the cook stack

Hello, and welcome, fellow cookbook lovers! I am a cookbook lover and foodie who has been collecting cookbooks for over 15 years now. My ideal evening is curling up with a glass of wine, homemade baked good, and reading a cookbook from cover to cover. Most of my collection is scattered in upstairs closets and under beds, but I did recently place a small bookshelf in the corner of our open-concept kitchen and dining room to display cookbooks. To celebrate what feels like a breath of fresh air for my collection (no more rummaging through precariously stacked books, or “cook stacks”), I am embarking on what I call “A Completely Random Cooking Challenge”.

For this challenge, I assign each cookbook on my this bookshelf a number from 1 to 36. Then, I use a random number generator to spit out a number in that range. I select the corresponding cookbook and count the number of recipes in the book. I use the random number generator again to assign me a recipe to make from that book. To keep grocery shopping and cooking efficient, I generate five sets of numbers at a time and cook in any order. The only other rule is that I must stay as faithful to the original recipe as possible – let the adventure begin!

Here are my first five sets of random numbers and their corresponding recipes:

• 11, 20 The Weekday Vegetarians Chilled Asparagus Soup with Croutons and Chives
• 15, 67 Plenty Watercress, Pistachio, and Orange Blossom Salad
• 18, 108 Milk Street Tuesday Nights Mediterranean Soupe au Pistou
• 35, 58 Dessert Person Preserved Lemon Meringue Cake
• 19, 27 Yassou Cheese Pies

First Impressions: This is going to be a plant-based week, with two kinds of vegetable soups and one very intense baking project! Yikes, I am already having doubts about undertaking the Preserved Lemon Meringue Cake. I have not attempted such an involved cake in years; there are six layers and an Italian meringue to make with the aid of a candy thermometer. On the flip side, I have been craving asparagus soup for months now and am looking forward to making the simple one from The Weekday Vegetarians. Milk Street Tuesday Nights Mediterranean is a brand new cookbook for me, and Yassou is almost new (I have only made one recipe from it), so I will see what impressions start to form and if they are really deserving of space on my cookbook shelf. Plenty is, of course, a classic, and I have actually made a riff off that salad before but never stayed totally true to the recipe as written.

The Plan: I will kick off the week with an evening of making two soups, the Chilled Asparagus Soup, which actually needs a night to chill in the refrigerator before eating, and the Soupe au Pistou. The next day, I will make the Cheese Pies and, hopefully while baking, I can prepare the Watercress, Pistachio, and Orange Blossom Salad. The soups, salad, and pies all together should give a wonderful week of lunches. I will give myself three nights to make the slightly-terrifying Preserved Lemon Meringue Cake: one day to make the lemon curd, one day to bake the cakes, and one day to assemble and make the Italian meringue. This comes out to five days, which gives me two days to review, write, and post about each recipe.

Below are my recipe reviews!

Recipe 1: Chilled Asparagus Soup with Croutons and Chives from The Weekday Vegetarians

I did not enjoy this soup, despite how easy it was to make (probably the easiest recipe of the week) and its pretty green color. Asparagus is blanched before being combined in a blender with a whole lot of Dijon mustard, olive oil, broth, lemon, salt, and pepper. The soup is blended until smooth and chilled before serving with homemade croutons and a few other garnishes. The soup comes out rather silky, an appealing texture for a chilled soup. However, I found the flavor incredibly off-putting, and I could not stomach the whole bowl in the picture and tossed out the rest. The Dijon mustard totally overpowers the soup, and I think half, or even a quarter, of the listed amount would have been sufficient. The mustard flavor turned the soup bitter when it was chilled, and I do not think the croutons helped (or hurt) the soup – they were just frivolous work. Unfortunately I am finding that many of the “main” recipes in The Weekday Vegetarians follow this pattern, although most are certainly not nauseating like this one. They are either mediocre or have too much frivolity. The “small plates” section of the book is quite strong, however (don’t sleep on those Greek potatoes!), which is why I hold onto it … for now.

Recipe 2: Watercress, Pistachio, and Orange Blossom Salad from Plenty

Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi was the first cookbook I purchased about fifteen years ago for what become a rather large collection, so I do indeed have a soft spot for this book. As mentioned above, I have made a riff of this salad before but not with the exact combination of greens and herbs listed in the recipe. For the sake of an honest review, I followed the recipe exactly. I had to buy watercress, basil, cilantro, dill, and tarragon. These greens and herbs together are a satisfying combination, especially with the addition of toasted pistachios. The dressing, however, I found underwhelming. The orange blossom flavor did not come at all through for me, even with a brand new bottle. While this was an okay salad and leftovers were excellent tossed with some pesto pasta for a fancy pasta salad, I would not make it again.

