Issue #100: 🎉 💯 🥂 🎉 🍾

🎉 💯 🥂 🎉 🍾

It’s my 100^th issue! An important milestone. Can’t believe I haven’t missed a single week since I started publishing Kitchen Sense on May 27, 2021. And to celebrate this centuplicate edition, I have a few special things for you, dear reader.

Special Promotion: A Discount and A Free Book

First, I am offering a special promotion for new paid subscribers and anyone who switches to a paid annual subscription from a free or monthly subscription. In addition to a reduced rate of $45 for the year (the regular annual subscription rate is $50), the first 50 people to commit to and pay for a full year by June 30 will also receive a free, signed copy of my cookbook: Kitchen Sense: More than 600 Recipes to Make You a Great Home Cook. Third in a series of five cookbooks I wrote or co-wrote in the 1990s and 2000s, Kitchen Sense was a culmination of my no-nonsense approach to cooking, one that would solidify my belief that you don’t have to be a gifted chef and you don’t have to dumb down anything to make delicious food.

To receive your free book, once you subscribe or upgrade your subscription, you’ll receive a confirmation email that will have a link in it to a registration form. That form asks you to provide your mailing address so I can send you a signed copy of the cookbook. (If you don’t see the email, check your spam folder.) If you do not take this extra step to register, I’m afraid you won’t receive the book. I can’t send it to an email address. Shipping in the continental U.S. is free. If you live in Canada or other parts of the world and are interested in receiving the free book, you’ll just have to pay the additional shipping charge via PayPal or some other international payment platform. All of this is explained on the registration form.

If you are currently a paid annual subscriber and you’d like to receive a free, signed copy of Kitchen Sense (while supplies last), you’ll just have to cover the cost of shipping. This will be outlined in a separate communication to existing paid annual subscribers.

What’s more, for the time being, I’m making my city dining guides to Paris, London and Tel Aviv, which are usually only available to paid subscribers, open to everyone during this promotion period, through June 30. I recently got back from Paris and am sending this missive from Tel Aviv, so there will be updates to these guides coming shortly after this promotion window closes. This will give you a chance to see what, in addition to the one-time cookbook offer, regular paid subscribers receive. What’s more, guides to New York City and Milan are in the works. And as always, paid subscribers get to ask specific cooking and dining questions of me, request recipes, and share stories of their experiences cooking and eating around the world. (Paid subscribers are invited to use the chat function on their Substack app to communicate with me and with each other.)

The second different thing this week is that I thought in honor of Issue #100, I would look back over the last almost two years to see which posts were most popular. Of course, my subscriber base grows slowly but steadily from week to week, so the number of total views may not necessarily reflect the proportionate popularity of any post at the time it was published. Nevertheless, here is a list of the ten most viewed posts since I started writing Kitchen Sense (with links).

10. Issue #80: Latke Time of Year (12/14/22)

Using my mother’s one-onion-for-two-potatoes ratio for potato latkes I scaled culinary heights, winning the Amateur Category and People’s Choice award at the James Beard Foundation’s First Annual Latke Cook-Off back in 1995. The latke recipe included in Issue #80 has appeared in many other places, as well, including the James Beard Foundation website, where it remains one of the most popular recipes of the lot. While sharing food memories around a table with staff at Asif, where I’m working this week in Tel Aviv, I learned that some Israeli mothers make latkes all year long, not just at Hannukah. What are you waiting for?

9.  Issue #95: The Cookie Monster in All of Us (3/29/23)

A relatively recent addition to our cookie repertoire, the chocolaty, fudgy cookies that are featured in Issue #95 come from a recipe contributed to Food & Wine by former Editor-in-Chief Dana Cowin. Although my preferences tend toward crispy cookies, these are are a soft and chewy cookie you can really sink your teeth into. (Ask Nate, who has a problem stopping himself at just one or ten.) What’s more, because you have to freeze the batter before baking, you can keep it frozen and bake cookies off fresh when you want them.

