In 2024, Cook This explored the boundlessness of pasta and the diversity of the food of the Jewish diaspora. It traced one author’s journey from the Republic of the Congo to Quebec, and another’s to the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Ocean islands. Recipes showcased new ways to spin scraps and transform leftovers and offered a window into the world’s largest Syrian refugee camp and a farm in southern Turkey after devastating earthquakes hit.
Of the nearly 150 new recipes I featured from 45 cookbooks, these 12 were the favourites of Cook This newsletter subscribers.
12. Cavatelli with roasted artichokes and preserved lemon
Cavatelli with roasted artichokes and preserved lemon is one of the many recipes in Anything’s Pastable that calls for five ingredients or fewer (not including pasta or staples).
Author Dan Pashman and his team tested the recipe 13 times and used 31 cans of artichokes. The hard work paid off. It’s one of your top recipes of the year and among Pashman’s favourites in the book. Little cooking is involved, except roasting the artichokes, boiling the pasta and frying some garlic. Yet the dish is incredibly flavourful and versatile.
“This can be the kind of thing that you can mostly prep in advance and then finish it and serve hot for a dinner party. It’s also the kind of thing you can put together an hour or two before company arrives, toss to freshen it up and serve at room temperature as a pasta salad,” says Pashman. “It’s the kind of thing you can whip up very quickly and easily and in almost any circumstance and blow people’s minds.”
Get the recipe from Anything’s Pastable, by Dan Pashman.
11. Toasted Selkirk bannock with marmalade syrup
Queen Victoria apparently played a role in popularizing Selkirk bannock beyond the heart of the Scottish Borders. After a visit to Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford House, where it was among the sweets at afternoon tea, she requested her royal chefs recreate Selkirk bannock when she returned to Buckingham Palace in London.
Coinneach MacLeod (a.k.a. the Hebridean Baker) puts his spin on the treat by toasting the bannock until golden brown and topping it with marmalade syrup and an optional dollop of mascarpone. “Move over, French toast,” he says. “We have a Scottish rival to your crown.”
Get the recipe from The Hebridean Baker: At Home, by Coinneach MacLeod.
10. Fern cake
Frangipane-filled fern cake is another classic bake from The Hebridean Baker: At Home. The Scottish version of an English Bakewell tart is topped with fondant and decorated with a delicate fern shape. Author Coinneach MacLeod was confident it would resonate with Canadians of Scottish heritage, which it certainly seems to have.
The cake is pure nostalgia, he says. “If you were growing up or if your mom or granny was baking in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, every bakery in Scotland, every bakery window, would have had a fern cake.”
Get the recipe from The Hebridean Baker: At Home, by Coinneach MacLeod.
9. Taiwanese savoury egg crepe
This Taiwanese savoury egg crepe is one of Vancouver-based food blogger and content creator Tiffy Chen’s all-time favourite breakfasts.
“It is so simple. It’s really delicious. It reminds me of a softer, green onion pancake wrapped in egg. And you can customize it with any ingredients you have in the fridge.”
Chen fills it with ham and cheese — and sometimes corn for crunch and sweetness. “I’m very excited for when people try out the cookbook, what kind of fillings they put inside.”
Get the recipe from Tiffy Cooks, by Tiffy Chen.
8. Creamed lobster dip
Lobster is the star of this creamy dip. The ingredient is close to Dennis Prescott’s heart — and tattooed on his forearm. The Atlantic specialty appears in the Moncton-based chef, TV host and cookbook author’s second book, Cook with Confidence, in many ways, including the “ultimate” lobster roll and grilled and slathered in compound butter. Here, Prescott highlights the tender meat in a crowd-pleasing party dip.
“Everyone loves dips! Dips are unbelievable. But often, it was served cold. And you certainly can do that. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I love a warm dip. It’s great whether you’re having a dinner party or if you’re a sports fan and you have game night with friends over — it works across the board.”
Get the recipe from Cook with Confidence by Dennis Prescott.
7. Turnip gratin
New Orleans-based chef Melissa Martin was inspired by the Acadians in creating her turnip gratin. Originally from western France, Acadian exiles migrated to Louisiana from the present-day Maritime provinces. (Cajuns are their descendants.) Martin’s mother made potato gratin when she was growing up in the fishing community of Chauvin, but this version is a comforting way to use another long-lasting root vegetable.
“(I always think about) people in Acadia cooking with these big earthenware pieces. And how they ate these specific things that would last through a winter that we know nothing about here in South Louisiana,” says Martin. “You need it to be cold to be able to enjoy something so rich. I really love that recipe.”
