Watermelon and Red Birds
A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations
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- USD 16.99
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- USD 16.99
Descripción editorial
The very first cookbook to celebrate Juneteenth, from food writer and cookbook author Nicole A. Taylor—who draws on her decade of experiences observing the holiday.
On June 19, 1865, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and issued General Order Number 3, informing the people of Texas that all enslaved people were now free. A year later, in 1866, Black Texans congregated with music, dance, and BBQs—Juneteenth celebrations.
All-day cook-outs with artful salads, bounteous dessert spreads, and raised glasses of “red drink” are essential to Juneteenth gatherings. In Watermelon and Red Birds, Nicole puts jubilation on the main stage. As a master storyteller and cook, she bridges the traditional African-American table and 21st-century flavors in stories and recipes. Nicole synthesizes all the places we’ve been, all the people we have come from, all the people we have become, and all the culinary ideas we have embraced.
Watermelon and Red Birds contains over 75 recipes, including drinks like Afro Egg Cream and Marigold Gin Sour, dishes like Beef Ribs with Fermented Harissa Sauce, Peach Jam and Molasses Glazed Chicken Thighs, Southern-ish Potato Salad and Cantaloupe and Feta Salad, and desserts like Roasted Nectarine Sundae, and Radish and Ginger Pound Cake. Taylor also provides a resource to guide readers to BIPOC-owned hot sauces, jams, spice, and waffle mixes companies and lists fun gadgets to make your Juneteenth special. These recipes and essays will inspire parties to salute one of the most important American holidays, and moments to savor joy all year round.
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In this marvelous work, culinary writer Taylor (The Up South Cookbook) celebrates Black freedom with "good food" and stories "meant to spark a quench for a deeper dive into Black cultural history." In a recipe for plum and super greens pesto salad, she writes movingly about retreating to the kitchen after a stillbirth, an experience that disproportionately affects Black women. Another chapter pays homage to the progress of her ancestors with dishes that celebrate "small triumphs," including a sour cream and chive corn bread that puts a "comforting and sophisticated" spin on the classic version she grew up eating. Elsewhere, an insightful discussion of the significance of red drinks (the "official beverage" of Juneteenth) is followed by a "homemade ‘Kool-Aid' " made with freeze-dried strawberries. A chapter on barbecue includes brined pork chops, and ribs with spicy harissa, plus a dissection of "the most revered African American cookout" side dish, potato salad. To complement the vibrant writing, there's an array of dishes that pop with color, among them a salad speckled with yellow mustard green flowers, and brilliantly hued snow cones made with purple sweet potatoes. Soulful stories meet rich flavors in this excellent culinary map of "where we've been where we're going."
