One Good Dish

In this, his first non-menu cookbook, the New York Times food columnist offers 100 utterly delicious recipes that epitomize comfort food, Tanis-style. Individually or in combination, they make perfect little meals that are elemental and accessible, yettotally surprisingand theres something to learn on every page. Among the chapter titles theres Bread Makes a Meal, which includes such alluring recipes as a ham and Gruyre bread pudding, spaghetti and bread crumbs, breaded eggplant cutlets, and Davids version of egg-in-a-hole. A chapter called My Kind of Snack includes quail eggs with flavored salt; speckled sushi rice with toasted nori; polenta pizza with crumbled sage; raw beet tartare; and mackerel rillettes. The recipes in Vegetables to Envy range from a South Indian dish of cabbage with black mustard seeds to French grandmotherstyle vegetables. Strike While the Iron Is Hot is all about searing and quick cooking in a cast-iron skillet. Another chapter highlights dishes you can eat from a bowl with a spoon. And so it goes, with one irrepressible chapter after another, one perfect food moment after another: this is a book with recipes to crave.