The Dominican Kitchen: Homestyle Recipes That Celebrate the Flavors, Traditions, and Culture of the Dominican Republic

For a limited time we have copies signed by Vanessa Mota.

Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, Vanessa Mota took the country’s traditional foods for granted. She loved them, but there was always someone else around to cook them…

Then she found herself living in NYC and starting a family. Like many cooks before her, including Marcella Hazan, she reached out to family and friends, received some traditional recipes, and began to cook.

The Dominican Kitchen, which is based off Mota’s popular blog, My Dominican Kitchen, reflects the everyday home cooking of Dominican families. Mota isn’t trying to convince you to mix things up by adding some Korean gochujang to your cassava rolls. She knows that the real thing is more than good.

Her recipe headnotes are brief, but she’s always paying attention to the context of the food. Those cassava rolls, chulitos, are street food. Kipes o quipes come from the Lebanese immigrants who arrived in the late nineteenth-century, and yes, they’re a version of kibbeh. Inspired by her mother’s childhood, Moto’s version of chapea de gandules, a soup of beans, rice,  comes from the northern part of the island, where they add coconut.

Simply, attractively photographed, The Dominican Kitchen feels completely practical, working equally well as an introduction to Dominican cuisine for those who have never eaten it, and a handy guide for cooks like Mota, who are returning to their culinary roots.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.