Bluestem: The Cookbook

Shop Notes:

A repeated nominee for the James Beard Award for "Best Chef Midwest," chef Colby Garrelts and highly respected pastry chef Megan Garrelts offer their culinary techniques inside Bluestem: The Cookbook.  This book reflects their Midwestern roots (they own a fine dining restaurant in Kansas City by the same name) while offering cooks a challenge in the kitchen.  The recipes are certainly innovative and a wide variety of ingredients and regional cuisines are covered, but...the cooking methods could be frustrating for beginning cooks.  I do not say this to tell a beginner not to purchase this book because, reading through it, I get shivers down my spine in fits of inspiration to pick up a pan and get to cooking.  

From Warm Eggplant Salad and Potato-Crusted Halibut with Herb Cream to delectable desserts such as Honey Custard and Peanut Butter Beignets with Concord Grape Sauce (lord help me!), the Garreltses showcase local, Midwestern ingredients and artisanal producers through 100 seasonally driven recipes.

Including a full-meal lineup of recipes, from amuse-bouche to dessert, Bluestem offers helpful tips from a professional kitchen alongside seasonal wine notes and 100 full-color photographs that capture the simple beauty of Bluestem's composed dishes. Guided by their childhood memories and inspired by the world around them, the Garreltses offer a Midwestern sensibility inside Bluestem: The Cookbook, while enabling cooks of all experience levels the opportunity to replicate Bluestem's contemporary taste and signature dishes at home.