To celebrate the release of our best new cookbooks of spring roundup—we’ve been cooking and baking from the titles for months—I organized a potluck party in the Test Kitchen. I tasked staff with choosing a book from the list, making any recipe of their choosing, and coming to have lunch. Not a bad Monday, if you ask me!
As ever, my coworkers came prepared, toting their dishes on various subways to the World Trade Center. Senior commerce editor Noah Kaufman even brought homemade pizza dough from New Jersey. After unpacking containers, dressing salads, reheating biscuits, and plating everything up, they arranged 15 delightfully-mismatched dishes on top of the Test Kitchen pass.
What was enjoyed? So. Much. Salad. A spicy harissa Caesar with crisp chickpeas from Madaq. A burrata, beets, and citrus number from La Copine. A scallion coconut chicken salad from Ohana Style. And a tower of coconut cabbage slaw from Sunshine, Lemons and Sea Salt. Deputy food editor Hana Asbrink plated the aforementioned slaw so high it looked like it could be housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
There were also a couple wowed-over stir-frys, like a chicken and bell pepper one from Soomaaliya and spicy pork from A Day in Seoul. In classic caretaker fashion, food director Chris Morocco served his pork with a side of rice because he was worried we wouldn’t have enough food. Boy, was he wrong.
True to potluck form, the rest was a thrilling hodgepodge. Edamame dip with crispy onions from Hello, Home Cooking, rosemary biscuits from Morning Baker, Buffalo party pizza from The Book of Pizza (cut with scissors, naturally), still-warm pimento cheese mochi balls (another hit from Ohana Style), and fluffy black-eyed pea fritters (Soomaaliya again). Of particular note: Dunking the Soomaaliya fritters in extra harissa Caesar dressing from the Madaq recipe produced an unexpected chef’s-kiss combo. (Hat-tip to staff photographer Elliott Jerome Brown Jr. for this moment of inspiration.)
By the time everything was eaten, only a few people had room for dessert. But there was dessert! Lots of it. Our staffers coincidentally brought banana everything: Cake From Lucie’s banana cake with goat cheese frosting (!), Cake Picnic’s Banana Sticky Toffee Pudding, and More Than Sweet’s banana bread with chamomile chocolate ganache. (The one sweet sans fruit? Pistachio Fennel Biscotti from AMMAZZA!.)
As the potluck came to a close, one last thing was passed around: A roll of plastic wrap to pack up all the leftovers.
