Hello! My Name Is Tasty: Global Diner Favorites from Portland's Tasty Restaurants by John Gorham and Liz Crain is absolutely brilliant. When I look through this book, the thought bubble above my head shows me frolicking (I haven't frolicked in years) through a field of wild flowers counting the ways I love it. Gorgeous photographs, the best straight up must make and eat food ever, spectacular content including historical tidbits and so much more. These folks rocked this book.

Gorham's first cookbook, Toro Bravo, shared the recipes from his tapas style restaurant of the same name. The recipes from the wildly successful Tasty n Sons (the chef and his partner in the restaurant have no sons - this name was an homage to old Brooklyn where so many family businesses were named & Sons) and Tasty n Adler restaurants in Portland were the impetus for this book. The chef states in the introduction that he was on a ten day road trip from D.C. to Savannah (while writing this book) to gather inspiration for both the book and his menus and also to revisit his past. The recipes in Hello! My Name is Tasty reflect the South, the world and all its cuisine, and the chef's own brillance. Yes, again - I use a derivative of the word brilliant. John, if you need my address for a box of those chicken biscuits - call me. 

The authors start the book with Tasty A to Z's - with tips that stress using the best, high quality ingredients you can procure for instance Valrhona chocolate, pure maple syrup. Housemade Tasty bacon, homemade cottage cheese with pineapple jam, kimchi, mustards - all are included. There is a lovely photographic spread of how to make a proper food board - Southern board, breakfast board, smoked trout, pickle board - along with all the recipes for those type of components.

Korean fried chicken, Burmese red pork stew, a Molten butterscotch cake that I would slap your mama for (mine is no longer with us), Toro Bravo milkshake and every other recipe in this book begs to be made and enjoyed. The recipes are pure comfort, high octane deliciousness and totally approachable.

Special thanks to the publisher, Sasquatch, and the authors for sharing the recipe for Lemon ricotta pancakes with our members today. The publisher is also offering three copies of this tasty title in our contest below.

Lemon ricotta pancakes with blackberry jam

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MAKES 4 ½ CUPS OF BATTER, FOR ABOUT 18 SMALL PANCAKES

  • 1 1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour

  • 1⁄2 cup almond flour

  • 1⁄4 cup plus 8 teaspoons sugar, divided

  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 3⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt

  • 1 cup Ricotta (recipe follows) or store-bought
  • 1 1⁄2 cups whole milk
  • 2 egg yolks

  • Zest from 1 ½ lemons

  • 4 egg whites

  • 2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 ¼ cups warm Blackberry Jam (recipe follows), for serving

Maple syrup, for serving

Sift the flours, 1⁄4 cup of the sugar, baking powder, and kosher salt one at a time into a large bowl, making sure there are no lumps. Give it a quick whisk to make sure everything is evenly distributed and set aside.

In a medium bowl, fold the ricotta and 4 teaspoons of the sugar together, making sure not to break up the ricotta too much. You want to have some bigger chunks in the pancakes eventually. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the milk, egg yolks, and lemon zest until fully incorporated and set aside. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites with the remaining 4 teaspoons sugar on medium-low speed until they form medium-stiff peaks. Keep an eye on this because you can overmix it.

Gently fold the dry ingredients into the milk mixture until combined. Add the ricotta mixture and fold gently (you want some nice big chunks). Finally, fold in the egg whites until just incorporated.

NOTE:  Do not overmix this batter and activate the gluten. The key to a good pancake is not letting the gluten get tight- you want the pancakes fluffy.

Preheat a griddle to 350 degrees F, or place a large, well-seasoned cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter until slightly browned, adding more as needed between batches.

Measure 1⁄4 cup of the batter per pancake and pour onto the griddle to make sand dollar-sized pancakes. As the pancakes begin to bubble and set on the bottom, flip them. If you're not sure whether they're ready to flip, get under them slightly with your spatula and take a little peek: you want them to fluff up and have a nice golden-brown color. Never push down on the pancakes.

Top each pancake with 2 tablespoons warmed blackberry jam and serve with maple syrup at the table.

Ricotta

MAKES 1 CUPS

Cheesecloth, for straining


  • 1 quart whey (if you don't have whey you can substitute skim milk)
  • 3⁄4 cup whole milk
  • 4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon heavy cream
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper


Line a fine-mesh sieve with the four to six overlapping layers of cheesecloth and place it over a large pot that will catch the eventual ricotta whey as it strains.
In a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan over medium heat, warm up the whey and milk until the mixture is 198 degrees F and then remove it from the heat.

Add the apple cider vinegar to the milk and slowly stir it to incorporate and then let the curds form, unattended and at room temperature for about 5 minutes.
Strain the curds through the cheesecloth-lined sieve over the large pot for 2 to 3 hours at room temperature.

Open up the cheesecloth and transfer the curds into a medium bowl. Reserve the whey, and use it for our sugo (see page 35, along with the storage note below) if you want. Add the cream and stir lightly making sure not to break up the ricotta too much. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve, or refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Blackberry jam

MAKES ABOUT 1 QUART

  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

  • 1 Madagascar vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped
  • 2 ½ pounds fresh blackberries
  • 1 ½ cups sugar

  • About ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • Juice of about 1 lemon

In a medium nonreactive pot over medium heat, melt the butter and add the vanilla bean pod and seed. The vanilla will lend a little color to the butter, but you don't want the butter to actually brown from the heat. Cook for about 2 minutes, or until the vanilla bean blooms (you'll smell it).

Add the berries and sugar to the pot and stir. Once they begin to bubble, reduce the heat to medium low. Take your time and simmer gently for 45 to 90 minutes, depending on the water content of the berries. Blackberries contain more water than raspberries, strawberries have more than both, and frozen berries have generally double the water content of their fresh counterpart. You never want the jam to get above a simmer because a boil will start caramelizing the sugars, which changes the flavor.

To test for doneness, smear 1 1⁄2 teaspoons of the jam across a room-temperature plate. Tilt the plate: if the jam runs down the plate, continue to simmer and thicken; if it sticks in place, the jam is done and should be removed from the heat. (Once it cools, the jam will thicken even more.)

Taste the jam. Discard the vanilla bean pod or use it in our Tasty Vanilla Extract (page 98). Stir in additional sugar, salt, and lemon juice incrementally to taste. The more sugar you add to this jam, the more sharp the flavor will be. Adding the smallest amount of salt to it will counteract that sharpness and bring back the rounder, warmer, more berry-forward flavor. The lemon juice gives it a brightness that tends to enhance everything. Some berries have a good amount of natural acidity, such as the raspberry; if making this recipe with raspberries, the lemon juice will most likely be unnecessary.

Use the jam liberally for a couple days, warming it to serve, and freeze the remaining jam in airtight containers or ziplock bags. Always keep in mind that frozen foods expand slightly, so leave a little headspace to allow for that.

*(c)2017 by John Gorham and Liz Crain. All rights reserved. Excerpted from Hello! My Name is Tasty by permission of Sasquatch Books.

 

The publisher is offering three copies of this book to EYB Members in the US. One of the entry options is to answer the following question in the comments section of this blog post.

Which recipe in the index would you try first?

Please note that you must be logged into the Rafflecopter contest before posting or your entry won't be counted. Please be sure to check your spam filters to make sure you receive our email notifications. Prizes can take up to 6 weeks to arrive from the publishers. If you are not already a Member, you can join at no cost. The contest ends at midnight on October 24th, 2017.