The New England KitchenFresh Takes on Seasonal Recipes
More than one hundred delectable recipes highlight the area’s celebrated farms and fisheries to incorporate distinct flavors throughout the year. For fall and winter, there are hearty dishes such as Maple-Brined Pork Rack with Apple and Leeks and Creamy Oyster Stew with Fennel. Dayboat Cod with Green Garlic Puree perfectly captures springtime, while summer brings the arrival of Sweet Corn, Bacon, and Crab Chowder and Hand-Dug Steamers with Bay Leaf and Thyme.
Award-winning Boston chef Jeremy Sewall presents contemporary versions of New England classics that capture the flavors of this time-honored cuisine. In this first cookbook to explore contemporary New England fare, Jeremy Sewall adapts the region’s fresh, simple flavors into refined dishes for the home cook. More than one hundred delectable recipes highlight the area’s celebrated farms and fisheries to incorporate distinct flavors throughout the year. For fall and winter, there are hearty dishes such as Maple-Brined Pork Rack with Apple and Leeks and Creamy Oyster Stew with Fennel. Dayboat Cod with Green Garlic Puree perfectly captures springtime, while summer brings the arrival of Sweet Corn, Bacon, and Crab Chowder and Hand-Dug Steamers with Bay Leaf and Thyme. Artful photographs illustrate thoughtful presentations for serving this satisfying food. There is a prep section demonstrating how to cook and eat a lobster, shuck oysters, and cure bacon. The book also includes profiles of a New England farmer, fishermen, and an artisanal beer brewer to capture the new revolutionary spirit.
The acclaimed Boston chef Jeremy Sewall’s restaurants Lineage, Eastern Standard, Island Creek Oyster Bar, and Row 34 have received national praise in the New York Times and Bon Appetit. Erin Byers Murray is a journalist specializing in food and wine and is the author of Shucked: Life on a New England Oyster Farm. Chef, author, and National Geographic Fellow Barton Seaver (author of For Cod and Country and Where There’s Smoke) is a sustainable food expert. Food photographer Michael Harlan Turkell’s work has appeared in numerous cookbooks.
Jeremy Sewall and Erin Byers Murray have come out with a comprehensive look at the wonderful cooking of New England. It is an intriguing collection of traditional and modern dishes. Boston based chef Jeremy Sewall recently talked to us about The New England Kitchen.
Booksaboutfood.com:Is there a way to describe or define New England cooking?
Jeremy Sewall: New England is very seasonal – I think the food has evolved in that we are still using great local ingredients. We really have to work for our food during winter and spring.
Booksaboutfood.com: Was there anything about New England and it’s food that you discovered during the writing that surprised you?
Jeremy Sewall: I learned that the Jerusalem artichoke, also known as sunchokes, originated in Cape Cod. It’s something we use all the time in the restaurants, but I hadn’t previously been aware that they were a truly local item – I was introduced to them originally while working in California.
Booksaboutfood.com: This is a wonderful comprehensive collection of recipes. Was it hard to narrow down the selections?
Jeremy Sewall: It was tough – New England offers such a great variety of options of things to use, so we really had to figure out the balance for each season of dishes we wanted to include.
Booksaboutfood.com: Was there a lot of traveling involved?
Jeremy Sewall: We went to Maine, RI, all over MA – when profiling the different growers and producers we traveled to them so the book would hold a real sense of where the product was coming from.
Booksaboutfood.com: Much of this food seems rooted in history. Does it lend it’s self well to being updated or ‘modernized’?
Jeremy Sewall: New England has iconic food that is identified with the region – but how we farm, fish, and cook has just evolved. As new fish and new farmers become available its given Chefs a larger palette to work with.
Booksaboutfood.com: What misconceptions do people have about New England cooking?
Jeremy Sewall: If people have misconceptions about the food in New England, I think maybe it’s because they’ve never eaten here. All food started in New England as a necessity – when it started gaining an identity outside of NE it was because we cooked what we had: clams, lobster, cod were just staples and abundant in New England. Some of those things are still abundant, but how we cook them is different than it was years ago. Almost all cooking is steeped in tradition, but has changed along the way – New England is no exception.
Booksaboutfood.com: What’s next?
Jeremy Sewall: Keeping busy with the restaurants – we are opening a Row 34 in Portsmouth, NH this summer. My time will be spent in the kitchens just continuing to work hard at putting out great food.
Mushroom Ragout
Cherry Cobbler
Mushroom Ragout
Cherry Cobbler
© THE NEW ENGLAND KITCHEN: Fresh Takes on Seasonal Recipes by Jeremy Sewall, Rizzoli New York, 2014. Images are © Michael Harlan Turkell and may not be reproduced in any way, published, or transmitted digitally, without written permission from the publisher. For information please contact Nicki Clendening at (646) 330-4878 or nclendening@rizzoliusa.com.
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