Recipes By David Tanis
753 recipes found
Pan-Roasted Cauliflower With Garlic, Parsley and Rosemary
Nearly any vegetable tastes good browned in olive oil and showered with garlic, parsley and rosemary, but cauliflower is an especially good candidate for this technique. The inherent sweetness of cauliflower begs for a hit of lemon and hot pepper too. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Basic Sticky Rice
Also known as “sweet rice” or glutinous rice (though it’s gluten free), sticky rice is a large white grain that becomes translucent, shiny and extremely sticky when steamed. Sticky rice is a staple in Laos, where it is especially beloved, but it has ardent fans throughout Asia. Traditionally, it’s cooked over steam in a conical woven basket. If you don’t have such a steamer, you can use a standard stacking steamer, a colander lined with muslin or cheesecloth, or a fine mesh strainer that fits over a saucepan. For the best texture, cooking sticky rice over hot steam is ideal, but it is possible to pull it off in an electric rice cooker, using less water than usual, or in a pot on the stove. What follows are the basic instructions for success.
New Mexican Pozole
In New Mexico, there is abundance and generosity and plenty of comfort food at holiday parties. Posole, the savory and hearty, rather soupy stew made from dried large white corn kernels simmered for hours, is traditional and easy to prepare. Stir in a ruddy red purée of dried New Mexico chiles to give the stew its requisite kick. This is satisfying, nourishing, fortifying fare. The corn stays a little bit chewy in a wonderful way (canned hominy never does), and the spicy broth is beguiling.
Sweet-and-Sour Cauliflower With Golden Raisins
It’s important to season this cauliflower dish attentively: You want a balance of sweet, tangy and salty flavors. Onion, lemon and pine nuts pull it all together. The cauliflower may be served hot or at room temperature.
Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce
Chocolate sauce is easy to make, but it’s a good idea to do so in a double boiler, which eliminates the possibility of accidentally burning the sauce. If you don’t have a double boiler, improvise one by placing a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Use high quality dark chocolate, not generic “baker’s chocolate,” for the best results.
Sesame-Miso Chicken Salad
There’s always room for another chicken salad recipe, especially if the assembly is quick. This one calls for a whole cooked chicken, which you can roast or boil gently several hours ahead or up to 2 days in advance. (Some may choose to buy a precooked rotisserie chicken, but it can sometimes be hard to find one that is seasoned or cooked properly. If you can find a good one, go for it.) The creamy miso dressing can also be used to dress a green salad, or to replace mayonnaise on a sandwich. It also makes a great dip for vegetables.
Italian Red-Wine Braised Duck with Olive Gremolata
Lebanese-Style Bread Salad With Tomatoes and Herbs
Ripe tomatoes, cool cucumbers and toasted pita bread, or Middle-Eastern bread salad. To be completely authentic, this Lebanese dish that is served in various forms across the region should also contain a sprinkling of reddish powdered sumac, which has a sour, lemony flavor and is available from good spice merchants. Fresh purslane, a slightly sour green succulent plant, is also traditional to the dish. You can sometimes get it at farmers markets, or find it growing wild. (It volunteers itself in most vegetable gardens.) But neither is required.
Roast Chicken With Green Garlic, Herbs and Potatoes
Green garlic has a distinct green, grassy garlicky character that is pungent but not overpowering. After an initial peeling of the outer layer, both green and white parts of the stalk can be used, and if you cannot find green garlic, a combination of scallion and garlic chives will make for a reasonable substitute. Roasting the potatoes under the chicken means they catch the infused drippings, ensuring big flavor in this simple yet complete dinner.
Venetian Cauliflower
Give commonplace cauliflower an upgrade and it becomes holiday fare. Take a classic Venetian approach by using a mixture of sweet spices. Caramelized onions, saffron and cinnamon build the fragrant foundation, along with fennel and coriander seeds. Currants, golden raisins and pine nuts add complexity.
Coconut Shrimp Curry With Mushrooms
This simple curry, infused with spices, has a pleasant flavor with a hint of coconut. Use whatever kind of cultivated mushrooms you can find, from button-type white ones to golden oyster mushrooms. Feel free, too, to skip the curry leaves, but if you can find them, they add a nice depth of flavor.
Flounder With Brown Butter, Lemon and Tarragon
The flatfish family is comprised of numerous popular fish, including sole, halibut and flounder. But all the various boneless fillets are relatively interchangeable and can be prepared in more or less the same way, adjusting cooking time according to size. These pan-cooked fillets are quick, simple and elegant.
