Brown Sugar KitchenNew-Style, Down-Home Recipes from Sweet West Oakland
Foreword by Michael Chabon, Photographs by Jody Horton
Brown Sugar Kitchen is more than a restaurant. This soul-food outpost is a community gathering spot, a place to fill the belly, and the beating heart of West Oakland, a storied postindustrial neighborhood across the bay from San Francisco.
The restaurant is a friendly beacon on a tree-lined parkway, nestled low and snug next to a scrap-metal yard in this Bay Area rust belt. Out front, customers congregate on long benches and sprawl in the grass, soaking up the sunshine, sipping at steaming mugs of Oakland-roasted coffee, waiting to snag one of the tables they glimpse through the swinging doors. Deals are done, friends are made; this is a community in action. In short order, they’ll get their table, their pecan-studded sticky buns, their meaty hash topped with a quivering poached egg. Later in the day, the line grows, and the orders for chef-owner Tanya Holland’s famous chicken and waffles or oyster po’boy fly. This is when satisfaction arrives.
Brown Sugar Kitchen, the cookbook, stars 86 recipes for re-creating the restaurant’s favorites at home, from a thick Shrimp Gumbo to celebrated Macaroni & Cheese to a show-stopping Caramel Layer Cake with Brown Butter-Caramel Frosting. And these aren’t all stick-to-your-ribs recipes: Tanya’s interpretations of soul food star locally grown, seasonal produce, too, in crisp, creative salads such as Romaine with Spring Vegetables & Cucumber-Buttermilk Dressing and Summer Squash Succotash. Soul-food classics get a modern spin in the case of B-Side BBQ Braised Smoked Tofu with Roasted Eggplant and a side of Roasted Green Beans with Sesame-Seed Dressing. Straight-forward, unfussy but inspired, these are recipes you’ll turn to again and again.
Rich visual storytelling reveals the food and the people that made and make West Oakland what it is today. Brown Sugar Kitchen truly captures the sense-and flavor-of this richly textured and delicious place.
Tanya Holland is the executive chef and owner of Brown Sugar Kitchen and B-Side BBQ in West Oakland, CA.
Jan Newberry is a food writer and former San Francisco Magazine food and wine editor based in Oakland, CA.
Jody Horton is a food photographer based in Austin, TX.
Michael Chabon is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of more than 14 novels, novellas, and essay and short story collections, including The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Telegraph Avenue, and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. He lives in Berkeley, CA.
“Tanya Holland and her Brown Sugar Kitchen represent everything that is great about Oakland: diversity, collegiality, rugged entrepreneurialism, and soulful authenticity. In her restaurant and this cookbook, she has captured something deliciously simple yet extraordinarily powerful: the food that embodies our shared American roots, and its power to bring us together.”- Aisha Tyler, comedienne, actress, and author of Self-Inflicted Wounds
“To be outside the South at the Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland, California eating shrimp n’ grits with a side of cornbread and a glass of lemonade is priceless!” – Taj Mahal
“Tanya’s come-hither cookbook inspired both the armchair traveler and the armchair chowhound in me. Reading it, I imagined the pleasure of living in West Oakland, having a regular seat of my own at Brown Sugar’s counter, and ordering up my favorite dishes without even having to look at the menu. With this book in hand, I know that every choice is a winner.”– Sara Moulton, host of Sara’s Weeknight Meals on public television
“Tanya Holland has made a beautiful commitment to West Oakland, creating a vibrant, joyful restaurant that is a pillar of the local community. With robust, soulful recipes using seasonal and local ingredients, this book is a wonderful reflection of the spirit she has fostered at Brown Sugar Kitchen.” – Alice Waters
ANDOUILLE GOUGÈRES
Gougères are sophisticated cheese puffs and are the appetizer of choice in Burgundy, France, where I went to cooking school. They’re made from a base known as pâté à choux, a very elementary dough and one of the first I learned to make. Don’t be intimidated by the fancy French name. Pâté à choux is easy to master and versatile too. It’s the foundation for many famous pastries including éclairs and cream puffs, and as you see here, it also comes in handy for savory treats. For this Cajun-inspired version, I decided that a crumble of spicy andouille might just put them over the top.
MAKES ABOUT TWO DOZEN GOUGÈRES
1 CUP/240 M L water
½ CUP/115 G unsalted butter
Kosher salt
1 CUP/125 G all-purpose flour
5 eggs
2½ OZ/70 G Gruyère cheese, grated
4 OZ/115 G andouille sausage, chopped
Preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large saucepan, combine the water, butter, and 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. When the butter has melted, add the flour all at once, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon. Reduce the heat to medium, and keep stirring until the mixture has formed a smooth, thick paste and pulls away from the sides of the pan, about 3 minutes. Transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or to a large heatproof bowl.
If using a stand mixer, add 4 eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed until the egg is incorporated and the dough is smooth before adding the next egg. (If mixing by hand, add 4 eggs, one at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon until the egg is incorporated and the dough is smooth before adding the next egg.) The mixture should be very thick, smooth, and shiny. Stir in the Gruyère and andouille. (To make ahead, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 1 day.)
Use a tablespoon to drop the dough into 1-in/2.5-cm rounds about 11/2 in/4 cm apart on the prepared baking sheets. You should have about 2 dozen gougères.
In a small bowl, whisk the remaining egg with a pinch of salt to make an egg wash. Brush the top of each gougère with the egg wash.
Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven to 375°F/190°C, rotate the baking sheets, and continue baking until the gougères are puffed and nicely browned, about 15 minutes more.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
(Baked gougères can be frozen for up to 1 month. Reheat in a 350°F/180°C oven for 8 to 10 minutes.)
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