Two totally different cookbooks are worth looking at because the collections are so unusual. The first is from southern chef John Currence, a James Beard winner and his book. Pickles, Pigs and Whiskey.  He owns several restaurants in the south, most notably his City Grocery in Oxford, Mississippi. He grew up in New Orleans, but his ideologies span the culinary globe.  Consider this bon mot: ‘Where there is rosemary…let there be lemon.”

Pickles, Pigs and Whiskey by John Currence (photo of book cover)

His culinary prose is irreverent and sometimes quite funny, throwing in a few four-letter words to describe a dish such as his thoughts on chicken:

Anybody can look like a rock star with a lamb rack and some sweet shit.   But if you can blow their socks off with chicken then you’ve done something.

The recipes epitomize the new cooking of the south.  They offer richness in savory and sweet dishes typical of southern cuisine.  But the basics are embellished in tantalizing ways in both rugged and fancy cooking.

The book has a lot of brining and smoking going on and calls for ingredients not so readily available up north (but not impossible to find).  One such ingredient, Tonka beans, is used in an ice cream.  It’s basically vanilla ice cream enriched with the exotic bean indigenous to South America. I asked Ilma Lopez of Piccolo about it, and she said she grew up (in South America) using the bean all the time.    Its flavor is a cross between vanilla and almond.  It’s technically illegal in the US, but I’m planning on finding it to make the ice cream, which he serves with a gorgeously devised bourbon pecan pie.

The several recipes I have tried so far were wonderful. The chocolate chess pie was classic.  Swordfish sautéed in bacon fat was another one.  I served it over his receipt for creamed corn, which he otherwise pairs with sautéed grouper. It worked beautifully with the swordfish.  He suggests serving the fish, however, with tomato jam, which I did.   It turned out to be a wonderful condiment that offset the  the strong flavors of our local fish.  I now use it to top meats like lamb, pork and chicken.

From Pickles, Pigs and Whiskey, tomato jam (photo by John Golden) and sauteed fish over creamed corn (photo taken from book)

I did make one of his other ice creams, bourbon vanilla ice cream, which calls for Woodford’s Reserve in the custard.  It was memorable.  Using 14 egg yolks, milk, cream and plenty of Woodford’s bourbon, it was one of the best I’ve had.  The recipe yields 2 quarts.  I cut the recipe in half using only 7 egg yolks.  It’s a great, satiny smooth ice cream.

The second book now in my cooking library is Nopi by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ramael Scully. Talk about the fusion of Middle Eastern cooking along the posh boulevards of London’s Belgravia, Soho, Nottinghill and Spittafields where his Ottolenghi restaurants are located  as well as the newest, Nopi.

Nopi by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ramael Scully

Ottolenghi and his chef Ramael Scully lead the team at Nopi.  And the cookbook so named is the newest of his other books:  Ottolenghi, Jerusalem and Plenty, a collection that shows off Ottolenghi’s Israeli and Middle Eastern roots.

The book is quite apt for us  to consider since Portland has such a recent influx of Middle Eastern dining establishments (Evo, Tiqa and Ebb and Flow). Some of the dishes are somewhat similar to food found at Evo or Tiqa, but the preparations go to the next level.

Also, the recipes are not for the timid home cook. The preparations are pretty complex and time-consuming; many of the ingredients are not readily available without going to mail-order sources.  But Portland surprises the adventurous cook with  a few exotic ingredients sourced from our local shops.  One staple that you would need is pomegranate molasses, which can be found on the shelves at Whole Foods.  But tamarind pulp called for in purred eggplant  might be harder to find.

I’ve only made one recipe so far, the roasted carrots with olive oil,  cardamom seeds, honey, garlic and thyme.  I followed the recipe exactly as written and it came out perfectly; the caramelized carrots are coated with the spices, honey and garlic effecting a pungent sweetness as they glaze in the oven.  The final touch of fresh thyme gives it zing.

From Nopi, roasted carrots

Other dishes are pure exotica. Consider Lamb loin with peanuts, coconut milk and red onion salsa or twice-cooked baby chicken with chili sauce and kaffir lime leaf salt. (Portland’s Salt Cellar does not carry the salt, but I found it on Amazon).  Another recipe that I’m anxious to try is roasted celery root; the vegetable is everywhere at farmers’ markets now.  It’s a whole celeriac roasted for 3 hours, rubbed with salt and olive oil.

Photos from Nopi, lamb with peanuts, coconut milk and red-onion salsa; roasted celery root

Both these books are far from the Rachel Ray School of cooking.  But that said, I occasionally catch her daytime show on TV and some of the featured recipes are compelling, especially from her new book, Everyone Is Italian on Sunday, a nifty tome on Italian-American scrumptiousness. And how bad is that?