The Great American Recipe - The Great American Recipe Cookbook: Regional Cuisine and Family Favorites from the Hit TV Show

The Great American Recipe Cookbook copyright 2022 by VPM Media Corporation

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First E-Book Edition: August 2022

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ISBN 9781637740156 (paper over board)

ISBN 9781637740217 (electronic)

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Welcome to The Great American Recipe Cookbook! Here youll find more than one hundred recipes that celebrate the incredible diversity and big flavors of American cuisine. When you think of American food, maybe you think of a Fourth of July picnic or the familiar dishes that bring your family to the table every week. Perhaps its a regional icon like New England clam chowder or Carolina barbecue. Or it could be a dish that represents a fusion of international flavors with a local spin. American food is all of that and more. These recipes represent the dynamic story of America... told through the foods we love.

Recipes, like stories, say so much about the time, place, and person from which they come. Our favorite dishes are the common threads that connect us all, providing tangible links to our identities, our memories and our experiences, as well as to each other. When we share the recipe for a home-cooked mealwhether were divulging our secret for the perfect chicken adobo or talking through the steps to a three-generations-old Sunday gravywe are also sharing pieces of our heritage and culture. That spirit of sharing is what The Great American Recipe is all about. Well, that, and some truly delicious food!

On the first season of The Great American Recipe, ten home cooks competed over eight weeks to see whose dishes were worthy of the title Great American Recipe. These home cooks represent culinary cultural legacies from around the world and around the country, from the Pacific Northwest to Puerto Rico. In these pages, weve collected their best recipes from the show (as well as a few dishes from the host and judges!). Welcome us into your kitchen to experience the foods that have meant the most to them and their familiesand discover new favorites your own family will love.

The show, and these recipes, would not be complete without the expert guidance and culinary knowledge of our host and judges. As a lifestyle and food contributor and writer, host Alejandra Ramos has created hundreds of recipes that combine the Puerto Rican foods she grew up eating in New York City with the dishes and flavors shes fallen in love with along the way. Tiffany Derry is an awardwinning chef whose acclaimed restaurants in Texas celebrate the soul of Southern farm-to-table cooking. Leah Cohen is a celebrated chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author whose cuisine combines classical Western cooking with the robust flavors of her Filipina heritage. Growing up on naval bases around the world, Graham Elliot was exposed to cuisine from every continent. His culinary gift earned his eponymous Chicago restaurant a rare two Michelin stars, and he eventually returned to the Hawaii of his youth, blending the local flavors of the islands in to his inventive cuisine. Look for delectable recipes from Alejandra, Tiffany, Leah, and Graham throughout this book, as well.

Ingredients of The Great American Recipe Cookbook

Heres what youll find in these pages.

Appetizers, Snacks, and Sides

Look here for a collection of delicious bites to serve before or alongside a meal (or in between!).

Soups, Stews, and Salads

Heres where youll find a range of dishes that are perfect to start a meal and hearty enough to serve as a main course. (And if youre feeling ambitious, some recipes also include instructions for the delicious homemade breads the cooks like to serve alongside!)

Handhelds

This chapter is all about dishes that satisfy, with no silverware requiredwere talking sandwiches, tacos, and pizza.

Family Dinners

These are quintessential meals to bring everybody to the table. Youll find a range of recipes, from classic meat-and-veggie combos to rice and pasta dishes. Many of these are the weeknight-friendly favorites our home cooks turn to again and again.

Holidays and Special Occasions

Turn to this chapter when you need a meal to impress on a special occasion or a dish worthy of a holiday feast.

Brunch

These recipes start your day on a delicious noteegg dishes, biscuits, and a sweet pumpkin bread.

Desserts and Pastry

No meal is complete without a little something sweet. Here youll find a variety of treats, like cakes, cookies, pudding, and pie.

Irma Cadiz

Irmas cooking is rooted in the Dominican and Puerto Rican food she grew up eating, and preparing her mothers recipes is her tribute to her familys heritage. Irmas signature dish, Mofongo con Camarones (), is a popular Caribbean comfort food made from mashed plantains and shrimp. Raised in a multicultural environment in Rochester, New York, Irma experienced a wide range of cuisines; she now resides in New York City and loves taking part in the citys richly diverse culinary scene. Taking what she has learned along the way, Irma puts creative spins on her personal recipes when she cooks for her adult children and extended family.

Bambi Daniels

Bambi describes her cooking as Southern soul food because everything that she cooks has a hint of her South Carolina roots and the classic comfort foods she was raised on. Bambi grew up on her familys farm, where they prepared all their meals using only what they grew and everyone had a role in the kitchen, from snapping peas to chopping greens. As a mother, she loves preparing home-cooked meals for her children and their friends because she believes walls are broken down when people sit down to eat, and when they sit down at her dinner table, they instantly become family. Bambi bases her signature dish, Southern Smoke Mac and Cheese (), on a recipe thats been passed down from generation to generation and is still a family favorite in her house.