spring forward 🌷
plus: an interview with ozoz sokoh
Monday, March 17, 2025
Good morning!
What is LOL Food? [Eater]
A Brief History of Fat Fads in America, From Nut Margarine to Beef Tallow [Food & Wine]
For the last month over group text, I’ve been arguing with friends that the sudden drop-off of wintery weather we had in late February signified the imminence of spring while they’ve insisted that it was “fool’s spring” or worse, “spring of deception” [see this perfect meme for reference]. And as of this week, when spring officially begins, I’m here to declare victory… or beckon a freak spring ice storm. Crocuses are popping in NYC parks. Rain, not snow, on the horizon. Oh, and the sun is still hanging out past 6pm. We made it!
Well, ahem, it’s not exactly sandal weather yet, but I’m thrilled for this seasonal shift. Below, a collection of recipes to celebrate this almost-spring weather, a little lighter, a little brighter. Plus, this week we have an interview with Ozoz Sokoh whose cookbook, Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria, is out tomorrow and I want to cook everything in it. I know you’re going to love it too.
Cheers,
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. Wondering what you might cook from Smitten Kitchen Keepers now that flowers are budding and the air is warming? I thought you’d never ask! Try the pea, feta, and mint fritters, toasted ricotta gnocchi with pistachio pesto, baked orzo and artichokes, and fettuccine with white ragù. To finish, I recommend the bee sting bars and the carrot cake with brown butter and no clutter. Were you looking for a list of all the recipes in each of my cookbooks? I’ve added these in a separate page and hope it makes it easier for you to find everything you want to cook.
“One of the winning elements of ‘The Recipe’ is that it’s not prescriptive — rather than settling on one universal ‘perfect’ recipe, the chefs explain their personal preferences, then give listeners the information they need to make their own adjustments. By breaking their recipes down ingredient-by-ingredient, digging into what each one is doing, they make the science of cooking approachable and fun.” — New York Times, 7 Podcasts to Inspire a New Hobby
“J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Deb Perelman’s new podcast gets to not only the heart of how they make their recipes—but also the why behind each decision, too.” — Esquire, The 26 Best Podcasts of 2024
The latest full episode of my podcast with J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, The Recipe with Kenji and Deb, is all about Crispy Chicken Cutlets! You can listen to it anywhere you get your podcasts, such as Apple, Spotify, and more.
swiss chard pancakes
Anytime pancakes are one of my favorite things. These thick but crepe-like pancakes take all of 5 minutes to prepare the batter and 15 more to fry up, and are loaded with greens and herbs.
vidalia onion soup with wild rice
While onion soups are usually hulking, hearty, deep-winter affairs, I like to think of this as onion soup's spring-hopeful counterpart: sweet onions, mild broth, wild rice for bulk and pungent croutons. It makes a wintry cold week ahead much more endurable.
roasted carrots with avocado and yogurt
An impossibly delicious avocado and roasted carrot salad that once made the New York City restaurant rounds, streamlined and sheet-panned for weeknight bliss, replete with yogurt and crunch. It's basically the highest calling for the bundle of carrots languishing in our fridge.
baby wedge salad with avocado and pickled onions
A crunchy, bright, creamy, and inhalable iceberg salad that I could, and might try, to eat once a week forever.
spring chicken salad toasts
Chicken, chives, dill, and a dollop of horseradish crème fraîche assemble messily with cucumbers and radishes on thin rye toasts in my favorite chicken salad ever. It’s springy and light.
spinach and artichoke pan pizza
A bright green spinach pesto and artichoke heart pizza we can't get enough of and a love letter to failproof pan pizzas, so perfect for home cooks. Big thanks to Folu for the Instagram inspiration! [Video below!]
green angel hair with garlic butter
The greenest thing I know how to make is also the most delicious. It's the cover star of Smitten Kitchen Keepers, my latest cookbook, a celebration of roasted garlic butter and fresh greens, tangled with spaghetti and it's the kind of recipe we made once then again and again -- an instant classic. Have you gotten hooked on it yet?
