The Food52 Cookbook

The Food52 Cookbook: 140 Winning Recipes From Exceptional Home Cooks

by Amanda Hesser & Merrill Stubbs

(published by Harper Collins/Morrow Cookbooks)

The cookbook is extremely user-friendly and contains a collection of recipes from Food52's website. If you have never checked it out, you should. Home cooks submit recipes which followers make and vote on each week. The 52 weeks of winners are included in this nicely illustrated cookbook. The recipes are accessible and family-friendly. My only complaint is with the formatting of the book. I find many of the recipes to be awkwardly printed between two pages. Even though each recipe intro offers fun insight, having to flip the page at weird points in the recipe kind of annoys me. (So does unnecessary white space). If a recipe must be printed on multiple pages, I prefer they be the facing pages. Place the photos at the beginning or end of the recipe so the text (recipe) flows without having to turn a page. Regardless, we all know we should read the recipe before preparing it, so this isn't a huge deal- just a personal preference. Food52 is otherwise a well-edited, heavily-illustrated cook book with recipes that are uncomplicated, yet creative and memorable.

SMOKY FRIED CHICKPEAS

The Smoky Fried Chickpeas tossed with paprika, garlic & lemon zest were a hit (even with the kids!!) at our Thanksgiving brunch, but they went away so fast, I didn't have a chance to take a picture. This photo is from Food 52's Website and this is a link to Food 52's slideshow by Sarah Shatz.

Photo by: Sarah Shatz

Serves enough for 4

2 large cans chickpeas

1 cup Olive Oil

1 tablespoon lemon zest, strips

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1 sprig fresh thyme

1 coarse salt to taste

4 pieces garlic, sliced

1. Drain Chickpeas and set on paper towels over a colander to dry throughly (can be done 1 day in advance).
2. Heat oil in large pan (preferably cast iron) to 355 or until oil makes bubbles around 1 chickpea.
3. add lemon zest, thyme sprig, chickpeas in batches so pan doesn't crowd fry about 5 minutes until crunchy color & changes.
4. remove from oil, drain well over colander/sieve, add garlic, fry till golden.
5. Toss with smoked paprika & salt, add more if necessary..serve warm.