Curry & Kimchi: Flavor Secrets for Creating 70 Asian-Inspired Recipes at Home

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

From Unmi Abkin and Roger Taylor, owners of the popular western Massachusetts restaurant Coco and The Cellar Bar, come the secrets to creating bold, balanced dishes built on the foundational flavours of Asian cooking in the home kitchen. In their western Massachusetts-based restaurant Coco and The Cellar Bar, chefs Unmi Abkin and Roger Taylor create well-balanced, boldly flavoured signature dishes shaped by Abkin's Korean and Mexican-American upbringing. In Curry & Kimchi, they open their kitchen secrets up to the home cook, sharing their foundational dressings, salsas, broths and infused oils and the dishes that feature them, through recipes that are delightfully simple to execute and beautifully complex in flavour. Honey Miso Dressing lends full-bodied taste to Honey Miso Noodle Salad, while Shoyu Ramen Broth (made in an Instant Pot) is the key ingredient in Coco Shoyu Ramen. AUTHORS: Unmi Abkin's early relationship with food centered around longing. As an orphaned child in South Korea, she experienced hunger on a daily basis. Eventually adopted by a Jewish-American father and a Mexican mother, Abkin was steeped in diverse food traditions. Roger Taylor's life as a cook began with a childhood spent in professional kitchens and working in restaurants from the age of 15. His years in the food industry have honed his ability to create efficiency in the kitchen while still producing spectacular meals. SELLING POINTS: . Recipes combining East-West influences from an award-winning restaurant led by a three-time James Beard semifinalist for best chef in the Northeast. Unmi Abkin and Roger Taylor, owners of the Easthampton, Massachusetts-based restaurant Coco and The Cellar Bar, which hosts more than 30,000 visitors a year, are also well respected in the San Francisco restaurant world where they previously worked at Chez Panisse and other popular restaurants. . Unmi Abkin creates a global menu inspired by her own food heritage. Born to Korean parents and raised by a Mexican-American family, Abkin's dishes range from Bibimbop and Korean Sloppy Joes to Green Thai Curry, Hoisin-Glazed Baby Back Ribs, and Honey Miso Noodle Salad. . Clean, balanced sauces and other key flavor components made accessible for home cooks. Abkin has dedicated herself to perfecting the flavours that are the building blocks for all her recipes, and she provides precise, easy directions for creating these staples in the home kitchen.

Reviews

"Curry Kimchi has an effortless way of exploring the diversity of flavors throughout Asia, and the world. These dishes are thoughtfully balanced, beautifully prepared, and full of vibrant seasonal ingredients -- and most of all, I love the way cooking is a joyful and creative process in Unmi's hands." -- Alice Waters, Chez Panisse

"This innovative cookbook delivers bold yet balanced flavors, opening up a world of exciting flavors to cooks at any level. I'm thrilled to bring the recipes of these very thoughtful chefs into my kitchen." -- Virginia Willis, James Beard Foundation Award-winning cookbook author and chef

"When I read Unmi's story, it made me want to run into the kitchen and cook from this book. I fell in love not only with her warmth but also her sincere relationship to food. She may have just made an Asian cook out of me!" -- Joanne Weir, James Beard Foundation Award-winning cookbook author, chef, and host of Weir Cooking on PBS

"Chef Unmi Abkin has created a name for herself with a series of fusion-flavored restaurants in the Pioneer Valley of New England. In this debut cookbook, Abkin and Taylor (her partner and co-owner) take us on a swift, highly focused tour of Abkin's idiosyncratic culinary landscape. Where else will you find Instant Pot pork carnitas tacos rubbing shoulders with General Tso's tofu, or Korean bolognese with gochujang and miso paste Sharply curated and intensely sauced, Abkin's creations are both manageable enough for the weeknight routine and eccentric enough to disrupt it." -- NPR's Favorite Books of 2019

"James Beard Award semifinalist Abkin brings her unique perspective to this collection of 70 recipes inspired by her Korean, Mexican-American, and Jewish heritage and her experience preparing Asian inspired cuisine." -- Booklist

Author Bio

Unmi Abkin and Roger Taylor are the co-owners and chefs at the popular Easthampton, Massachusettsbased restaurant Coco & The Cellar Bar, which hosts over 30,000 visitors a year. With 40 years of kitchen experience between them, theyve mastered freshness and clarity of flavor in their simple global recipes. Unmi Abkin, a semifinalist for the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Northeast in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, was born in Korea and raised in northern California by her Mexican-American family. She attended the California Culinary Academy and worked in Chez Panisse and Boulevard before opening Coco. Roger Taylor is a graduate of the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.