international flavors that are increasingly prevalent in supermarkets and restaurants across America. As much a travel journal as a cookbook, her prose is as exciting as the recipes it accompanies. From the "mango man" in a Miami juice bar to the herbalist in the middle of the Arkansas Ozarks, the American flavor emerges even before you take your first bite.
An amazing amalgamation of American food and folklore, Nathan's latest tome deserves an honored place in the culinary canon." —Kirkus
"What makes a particular dish or technique uniquely American? Nathan, perhaps best known for Jewish Cooking in America, and the author of seven additional cookbooks, eschews the notion that agribusiness and fast food have commandeered the American palate. Rather, she says the influence of immigrants from diverse areas of the world has, over the past 40 years, made American food fresh, spicy and rife with flavor. Similarly, she notes that the spices and ingredients available to American home cooks are far more varied than they've ever been, as are the options on restaurant menus. In homage to the chefs, farmers, artisans and entrepreneurs who create and contribute to American food culture, Nathan traveled the country and visited the people who help ensure that "the world's food is now literally at our fingertips." The book is part cookbook, part travelogue; readers will surely be intrigued by Nathan's descriptions of a Cuban juice bar in Miami, the advent of Middle Eastern restaurants in Virginia and the Honolulu Fish Auction, where she provides fascinating food lore and a striking sense of place. Nathan covers every course, from Morning Glory Muffins for breakfast to main courses like Haitian Vegetable Stew and desserts such as Molten Chocolate Cake. She does an excellent job of balancing her own voice with that of her interview subjects, making this cookbook as readable as it is practical. 150 full-color photos." —Publisher's Weekly, Starred review