Modern Comfort Cooking: Feel-Good Favorites Made Fresh and New

Comfort food doesn’t have to be predictable or even soothing on the palate, as this compendium by Grier (the food blogger behind Climbing Grier Mountain) proves. She mashes up classics with unlikely accents, and just when a recipe seems to be wacky enough, she adds an additional (and sometimes confounding) dimension. The results can be random, as if a bunch of trendy ingredients were subjected to a game of Mad Libs. Banh mi breakfast tacos feature bacon and cheddar, a tuna melt is seasoned with turmeric and topped with mozzarella cheese, and there’s a matcha milkshake made with bourbon. There are some strong ideas here, such as a hot fried-chicken and egg sandwich and a vegetarian osso bucco (with carrots substituting for veal) served with a Gouda polenta. Other dishes feel more like bar food of the early 2000s, such as the Asian deviled eggs with chile sauce, Reuben rolls in puff pastry, and falafel waffle. A few dishes, such as the honey-barbecue Cornish hens, crispy parsnip fries, and zucchini meatball subs, could make it into a weekly repertoire. For the most part, however, the emphasis is on novelty rather than lasting appeal. Photos. (Dec.)