The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by renowned food blogger Deb Perelman was a birthday gift to me this summer. Although I have owned many cookbooks over the years, I can count on one hand those that resonate with my food-making philosophy. This is one of them.
Deb Perelman looks to be a 30-something young mother living in New York, who simply loves to cook and quite rightly prefers her own high quality food to lower quality fare prepared by others. Not trained as a chef, she’s an advocate of “approachable, uncompromised home cooking”. Moi aussi, sort of. I’m all about ‘home’ and ‘approachable’ anyway. I may sometimes compromise.
To me, Deb Perelman’s recipes are all about foods with great flavour, natural texture and colour. The author takes fabulous photos of both the finished product and of the steps taken in its preparation. For the most part, her recipes are not overly fussy, nor do they require excessive kitchen gadgetry to prepare. Although not quite so minimalistic as I am when it comes to cooking utensils and equipment, (she does own a microwave and a blender it seems), she is nevertheless on the scant end of the spectrum in this regard. Aside from the quality of both the recipes and photography, Ms. Perelman’s writing is charming. And she has a baby whose cuteness rating is off the scale. (He has his very own little play kitchen).
The author’s Grapefruit Olive Oil Pound Cake sounds like a kissing-cousin to the recipe posted on this blog for lemon olive oil cake, and her Coffee Toffee recipe is amazingly similar to my post for Walnut Toffee, though perhaps packing slightly more punch. For me, this young cook is a kindred spirit, even if she does insist on cooking peaches with the skin on.
Just thinking about that peach fuzz gives me shivers.
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