I was at my local library branch yesterday (shoutout to Howson Branch), and while looking through the available cookbooks, came across Mason Hereford and JJ Goode’s Turkey and the Wolf, Flavor Trippin’ in New Orleans. I’ve followed the Turkey and the Wolf Instagram account for a while so, I was familiar with the book. I just hadn’t had it in my hands.
When I pulled it out, I noticed that a previous borrower had tabbed a recipe – Sunday Morning Coming-Down Potato Salad. In this recipe, potatoes are cooked in crab boil style with spices, hot sauce, and hondashi (bonito broth). The salad is assembled with Old Bay spiced crackers, crab meat, shredded lettuce, celery, and a zesty buttermilk dressing. I’m leaving this recipe tag in place because it’s indicative of the rest of the book. There’s a couple of paragraphs about why the recipe exists and was included, a conversational style explanation of how to make the recipe, permission to make alterations, and a gorgeous full page photo.
I’m not going to cook through all of this cookbook. Dietary sensitivities make that impossible. I’m also not going to make hog’s head cheese. I admire the dedication, but absolutely the fuck not in my house. Head cheese aside, the recipes are twisty and creative. They reflect a fusion of New Orleans cultures – convenience store snacks made into meals, Southern cruise, Soul food, Vietnamese cuisine, and local ingredients. A good chunk of the recipes reflect Hereford’s love of collaboration. In “Don’t Sleep on the Carrot Yogurt,” the breakfast dish is your standard yogurt bowl – yogurt, fruit, granola, but the granola is a recipe created by Nini Nguyen, carrot purée is stirred into the yogurt and the whole thing is topped with carrot marmalade made by Liz Hollinger. It’s a collaborative dish and Hereford doesn’t try to pretend that it isn’t. And yeah, I’ll be trying at least the marmalade.
Turkey and the Wolf makes me want to run with the flavor riffs that happen in my brain. Tonight I’m making a dinner that is inspired by the recipes in the book, while not actually using any of them. – roasted cabbage slaw with roasted corn, fish sauce and lime and lamb meatballs.
