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It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but it’s for good reason, I swear! I am (drum roll please) writing a new cookbook! It’s another electric pressure cooker cookbook, but with more fun, interesting recipes for those ready to take the next step in their pressure cooker relationship. It’ll have lots of fun flavors and dishes and will incorporate the pressure cooker as part of your functioning, 21st century kitchen.

So in the meanwhile I’ll try to put up a blog post or two, but you’ll be hearing much more from me after the summer. It’s summer anyway, you should be sitting by a pool and reading a thriller-romance, not reading my dumb blog.

Keep an eye out for the cookbook via St. Martin’s Press, due out next spring!

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Cookbook Update

In case you missed it, I wrote a cookbook. It was released in April, and has been chugging along quite well. Things really picked up last week when Amazon Prime Day rolled around and they ran an impossible-to-resist deal on the Instant Pot. I guess lots of people buying their new cooker needed a cookbook to go with it, because my book rocketed to the #2 position in all of Amazon books! Pretty amazing and totally weird. Only the new Harry Potter book could best my ‘lil cookbook.

Anyway, if you’re a pressure cooker lover like me or are just getting into it/thinking about getting into it, then try out my book. It’s under $10 with over 100 recipes and it’s getting pretty good reviews. And just to further tempt you, below is a sample recipe from the book. Enjoy!

Eggs in Purgatory With Eggplant
from The Instant Pot© Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook: Easy Recipes for Fast & Healthy Meals
Serves 2 to 4

1 small eggplant, mostly peeled, cut into 1/2″ pieces
1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, with most of the liquid drained out
1 tablespoon harissa or 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
freshly ground black pepper
4 to 6 fresh eggs
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
4 to 6 thick slices good-quality rustic bread, for serving
hot sauce, for serving (optional)

1. Toss the eggplant with the salt and spread out onto a paper towel-lined baking sheet. Let sit 15 to 30 minutes. Take more paper towels and press out any moisture, wiping away some of the salt as you go.
2. Preheat the Instant Pot by selection Saute.
3. Once hot, add the oil. Add the eggplant and cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot, for 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute.
4. Add the tomatoes, harissa or paprika, and red pepper flakes, and season with black pepper. Stir. Select Cancel and secure the lid.
5. Select Manual and cook at high pressure for 10 minutes.
6. Use a quick release. Remove the lid, stir, and select Saute. Crack the eggs, one at a time, into a small bowl, and lower each one onto the top of the bubbling sauce.
7. Cook, loosely covered, until the egg whites are set but the yolks are still runny, 4 to 6 minutes.
8. Top with parsley and serve with bread and hot sauce (if using).

It’s Cookbook Time!

The time has come! I wrote a cookbook late last year and today it hits shelves. Digital shelves, anyway—you can find The Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook: Easy Recipes for Fast & Healthy Meals on Amazon right now in paperback and Kindle form. If you have an electric pressure cooker or are thinking of getting one, why not grab one? It’s got over 100 easy-to-follow original recipes. It makes a great gift, too. 🙂

The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook

I’ve been extremely distracted by pawpaws lately. See, I’ve never eaten a pawpaw, and the indigenous American fruit keeps popping up in my life—sadly, not in the flesh.

I recently interviewed the author of Pawpaw: In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit, who shed light on the origins and current state of the often-ignored pawpaw. And now the illustrious editor of Paste Magazine and accomplished writer Sara Bir has published The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook.

I was so delighted to receive this little book in the mail, and it has only made my longing for pawpaws stronger. In it, Sara provides tips for finding, prepping and cooking pawpaws, and offers up twelve quality recipes ranging from cake to sorbet to hot sauce.

If you have any interest in pawpaws or want to learn more about them, order her little book here. It has a lovely hand-printed cover and is self-published, so that’s awesome. I think I’ll be ordering some frozen pawpaw pulp to be delivered to my home in pawpaw-free SoCal so that I can test a few of these recipes stat.

What to Bake and How to Bake It

I recently added a new cookbook to my small collection: What to Bake and How to Bake It by Jane Hornby. I saw it one day in a bookstore and was enamored by its illustrations (by Kerry Lemon) and the way the recipes are presented. Each recipe is broken into steps, with each step photographed from above. The effect is quite striking and zen-like.

I haven’t tried any of the recipes yet, but am fully on board with the book simply based on the design. It’s already brought me enough joy and entertainment to be worth the price. Hornby already has two other cookbooks focused on the savory side but in the same style, published by Phaidon. Phaidon never ceases to publish loads of beautiful art books and cookbooks that I want to buy buy buy.