Kindle cookbook deals never seem to last long, but there’s a great crop of deals on Kindle today. Prices current as of 4/16/18.
Back Pocket Pasta by Colu Henry – $2.99
As much a mindset as it is a cookbook, Back Pocket Pasta shows how a well-stocked kitchen and a few seasonal ingredients can be the driving force behind delicious, simply prepared meals. Pantry staples—a handful of items to help you up your dinner game—give you a head start come 6pm, so you can start cooking in your head on the way home from work. For instance, if you know that you have a tin of anchovies, a hunk of parmesan, and panko bread crumbs, you can pick up fresh kale to make Tuscan Kale “Caesar” Pasta. Or if you have capers, red pepper flakes, and a lemon, you can make Linguine with Quick Chili Oil. With genius flavor combinations, a gorgeous photograph for every recipe, and a smart guide to easy-drinking cocktails and wine, Back Pocket Pasta will inspire you to cook better meals faster.
Everything I Want to Eat by Jessica Koslow – $2.99
Jessica Koslow and her restaurant, Sqirl, are at the forefront of the California cooking renaissance, which is all about food that surprises us and engages all of our senses—it looks good, tastes vibrant, and feels fortifying yet refreshing. In Everything I Want to Eat, Koslow shares 100 of her favorite recipes for health-conscious but delicious dishes, all of which always use real foods—no fake meat or fake sugar here—that also happen to be suitable for vegetarians, vegans, or whomever you’re sharing your meal with.
The book is organized into seven chapters, each featuring a collection of recipes centered on a key ingredient or theme. Expect to find recipes for dishes Sqirl has become known for, as well as brand-new seasonal flavor combinations, including:
- Raspberry and cardamom jam
- Sorrel-pesto rice bowl
- Burnt brioche toast with house ricotta and seasonal jam
- Lamb merguez, cranberry beans, roasted tomato, and yogurt cheese
- Valrhona chocolate fleur de sel cookies
- Almond hazelnut milk
Koslow lives in LA, where everyone is known to be obsessively health-conscious and where dietary restrictions are the norm. People come into Sqirl and order dishes with all sorts of substitutions and modifications—hold the feta, please, add extra kale. They are looking to make their own healthy adventures. Others may tack breakfast sausage, cured bacon, or Olli’s prosciutto on to their order. So Koslow has had to constantly think about ways to modify dishes for certain diets, which in a way has made her a better, more adaptable cook.
Throughout this book, Koslow provides notes and thought bubbles that show how just about any dish can be modified for specific tastes and dietary needs, whether it needs to be gluten-free or vegan.
Everything I Want to Eat captures the excitement of the food at Sqirl—think of a classic grilled cheese turned playful with the addition of tomato coriander jam—while also offering accessible recipes, like blood orange upside-down cake, that can be easily made in the home kitchen. Moreover, it’s an entirely new kind of cookbook and approach to how we are all starting to think about food, allowing readers to play with the recipes, combining and shaping them to be nothing short of everything you want to eat.
Dinner in an Instant by Melissa Clark – $3.99 Already gone!
Inspired by her viral New York Times article “Why Do Cooks Love the Instant Pot®? I Bought One to Find Out,” Melissa Clark’s Dinner in an Instant has all new recipes that bring her signature flavor-forward dishes to everyone’s favorite countertop appliance.
Dinner in an Instant gives home cooks recipes for elevated dinners that never sacrifice convenience. Beloved for her flawless recipes, Melissa Clark turns her imagination to the countertop appliances that have won American hearts from coast to coast. Recipes include Fresh Coconut Yogurt, Japanese Beef Curry, Osso Buco, Smoky Lentils, Green Persian Rice with Tahdig, and Lemon Verbena Crème Brulee.
Dinner in an Instant provides instructions when possible for making the same dish on both the pressure cooker and slow cooker settings, allowing home cooks flexibility. Symbols guide the reader toward Paleo, Vegan, Vegetarian, and Gluten Free dinners.
Fresh, approachable, and classic, Dinner in an Instant is Melissa Clark’s most practical book yet.
The Banh Mi Cookbook by Andrea Nguyen – $1.99
A cookbook devoted to the beloved Vietnamese sandwich, with 50 recipes ranging from classic fillings to innovative modern combinations.
Created by Vietnamese street vendors a century or so ago, banh mi is a twist on the French snack of pâté and bread that is as brilliant as it is addictive to eat. Who can resist the combination of crisp baguette, succulent filling, and toppings like tangy daikon and carrot pickles, thin chile slices, refreshing cucumber strips, and pungent cilantro sprigs? You’ll have ample opportunities to customize your sandwich with filling options such as grilled pork, roast chicken, and “the special”—a delectable combination of garlicky pork, liver pâté, and Vietnamese cold-cuts.
Opening a new realm of flavor for anyone tired of standard sandwich fare, The Banh Mi Handbook presents more than fifty recipes and numerous insights for crafting a wide range of sandwiches, from iconic classics to modern innovations, including: Crispy Drunken Chicken, Shrimp in Caramel Sauce, Grilled Lemongrass Pork, Beef and Curry Sliders, Coconut Curry Tofu
Lettuce Wrap Banh Mi
Respected food writer Andrea Nguyen’s simple, delicious recipes for flavor-packed fillings, punchy homemade condiments, and crunchy, colorful pickled vegetables bring the very best of Vietnamese street food to your kitchen.
Eight Flavors by Sarah Lohman -$1.99
The United States boasts a culturally and ethnically diverse population that makes for a continually changing culinary landscape. But a young historical gastronomist named Sarah Lohman discovered that American food is united by eight flavors: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG, and Sriracha. In “a unique and surprising view of American history…richly researched, intriguing, and elegantly written” (The Atlantic), Lohman sets out to explore how these influential ingredients made their way to the American table.
She begins in the archives, searching through economic, scientific, political, religious, and culinary records. She pores over cookbooks and manuscripts, dating back to the eighteenth century, through modern standards like How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Lohman discovers when each of these eight flavors first appear in American kitchens—then she asks why.
Grocery: the Buying and Selling of Food in America by Michael Ruhlman – $2.99
In a culture obsessed with food—how it looks, what it tastes like, where it comes from, what is good for us—there are often more questions than answers. Ruhlman proposes that the best practices for consuming wisely could be hiding in plain sight—in the aisles of your local supermarket. Using the human story of the family-run Midwestern chain Heinen’s as an anchor to this journalistic narrative, he dives into the mysterious world of supermarkets and the ways in which we produce, consume, and distribute food. Grocery examines how rapidly supermarkets—and our food and culture—have changed since the days of your friendly neighborhood grocer. But rather than waxing nostalgic for the age of mom-and-pop shops, Ruhlman seeks to understand how our food needs have shifted since the mid-twentieth century, and how these needs mirror our cultural ones.
A mix of reportage and rant, personal history and social commentary, Grocery is a landmark book from one of our most insightful food writers.
Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton – $1.99
Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent twenty hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Blood, Bones & Butter follows an unconventional journey through the many kitchens Hamilton has inhabited through the years: the rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with an oily wooden spoon in hand; the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey, where she was often fed by complete strangers and learned the essence of hospitality; Hamilton’s own kitchen at Prune, with its many unexpected challenges; and the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law, who serves as the link between Hamilton’s idyllic past and her own future family—the result of a prickly marriage that nonetheless yields lasting dividends. By turns epic and intimate, Gabrielle Hamilton’s story is told with uncommon honesty, grit, humor, and passion.
