It’s time for me to yap at y’all about my five favorite cookbooks from 2025. I love all of my cookbooks equally, so narrowing it down to just these was heartbreaking. That being said, a significant number of the recipes I made from these five books were straight-up brain-altering which made it a bit easier.

Let’s start with Khushbu Shah’s Amrikan, which contains multitudes of mouthwatering Indian American flavor mash-ups. Y’all already know we’re obsessed with the savory decadence that is masala poutine. A single round of tadka focaccia and I still can’t stop thinking about how the mustard seeds would pleasantly pop as I chowed down. We made multiple rounds of lunch and dinner with paneer tikka masala, chana masala, and Kerala egg curry. My first attempt at making samosas referred to this recipe for Punjabi samosas that were served alongside tart tamarind chutney and spicy cilantro mint chutney. Saffron chia seed pudding came through as a filling breakfast during my wisdom teeth recovery, and the decadent masala chai basque cheesecake is still worshipped in this home. So much more to come from this one!

After attending a livestream cooking class with Calvin Eng and Phoebe Melnik for their take on comforting Cantonese-American cooking, I immediately snagged a copy of their book, Salt^.Sugar^.MSG. One fine summer day, we walked all the way down to Uwajimaya to snag a whole red snapper from the fishmonger and transited back home with it to make sizzling steamed red snapper. One of John’s favorite treats this year was the recipe for a much-improved pig-in-a-blanket, piggies in scallion milk bread blankets, paired with a potent hot honey mustard that makes your eyes water. I was thrilled by the cabbage salad with a fried garlic sesame dressing made with silken tofu, shaken to my core by the homey flavors of ginger congee, and blown away by the salt and pepper pork schnitzel with Chinese ranch. This book is endlessly delicious.

Zaynab Issa’s Third Culture Cooking has set a standard to which I will compare all other cookbooks going forward. So many one-plate wonders are contained in this one that, despite their overall ease in execution, really refine your technical cooking skills. For example, the Thai-style crispy salmon was an excellent opportunity for me to hone the skill of crisping salmon skin on stainless steel. It wasn’t great the first time, but with some lessons learned, the second round was nearly spot-on! If you invite me to a party, odds are I’ll contribute a big bag of Issa’s chevra, a mouth-puckering, salty chip mix with bursts of mustard seed and spices. Big salt-and-vinegar chip vibes. There’s also nothing I appreciate more than a recipe embedded with perfect timing, as in, get this thing going, and while it’s going prep this thing for the next step. Wali ya mboga with salted yogurt and kachumber, samosa burgers, Calabrian chili chicken with caper raita, tandoori tacos, koobideh meatballs with minty yogurt, chicken kitchri, and French onion ramen all hit that mark and are iconically delicious to boot. Much more to come outta this one - should I just cook straight through it at this point? This may be my favorite cookbook this year.

Reem Assil’s Arabiyya is a refreshing tribute to Arabic flavors, and for that, I’m endlessly grateful. Herbaceous green shatta with its serrano bite and garlicky, fluffy toum reiterated the convenience and beauty of having luxurious condiments like these in the fridge. I regularly return to these perfect recipes for hummus and muhummara when I need a heartwarming snack. The shawarma mexiciyya smoked up the apartment a bit, but the resulting tender, spiced meat was worth the trouble. Mahalabiya (Arab milk custard & strawberry compote) was another wisdom teeth recovery treat, loubieh (green beans in tomato reduction) came through as our Thanksgiving green bean dish, and hindbdeh (Palestinian-braised dandelion greens) introduced us to dandelion greens. One of these days, I’ll tackle all of the tempting flatbread recipes.

Finally, Milk Street’s 365 has been ol’ reliable, the book I reach for when I’m out of ideas. Every recipe is stellar. If I were to recommend a book for someone who is into cooking but isn’t looking for particularly complex recipes or recipes with inaccessible ingredients, I’d recommend this one. Their recipe for dakdoritang, a hearty gochujang-based Korean vegetable and chicken stew, is the first thing I made as cooler weather rolled in this fall (I first made it in March and could not wait to get back to it). Their Vietnamese-style stir-fried beef & tomatoes was good with rice, but the second round with the suggested french fries put it over the top. Pakistani chicken biryani may make a reappearance on our lunch menu soon, and we’ve already had repeats of beety Ukrainian borsch, soft Czech kolaches, deliciously spiced Ethiopian doro wat, and sizzling Sichuan red-braised beef. I will refer to this one for eternity. Blessed be Christopher Kimball.

If 2025 is any indicator of the trajectory of cookbooks, I don’t stand a chance. Y’all are gonna have to have me banned from Book Larder (I’m going there tomorrow hehe).