Posted byI have a friend that loves to cook and loves cookbooks.I’d like to get her a fun cookbook as a house warming gift but something beyond the realm of The Silver Palate and other “normal” cookbooks.
What’s out there for the offbeat chefs that produces tasty results?
-Mel
I know a LOT of you left some great Megan-simple cookbook ideas for me back when I was doing my cooking challenge. What about cookbooks for people who aren’t afraid to get experimental? Not that this will surprise you, but here are MY offbeat cookbook suggestions…
The Game of Thrones cookbook is a collection of hearty meals inspired by George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series! Including recipes for Arbor Red Wine, the Stark’s Venison, Apple, Cheddar Plaits, The Imp’s Wild Strawberry Fool and Wilding Grilled Pork Chops with Stir-Grilled Apples.
The Star Wars cookbook will show you how to make Wookie Cookies, Jedi Juice Bars, Dark Side Salsa, Boba Fett-Uccine, and Crazy Cantina Chili. (Psst: there’s one for Trekkies too!)
The Manga Cookbook is an illustrated guide to preparing Japanese cuisine. Learn to identify and make the same things you see in all your favorite manga, including: onigiri, rice balls, yakitori, skewered chicken oshinko, pickled vegetables udon, Japanese noodles, and loads more.
What are YOUR (possibly less nerdy) suggestions for offbeat cookbook ideas for people who actually LOVE to cook?
Don’t let the name put you off: Crescent Dragonwagon’s Passionate Vegetarian. A quirky compilation of yumminess for slow cooking days with great party ideas. My second favorite – anything by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.
i know it’s not particularly offbeat… but my without a doubt, absolute favorite cookbook is America’s Test Kitchen: The Complete TV Show Cookbook (which appears to come out annually). The recipes seem pretty ordinary, but they are 1. beyond delicious, and 2. they have a section before each and every recipe explaining how they came up with their variations on the traditional recipe and why, and about any special techniques they may use. it’s fascinating, and really helpful to understand the ‘why’s’ of recipes. the folks at America’s Test Kitchen are like kitchen scientists (or wizards!) and really bring a whole new level of interest to cooking. not to mention Christopher Kimball (the chef/host) always wears a bow tie. *gushing complete*
I agree, the Test Kitchen cookbooks are awesome. I use their baking one all the time.
I really love the new HeIdi Swanson cookbook- Super Natural Cooking Every Day. Her recipes are more than the sum of their parts and I would not have thought of them myself. I also love Nigel Slaters book, Tender. It is beautiful to look at and nice for gardeners.
My favorite easy-to-find cookbook is “World of the East Vegetarian Cooking.” Tons of delicious Asian recipes, all vegetarian, that make your house smell amazing and use every spice in your cupboard.
My favorite obscure cookbook is one I found while visiting Wyoming: “The Cowboy Cookbook.” It has lots of historic trail recipes, including one stew I’ve fallen in love with, and lots of fun cowboy information (guide to cattle brands, where the chuck wagon goes on the cattle drive, etc.). It also includes a recipe for a pit barbecue for 1000, and I keep searching for an excuse (and the money and space) to do it. Who doesn’t love a recipe that starts by directing you to dig a long, deep trench?
We got The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper as our gift for pledging to NPR and it’s become a favorite. Lots of fun quotes and interesting facts and stories about different foods and dishes in addition to the recipes.
They also have a new one out called How to Eat Weekends.
I’ve got The Unofficial Harry Potter cookbook as well as the Cookin’ With Coolio cookbook. Oh yea.
OOH COOKBOOKS! While I myself am a non cook, (seemingly) EVERYONE I am close to is the total opposite. Having an interest in learning to cook I get SOO many cookbooks as gifts, so these are just my favourites.
The Everyday Flexitarian: Recipes for Vegetarians & Meat Lovers Alike is amazing because it offers lots of options. Each meal has both a meat and a vegetarian or vegan option great for families that have different needs or chefs that like trying new things.
Giving a local (but still available for shipment worldwide) option, For the Breast of Friends: Women Working Together for a Cure is the first of six cookbooks made by a group of women that give the net proceeds from all their books to cancer organizations and research (they started with breast cancer then expanded). The recipes are amazing (and SO easy to understand) and interspersed with great quotes and facts. Explore their website and pick their book that seems the most what you are looking for, but I would say that the earlier you go the more focused they are on good old fashioned home cooking.
I will let you know that their latest book (Breast Friends Inspire Health) has moved into the realm of “healthy” eating, and that they have also based their organization on personal experience, so they can be a little “only women get breast cancer” and “let’s pray about this” but damn can they cook.
Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World
I gifted this to a foodie friend and he loves it… the cupcakes are SOOOO good.
