BOOKSHELF
Cooking With Scraps: Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, and Stems Into Delicious Meals
by Lindsay-Jean Hard (Workman Publishing, 2018)
If you’re looking for an inventive, clean-out-the-crisper-style cookbook, this one is a gem. Glorifying and beautifying precious peels, forgotten stems, carrot tops, peanut shells and even apple cores, Lindsay-Jean Hard demonstrates versatility and the conscious consumption of food. Her recipes are both intriguing and playful. How about Banana Peel Banana Bread or a batch of Pumpkin Guts Butterscotch Scones?
An urban planner from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Hard credits her years living in Japan and experimenting with unknown vegetables as the inspiration for her book. The describes expressing regret about wastefulness. Certainly, the 85 recipes leave no scrap unturned, from Parmesan rinds to corn husks toasted in the oven (to infuse them with bourbon). Who has ever considered roasting watermelon seeds? Or the merits of cauliflower leaves? And celery leaves—they’re only great for stirring a Caesar, right?
