June Edible Digest 2024

New Cooking Videos and More

Welcome to The Flavor Files, a newsletter that explores the intersection of science and food. You’ll receive a new recipe, links to more recipes, food and science news, and more each week.

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📗 My new cookbook, Veg-Table, is out now and available to order wherever books are sold. You can get your copy here. The book focuses on the science of vegetables and includes 100 recipes for cooks at different skill levels, with several tips and tricks to make your cooking easier and fun.

If you own a copy of the book, please leave a review on Amazon (regardless of whether you bought it there). Reviews on Amazon make books more visible to people.

🙏🏾 I appreciate your support!

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Hello Friends!

Right now, my desk is covered with papers and books. These days, I’ve been cooking less but reading and writing more because I’ve got a few weeks left to turn in the first portion of my manuscript for my fourth cookbook. Making a cookbook is an extremely collaborative process. I’ve got a few chapters due to my editor to give her and the team what to expect in the book. This early delivery helps me stay on track, but it also helps them think about the number of pages and all the design stuff. What I love most about the writing phase of the book is the research bit; I’m invariably learning new things and challenging old assumptions. An excitement slowly begins to build because I know you will get to hold this book in your hands and read it in a few years. Please bear with me; the next few weeks will be erratic as I jump into full gear.

Enough about the book, so let’s move on to completed items. Here’s a new video I filmed for Breville’s Mastery Class Series. The recipes are from the Veg-Table cookbook, and I pair the Veggie Masala Burgers with Caraway Dipping Sauce from the Onion Rings recipe. I don’t make the onion rings in the video, but you can make them for the burger. Either way, the combination is epic, and you’ll be very satisfied!

With radishes in season, this is the perfect time to make this vegetable salad using greens. The Chinese black vinegar used to make the salad dressing breathes a whole new dimension of flavor. You should keep this vinegar in your pantry at all times. It’s black gold!

In other news this week, I appeared on The Today Show to discuss the perception of Indian Food In America and how it’s changing. Read the interview here.

Thank you, and have a great week; I’m returning to my cookbook writing.

Nik

Here are the foods I’m craving this month, and I’ve curated them for you in this month’s recipe list. If you cook these or any of my recipes, please tag me on social media or leave a comment! You can always find more recipes using the Index.

How do I store olive oil?

While this question is specifically for olive oil, it applies to all cooking oils. Store oils away from heat in a cool, dark corner of your kitchen. Oils like extra-virgin olive oil are rich in antioxidants that can go bad easily when exposed to air, so try to use a bottle up within a few months of opening. Smaller bottles are better than larger ones because the oil gets exposed to air for longer. Light is not friendly to oil, so clear glass bottles, though pretty, are not recommended for storage. Ceramic bottles are better. The ideal temperature to store olive oil is 60 to 70F/15C to 21C (a few different olive oil manufacturers have told me 65F/18C is the sweet spot). Do not store olive oil in the refrigerator; it might harden (you’ll need to let it warm to room temperature before using), but more importantly, moisture can condense inside the bottle, making the oil rancid.

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Here’s this month’s fun food quiz. It’s based on some of the previous newsletters and my cookbooks. I’ll share the answers next week; good luck.