Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for Your Forever Files: A Cookbook

by Deb Perelman

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A BON APPETIT and EPICURIOUS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • The long-awaited new book from the best-selling and beloved author of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook and Smitten Kitchen Every Day—a collection of essential recipes for meals you'll want to prepare again and again, from Cozy Chicken and Dumplings to Fettuccine with White Ragú, and from Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies to Strawberry Summer Stack Cake.

Deb Perelman is the author of two best-selling cookbooks; one of the internet's most successful food bloggers; the creator of a homegrown brand with more than a million Instagram followers; and the self-taught cook with the tiny kitchen who obsessively tests her recipes to make sure that no bowls are wasted and that the results are always worth the effort.

Here, in her third book, Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for Your Forever Files, Perelman gives us 100 recipes (including a few favorites from her site) that aim to make shopping easier, preparation more practical and enjoyable, and food more reliably delicious for the home cook.

 What's a keeper? 

• a full-crunch cucumber salad you'll want to make over and over again for lunch

• a tomato and corn cobbler that tastes like summer sunshine

• an epic deep-dish broccoli cheddar quiche that even quiche skeptics love

• a slow-roasted chicken on a bed of unapologetically schmaltzy croutons

• a butterscotched apple crisp that will ruin you for all others

• perfect spaghetti and meatballs, better than ever

• Deb's ultimate pound cake, one to redeem all the sleepy ones you've eaten over the years

These are the fail-safe, satisfying recipes you’ll rely on for years to come—from Perelman’s forever files to yours.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593318782
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/15/2022
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	2,702
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

DEB PERELMAN is a self-taught home cook and photographer and the creator of the award-winning blog SmittenKitchen.com. She lives in New York City with her husband and their children.

Read an Excerpt

sour cream and flaky cheddar biscuits

makes 9 biscuits plus 1 snack

2¼ cups (295 grams) all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1½ teaspoons (4 grams) kosher salt
A few grinds of black pepper
Heaped ¼ teaspoon onion powder
12 tablespoons (170 grams, or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, diced
4 ounces (115 grams) sharp cheddar, cut into ¼-inch cubes (heaped ¾ cup)
¾ cup (180 grams) sour cream
Flaky salt, to finish

This is the kind of biscuit you might make once on a whim, but should you make the “mistake,” as I did, of sharing it with family, friends, or perhaps an entire pre-kindergarten classroom, do know that it will not be the last time you make them—because puddles of crispy cheddar cheese you can pick off in salty, lacy chiplike flakes make an impression on people. Initially, I’d intended to add spinach (just a handful of fresh leaves, chopped harmlessly small) for more of a breakfast-in-one-heartycube effect, yet, strangely, nobody in the four-year-old set seemed pleased with this when I offered to do so next time. Having tested it both ways many times since, I’ve realized they’re not wrong.

If you, like me, love an accordion-like biscuit, with layers that spring tall, begging to be pulled apart in small, buttery squares, then the quarterthen-stack technique here (which I first learned from the wonderful Claire Saffitz) is so gloriously simple, you won’t want to make breakfast biscuits another way. With no fancy folds or turns, and not even a rolling pin required, this has not-really-a-morning-person, aka me, written all over it.

Heat the oven to 400°F (205°C), and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, black pepper, and onion powder. Add the butter to the bowl, and use your fingers or a pastry blender to squash the pieces into flatter bits, pinching and tossing until the mixture has tiny clumps throughout. Stir in the cheddar, then the sour cream. (The mixture will seem crumbly, but it will come together, I promise.)

Flour your counter, and dump the dough and any unmixed floury bits onto it, kneading it once or twice to bring it together. Pat the dough into a 1-inch-thick square. Use a knife or bench scraper to divide it into quarters; then stack the quarters. Repeat this process, patting the dough into a thick square a second time, re-flouring the counter if needed, and stuffing any loose scraps of dough between the layers.

Transfer the dough slab to the prepared baking sheet, and pat it into a ¾-inch-tall square. Place the tray in the freezer and keep it there for 7 to 10 minutes, until it’s cool and semi-firm to the touch. Remove from the freezer. Use a sharp knife to trim ¼ inch from each side, and squish these pieces into a bonus biscuit you do not need to tell anyone about. Cut the newly trimmed large square into nine approximately 2-inch-square biscuits, and space them out on the sheet. Sprinkle with flaky salt. (If you’d like to bake them another day, freeze them at this point. Let them warm up at room temperature for 15 minutes—they will not fully defrost—before baking.)

