Day 4 of The Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks hosted by the Food52 website pits two homey, restaurant-centric cookbooks against each other.
“Ducksoup: The Wisdom of Simple Cooking” is written by chefs Clare Lattin and Tom Hill of a popular restaurant in London called Ducksoup. Its sparring partner, “Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking,” comes from Portland, Oregon, chef Bonnie Frumkin Morales.
“Ducksoup” inspires simple seasonal recipes with boho-style photography and friendly instructions. But it’s a way of cooking most of us have seen before — beautiful with intriguing flavors, but similar to what we find in Food & Wine magazine or on Food52 itself.
“Kachka” takes us someplace much farther away — to a comfortable kitchen inspired by Morales’ Belarusian heritage. Her food feels more like a polished version of her mother’s recipe book. “Kachka” takes simple cooking and makes it personal and time-honored.
“Kachka” deserves the Piglet win.
Herring under a fur coat
This combination of briny herring, sweet beets and meaty potatoes is a customer favorite at Morales’ restaurant. It’s beautiful, so be sure to use a glass-sided dish.
2 medium beets
2 large or 3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes
2 carrots, peeled
2 fillets salted herring in oil (pickled herring can be substituted, but it’s sweeter and a bit less decadent)
¼ cup finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh dill, plus a few sprigs for garnish
½ cup mayonnaise
2 large hard-boiled eggs
Kosher salt
Preheat your oven to 350.
Give the beets a quick scrub (but don’t peel), wrap them in foil and bake until they’re fully tender so a knife slides easily through the center (about 1½ hours, depending upon size). Remove the beets from the oven, and as soon as they’re cool enough to handle, rub off the skins, using a paring knife or your hands. Let the peeled beets cool to room temperature.
While the beets are roasting, place the potatoes and carrots in a saucepan, and add water to cover by 1 to 2 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat until it’s just high enough to maintain a simmer. Cook until the vegetables are tender when pierced with a knife, 5 to 10 minutes, depending upon size. The vegetables may not be done at the same time, so remove as needed — you want to be sure that the potato isn’t overcooked lest it fall apart, but that the carrot is cooked until soft all the way through. Drain the cooked vegetables and let them cool to room temperature.
While the vegetables are cooking and cooling, make the herring mixture: Remove the herring fillets from their package, reserving the oil. Give a taste — if they’re too salty, soak until they’re to your taste. Dice the fillets into ¼-inch pieces. Place the diced herring in a small dish with the onion, dill and 3 tablespoons of the oil the fillets were packed in (if you’re using pickled herring fillets, drain them first, soak them for 30 minutes in cold water to draw down the pickled flavor and add 3 tablespoons sunflower or vegetable oil). Mix to combine, and set aside.
When the vegetables have cooled, peel the potatoes and grate them on the large holes of a box grater. Rinse the grater, and grate the carrots into a separate pile. Rinse the grater again and grate the beets, being careful to keep them from bleeding onto the other vegetables.
In a small dish, mix the mayonnaise with 2 tablespoons of the grated beet, turning it a brilliant pink.
To assemble, take a large clear glass bowl or pie plate and lay down a layer of potatoes. Smooth with the back of your spoon to roughly even things out (but don’t tamp them down), and season with salt. Add the herring mixture. Smooth this layer as well, then add the carrots, and smooth them too. Add the grated beet — to avoid making a purple mess, place a mound of beets in the center and then smooth outward. Season with salt, then top with the beet mayonnaise, smoothing out from the center as well.
Remove the egg whites from the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs, and using the back of a spoon, press them through a sieve to garnish the top of the mixture (you can also finely chop the whites by hand instead, and sprinkle them on). Repeat with the yolks. Garnish with the reserved dill sprigs and serve. If you’re making the dish in advance, wait until serving to garnish with the egg and dill.
Serves 4.
— Excerpted from “Kachka” by Bonnie Frumkin Morales. Reprinted with permission from Flatiron Books.
Spring vegetable fritters
Stuffed with spring vegetables, these fritters make a tasty snack or starter. The curry leaves make the recipe, so they’re worth seeking out.
For the fritters:
8 ounces asparagus, woody ends snapped off, sliced into ¼-inch rounds
8 ounces peas
8 ounces fava beans
4 spring onions, sliced
1 crushed garlic clove
1 lemon
1 egg
2 cups flour
2¼ cups ice-cold sparkling water
Vegetable or sunflower oil for frying
Handful of curry leaves
Good pinch of sumac
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the cucumber yogurt:
½ cucumber, cut lengthwise, seeds scooped out
Pinch of salt
2 cups Greek yogurt
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of ½ lemon
1 garlic clove, crushed
Handful of mint leaves, coarsely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Start with the cucumber yogurt. Coarsely grate the cucumber into a sieve set over a bowl and rub a good pinch of salt into the cucumber. Set aside for 45 minutes to allow the cucumber to release its water.
Meanwhile, make the fritter mix. Place the asparagus into a large bowl with the peas, fava beans, spring onions and wild garlic leaves (or crushed garlic clove). Zest the lemon over the top (keep the lemon to use in the cucumber yogurt) and season with salt and pepper.
In a separate bowl, mix the egg with the flour and then slowly add the sparkling water, whisking constantly. You want the consistency of thick cream, so go easy, as you may not need all the water. Pour this batter mixture over the vegetables and mix well.
Heat a generous amount of vegetable or sunflower oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pan until a small piece of bread turns golden in 10 seconds.
While the oil is heating, finish the cucumber yogurt by giving the cucumber a gentle squeeze to remove the last bits of water. Then place in a mixing bowl with the yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and mint. Give everything a quick whisk — it should have a bit of texture to it — and season with salt and pepper.
Working in batches of four, drop tablespoons of the fritter mix into the pan. (To stop the batter mixture from sticking to your spoon, dip a dry spoon into the oil first.) Fry the fritters for 5 to 6 minutes, using a slotted spoon to turn them halfway through the cooking time. Remove with the slotted spoon and transfer to paper towels to drain. Season and keep warm. Repeat with the other batches.
Once all the fritters are done, drop the curry leaves into the oil; be careful as they will crackle and spit. Fry for 1 minute, remove and drain on paper towels.
To serve, spoon the cucumber yogurt onto plates. Arrange the fritters and curry leaves on top and sprinkle with the sumac. Serves 4.
— From “Ducksoup” by Clare Lattin and Tom Hill. Reprinted with permission by Chronicle Books.
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