Flipping through a new cookbook and just knowing that the dishes presented are going to taste great is a sure sign that I’m going to spend a lot of time with that book. This is what happened with the review copy that was sent to me The chef you want to be by Andy Baraghani. His food describes itself as perhaps “a touch too lemony”; he claims to use “a ridiculous amount of herbs”; and he prefers “vegetables to meat.” So for my taste pretty much the right thing. Each dish seems to have a special touch that enhances the flavor and there is a dedicated chapter just for that purpose. The Mighty Little Recipes chapter features sauces and toppings that add that extra something. My first stop in this book was trying the Creamy Nuoc Cham from this chapter. Mashed cashews give it the creamy texture, and I used it as a dipping sauce for fried shrimp. As I read the book, I noticed so many things. All of the egg recipes did, especially the crispy chickpea shells with lemon yoghurt and fried eggs colored with chile. I stopped twice in the “Snacks to Share” chapter to try the broken feta with toasted mint and walnuts and the nuts to drink. The mix of lemongrass, garlic, red pepper flakes, and honey made these nuts particularly addicting. The salads chapter includes, among other things, parmesan and kale chip salad with a spicy mustard dressing and juicy tomatoes with Italian chilli crisp. The veg chapter shows that creamy nuoc cham is served with charred Brussels sprouts as well as roasted carrots with hot green tahini, and now I can’t wait for these veggies to come into season. I could live in the grain chapter and can’t wait to try the fregola with buttered clams and yuzu kosho. I had lots of local zucchini on hand, so I made the farro with melty zucchini and sumac. The Castelvetrano olives, red wine vinegar and sumac made it delicious. There are also meat recipes and a slim chapter for sweets. But next I turned to the Salt and Pepper Cod with Turmeric Noodles.
The dish is an adaptation of cha ca la vong, but with the addition of butter in the noodles. Here the Nuoc Cham is made non-creamy with fresh chilies, garlic, fish sauce and lime juice. It’s a liquid sauce that you drizzle over the fish and pasta. Grated ginger and garlic were slathered on chunks of salt and pepper seasoned cod before the fish was seared in a hot pan. Dried vermicelli was boiled and drained, then tossed in melted butter with ground turmeric. To serve, the noodles formed a bed for pieces of cod, which were topped with lots of chopped herbs and scallions. Dill is traditional here, but I used a blend of herbs. It’s fun to add more herbs on the side of each bite along with the sauce.
Like all the recipes in this book, this one was uncomplicated but flavorful. It’s simple enough to be rotated regularly, but pretty enough to impress. And that is exactly the point of these dishes. As the author says, they should “impress not just your friends, but yourself”! And they will.
I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program.
tweet