The best cookbooks of 2024: Big Down Power, Ottolenghi’s Luxury, and More

This cheekily titled hands-on would have passed without gentle reminders of its greatness from my friends at Eat your books*. It is written by experienced recipe writers, Olga Masson and Sanaa Lemoine, who take turns and occasionally collaborate on each dish.

No one needs another book full of mediocre meals, but this one stands out with what they call “elevated but accessible recipes.”

I tried “fried” rice, which is a very clever technique to help get plenty of crunchy rice and remove leftover veggies from the fridge and freezer. It ends with a decoration where you make a hole in the middle of all the food, pour in three beaten eggs, and then put it back in the oven, where it cooks in minutes. This fish tacos recipe requires you to sear the seasoned steaks while taking advantage of the pan’s time in the oven by preparing the guacamole and cumin-lime cream to go on top.

Things happen quickly with their recipe for Chicken with Clementines, Dates and Capers, a great imitation from the Ottolenghi team Jerusalem Cookbook. This version uses powerful ingredients like date molasses, clementines, fennel, dates, and capers scattered throughout the pan—and soon your plate—to keep you busy from start to finish.

My current favorite recipe is to spread a layer of Greek yogurt on a serving platter, then cover it with roasted sweet potatoes and sliced ​​red onions, and sprinkle with toasted pistachios, date chunks, thyme, and fluffy salt. It’s a low-effort, high-reward meal that quickly earned a place in the regular dinner rotation. People like me sometimes overcomplicate our meals, and standout books like this are a good reminder that we can have sophisticated flavors and be a little more hands-on about it.

*An Eat Your Books subscription makes a great gift (or a treat to yourself) for cookbook lovers. It creates a searchable index of your cookbooks, so if you’re looking for a Bolognese recipe, it tells you which of your cookbooks has one and what page it’s on, and it can do the same for the ingredients you want to cook with. I use it almost every day.