Bake the biscuits for 16 to 19 minutes, until they are deep golden brown at the edges and some cheese is melted in crisp puddles around the edges. Eat right away.

chicken with rice, chorizo, and tomatoes

serves 4

2 to 2¼ pounds (about 1 kilogram) bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (4 or 5)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons (40 grams) olive oil, divided
4 ounces (115 grams) cured Spanish chorizo, diced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika (sweet or hot)
¼ cup (60 grams) white wine, or 2 tablespoons (30 grams) white-wine vinegar
One 14.5-ounce can (410 grams) diced or crushed tomatoes, or 1¾ cups diced fresh tomatoes
1½ cups (250 grams) uncooked white rice, any variety
2 cups (475 grams) chicken broth

This is one of my family’s favorite dinners, and it’s the absolutely coziest, while also feeling like a triumph, in that way that one-pan meals do. There’s tender, almost-falling-apart chicken thighs, chorizo, tomato, a little smoky heat, and broth-soaked crispy-bottomed rice, and I have never, not even once, suggested we have it for dinner and been turned down. It started as a distant cousin to an arroz con pollo, but it’s also a tiny bit paella, and tiny bit Basque chicken—but it’s absolutely none of these accurately in the end. Pared down in a pandemic kitchen, this dish turned out to be about what we reliably had around. It’s forgiving of swaps, but cured chorizo is my favorite here, because it infuses everything with an inky red oil, and it keeps longer than either bacon or pancetta in the fridge.

I come from a long line of home cooks who cannot make rice without burning it (rice nights meant a pot soaking in the sink until morning), but here we’re trying to turn shortcomings into an asset. The rice shouldn’t be burned, of course, but cranking up the heat at the end and moving the pan around the burner gives it an intentional crust. These chewy and crunchy caramelized bits at the bottom steal the show.

If there are leftovers, I use a fork to separate the chicken from the bones, nestle it in the rice, and heat it up the next day in the microwave for the least sad work-lunch ever.

Prep the chicken: Spread the chicken thighs on a plate, and season on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat a large sauté pan (it should hold 3 to 4 quarts and have a lid) over medium-high heat, and add 2 tablespoons of the oil. Brown the chicken on both sides—it takes about 4 to 5 minutes on the first side, 3 to 4 minutes on the second. Transfer it to a plate.

Cook the chorizo and rice: If the pan looks dry, warm the last tablespoon olive oil in it. Otherwise, just add the chorizo, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until it’s beginning to crisp. Add the onion and garlic, and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the cumin and paprika, and cook for 1 minute. Add the wine, and cook until it’s almost all reduced, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes plus 2 teaspoons salt. If they’re fresh, cook for 5 minutes, until they begin to lose their shape and look a little saucy; this may happen 1 to 2 minutes sooner with canned tomatoes. Add the rice, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes in the tomatoes and spices. Nestle the chicken thighs back into the pan, including any juices that collected on the plate. Pour in the broth, and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to the lowest possible simmer, and cover the pan. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes, until the rice has absorbed the liquid and is tender, and the chicken is cooked through.

(If your rice is undercooked, add ¼ cup water and cook for another 5 minutes.)

To get the rice crispy: With the lid on the pan, increase the heat to medium-high. Cook, moving the pan around every minute or so, allowing the bottom to color evenly, until the rice is dark and crispy underneath. You’ll hear it crackling in the pan. Remove it from the heat, and let it rest with the lid on for 10 minutes. The steam that collects helps it to loosen.

Serve the chicken with the rice, scraping up stuck bits from the pan with a thin spatula.

thick molasses spice cookies

makes 22 to 24 cookies

2⅓ cups (305 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¾ cup (12 tablespoons, 6 ounces, or 170 grams) unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly
½ cup (150 grams) molasses (see note)
⅔ cup (145 grams) packed dark-brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
3 tablespoons (45 grams) finely chopped crystallized ginger
6 tablespoons (75 grams) granulated or turbinado sugar, for rolling

note You can use either unsulphured or blackstrap molasses here; I’ve tested it with both. If you can’t get molasses where you are, use treacle. As for the egg yolk, I tested this recipe several times with a whole egg and with just a yolk and vastly prefer the yolk-only version: it’s less crunchy and better holds the pillowy shape that I like in a molasses cookie.