Add a few frosting bags and tips, maybe a pan and you’ve got yourself a nice little gift!
just because its funny!!! Cookin’ with Coolio: 5 Star Meals at a 1 Star Price.
We received the Star Wars cookbook for Yule! We’re going to make some of the recipes when the gift giver is in town next month.
Some of my old favorites have been mentioned, but another fun book is A Kitchen Witch’s Cookbook. If you’re wanting to kick it old school, there’s always the Vegetarian Epicure (The Moosewood has already been mentioned).
I love the Moosewood cookbooks, which have already been mentioned. My favorite offbeat baking cookbook is Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. It’s got lots of interesting and creative flavor combos, and the best brownie recipe EVER! They have a second book out too, but I haven’t looked at it yet. I’m sure it’s just as awesome!
I also love The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook. It’s written as a year in the life of a restaurant, so you get perspective on living in one of the most beautiful places in the country as well as a bunch of delicious recipes. Lots of rustic desserts and some non-traditional entree options such as venison, rabbit, and quail.
Kim Boyce’s Good to the Grain! All sorts of delicious (and some decadent — no sawdust recipes here!) recipes for cooking with a variety of whole grains.
Not a specific cookbook, but my dad collects cookbooks and has given me a few vintage ones that he found at yardsales or in second hand stores. Their lots of fun, some of my favorite recipes come from my vintage cook books.
A wonderful fcriend recently sent me
Don’t feed the bears – a vegan cookbook
Which includes suggestions for what death metal goes with each recipe, and threatens to punch you in the fucking face if you dare add celery to his chilli recipe
Skinny bitch in the kitch – healthy and fun and all vegan too (ithink)
Nanny Oggs cookbook actually has some nice dishes in it and The Babylon 5 cookbook has some very colourful cocktails.
I want Neelix’s Star Trek cookbook though.
I LOVE vintage cookbooks! And I think they make great gifts! You can find them at antiques stores and on ebay. I have one from the 40s called “The American Woman’s Cookbook.” with great old fashioned recipes and instruction on canning and hosting a party! Plus it came with its former owners hand-jotted recipes and news-clippings inside.
Another vintage cookbook I love is Peggy Bracken’s “I Hate to Cook Book.” Its from the 60’s and is designed for housewife who don’t like to cook with simple recipes and cute illustrations. I love to cook, but I still love that cookbook.
One of my personal favorites is one I inherited from my Grandma when she moved into an assisted living facility: Get It On In The Kitchen (Grapefruit Publishing, Seattle, 1974)
The recipes are suprisingly good, and it has boobies and grapes on the cover. There’s sections like “After hours” and “for the inlaws” and a recipe for Pasties and Celery. Sadly, it seems to be out of print. 🙁
I found this cookbook, I Like Food, Food Tastes Good: In the Kitchen with your Favorite Bands at Goodwill a few years ago. It’s got some fun recipes from bands like My Morning Jacket, Death Cab for Cutie and the Violent Femmes, among others.
Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache by Harry Eastwood is FANTASTIC and will make you rethink everything you know about baking delicious cakes. Most of the recipes (the scones call for spelt flour) are wheat/gluten free as well, which works well for celiac me! The whole philosophy is that ingredients like butter should be saved for the parts of the cake where you can taste it (like a delicious buttercream icing) and replaces the butter etc in the cake itself with vegetables. And it works! The cakes are amazing.
I love Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go. The recipes are great and the pictures are fun to look at. And if you’re not scared off by not being able to read the recipe – there are a lot of other fun bento cookbooks on Amazon.
I love this one for Bento Boxes: 501 Bento Boxes
It has so many cute ideas and pictures! and Appetite for Reduction is great for people trying to eat a bunch but not too many calories!
Soul Veg! It’s a loving tribute to plant based soul food. I love the collard greens redux and the peach salsa. Also, each recipe comes with a song or book recommendation to help get you in the mood for the food.
You’re all probably going to laugh, but if you find a good condition vintage Joy Of Cooking, buy that thing! You’d want anything prior to the 1995 edition. Don’t think it’s offbeat? Name another cookbook that will tell you the proper method of cooking a porcupine. Joy totally has that! I also loooove my Moosewood cookbook for some of their quirky fare. The Zucchini crusted pizza is a staple in my house. Happy browsing and I know your friend will enjoy whatever she receives!
I think it also has a recipe for squirrel pie. But that could be a different old classic.
I didn’t even know such cook books existed!! I’m going to have to get to the book store for a proper browse as opposed to an online browse! I’ve been living too sheltered!!
I don’t know if it’s offbeat, but it’s awesome and sort of science-y. The Flavor Bible is basically an ingredients index – look up an ingredient (chickpeas, for example) and it tells you all the other ingredients that go with it! So very useful, especially if you’re new to cooking.