In My Kitchen: 100 Recipes and Discoveries for Passionate Cooks
Cable television’s Allen hosts the cooking competition Chopped, just one of a number of programs that have made his smiling face familiar to a wide audience of viewers. Here he shares some of the recipes that he cooks at home with his partner. Allen likes to entertain in high style, and these recipes emphasize multiple colors, textures, and flavors in a single dish. Bean dip swirls together both black and white beans, and accompanying tortilla chips are homemade, spiced with smoked Spanish paprika. Allen reinvents traditional Chinese pork buns, stuffing them with options of American barbecued pork, Indian vindaloo pork, or Mexican pork and beans. Pastas swim in lavish duck sauce or simpler, homey meatballs. Allen’s cassoulet cuts both fat and complexity from the original. Desserts include butterscotch pots-de-crème perfumed with cardamom and spiked with whiskey. Allen’s celebrity will generate plenty of demand. --Mark Knoblauch