These cookies are my winter obsession. I had been on the hunt for a thick, soft-but-not-too cakey, deeply spiced, and a little kicky dark-molasses cookie for as long as I could remember. I tried dozens over the years, but none were exactly right. Over the pandemic winter that left us devoid of parties and all the usual holiday cheer, I decided that I would at least get this one perfect. (I also ran my local store out of molasses and ground ginger, and begged my friends to swing by so I could fling samples off the balcony down to them—don’t worry, we’re not high up—because we were, at one point, blockaded by cookies.) Do you know what it’s like for your apartment to smell like a gingerbread house blew up in it every day for the whole month of December? It was, despite the larger circumstances, a very good time, and at the end, I had these: my forever molasses cookies, and soon, perhaps, yours, too.

Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, spices, baking soda, salt, and pepper in a large bowl until fully mixed. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in the melted butter, molasses, brown sugar, yolk, and candied ginger. Whisk these together in the center a couple times (until the egg yolk is dispersed); then switch to a spoon or rubber spatula to continue mixing. The dough will be very thick!

Scoop the dough into balls—I either use a medium cookie scoop (1½ tablespoons) or take just shy of 2 tablespoons of dough for each. Roll each in your hands briefly to shape it into a ball, then into the granulated or turbinado sugar for coating.

Space the cookies evenly on the parchment-lined baking sheet (they barely spread), and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. You want what looks like a quite underbaked cookie. It will feel totally soft on top; you will be sure it’s raw. But if you lift a cookie, you’ll see that it’s one shade darker underneath. They’re done. Remove the pan from the oven, and let the cookies cool for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. The cookies set as they cool. If you cut into one in the first 15 minutes, you’ll yell, “Deb! These are raw in the middle! How could you?” But after that, you will have a more cookielike, perfect texture—crisp outside and tender inside.

do ahead You can chill the dough in the fridge for an hour or even several days before baking it, but let it warm up a bit at room temperature before scooping (trust me, I broke two cookie scoops learning this the hard way). Store the cookies in an airtight container to retain their softness. They keep for up to 2 weeks at room temperature, but their texture is best in the first week.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

