“Keeper” is a word that’s wormed its way into practically every aspect of modern life.  A keeper can be a person, a thing, an idea, or….a recipe!  The quest for these sometimes-elusive keepers has us plowing through all manner of cookbooks; but, one may reasonably ask, what constitutes a keeper?  After all, a keeper is an extremely personal thing.  One cook may value taste above all else, another ease of preparation, or only one pot to wash, or a fit with dietary restrictions, or…..!  We could go on all day.  But, some brave authors are willing to wade into these murky waters and claim to provide us with a whole book of keepers, which brings us to September’s book, ace blogger Deb Perelman’s latest, Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics For Your Forever Files.  With a title like that, the gauntlet (or the oven mitt?) was definitely thrown down, and our intrepid cooks were ready to pick it up and wrestle with it in the kitchen.

Our group has been in Smitten territory before; this is the author’s third cookbook and we’ve reviewed them all!  Visually, this new one matches the others (if you are a fan, they will all sit nicely together on your shelf), with the typical large format and admirable photography, shot by the author.  As a blogger Ms. Perelman does love her headnotes, and some in our group loved these small essays, many of which provide a glimpse into the author’s home life.  Her warm, funny voice makes her instantly relatable, so even though some in our group generally aren’t fond of verbose headnotes, there were no complaints!

But enough dithering about text and photos– let’s get into the kitchen!  Since the breakfast chapter is the first in the book, let’s start there.  Peanut butter, oat and jam bars were an “easy” riff on that classic combination.  Oats and honey provided breakfast-y components and made for a delicious, sweet way to start the day.  Chocolate chip buckwheat pancakes happily straddled the line between sweet and savory; nutty buckwheat perfectly complemented the chocolate chips.  If you’re looking to kick up your pancake game a notch, these would certainly do the trick. They reheated well, too.  On the more savory side, sour cream and flaky cheddar biscuits were a definite keeper.  They were a bit of work (“lots of cutting-in with the cheese and the butter”) but were flaky as advertised, with a nice umami note from onion powder (“only a quarter teaspoon– but it added a lot!”).  Zucchini cornbread and tomato butter was “very savory” with corn, zucchini and onion (perhaps a bit too much onion; the recipe contained half a cup of scallions!).  The tomato butter had a somewhat subdued flavor, but was still a welcome complement to the tender yet hearty  bread.

As usual, main dishes were our primary focus.  Vegetarians had plenty to choose from; four cooks were inspired to try creamy tomato chickpea masala; the general consensus was that it was solid, if not outstanding.  The sauce’s creaminess was a plus; some thought the spicing was much too timid, but for others it was more than sufficient.  Simple black bean chili turned out to be a keeper; it was fast and delicious, but “make sure you use the jalapeno!” In a similar flavor vein, swiss chard enchiladas had a tasty filling of chard, beans, and corn.  Though it was a bit of work to put together, it made a large panful; and it reheated well.  Farro salad with roasted tomatoes was a fine farewell to tomato season; one cook liked it well enough that “I’ve made it several times;” but another wished the recipe had some additional veggies to make it more of a main dish. Two people also tried baked orzo and artichokes, a cheesy combo that was “excellent….but prep takes time.”  On the other hand, “it was OK– but I don’t think it’s a keeper.”  Take your pick!  Three cooks landed on tangy baked eggplant and couscous (that end of summer thing again) which was “OK” though it had “good flavor.”  All three wished the dish had a higher eggplant/couscous ratio; the photo shows mostly eggplant but IRL that wasn’t how it played out.  Though slow-simmered lentils with kale and goat cheese “didn’t look pretty ” (lentils clearly need a color makeover), this was a “pretty easy” dish that “I liked a lot.”  Wine vinegar provided just the right accent, and the whole was “a keeper!”  In the cheesy department, deepest dish broccoli cheddar quiche was a quiche of epic proportions; it was tasty but had a few negatives: the crust dough was dry and needed much more water than what the recipe called for, and after baking the crust was soggy as no par- or pre-baking was called for.  Also because the quiche was so massive it required two hours to bake!  Save this one for when you’re feeding a crowd.  Another crust was much more successful: the crust for leek and brie galette was easy to make and just super; tender and flaky as advertised.  It went well with the rich brie, but the baked leeks “weren’t my favorite– they tasted too grassy somehow.”  But that crust is a keeper!  We made a few veggie dishes that could double as sides: skillet white beans caesar were “excellent!”  Anchovies added a hit of umami.  Pea, feta, and mint fritters were a novel way to use a bag of frozen peas; these crispy fritters were “good…easy…different.”  A bit more feta would have been welcome, though the lemony yogurt sauce was a tasty compensation.  And charred salt and vinegar cabbage was either “good” or “bland and boring,” depending on who you talked to.  The “crispy bits” were the best part, but overall the dish “needed something.”