8. Issue #59: Grill Time, Salad Days (7/13/22)

Our summers are full of Thai-ish/Vietnamese-ish grilled meat salads, the likes of which were featured in Issue #59. Lots of greens and herbs mixed with vegetables and sometimes fruit (see #5, below), a tangy fish-sauce dressing packed with umami, and thinly sliced grilled meats make for perfect lunch or light dinner. Don’t skimp on the onions.

7. Issue #67: Rough Puff (9/7/22)

A cheater’s puff pastry re-popularized on the Great British Bake Off (on which contestants rarely have the time to laminate traditional pâte feuilletée) was the focus of Issue #67. Worth the effort to make flaky, buttery crusts for sweet or savory treats. Plus, a photos to show how to use it to make a beautiful starburst galette (see photo, above).

6. Issue #84: Perfect Basmati Rice (1/10/23)

I received a couple of notes from people who followed my technique in Issue #84 to make perfect rice for the first time in their lives (their words, not mine). Nothing makes me happier to hear. Included in this issue are recipes for herbed and bejeweled basmati rice dishes.

5. Issue #61: Savory Fruit Salad Season (7/27/22)

Summer is coming. Don’t relegate ripe, local fruit to the sweet side of things. After all, a tomato is technically a fruit, right? I love summer fruit—such as peaches, watermelon, cherries, you name it—in savory salads. They brighten up any meal. Issue #61 included recipes for some of my favorite salad combinations, including Watermelon and Feta, Cherries and Jalapeño, and Peach Caprese.

4. Issue #57: Pining for Paneer (6/29/22)

Clearly a favorite Indian dish of many people, my husband Nate included, saag paneer is usually thought of as being made with spinach but it can, in fact, be made with any greens. (I particularly like beet and turnip tops.) Since I provided this recipe in Issue #57, I’ve started making my own paneer, which takes the dish to another level. The flavor and texture of homemade paneer, both more delicate, are better than anything I’ve been able to buy, and I live around the corner from an Indian neighborhood, so I have access to many commercially made paneers. But there’s no need to go to that extreme to make saag paneer for a satisfying weeknight meal. Buy some. Serve it with perfect basmati rice (see #6, above).

3. Issue #60: Reflections on Restaurants and Pork (7/20/22)

London called last summer. I was there twice. And on both trips one of the things that stood out was the quality of the pork served in restaurants. In addition to some thoughts on the state of restaurant awards, Issue #60 included my recipe/technique for brining and grilling pork chops. Find a quality producer near you who pasture raises heritage breeds of pigs and you will not be disappointed.

2. Issue #69: Skillet Corn Pudding (9/21/22)

A cross between cornbread, a casserole, and a quiche, this skillet corn pudding in Issue #69 proved to be a very popular recipe. I should have known it would be because I myself end up making it several times a summer. It’s a great vehicle to use up a variety of vegetables, in addition to corn. While you can make it year-round with frozen kernels, it’s best with sweet, fresh, late-summer corn just shucked from the cob.

1. Issue #71: Fall Reading List with Recipes (10/5/22)

Clearly my readers are a bookish lot, as the recommended readings in Issue #71 made it the most popular by far. Or perhaps it was the recipe for Anita Jaisinghani’s beet soup (pictured), republished from her just James Beard Foundation nominated Pondicheri cookbook, that did the trick. It’s a magically delicious soup, the definition of synergy with few ingredients that amount to so much more together than they do apart. Based on the popularity of this issue, I’ll do another round-up of favorite books in the coming months.

I’d like to make a special shout out of thanks to my volunteer second set of eyes, Carol Dacey Charles, who helps me proofread my newsletters. (Though, I should note that she didn’t lay her eyes on this week’s edition, so any mistakes you find are wholly my own.)

One More Thing: Listen Up!

To continue the theme of 100, my guest this week on the What’s Burning podcast, chef and Indigenous food-systems advocate Sean Sherman, was just named to Time magazine’s “List of 100 Most Influential People of 2023.” Have a listen to this fascinating conversation about what we stand to gain when we listen to those people who were here on this land long before us.