Lemony Roasted Chicken Wings
These meaty out-of-the-ordinary roasted wings are infused with lots of lemon, garlic and rosemary, then roasted on a bed of fingerling potatoes. Use a large roasting pan that's at least 3 inches deep, or a big earthenware gratin dish, or a couple of Pyrex lasagna pans side by side. The lemony chicken and potatoes are delicious hot and crisp, but just as good at cool room temperature.
Pan-Roasted Spiced Cauliflower With Peas
This dish is inspired by a trip to Curry Hill, a neighborhood in New York dotted with stores selling saris, Indian restaurants, Pakistani cafes and hole-in-the-wall spice shops. When I got home from my shopping spree, a cauliflower was screaming for Indian spices, garlic and ginger. Better still, I knew I could knock together a pan-roasted meal in about 20 minutes.
Spicy Lacquered Chicken Wings
Here is a remarkably sophisticated though dead simple take on classic dude food: chicken wings that work just as well in front of a football game on the television as at a Chinese New Year party. They are sweet, spicy, sticky, fragrant and full-flavored, and they have a fine, shiny lacquered coat. Top with a scallion and cucumber relish spiked with roasted peanuts, sesame oil and hot red peppers. A bed of sliced juicy navel oranges can serve as a foil to the spicy heat.
Brined Pork Chops With Fennel
Pork and fennel — both fennel seed and the bulb-shaped vegetable — are often companions, and the combination of flavors is quite delicious. For best results, let the chops soak for at least a few hours, preferably overnight, in a quickly made brine.
Home-Cured Pork Tenderloin ‘Ham’
Jo Rooney's Buttermilk Biscuits
Biscuits are easy to make, as long as you follow two basic rules: don't overwork the dough, and have the oven quite hot. This recipe comes from an early mentor of mine, Mrs. Jo Rooney, a wonderful home cook I met years ago in Bakersfield, Calif. Rather than double the recipe, she always said it was better to make another batch while the first one was baking. Also, that way there's a constant flow of hot biscuits.
Sicilian Involtini With Ham and Cheese
In Sicily, where I learned to make these savory bundles, cooks make them at home, or buy them in butcher shops, ready for the oven. Fillings vary, but this one with prosciutto cotto and cheese is a favorite. The rolls are threaded on skewers with bay leaves and bread slices, showered with bread crumbs and olive oil, then baked.
Brussels Sprouts With Chorizo
Beloved brussels sprouts, which have enough personality to stand up to forceful seasoning, are often paired with bacon or pancetta, and generously peppered. Here, flavorful Spanish chorizo and smoky pimentón complement and enhance the stalwart vegetable. They play beautifully together. Use fresh, soft chorizo, not the aged salami-like kind.
Chivito Steak Sandwich
The chivito, a little steak sandwich that serves as one of Uruguay’s culinary calling cards, makes for a fine afternoon of lunching, or an easy outdoor dinner. Pound out the beef — rib-eye or shell steak, tenderloin or flat-iron — then put it on a hot grill. It cooks fast. Then assemble: a small kaiser or Portuguese roll, with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise, some cheese and a slice of hard-cooked egg. Roasted peppers and grilled onions are welcome additions, and a spoonful of chimichurri salsa, freshly chopped, takes it over the top, but nicely. Figure on one or two per person. A nap can follow.
Crab Croque-Madame
Every Francophile has eaten a croque-monsieur, which is essentially a hot ham and cheese sandwich, the top spread with a layer of béchamel sauce and grated cheese, then grilled until golden and bubbly. You can get one in any café, where it is eaten from a little plate, either at a small table or standing at the bar, using a knife and fork. A croque-madame is exactly the same, with a fried egg on top. Why is it madame when it has an egg? No one knows. I decided to make a version with crab meat, which I thought would be novel, until I discovered it had already been invented, many times over. It seems there already exists the crab toastie, an American open-face snack made with English muffins. And crab toasties are well known in the British Isles as well. I pushed mine in a slightly creole direction, adding cayenne, tarragon and chives.
Rigatoni al Forno With Cauliflower and Broccoli Rabe
This baked pasta — please don’t call it a “pasta bake” — is a luscious affair, with two sauces. A creamy white béchamel is employed to toss with the pasta and vegetables. When it emerges, bubbly and bronzed and crisp on top, a bright, light tomato sauce adorns each serving. (If preferred, you can layer both sauces instead.) Putting it together is somewhat like building a lasagna — a bit of a fussy project — but once assembled, it's no trouble at all to bake and serve. Prepare it all several hours in advance, then pop it in the oven when you like.
Simple Pinto Beans
Pinto beans are emblematic of the Old West — good cheap hearty fare. These plain ones are good with just about anything or as a meal in a tin plate, cowboy-style, with a chunk of cornbread. For the best tasting beans, cook at a bare simmer, and keep the liquid level just 1 inch above the beans’ surface as they cook.