Phew!  And that’s only the vegetarian dishes!   One quirk of this title is that there are no fish recipes.  We can only assume the author isn’t fond of our finned friends, but it was certainly an oddity for a modern cookbook.  There is one shrimp dish, crispy chili garlic butter shrimp.  This was a pretty standard, classic combination, although delicious.  You can’t go wrong with butter, garlic, and hot pepper; and this is probably also one of the speediest recipes in the book, since shrimp cook in a flash. There were lots of chicken recipes: chicken with rice, chorizo, and tomatoes was loaded with flavor from chorizo, onions, and smoked paprika.  It made a lot and reheated beautifully.  A keeper!  Weeknight lemon chicken wings took an hour to cook– much longer than the recipe stated.  They were good, though “they would be better on the grill.”  The buttery mustard sauce balanced the lemon well.  Almost a keeper!  Turkey meatloaf for skeptics still left us a bit skeptical; it was “OK….it needed something.”  Perhaps a meatloaf is always just a meatloaf?  Skillet chicken parmesan was a more successful riff on a classic; it was “very good,” though, as is true for many (if not most) casseroles, it was “a bit labor-intensive.”  Three cooks were intrigued by fettucine with white ragu; and there were three very different opinions on the result.  One person’s take was “boring;” for her the sauce just wasn’t a sauce and needed more liquid to bring it all together.  On the other hand, it was a keeper for another cook who enjoyed the somewhat novel taste of pork cooked in milk.  The third person was on the fence, liking the flavor but also thinking it needed more of a “real” sauce.  Since the weather was cooling off a bit, we made a couple of soups: ginger garlic chicken noodle soup had “nice flavor” and was “probably a keeper.”  The photo was absolutely drool-worthy!  Winter squash soup with red onion crisp was also a hit; the crispy onion topper really elevated this fall classic.

Moving on to the sweets department, both chocolate peanut butter cup cookies and thick molasses spice cookies were keepers.  The spice cookies featured plenty of ginger and were soft and chewy without being cakey.  They kept well, too.  The chocolate cookies were “fun to make” and were of course “the perfect combo….yum!”  On the downside, oatmeal date shortbread came out “greasy, stodgy….only crisp the first day.”  Two people loved  whole lemon poppyseed cake; this easy treat had a good, strong lemon flavor and was not too sweet.  One unique feature of this recipe: you use all of the (pureed) lemon in the cake, so you need a fairly heavy-duty blender or food processor.  The author’s effort to make this a one-bowl cake resulted in some strange and convoluted instructions.  If you’re willing to wash one more bowl, you can simplify prep tremendously.  Should you be lucky enough to have a stash of raspberries somewhere, you could try raspberry crostata, which, though “it didn’t look like the photo” (uncooperative crust!) was “delicious!”  And, last but not least, chocolate olive oil spread was a sumptuous smooth spread with wonderful dark chocolate flavor.  This was very quick and easy to make whenever the chocolate urge strikes.  A keeper!

Anyone reading this far would have to agree that we gave this book a thorough review.  We found most of the recipes to be approachable, though some took a bit more doing than we might have liked.  Generally, we weren’t crazy about her instructions– a few people mentioned that they seemed unnecessarily complicated or obtuse.  This wasn’t a dealbreaker, but it was noticeable.  And though all of us found at least one keeper in this book, overall it didn’t reach the level we might have hoped.  But, as noted above, a keeper is personal, and the author’s vision of a keeper just may not be ours.  So, in the final analysis, our rating averaged out to a 3.3 (out of a possible 5).  As is often the case, that average-ish rating disguises strong high and low ratings.  So, you’ll just have to take out the book yourself and decide!

Please join us for our next meeting on Friday October 27 at 11 AM in the Fireplace Room.  We’ll be discussing everyone’s favorite fall fruit  with Amy Traverso’s The Apple Lover’s Cookbook.  Copies are available at the main circulation desk or via curbside pickup.  See you there!