Recipe 3: Soupe au Pistou from Milk Street Tuesday Nights Mediterranean

Another day, another vegetarian soup. This one is quick and simple, yet substantial, and far and away the winner of the vegetarian soup cook-off for this week (the loser being the nauseating chilled asparagus soup above). It was the perfect thing to make for mid spring, during what is likely our last cold spell until fall. First, onions and tomatoes are cooked in a pot. Broth and spices are added, followed by pasta, zucchini, and beans. Store-bought pesto is swirled on top. I really enjoyed this soup, despite not being a “soup person”. I told my husband that if I were on top of my game, I would make a batch of this at the beginning of every month to keep in the freezer for those random nights we want a bowl of soup to accompany dinner. I served this a couple of different ways throughout the week – with sourdough bread, with naan bread, with hard-boiled egg and salad, with french fries and a chicken wing. Everything worked; it’s versatile. Hello to the newest member of my recipe rotation.

Recipe 4: Preserved Lemon Meringue Cake from Dessert Person

Oh boy, the six-layer preserved lemon meringue cake was a total stunner! This cake was my project for the week, and I was thrilled to produce a show stopping cake, certainly the star of any dessert buffet or dinner party. On night one, I prepared the lemon curd which alone was fabulous. The curd is looser than ideal for a lemon meringue pie, but it works as a cake filling and would be perfect spread on warm buttermilk scones. On night two, I prepared the cake layers, which are unusual. They contain chopped preserved lemon peel blended with yogurt and lemon juice, both butter and oil, and so much sugar that I do not want to think about it. The cake batter is very light and stiff, almost like a meringue, and I am glad I trusted the recipe here as I have not made a batter with quite that consistency before. I over baked by three to five minutes, so the cake was on the drier side but retained a nice crumb. The flavor was complex thanks to the preserved lemon; the preserved lemon is a subtle but prominent secret ingredient that I imagine someone familiar with the flavor of preserved lemons would pick up on but the general public may not be able to identify.

Finally, on night three, I made the Italian meringue and assembled the cakes. I have never made an Italian meringue before. A sugar syrup is cooked on the stove to a precise temperature of 244 degrees Fahrenheit, then streamed into beaten egg whites. I was nervous about over beating the meringue because of a warning in the recipe that the meringue could take on a curdy texture, but I probably could have beaten a bit longer for a slightly stiffer texture, as it was just a smidge too loose. Altogether, this cake was truly wonderful, and I do hope I have some special occasion to make it again.

Recipe 5: Cheese Pies from Yassou

Honestly, these felt more like a craft project than a recipe. A cheese filling is prepared with three cheeses (ricotta, parmesan, and feta) and egg. The filling is dolloped by the teaspoon-ful onto precut, oil-brushed strips of phyllo dough. The strips are next folded into triangular pastries before being brushed with more oil and baked. I also made the optional tomato sauce for dipping the cheese pies, which involves grating tomatoes on a box grater and mixing them with olive oil, dried oregano, and salt and pepper. The end result was really very nice. I had feared the cheese would be too goopy, too stringy, too melty, and all of the other things I dislike about baked cheese concoctions. However, the filling was light and meshed well with the crisp, buttery phyllo dough. I personally preferred these at room temperature without the tomato sauce, which I found too watery. As photographed, I paired this with Ottolenghi’s watercress salad, and I think this combination worked quite well.

I will note that I had a serious issue with the amount of cheese filling listed in the recipe; this is the second recipe from Yassou that I have made, and the second recipe that I have had a significant problem with the amounts of certain components. After preparing the filling, I could tell immediately that there was going to be a huge excess. If the recipe is followed as written, there should be about 28-30 teaspoons of filling. I am sure I had closer to 50, if not more. I think the cheese filling should be cut in half, or the number of phyllo strips should be doubled. Unfortunately, I had not thawed enough phyllo, and much of this cheese filling ended up in the bin! And to think, I even purchased the expensive versions of cheese from the store for this recipe *sigh*.

Last Bite:

I could have done without the chilled asparagus soup, but this week was otherwise a hit in the kitchen. The soupe au pisto, preserved lemon meringue cake, and cheese pies were all keeper recipes, with the lemon cake being a roaring success despite my initial reservations. This challenge is a fun way to explore my cookbooks, find previously overlooked recipes, and maybe push me out of my comfort zone to tackle recipes I would deem “too involved for now”. I hope you will follow along!