Get the recipe from Bayou, by Melissa Martin.
6. Brown stew chicken
Writer and documentary maker Riaz Phillips’s brown stew chicken is one of his favourite-tasting recipes in his third cookbook, East Winds. “It’s so easy to make as well. And everyone can get their hands on chicken.”
Growing up in London with roots throughout the Caribbean, Phillips didn’t give the dish much thought. But as an adult, he developed a deep appreciation for it. “Brown stew chicken is not one of the dishes that gets the same hype or plaud as jerk chicken, barbecue chicken or curry chicken. Stew chicken is the unsung hero.”
Get the recipe from East Winds, by Riaz Phillips.
5. Busted sausage on toast with beans
Jamie Oliver’s busted sausage on toast with beans is a 13-minute wonder for any time and any day. “I always like that when you’ve got a dish that’s not trying to show off,” says Oliver. “(It) hasn’t got an ego problem. Like, is it a breakfast? Is it a brunch? Is it a lunch? Is it a dinner? Is it a midnight munchie?”
Oliver worked in Japan for three years and draws on one of the techniques he learned there in this recipe. Dry-grilling mushrooms gives them a “nutty freshness” that steaming, boiling, frying or roasting doesn’t. And then there’s the sausage (meat or veggie).
“A perfect sausage actually requires a bit of time, and if you rush it too much, it bursts. I busted open the sausage and made it become part of the slice of bread, so there was no difference between the bread and the sausage.”
Get the recipe from Simply Jamie, by Jamie Oliver.
4. Lump crab, spinach and artichoke dip
Melissa Martin’s lump crab, spinach and artichoke dip — her second recipe to make the top 12 recipes list — is a special dish perfect for the holiday season. If you don’t have crabmeat, leave it out, she says. It’ll be just as celebratory.
“That’s a quick, quick, quick recipe. If you have all the ingredients ready to go, you can put it together in a couple of minutes. Because spinach just melts, and you’re not steaming artichokes or anything.”
Get the recipe from Bayou, by Melissa Martin.
3. Welsh cakes
Welsh cakes were a fixture of Camilla Wynne’s Edmonton childhood. “They freeze well. They keep well. They’re rich, and they’re delicious, but they’re also kind of reserved. I feel like you would feel OK eating them for breakfast. You’d be like, ‘They’re just little pancakes,’” says Wynne, laughing.
Her granny always had a tin in the freezer, and it took Wynne a long time to duplicate her recipe. “I was so overjoyed when I finally got it.”
Wynne thinks the key lies in the spice, which she uses in the dough itself and in a sugar-nutmeg mixture used to coat the cakes after cooking. Plus, there’s the fun of the cooking method. “There aren’t a lot of pastries that we cook on a griddle anymore. So, it’s time to bring that back.”
Get the recipe from Nature’s Candy, by Camilla Wynne.
2. Ten cloves garlic lemon chicken
In chef Theo Michaels’s ten cloves garlic lemon chicken (kotopoulo lemonato me skordo), a handful of fresh ingredients and pantry items make for a hearty family meal that won’t break the bank.
“Greek food, Cypriot food, it’s frugal stuff,” says Michaels. “It’s about humble ingredients cooked well to create something that belies how cheap it was. And I think the chicken dish is a bit like that.”
Ten cloves may seem like a lot of garlic, but Michaels asks for our trust. “It slowly melts away and just becomes another thread woven into the tapestry of flavours in the dish.”
Get the recipe from Cypriana, by Theo Michaels.
1. Calcutta-style kathi rolls
Calcutta-style kathi rolls are one of Toronto-based writer Puneeta Chhitwal-Varma‘s favourite recipes in her cookbook debut, Good Food, Healthy Planet. As the year’s top recipe, they’re your favourite, too.
“You can DIY it with what you have, what you love to eat, and what your kids love to eat. Mix and match it, roll it up, add your egg, and it’s a high-protein, totally affordable, totally delicious meal. You can make it completely from scratch, as I have in the book. And you can also swap it out with various ingredients that are not from scratch.”
Use tofu or paneer and Chhitwal-Varma’s homemade two-ingredient chapatti (whole-grain flatbread) or store-bought tortilla. If you wrap it all up with her pink and sparkly quick-pickled onion, you’ll be glad you did. The low-waste recipe works with any crunchy vegetable, such as beets, cabbage and carrots, and is a great way to use up any odds and ends in your crisper. “The flavour just pops.”
Get the recipe from Good Food, Healthy Planet, by Puneeta Chhitwal-Varma.
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