Spring forward with 5 recipes from the season’s best cookbooks

Fall gets all of the hype, but spring has always been my favorite season. Especially here in Los Angeles.

As ripe lemons fall to the ground, clusters of kumquats take their place in neighborhood trees. Star jasmine blossoms into little white pinwheels, their sweet, floral scent hanging in the air. Papery bougainvillea weave their way through fences like fuschia-colored ivy and thorny bushes bloom with roses for a few brief weeks.

Spring is also when a wave of cookbooks reaches our bookstore shelves, encouraging us to take advantage of the season. This year, there are plenty of L.A. chefs and food figures offering recipes that celebrate our unique local bounty, like Kogi BBQ chef Roy Choi’s ode to vegetables in “Choi of Cooking,” or Fishwife founder Becca Millstein’s approachable, picnic-perfect ideas in “The Fishwife Cookbook.”

Of course, the temperate and malleable nature of our region also makes it easy to experiment with cuisines and cooking styles that might not be as familiar.

Chef Eric Adjepong’s “Ghana to the World” cookbook encouraged me to visit my neighborhood’s African markets for the first time, to source ingredients like egusi seeds for a Ghanaian take on granola.

In Caroline Pardilla’s “Margarita Time” cookbook with over 60 takes on the classic tequila cocktail, bartender Shannon Mustipher shares a version with hibiscus in homage to her hometown of Charleston, S.C. Though the port city is on the opposite coast, it blooms with hibiscus flowers this time of year, just as it does here in L.A.

Just like sunlight and strawberries, culinary inspiration is abundant in the spring. Especially when armed with the Food team’s annual roundup of our favorite new cookbook releases, with many this year focused on streamlining recipes and doing more with less. Our food writers (and some of our favorite local chefs) also mined our shelves for the cookbooks we can’t live without, including vintage titles, out-of-print pamphlets and memoirs from the industry’s most looming figures.

To get you started, here are five recipes pulled from this year’s crop, including a pineapple-ginger drink and egusi granola that makes its way into a peppery arugula salad.

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Shannon Mustipher’s Hibiscus Margarita

Don’t be intimidated by the cook time for this simple cocktail. Most of it is spent preparing the hibiscus syrup, which yields a large batch that can be also be used in seltzer water or water with a splash of lemon. Once the syrup has cooled, it’s just a matter of rimming a chilled glass with salt and shaking up the ingredients with ice.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 90 minutes.

(Leela Cyd)

Pineapple Ginger Drink

Chef and “Ghana to the World” author Eric Adjepong grew up drinking tea his mother would brew with leftover ginger and pineapple peels and dried fruit and herbs. In his cookbook, he offers a refreshing version that’s served chilled and topped off with Club soda.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 5 minutes

(Doaa Elkady)

Egusi and Coconut Granola

I’ve long been a fan of egusi soup, a West African dish that calls for grinding the protein-rich melon seeds. In “Ghana to the World,” Adjepong adds them to an everyday granola recipe that also features virgin coconut oil and coconut nectar. Buy the seeds whole or pre-ground from an African market or online — Adjepong recommends Jeb Foods.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 2 hour 30 minutes. Makes about 3.5 cups.

(Doaa Elkady)

Arugula Salad with Egusi Granola, Sorghum and Sherry Vinaigrette

Adjepong’s egusi granola can be eaten on its own or used as a topping on your favorite salad or dessert. It adds a rich nuttiness to this arugula salad, also from his “Ghana to the World” cookbook. The greens are further enhanced with tangy sorghum syrup in the sherry vinaigrette, crumbled goat cheese and pickled red onion.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 40 minutes. Serves 2 to 4.

(Doaa Elkady)

Found Oyster’s Scallop Tostadas with Yuzu-Apple Vinaigrette

Ari Kolender, the chef and co-owner of Found Oyster and Queen St. Raw Bar & Grill, is behind some of my favorite seafood dishes in the city. It’s not exaggerating to say that I dream about the scallop tostada at Found, and the way it perfectly tightropes between crunchy and meaty textures, with fatty, citrus, tart, herby flavors. Now, when I’m too lazy to drive from my Mid-City home to the East Hollywood seafood shack, I can make it at home in under 30 minutes.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 20 minutes.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)