Amanda Cohen owns Dirt Candy, a vegetarian, or more accurately a vegetable, restaurant in the East Village of New York. We already know that vegetarian food has moved far beyond its 1960's hippie reputation, but you may not know exactly how far unless you've experienced Ms. Cohen's bold, sassy, vegetable-focused food. Her cookbook, which quite fittingly is also a graphic novel, features Ms Cohen as a chef/ninja battling everything from bad contractors to kitchen injuries while trying to find a way to get more corn on her menu.
Dirt Candy is not the kind of cookbook you will grab when you've just arrived home from work at 6:30 and you want dinner on the table at 7:00. The recipes are a little involved (some are very involved) but they are also a lot of fun. Consider Cohen's recipe for onion soup which goes far beyond caramelized onions in a beef broth with the addition of Kumquat-Peppercorn Marmalade and Grilled Cheese Croutons. Her Roasted Squash Salad has Pepita Clusters, Blue Cheese Croutons, a maple balsamic dressing and an amazing sounding bacon made with slices of smoked butternut squash that have been roasted with a touch of sugar until crisp.
Quick Facts
Who wrote it: Amanda Cohen and Ryan Dunlavey with Grady Hendrix
Who published it: Clarkson Potter/Publishers
Recipes and projects for right now: Butternut Squash Soup with Butternut Squash Dumplings; Fennel Salad with Candied Grapefruit and Grilled Cheese Croutons; Roasted Carrot Buns with Carrot and Cucumber Ginger Salad; Mint and Tarragon Fettuccine with Yogurt Saffron Sauce and Zucchini Relish; Zucchini Ginger Cake with Zucchini Cream and Zucchini Candy.
Recommended? Yes, but you may have to have a bit of the kitchen ninja in you to pull it off. Which, of course, is not a bad thing.
Other highlights: Besides recipes, the book is also the chronicle of what it's like to open and run a restaurant. You get a real sense of the long hours, enormous challenges, and, finally, sweet reward of life in a restaurant. Also, there's a fun pickle section, plenty of dinner party-worthy entrees, some amazing desserts including a new way to think about ice cream (broccoli ice cream!).
Who would enjoy this book? Because this isn't a conventional cookbook, I think its audience is a little more narrow than most. I would recommend this book to people who are looking to push their vegetable and vegetarian cooking into new territory, who aren't afraid to spend an afternoon in the kitchen, and who of course love a good graphic novel. That said, even if this doesn't sound like you, you should give this book a look through. Something tells me just you might find something interesting here.
Find the book at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon: Dirt Candy by Amanda Cohen and Ryan Dunlavey with Grady Hendrix (Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2007)
Related: 5 Tips for Vegetarian Menu Planning
Apartment Therapy Media makes every effort to test and review products fairly and transparently. The views expressed in this review are the personal views of the reviewer and this particular product review was not sponsored or paid for in any way by the manufacturer or an agent working on their behalf. However, the manufacturer did give us the product for testing and review purposes.
(Images: Dana Velden )
Dirt Candy - New York, NY - Vegetarian & Vegan Restaurant Facebook Dirt Candy, New York, NY. 3,290 likes 104 talking about this 1,067 were here. Dirt Candy: A Cookbook: Flavor-Forward Food from the Upstart New ... Dirt Candy: A Cookbook: Flavor-Forward Food from the Upstart New York City Vegetarian Restaurant [Amanda Cohen, Ryan Dunlavey, Grady Hendrix] on Amazon.com. *FREE ... Dirt Candy Shop - Dirt Candy Cookbook (signed copy) Dirt Candy Cookbook ... The Dirt Candy cookbook is 224 pages of pure comic book madness: the entire Dirt Candy experience wrapped up between two covers. dirtcandy : HOME (scroll down for new blog posts) What is dirt candy? Vegetables, of course. When you eat a vegetable youre eating little more than dirt thats been transformed ... dirtcandy : HOME Last week I finally made a deal to write a cookbook, something I never thought Id do in my life. My problem has always been that I couldnt think of a reason to ... Dirt Candy: A Cookbook: Flavor-Forward Food from the Upstart New ... Overview. Amanda Cohen does not play by the rules. Her vegetable recipes are sophisticated and daring, beloved by omnivore, vegetarian, and vegan diners alike. Restaurant Review - Dirt Candy in the East Village - NYTimes.com Since opening Dirt Candy in the East Village almost four years ago, the chef Amanda Cohen has been waging war on the eat your vegetables mind-set ... Dirt Candy Cookbook Trailer - YouTube The first comic book cookbook! From Amanda Cohen! Ryan Dunlavey! Grady Hendrix! Telling the thrilling tale of Dirt Candy, the award-winning vegetable ...
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