BRING COLOUR TO THE TABLE
Fresh options for Thanksgiving
“Simple, seasonal cooking — I didn’t invent it but I’m definitely a proponent,” acclaimed author and chef David Tanis says.
For more than three decades, the former head chef of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., has devoted his career to “real food.”
His recipes — which he shares weekly in the New York Times — have garnered him a devoted following thanks to their clarity and dependable deliciousness.
In Tanis’ new cookbook, Market Cooking, he seeks to answer the question of not just what to cook, but how to cook.
“There are little lessons in every recipe,” he says. With 200 recipes and variations, arranged by vegetable, the tome is his most extensive to date.
While the dishes are producecentric, flank steak, mussels, anchovies, roast chicken, bacon and lamb all make appearances.
Some recipes are specific; others are prose-style in which a dish and how to make it are described in just a few sentences.
“A recipe is meant to be a guideline, not a strict, unchangeable thing,” Tanis says. “There are so many variables, depending upon what you actually are cooking. Sometimes you have to go with your own instinct and your own preference.”
As Tanis explains, the philosophy and cooking style behind Market Cooking is la cuisine du marché: “I go to the market, see what looks best, and then decide what will go on the menu.”
The approach is particularly well-suited to this time of year, he says, when farmers’ markets are bustling.
For Thanksgiving, Tanis prefers to stray from the traditional — favouring freshness, colour and spice in a festive spread.
He suggests vegetable dishes that can be served at room temperature, such as peperonata, as well as refreshing salads of chicories and apple in walnut dressing or Moroccan-spiced julienned carrot.
“One thing about Thanksgiving … is that it tends to be rather starch-heavy — between the stuffing and the potatoes and the gravy. So I like to see bright, fresh vegetables,” he says.
“In addition to being on the starchy side, it also tends to be a little bit monotone. So, it’s nice to have something more colourful.”