Buttermilk & Bourbon: New Orleans Recipes with a Modern Flair

Restaurateur Santos gives his own take on New Orleans cooking in this solid cookbook that mostly hits its mark. Santos, as he writes in his inviting introduction, cut his culinary teeth in the Boston restaurant scene, but it was an impromptu birthday trip to New Orleans that forever changed his approach to crafting dishes and led to the creation of his Boston restaurant Buttermilk & Bourbon. Dishes like roasted char-grilled oysters, classic BBQ shrimp with jalapeno grits, and a flavor-packed crawfish and crab soup would be right at home in many New Orleans restaurants. Santos’s enthusiasm sometimes gets the best of him, however, with such peculiar recipes as smoked Gouda cornbread with sriracha-roasted garlic butter; chicken and waffle tacos; and Cajun guacamole with blackened shrimp. But most of his dishes display real creativity and emphasize flavor—crab meat and bacon hash with poached duck eggs; Buffalo duck wings; boiled peanut hummus; and red velvet pancakes with blueberry, vanilla, and pecan syrups. The result is an inventive take on Crescent City cuisine. (Mar.)