Three Things

Casual comfort food, two new cookbooks I'm excited about, and...help, I need advice

Greetings eaters and readers! And Happy Halloween from Bean the Penguin and the hundreds of other dogs who trick-or-treated down Columbus Ave on Sunday. If you told me last year that I would be the person not only participating in the “Pupper West Side” event, but looking forward to it all week, I would not have believed you. For those of you with actual human children, reminder that a Graveyard Cake or Jodi’s cotton candy monster cupcakes are always going to be good moves for the Pumpkin Fair or classroom party. (Not to insult the monsters, but I laugh every time I look at those guys.) In other New York happenings, I had dinner with my friend Lygeia at classy, perfect Bar Bête in Brooklyn — I didn’t even get the famous cake this time, and yet I’ve already booked another rez there so I have something wonderful to dream about. Look out soon for my attempt to recreate their Leeks Vinaigrette — how could something so simple be so…well, you know how it goes. Here are Three Things I’d like to tell you about this week…

1. Dinner for Luisa, by Luisa

Maybe it’s because I’ve been wearing my Operation Connect Goggles™ all the time lately, but when I flipped through Luisa Weiss’s new book Classic German Cooking last week, my first impulse was to invite someone over for dinner and serve them a pot of Linsensuppe Mit Pflaumen (Lentil Soup with Sausage and Prunes) or Wiener Servietteenknödel Bit Pilzgulasch (Bread Dumplings with Mushroom Goulash) or Käsespätzle (Swabian Noodles with Mountain Cheese and Caramelized Onions), then maybe spoon up some Bratäpfel Mit Vanillesobe (Almond-Stuffed Baked Apples with Vanilla Sauce) for dessert. Every photo, every recipe, seemed to shout Make this for someone who needs to be taken care of! Turns out, when it comes to German food, my instinct was not that unusual. As Luisa writes in the introduction, “German food doesn’t hold the same romantic allure as Italian or French food…and yet, to so many, German food is the purest kind of comfort food. It is simple and hearty, the kind of cooking one turns to in the depths of winter to warm the very soul, the type of cooking that might not ever win a beauty award, but that will more than make up for it in terms of its power to nourish and comfort.”

Classic German Cooking is a collection of “the essential everyday recipes of Germany and Austria” and it is every bit as approachable and well-written as its 2016 companion, Luisa’s Classic German Baking. (Think Apfelkuchen and Pfeffernüsse; Sachertortes and Linzertortes…Am I killing you here?) It just so happened that Luisa, who lives in Berlin, was in town last night promoting the book* and not that she needs anyone to mother her, but who better to invite over for one of those cozy dinners than the author herself, in the middle of a cross-continental book tour?

I don’t really need much of an excuse to invite her over — she’s one of my favorite people in the food community, and anyone who reads her newsletter knows how much fun it is to hear what she’s cooking and reading — remember that time she shared every single book she read in 2022? In honor of her visit, I decided to cook up a pot of the Erbseneintopf, a Thick Pea Stew made with leeks, bacon, split peas, marjoram, and Wiener Würstchen, and finish with the Almond-Stuffed Apples for something sweet. When Luisa left she thanked me for making her childrens’ most requested dinner, which I count as a win. You can find the stew over on DALS today.

P.S. Remember Luisa’s German Marble Cake?

*FYI New Yorkers: Luisa will be at Powerhouse Books tonight (Tuesday, 10/29) in conversation with Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman.

2. One More Cookbook You Should Know About

When I announced that Justine Doiron was going to be the one interviewing me for my own Brooklyn book event earlier in the fall, my DMs basically blew up. “She is the best” was the gist of the feedback, most of which came from the under-30 set. “OMG I love her,” my 23-year-old niece messaged me along with a few heart-eye emojis. I don’t usually endorse two cookbooks in the same newsletter, but I just can’t legitimately call myself a Weekday Vegetarian and not say something about Justine Cooks, brand new today. Justine made a name for herself on TikTok and instagram during the pandemic, but don’t let that fool you. Her (mostly) plant-based recipes are not gimmicky or timed to align with what’s trending. They are elegantly restrained and surprising in the best way. Think: Kimchi-Crusted Poached Eggs, Crispy Rice in Miso-Sungold Broth, Shatter Top Cauliflower Orzo (topped with a giant Lacey Parmesan chip that you get to shatter with your fork), Hottie Tomato Beans and Cashew Cream (above). Justine is an pescatarian, so there are also a few seafood recipes — most notably Little Neck Clams with Preserved Lemon Butter that are on the weekend slate — but the vegetarian recipes play the starring role here. I have a feeling I’ll be gifting it a lot this holiday, to my nieces and their parents.

Central Park last week: Can you believe?

3. Help Me Out Here…

I find myself in an unusual position right now: I’m craving long and involved recipe projects that keep my mind focused and my hands busy. The problem is, because I’ve made a career of Fast-and-Easy-Under-30-Minutes-No-Fuss-Minimal-Pots-Simple-Weeknight kind of food, I have an extremely limited number of recipes in the archive that qualify. So tell me: What are your favorite super complicated, all-day-affair type of cooking or baking projects? Recipes that demand a laser-like meditative focus. Got a 150-ingredient mole sauce for me? An Ottolenghi stew that requires a few subway transfers to track down some obscure spice? Any long-and-involved pastries that ask me to break out that round thing with the knobs — I think they call it a rolling pin? What would you suggest?

Have a great week,

Jenny

🥬🌿 🌺🥬 To Order My Books 🥬🌿 🌺🥬

💚 Volume 1: The Weekday Vegetarians

Penguin Random House | Amazon | Bookshop | Barnes & Noble |
Hudson Booksellers | Books A Million | Powell’s | Target | Walmart |

💚 Volume 2: The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Simple

Penguin Random House | Amazon | Bookshop | Barnes & Noble |
Hudson Booksellers | Books A Million | Powell’s | Target | Walmart |