Using this book xv

Breakfast anytime 1

Sour cream and flaky Cheddar biscuits 3

Peanut butter, oat, and jam bars 7

My bodega-style egg-and-cheese 9

Peach crumb muffins 13

Slumped parmesan frittata 15

Chocolate chip buckwheat pancakes 19

Breakfast potato chips and sheet-pan eggs 20

Zucchini cornbread and tomato butter 23

Caramelized cinnamon sugar french toast 25

Three breakfast salads 28

Honeydew with avocado and almonds 30

Citrus with radishes and hazelnuts 31

Tomatoes with cottage cheese and bagei seeds 32

Bialy babka 33

Challah cheesecake buns 37

Blueberry pancake cobbler 41

Salad 43

Snow peas with pecorino and walnuts 45

Sesame asparagus and carrot chop 46

Cucumber salad with garlicky dill yogurt 48

Two-bean salad with basil vinaigrette 50

Endive salad with apple matchsticks 53

Deli pickle potato salad 55

Double shallot egg salad 59

Farro salad with roasted tomatoes 61

The big green little gem salad 65

Soups and stews 69

Ginger garlic chicken noodle soup 71

Simple black bean chili 73

Winter squash soup with red onion crisp 77

Essential french onion soup 79

Slow-simmered lentils with kale and goat cheese 82

Cozy chicken and dumplings 85

Creamy tomato chickpea masala 87

Clam chowder with bacon croutons 91

Vegetables 95

Small vegetables

Charred brussels sprout toast with ricotta 98

Pea, feta, and mint fritters 99

Charred salt and vinegar cabbage 103

Skillet white beans "caesar" 104

Spiced sweet potato oven fries 107

Broccoli rabe with broken burrata 108

Braised winter squash wedges 111

Spinach spiral bread 113

Medium vegetables

Leek and brie galette 117

Carrot tarte tatin 119

Skillet piperade eggs 123

Green angel hair with garlic butter 125

Soy-glazed tofu with crisped rice 129

Toasted ricotta gnocchi with pistachio pesto 131

Pecorino polenta with garlicky kale 135

Cauliflower cheese baked potato 137

Big vegetables

Portobello hoagie 141

Falafel 143

Deepest dish broccoli cheddar quiche 145

Tomato and corn cobbler 149

Creamy coconut rice with chili-lime vegetables 151

Baked orzo and artichokes 155

Tangy baked eggplant and couscous 157

Swiss chard enchiladas 161

Zucchini and pesto lasagna 163

Meat and, one perfect plate of shrimp 167

Crispy chili garlic butter shrimp 169

The angry grandma (pizza) 171

"russian" bit 174

Chicken with rice, chorizo, and tomatoes 177

Cabbage and kielbasa with rye croutons 179

Weeknight lemon chicken wings 182

Steak and corn tacos 185

Skillet chicken parmesan 187

Slow-roasted chicken with schmaltzy croutons 191

Turkey meatloaf for skeptics 193

Crushed ranch-y potatoes 194

Oven-braised beef with harissa 197

Crispy oven pulled pork 199

Fettuccine with white ragù 203

Lamb skewers with crackly vinegar glaze 205

Perfect meatballs and spaghetti 209

Raclette tartiflette 211

Sweets 215

Cookies

Chocolate peanut butter cup cookies 217

Thick molasses spice cookies 219

Oatmeal date shortbread 223

Chocolate chip cookies with salted walnut brittle 225

Bars

Big crumb pie bars 229

Bee sting bars 231

Luxe s'more bars 235

The blondie chipwich 237

Tarts, crisps, and a well-deserved crème brûlée

Raspberry crostata 241

Mango curd tart 245

Apple butterscotch crisp 247

Family-style creme brûlée 251

Easy drop berry shortcakes 253

Cakes

Better-than-classic pound cake 257

Whole lemon poppy seed cake 261

Carrot cake with brown butter and no clutter 263

Devil's food cake with salted milk chocolate frosting 267

Strawberry summer stack cake 269

Pumpkin snacking cake 273

Chocolate dulce puddle cakes 275

Sips and snacks 277

Salt and pepper limeades 279

Apple cider old-fashioned 280

White russian slush punch 283

Three savory snacks 284

Honey thyme baked feta 284

Spicy crushed olives with pistachios 287

Toasted sesame almonds 288

Chocolate olive oil spread 291

Acknowledgments 293

Index 295

Editorial Reviews

NAMED AMAZON'S BEST COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR
A BON APPETIT BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

"Deb Perelman has gained a devoted following with her blog, Smitten Kitchen, where she shares rigorously tested recipes written with warmth and wit. For her third book, Perelman collects 100 “keepers,” recipes that are guaranteed to be hits whether you’re making it the first or 50th time—recipes like slow-roasted chicken on schmaltzy croutons, perfect spaghetti and meatballs and chocolate peanut butter cup cookies." —Forbes' Vetted (The Best Cookbooks Publishing in 2022)

"In an industry that often hypes what's new, it’s refreshing to see equal attention paid to the familiar. If there’s one person to rely on for tried-and-tested recipes, it’s Deb Perelman, who has been running her blog, Smitten Kitchen, for 16 years. The essence of her latest cookbook is about repetition—recipes that she’s made time and time again, each time with a new improvement, so that they may make their way into your forever files. This collection features those almost-perfect dishes, peppered with Perelman’s inviting energy." —Jessica Sulima, Thrillist

"For her third cookbook, Perelman has taken the wisdom she has accumulated in the 16 years since she created Smitten Kitchen and funneled it into “keepers,” i.e., recipes deserving of a place in her “forever files” and yours. That means, for example, a towering broccoli cheddar quiche baked in a springform pan, deli pickle potato salad that makes smart use of both pickles and brine, and chocolate peanut butter cup cookies that I can personally attest merit the “keeper” designation. Perelman, as is her wont, employs her trademark warmth and humor as she shepherds you from breakfast to dessert and beyond, making this both a fun and practical read." —Rebecca Flint Marx, Eater

"Recipes become regulars when they're fast, reliable, and deliciously worth the effort. In her third book, Smitten Kitchen founder Deb Perelman offers 100 recipes for oft-requested favorites like a fuss-free lemon poppy seed cake and “an epic quiche” sure to become some of the last you'll ever need to learn." —Jacqueline Raposo, Epicurious

