The Farmette Cookbook

Starred review from March 15, 2016

It's a familiar tale in food nonfiction and cookbooks: girl meets farmer, falls in love, and trades city life for farm life (e.g., Kristin Kimball's The Dirty Life, Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman Cooks, Nancy Singleton Hachisu's Japanese Farm Food). In this book, food writer and photographer McDonnell chronicles her own rural romance, which landed her on a centuries-old farm in the Irish countryside. Wisely, she devotes most of this lush and gorgeously photographed cookbook to elegant country cooking and delicious recipes. Packed with traditional and contemporary dishes such as Irish farmer cheese souffle, St. Patrick's Day bacon and cabbage potstickers, and smoky dark chocolate porter cake, this book contains a compelling blend of delicious recipes, including those for dairy products (e.g., homemade butter, ricotta, creme fraiche, condensed milk), preserves, and foraged ingredients. VERDICT An outstanding debut, with just the right amount of sentimentality.

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