cornmeal fried pork chops + smashed potatoes
I just had the best idea for dinner this week: Easy crispy pork chops and rough-crushed potatoes that are so good [ahem: pockets of cheese, butter and cream throughout] we will never want to make mashed again.
pistachio cake
The pistachio cake of my dreams is absolutely green with pistachio intensity and requiring no prepared paste, multiple bowls or finicky steps. It's splendid (yes, I said splendid) with softly whipped cream and strawberries.
lime curd tart
This lime spin on a classic French lemon curd tart is a forever favorite. These days I make it in fewer steps, which means that I get to make it more often. I like that it uses whole eggs, instead of just yolks, so you don’t have any leftover ingredients; that it doesn’t, like so many lime desserts, demand tiny, harder-to-procure key limes; and that it takes full advantage of the lime zest, for full-bodied flavor.
AN INTERVIEW WITH OZOZ SOKOH
My shelves are full of wonderful cookbooks I don’t get to talk about enough, so I’ve added this section so you can get to know the cool people behind them. Today we're chatting with Ozoz Sokoh. Her new cookbook, Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria, is out tomorrow, 3/18.
1. What inspired your cookbook?
A few things - I grew up enjoying Nigerian cuisine, and found myself falling deeper in love with it when I moved away from home, first to the UK for Uni, and later to The Netherlands for work. I quickly learned how much I didn’t know and so began to loosely document recipe concepts. Down the line, I “graduated” to more complex explorations which required strong observation and knowledge skills, like how much water you needed to add to a certain batter for a fluffy outcome. I didn’t quite have those skills and realized the way out was documenting ratios and proportions for consistency and repeatability. I really enjoyed this phase of writing and in some cases, developing recipes. A cookbook felt like a space where I could express and share my new, and now forever love - a deeper understanding of Nigerian cuisine and food culture.
2. What recipe are you the most proud of in the book, or felt the most triumphant when you got it right?
I'd say the Yedem’Blong recipe, a gift from my friend Carol. This recipe is not technically difficult - think about it as a platter with a variety of ingredients and elements served with a sauce. What I love is that it reframes kolanut (historically one half of the cola essence that inspired cola drinks and sodas), which most Nigerians know as a snack, and showcases it as an ingredient. I’m proud that many both Nigerians and non-Nigerians get to discover new things about the food culture.
3. What recipe is so low-effort, high-reward that it's worth cooking for dinner tonight, even if we're tired and don't want to cook?
Nigerian pancakes. Neither crepe nor fluffy pancake, you can make the mix in the blender, and it gets cooked right away - no rest required. I love it.
Or, egg sauce. Don’t skip the green bell peppers. Think cousin to shakshuka but with scrambled eggs of sorts. Perfect with yam, plantains, rice, bread, and more.
4. What's something you wish more people knew about your book?
You might find a bit of yourself, your culture, cuisine, and more because Chop Chop highlights global foodways and many of the ways we’re similar across geographies, cultures, histories, and more.
For instance, many cultures prize that toasty, caramelized layer of cooked rice (or cornmeal and other starches), from Nigerian Bottom Pot to Persian Tahdig, Filipino Tutong, Colombian and Puerto Rican Pegao and more. It doesn’t end there because ingredients also exist across multiple cuisines and cultures. Shared histories make Caribbean, South- and Central American stores top choices, and tropical climes mean you’ll find produce and products in Thai, Vietnamese, and other Southeast Asian stores, as well as Indian and Chinese stores.
Thank you, Ozoz! You can preorder Chop Chop right here.
spinach and artichoke pan pizza
shop my favorites
Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more than you see when I cook? I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most — yes, including the the Smitten Kitchen x Staub Braiser (which is back in stock!). For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
See you next week!
