Weeknight ease married to plump texture and briny sweetness. It’s why shrimp is one of our staple go-to dinner solutions. Simply stir-fry a few aromatics and spices until fragrant, toss in the shrimp, and dinner is on the table in 20 minutes.
The star of maque choux, one of the classic dishes of Louisiana’s Cajun country, is fresh summer corn. Naturally sweet kernels are in delicious balance with a savory mix of vegetables and crawfish. But it can veer to the heavy side, thanks largely to the addition of cream.
Each November in Sardinia, purple crocus blossoms blanket the rolling fields. It’s a striking sight against a lush green backdrop. Those same flowers also provide what locals call “red gold,” or saffron.
For a sophisticated summertime dessert, it’s not always necessary to reinvent the wheel. A classic ice cream sundae will hit the spot with the right toppings.
It’s partly what we had in mind when developing this recipe for a sesame oat crumble in our book “Milk Street Tuesday Nights,” which limits recipes to 45 minutes or less.
One of the best ways to build flavor is layering, or using one ingredient in two ways or at different stages of cooking. Using the zest of a lemon in cake batter, for instance, while using the juice in a citrusy glaze.
A summery fruit salad and spicy pork tenderloin might not seem the most natural pairing — until you consider the precedents of pork chops with apple sauce and Italian prosciutto with melon.
Truth is, cooks have been pairing sweet fruits and savory meats for centuries.
For this year’s Fourth of July cookout, update long-held traditions with globally inspired flavors — starting with the burger.
This recipe from our book “COOKish,” which limits recipes to just six ingredients without sacrificing flavor, is loosely based on a Filipino “chori” burger.
For a fast and easy warm-weather salad on the Fourth of July, it doesn't get better than Watermelon Feta.
According to Google Trends, searches for watermelon and feta cheese salads have spiked every July for more than a decade.
Dan Rinaldi, a firefighter in Providence, Rhode Island, leaned on his state's fresh seafood for this dish. He says battered squid tossed with hot cherry peppers is a great representation of where he lives and of his Italian roots.
Thin cuts of steak such as flat iron and hanger are great for weeknight meals because they’re full of flavor and cook up fast. But a flavorful spice rub and quick marinade easily elevate the meat to a meal worthy of a special occasion.
Spiralizing zucchini into “noodles” often translates into a wan and watery dish, a poor imitation of the pasta it attempts to emulate. Generally, it’s better to let an ingredient shine on its own merits.
Street vendors cross East Asia scrunch small pieces of meat onto skewers and baste them over hot coals with a sweet and savory sauce. Amid the sizzle and aromatic puffs of smoke, the sauce thickens to a luscious glaze, and — importantly — the meat cooks up fast.
Western cooks too often go too light on fresh herbs, treating them more as garnish than flavoring. We prefer the Thai approach, which uses ingredients such as basil, mint and cilantro by the fistful.
Tomatoes may get more attention, but throughout Italy, lemon also often finds its way into pasta.
Along the Amalfi coast, ring-shaped calamarata pasta is paired with clams, parsley, garlic and fried strips of a sweet local lemon.
Peru’s lomo saltado is fusion cooking at its easiest and most approachable, a quick stir-fry of soy-marinated beef, tomatoes and hot peppers that reflects the country’s cultural — and culinary —influences, from Incan farmers to Chinese immigrants.
There are two camps of Mother’s Day celebrators: those who like nothing more than a lavish brunch/lunch/dinner at a restaurant, and those who hope for a homey celebration enjoyed while wearing a pair of fuzzy slippers.
Surprise Mom — if you can — with this elegant but kid-friendly dessert for Mother’s Day.
This treat, from our book “COOKish,” which limits recipes to just six ingredients without sacrificing flavor, takes just 20 minutes and can be tucked into the back of the freezer up to a week in advance.
In the riot of colors and smells that is Cape Town, South Africa, we found a vibrant one-pot chicken and vegetable dish that turned our idea of what a curry is on its head. From a distance, this Cape Malay curry reads Indian, or maybe Indonesian, but get closer and it distinguishes itself as uniquely South African.
J. Kenji López-Alt has written a new cookbook with handy tips, fascinating asides and some 200 dishes all related to the wok. One recipe in “The Wok” is for a version of mapo tofu that is similar to what he ate growing up, though instead of plain ground beef his mom would use the dish as an opportunity to use up leftover dumpling filling.
Classic risotto is made with starchy medium-grain Italian rice, such as Arborio or carnaroli. It is toasted then cooked, sometimes slowly, over low heat as broth is ladled into the pan in stages. While the liquid absorbs, the cook stirs, stirs and keeps stirring.
There are lots of classic dishes for Easter dinner: rack or leg of lamb, baked ham, Easter Bread, asparagus sides. But no one wants to miss dessert on a holiday, so make it a good one!
Carrots often make an appearance at Easter in some guise, often as a side dish.
Think of the classic French sauce gribiche as a dolled-up egg salad. But instead of adding mayonnaise to hard-cooked eggs, the eggs are mashed with bold ingredients like capers, mustard and herbs to a creamy consistency.
An unusual jar of honey and a ripping hot sheet pan were the keys to remaking what too often can be a forgettable side dish — roasted carrots.
First, the honey. We’ve seen our fair share of infused varieties, everything from ginger and saffron to lavender and matcha green tea.
Evidence of French colonial rule is dotted throughout Vietnam, particularly in the cuisine. Coffee, butter, roasting and beef are all French legacies, even if the coffee comes loaded with sweetened condensed milk and the beef is stir-fried with soy and fish sauces.
The secret to a great fried rice is all in the leftovers.
Freshly cooked rice often results in a soggy, gluey dish because it continues to cook as ingredients are added to the pan. But chilling previously cooked rice changes its starches, yielding light, separate grains.
Kale salads may be all the rage, but served raw, the sturdy green can be off-puttingly tough. So we looked at its cousin, cabbage, for clues on how to tame the texture without cooking it.
Kimchi and sauerkraut recipes use a salt massage to soften leaves, and we were pleased to find the same technique does wonders for the texture of kale.
Travel to the far north of Italy and the terrain gets rougher, the weather colder, and the pastas more rustic. For centuries, buckwheat was one of the few grains hardy enough to survive in Valtellina, a small valley in the shadow of the Alps, and it shows in the food.
In Tunisia, partiers and laborers line up during the pre-dawn hours for the same thing — steaming bowls of lablabi, a hearty soup of chickpeas and stale baguette that tastes so much better than it sounds.
It’s been a bit since the traybake crossed the Atlantic from Britain, where a host of cooking personalities popularized a technique that combines big flavor and weeknight convenience onto one pan.
But for the uninitiated, meat and vegetables are placed on a baking sheet along with some seasonings, then go into the oven together.
Tamarind remains a bit of a mystery to most cooks in the United States, but its sweet and sour pulp is appreciated by cooks from its native range in tropical Africa to India, Mexico and beyond. The pods resemble a long, bulbous peanut, but the flavor evokes some combination of lemons, dates and apricots — which makes it a powerhouse ingredient packed with flavor.
GEMELLI WITH TOMATOES, SALAMI AND FONTINA
Talk to the best cooks in Italy, and they’ll tell you the secret to great pasta is an ingredient many American cooks throw out — the starchy pasta cooking water.