"Keeper recipes should bring chefs joy, writes Smitten Kitchen blogger Perelman (Smitten Kitchen Everyday) in this fuss-free collection that aims to make “food more reliably delicious.” Those on offer here cover a range of options, from weeknight fare to more elaborate offerings, and easily earn their place in home cooks’ “forever” files. Salad options pack some surprises, as in a deli pickle potato salad that can be kept in the fridge for up to four days. Filling, meat-centric dinners include cabbage and kielbasa with rye croutons, roasted lemon chicken wings, and turkey meatloaf, which is topped off with a glaze of ketchup, molasses, apple cider vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce. Perelman excels at tricking out vegetables to create such appetizing dishes as charred salt and vinegar cabbage with butter and garlic, and a spiced winter squash soup with red onion crisp. The desserts are standouts, among them brownielike chocolate peanut butter cup cookies, thick molasses spice cookies, brown butter carrot cake, and crumb pie bars...Perelman’s mastery of culinary magic is evident on every page, and the recipes are clearly the work of someone who knows what she is doing in the kitchen. Practical and versatile, this is a boon to home cooks." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Every cookbook creator makes a dish again and again so that we don't have to, and Perelman ( Smitten Kitchen Every Day, 2017) just seems to have more fun doing so. With us strangers in mind...she shares recipes that withstand the most important test: folks will actually want to make and eat them over and over. For breakfast, a bodega-style fried-egg sandwich can be yours in three minutes, and a salad-topped frittata cooks entirely in the oven. Vegetables get their own chapters, organized by size...Meat dishes are balanced and homey, like a skillet-chicken parmesan that promises crispiness and sauciness and fail-safe, 10-ingredient pulled pork. Repeat-worthy cookies and unfussy cakes fill out the sweets chapter before Perelman invites readers to host more parties with a tight edit of crowd-pleasing drinks (alcoholic and non) and snacks. There's a reason readers are still smitten, and this ode to "Weeknight Greatness" confirms it." —Annie Bostrom, Booklist (starred review)

"In her third cookbook, Perelman returns with a gathering of the best versions of her key dishes—recipes that she has tested, trialed, and tweaked until they became what she wants her kids and readers to learn by heart and cook with delight...The book is a joy to read, with Perelman’s confiding, cheering voice showcased in short prefaces and recipe notes. She writes as if she were dashing off a recipe on a napkin for her best friend, while at the same time telling them what to do to really make it work. It is pure pleasure. The book covers breakfasts (which Perelman says are good at any time of day), salads, soups, vegetables, meats, sweets, and even a few drinks. Vegetarians and gluten-free eaters will find plenty of options and can adapt many of the other recipes...Essential for all collections. The cookbook, like the recipes it shares, is a keeper." —Neal Wyatt, Library Journal (starred review)

"Given Perelman’s dedication to recipe testing and her fuss-free mentality, it’s no surprise that many consider her latest book her best. Perelman has also solidified herself as the ultimate “keeper” with Smitten Kitchen Keepers." —Georgia Johnson, Good Times


Praise for Deb Perelman and Smitten Kitchen

“Smitten Kitchen is not just a food blog: it is the food blog.” —The New Yorker
 
“This is the kind of book you could easily cook out of for a month straight without tiring of it . . . And really, that’s the Smitten Kitchen magic: recipes that are ingeniously creative but so accessible that they leave you thinking, ‘Why the hell didn’t I think of that?’” —Eater
 
“No one delivers recipes inspired by equal parts curiosity and appetite quite like Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman.” —Epicurious
 
“A tremendously appealing collection of recipes whose headnotes strike chord after rousing chord.”  —Food52
 
“A joy to read . . . Prepare to be seduced.” —Los Angeles Times

From the Publisher

★ 09/01/2022

In her third cookbook, Perelman returns with a gathering of the best versions of her key dishes—recipes that she has tested, trialed, and tweaked until they became what she wants her kids and readers to learn by heart and cook with delight. These include blueberry pancake cobbler, cauliflower-cheese baked potatoes, zucchini cornbread with tomato butter, and skillet chicken parmesan. The book is a joy to read, with Perelman's confiding, cheering voice showcased in short prefaces and recipe notes. She writes as if she were dashing off a recipe on a napkin for her best friend, while at the same time telling them what to do to really make it work. It is pure pleasure. The book covers breakfasts (which Perelman says are good at any time of day), salads, soups, vegetables, meats, sweets, and even a few drinks. Vegetarians and gluten-free eaters will find plenty of options and can adapt many of the other recipes. (See LJ's Q&A with Perelman on p. 159 of this magazine.) VERDICT Essential for all collections. The cookbook, like the recipes it shares, is a keeper.—Neal Wyatt

Library Journal