“Make Me a Plate” – the Cookbook You Need for a Hearty Meal
Welcome to Cookbook of the Week. In this series, I highlight cookbooks that are unique, easy to use, or just special to me. While searching for a specific recipe online serves a quick purpose, flipping through a truly excellent cookbook has its own magic.
I have reached a state of nutrition that I will call “Deep Winter”. I know there are much colder places in the world, but my weak New York constitution doesn’t allow me to have fun in 20 degree weather. I prefer to stay home, comment on the snow like in the Progressive commercials, and cook a hot meal. If you share any of these tendencies, I have a great cookbook for you: Make Me a Plate .
A little about the book
Fix Me a Plate is a collection of soul food recipes, both traditional and unusual. This cookbook comes to us from Chef Scotty Scott and was published in 2022. It both reads like a cookbook and is a personal account of how Scott became a chef and his family’s history with some of the dishes. I know personal stories are meant to hook us, but damn, it just works. I’m hooked. Probably because we all have a special history with different foods, and many of us know the feeling of choosing one career path and later realizing that maybe we should feed our creative side.
There are 60 recipes in this book, from sides to sweets, and each one is written with a refreshing dose of Scott’s personality. Many cookbooks have something official or a clever scientific approach to them. I love it and there is a place for it. But cooking is also a fun activity that can get messed up. Fix My Plate is fun to read and feels like a friend teaching you his recipes. There is room for substitutions and wiggle room with spices. It’s like when your boss doesn’t have work today: you get your work done, but you can talk to your buddy a little longer.
Great cookbook for a hearty dinner
Every recipe in this book looks like I could just snuggle up and fall asleep—from Sweet Potato Waffles with Chicken and Brown Butter to Slow and Low Red Beans and Rice. This is not a “diet” cookbook. There is no leafy green lettuce in sight. There’s nothing fancy here and I like that.
The last thing I want right now is a light meal that leaves me looking for a snack 20 minutes later. This is the cookbook you reach for when your family is unhappy or your weekend plans fall apart. It’s the one you reach for when you have something or someone to celebrate, or heck, when you just want to feel full. This works for me in my current state of deep winter because all I seem to crave are soups, stews, very savory meats, beans and savory vegetables. Oh, and I almost forgot – carbohydrates. Few things taste as good to me as pasta, bread, cereal, potatoes or rice with some gravy. Fix Me a Plate has it all.
As an added benefit (and certainly a surprise when it was published in 2022), Scott doesn’t eat individual eggs. With soaring egg prices, you won’t miss recipes for breakfast eggs, omelettes or quiches here. Of course, there are recipes that add eggs, but he keeps them to a minimum. (If you want more egg-free breakfast ideas, read here .)
The dish I cooked this week
I have a bag of shrimp in the freezer this week (part of my cheap food shopping list ), so I settled on the blackened shrimp and fried polenta recipe from The Soul Remix chapter. It wasn’t the easiest recipe I could have chosen—it involves polenta, chopped vegetables, and shrimp in a few ingredients—but it was worth it.
I like how Scott breaks the ingredient list into separate sections if the recipe has multiple parts, which they often do. Some cookbooks have a long list, but seeing what I need for polenta separated from shrimp isn’t that hard.
Many recipes, including this one, recommend using spices and small amounts of fresh and dried ingredients. Shrimp sauce uses a mixture of dried spices, dried herbs, aromatics, and shrimp stock—a shrimp broth for which Scott includes a recipe in the “Sauce and Spices” section. I made the shrimp broth a little differently, but I made it myself after peeling the shrimp and what an incredible difference it made. Each ingredient intentionally combines flavor and aroma so that when you finally eat, each bite boasts a rich depth of flavor.
I had to resist making the Southern Biscuits with Savory Sausage and Cream Gravy (I just baked a loaf of Irish Soda Bread, so I needed to focus), but it’s next on my list.
How to buy
Fix My Plate is available in paperback online or as an eBook at a great price. But you know me: I’d rather you go to a big, old, incredibly dusty bookstore. Support your local whenever you can, even if it’s not dusty; let’s keep them in business. Check their shelves for this cookbook or see if they can order it to their home.