Gather Ye Tomatoes While Ye May

Also: A Summery Feast, Dinner at Causita, and Winston at the Beach.

Hey everyone,

I’m a bit giddy because the Broadway cookbook that I’ve been working on with my friend Gideon Glick is en route to my apartment right now as we speak. Gideon got his last week and he posted the cutest unboxing vid:

Gideon Glick @gidglick

Opening my first published book! Pre-order now. Link in bio! @amateurgourmet

Gideon’s my guest on the podcast this week and we talk all about how we came up with the idea for the book, how we wrote it, and which recipes and puns are our favorites. PLUS: Gideon talks about his childhood in the theater, his big break with Spring Awakening, whether Jeff Daniels cooked for the cast of To Kill a Mockingbird, and what it was like getting nominated for a Tony.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify here:

Finally, I shared a recipe from the book on Instagram, one of my favorites: The Clam’s Visit, based on The Band’s Visit, which has Israeli couscous (get it?), fennel, preserved lemons, Aleppo pepper, and cilantro.

amateurgourmet

A post shared by Adam Roberts (@amateurgourmet)

So pre-order your copy now! It’s shiny and sparkly and makes a great gift for any Broadway obsessive who loves to cook! Or any cook who loves Broadway! It’ll arrive on your doorstep October 4th.

---

Now, for non-cookbook things…

I’ve been cooking my little heart out using up as much summer produce as I can.

Here’s what I hauled home from the farmer’s market yesterday:

This led to the salad that you see at the top of this email with watermelon, heirloom tomatoes, peppers, red onion, Persian cucumbers, olive oil, Balsamic vinegar, Feta cheese, and lots of basil and mint.

Then last night I cooked up a farmer’s markety dinner:

That’s my famous spicy spatchcocked chicken with stewed Romano beans (I used this recipe) and the most incredible fresh corn polenta that was so good, I turned it into a TikTok:

@amateurgourmetIt's corn... polenta! Let me tell you all about it! 🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽 #corn #itscornsong #fyp #polenta #cooking #summerfood #freshcorn #vegetables

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

Essentially: you cut fresh corn off of the cob, blend it in a food processor, and cook it in olive oil with salt and Turmeric until it’s thick. It’s truly incredible, especially if you love fresh corn and/or polenta.

On Friday night, I took Craig to the new Peruvian Japanese spot in Silver Lake, Causita:

We first experienced Nikkei cuisine at Itimae in Miami (see here) and Causita is just as good, combining the freshness of raw fish with the heat and complexity of Peruvian food. Above you’ll see the tuna belly and bluefin Otoro with coconut leche de tigre, which we ate like soup, it was so complex and spicy and sweet. (The pink is pureed dragonfruit.)

In the cooked sphere, we enjoyed these lobster dumplings:

And the dish Bill Addison said not to miss: the gnocchi with crispy ricotta, tobanjan, and Peruvian pesto.

I read somewhere that it’s meant to be a vegetarian version of the rock shrimp at Nobu and that makes total sense to me.

Finally, on Saturday, we took Winston to the Huntington Dog Beach and he had the time of his life:

Look how happy he is in the car on the way home:

Now here’s some links for you to nosh on:

• What is Ghee? Rituparna Roy explains it all (Eater);

• If You Can Make Salad, You Can Make Kimchi (NYT);

• This new cookbook is so in demand, people who don’t pre-order it are questioning their life choices (The Paris Review);

• Love this feature where top LA chefs share their favorite restaurants — I hadn’t heard of half of them! (LAT).

That’s all for today folks.

If you missed Thursday’s paid-subscriber’s only newsletter, here’s what you missed: a brilliant succotash recipe by Mashama Bailey, trumpet pasta with an anchovy tomato sauce, a chicken salad sandwich for Craig, our new Etsy drinking glasses (currently en route), and even more links.

New Etsy glasses currently en route.

Don’t miss the next one!

Until next time….

Your friend,

Adam “Pre-Order Now” Roberts