In the nearly 160-year-old history of Juneteenth, this weekend many of us will be observing this holiday of liberation together for only the second time as a nation — a holiday that marks the day in which the emancipation of enslaved people was finally enforced in Texas, over two years after President Abraham Lincoln first issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
Having been federally recognized as a holiday since just last year, some of us are only now taking a deeper dive into the origins of Juneteenth. And many of us are also curious about how exactly to celebrate this new yet not-new holiday. I always feel that one of the best ways to get acquainted with an unfamiliar holiday is to get to know the food, which often represents some of the universal, timeless themes that galvanize any community on a particular day — themes like joy, grief, triumph, birth & rebirth and loss.
And that brings me to the book that’s been taking up real estate on my kitchen counter ever since I brought it home a couple weeks ago: Nicole A. Taylor’s Watermelon and Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations. Watermelon and Red Birds is the first cookbook dedicated to celebrating Juneteenth, one that acknowledges the history of Black liberation and food culture through a thoroughly fresh and modern take on cuisine.
There are certainly some food traditions that are connected to Juneteenth — enjoying red-colored refreshments is a must — but Taylor uses her expertise to explore ways that we can establish new traditions of our own. It’s a wonderful culinary introduction to the holiday, but it’s also a fantastic cookbook that is a vicarious pleasure to flip through (and drool over) — I can imagine myself making just about every single recipe that Taylor has included. In fact, in the two weeks that I’ve had the book, I’ve already made two of the recipes.
Instantly taken in by the description of Taylor’s umami-rich Fish Fry Mix, I used it to coat pieces of Rockfish, transforming this robust white fillet into crispy, cornmeal-crusted bites. Even simpler to make was her recipe for Broiler Salmon, which cooks the fish under a schmear of savory romesco, a summery Spanish sauce made with ripe tomatoes, red bell peppers, and smoked paprika. The latter recipe is one that I’ll be keeping in heavy rotation as tomatoes come into season.
Watermelon and Red Birds’ cookability is part of its design. In its introduction, Taylor explains that the cookbook was developed as a “testament to where we are now,” filled with contemporary recipes made with accessible ingredients that you can find at your local grocery store, no matter where in America you call home. But Taylor, as a James Beard Award-nominated food writer, is giving you more than good meals through this book. In her words, her work is “light with the pleasure of good food and heavy with the weight of history.”
I didn’t intend for this week’s newsletter to be an all-out fangirl essay about how good Taylor’s book is, but it’s just that good. I hope some of you end up picking a copy up for yourselves as a way to dip your toes into our shared holiday. And for those of you who are cooking up something special for the Dad in your life this weekend, there’s absolutely something in the book that fits the occasion.
Live Wild,
Monica
Pictured above: A fillet of wild-caught salmon, encrusted with a generous schmear of homemade romesco, caramelized for a few minutes under the broiler. As a fresh complement, there’s crispy lettuce and ripe yellow tomatoes alongside this meal — one of my new favorites, pulled from Nicole A. Taylor’s new cookbook Watermelon and Red Birds.
