The Italian technique of panfrying a chicken with a weight on top yields a bird with an utterly crispy skin and succulent flesh in less than half an hour. It works for all manner of poultry.
Read MoreSteel Cut Oats Go Savory (+ a Trick for Having Them Ready in a FLASH)
Steel cut oats make a sublime breakfast when dressed with savory flavorings rather than sweet ones. But they take SO long to cook unless you follow this brilliantly simple trick to having them ready first thing in the morning.
Read MoreSerious Comfort: Cream Biscuits (3 Minutes to Assemble, 12 to Bake)
Cream biscuits are really really easy to make, and SERIOUSLY divine. We figure they are the perfect weekend pleasure and will provide serious comfort during this challenging time.
Read MoreAnti-Anxiety Cookies: Chocolate Planets + Wonders
For the many people I know who feel that they are living in a sea of relentless anxiety, I offer two of my best chocolate cookie recipes: thin, chewy disks of intense chocolate AND fist-size hunks of chewy/moist chocolate cake loaded with chocolate chips, nuts and whatever else you can think of.
Read MoreThe Simple Pantry: Spaghetti with Spicy Garlic Oil and Anchovies
It takes five simple ingredients and about 10 minutes to transform spaghetti into an elemental, poor-man’s pasta that tastes like Italy. (Put your anchovy prejudice aside.)
Read MoreDivine Roasted Sesame Oil + Down n Dirty Ginger Scallion Sauce
I’d been disillusioned by sesame oils for some time, finding most that I tried with a harsh, over-toasted flavor. La Tourganelle’s delicious Roasted Sesame Oil was a joy to discover, and has inspired all sorts of culinary improvisations.
Read MoreItalian Pot Roast (Fast, Freezable, Perfect for Dinner Parties)
The Italian pot roast I had many years at a dinner party has haunted me ever since, lurking in my memory as pure deliciousness. It is perfect for entertaining: it can be made ahead only has to be reheated to be wonderful. It you call it by its Italian name, it tastes even better.
Read MoreFood Gift: DIY Chocolate Shards or Slabs with Surprising Flavors
Shards of chocolate embedded with surprising flavors and crunchy elements make terrific gifts for much less cost than pricey “artisan-made’ chocolates. Here’s how to make them.
Read MoreTwo Cranberry Sauces, One Complex, One Simple
Although I’ve had many cranberry sauces in my food-wandering days, I am partial to cooked ones that exploit cranberries’ best qualities: an abundance of tannic red-fruit tartness and pectin that releases when the fruit softens to form a thick, jammy sauce. Here are two favorites.
Read MoreDry-Brined Butterflied Turkey: A Short Roast to Perfection
The combined techniques of dry-brining and spatchcocking (butterflying) makes for a quick-cooking turkey with moist tender flesh, crisp skin, and a good deal less than the usual anxiety.
Read MoreFragrant Pears in Red Wine, Cardamom, Bay Leaf, Anise and Coriander
Over the years, I’ve learned a huge amount from wine connoisseur and cook Josh Eisen, including essential lessons about the many things you can do with “ends” of bottles of wine left after a meal. These pears are one of my favorites.
Read MoreSalt-Roasted Shrimp with Alice’s Aioli
Roasting shrimp in their shells on a bed of hot salt renders them moist, perfectly-seasoned with a pure concentrated ‘sea’ flavor. They are meant to be eaten with one’s fingers, dipped into a sauce, in a slightly pagan summery ritual that’s a pleasure in winter.
Read MoreSublime (and Easy): Seven Hour “Spoon” Lamb
One of my favorite chilly-weather dishes is also the homeliest-looking. But a leg of lamb cooked seven hours unattended when I’m home working elicits sighs and raves at a dinner party that night, and sublime leftovers in the days that follow.
Read MoreSalt-Roasted New Potatoes with Crème Fraïche and Cracked Coriander
Roasting new potatoes buried in salt transforms them, yielding an extraordinarily pure flavor and creamy interior. Creme fraiche, cracked coriander and snipped chives gild the lily.
Read MoreNever-Fail Roasted Fish + Five Quick Sauces
When jittery cooks confess their fear of cooking fish, I recommend a foolproof, tried-and-true method I perfected decades ago. It renders fish tender, succulent and evenly cooked. It works fine for a variety of fish, and is perfect paired with of these five favorite simple sauces.
Read MoreKitchen Gold: Red Wine Essence
One of the most extraordinarily extravagant and extraordinarily delicious sauces in my repertoire is Red Wine Essence. Because it will keep for months in the fridge, the powerful sauce is my secret weapon to call upon at any time I want to transform simple foods into complex dishes.
Read MorePasta Fries (French Fry Meets Mac+Cheese)
Inspired by the crispy satisfaction of oven fries, I baked leftover tube pasta with grated Parmesan to make something like the chewy-crisp noodles on the top of baked pasta casseroles. Pasta fries make a fine midnight snacks, side dish or hors d’oeuvre, and especially lone-dog supper.
Read MoreOur Favorite PaperThin Pancakes (No Flour, Eggs, or Milk…)
One of the best snacks I’ve had was in the market in Nice: a thin chickpea-flour pancake served hot on pieces of paper to eat with your fingers, pulling off the chewy edges and the soft crepe like interior. This sublime creation is easy to duplicate at home, where the eggless, flourless, dairy-less crepe-like pancakes can go savory or sweet.
Read MoreEnd-of-Summer Corn with Fried Egg + Parmigiano
My instant breakfast/lunch/supper dish for the end of summer corn season: cut-off-the-cob corn cooked briefly in a skillet, then an egg plopped in to fry along with it. Spoon the corn into a bowl, throw the egg on top and top grate Parmigiano over it. Protein, vegetables, starch, fat in one delish bowl. No recipe needed. Just check out the pictures…
Read MoreDavid Chang’s Unified Theory of Deliciousness w Recipes
For anyone wondering how an inspired chef thinks or how to think like one, David Chang’s The Unified Theory of Deliciousness in Wired is a must-read. Chang seeks to unearth the underlying base patterns that people respond to in a truly great dish, including the perfect level of salt.
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