The dwindling days of 2012 marks the end of a particularly good year for cookbooks. From high-end haute cuisine to cozy bakeries, academic tomes to community collections, there were a lot of good recipes to go around. Over the next week or so we are going to highlight some of our favorites.
First up is an e-book that we should all have in our collections, as much for the recipes as what it stands for and benefits. The restaurant and bar industry in the New York and New Jersey coastline areas were particularly hard hit by Hurricane Sandy and Red Hook, Brooklyn was one of the most devastated.
The quirky, traditionally nautical neighborhood is a key part of the Brooklyn artisanal culinary scene and is filled with restaurants, bars both old school and new, urban vintners, coffee shops and roasters, bakeries, lobster pounds, artisanal distilleries, prep kitchens and other small food businesses. No one went unscathed by Sandy — most places were under six-feet of dirty polluted water and many purveyors are now faced with starting over from scratch.
All Hands on Deck is a old-school community cookbook from a new school foodie community. Editors Catherine and Zac Overman gathered favorite recipes from 25 Red Hook favorites. There's the excellent Irish Coffee from
Fort Defiance, the addictive pork and chive dumplings from
The Good Fork, the flourless chocolate torte from
Home/Made, the dangerously tasty cowboy cookies from
Baked and
Brooklyn Ice House’s Frito Pie. As in most of the best community cookbooks, there’s a story behind each dish which combined tell the story of the place. All proceeds from sales of the book will be donated to Restore Red Hook, which provides financial aid to small businesses in the neighborhood recovering from the hurricane. Download the book for $15 from
allhandsondeckredhook.org. And make those dumplings today.