Recipes By David Tanis
750 recipes found
Charred Tomatoes With Egg, Anchovies and Bread Crumbs
Charring tomatoes briefly over hot coals enhances their natural sweetness and adds a bit of smoky flavor. Use large tomatoes cut into thick slices, halve small tomatoes or thread whole cherry tomatoes on skewers. Paired with egg, anchovies, bread crumbs and a garlicky dressing, what’s not to like?
Grilled Swordfish With Smoky Tomato-Anchovy Salsa
This is a simple summer fish dish with robust flavors. Swordfish would be the first choice, for its meatiness and ease of grilling, but any firm-fleshed white fish, such as halibut, monkfish, corvina or snapper, is a suitable option. Tuna would also work, but for that matter, so would chicken breast, for those at your gathering who don’t eat fish. Topped with an easily made salsa of cherry tomatoes, anchovy, hot pepper and smoky pimentón, the whole affair is rather salad-like, best accompanied by arugula or lettuce leaves. Serve with roasted potatoes or garlic toast for a casual picnic-style summer supper.
Baked Rice With Chicken and Mushrooms
This warming, savory, hearty baked rice casserole was originally meant to be an Indian-style biriyani, but my larder was stocked with Gallic ingredients: mushrooms, thyme, garlic, parsley. I switched gears, heading in a French direction. It’s a great dish for feeding a crowd and also reheats beautifully, so it’s worth making the entire batch. Serve with a crisp green salad, juicy wilted spinach or mustard greens, or all-season frozen peas.
Mashed Fava Bean Toasts
Fresh fava beans are a great addition to a spring vegetable stew or a pasta primavera. But savored on their own, mashed and smeared on toast for crostini, they are sensational. It is a fussy job, though — each bean must be peeled by hand. Try to get a friend to help; the work goes faster with more hands. You will need about 5 pounds of fava beans in the pod to yield 2 cups of mashed favas, but this labor of love is worth it.
Tomatoes With Basil and Anchovies
A great tomato salad starts with great tomatoes. Buy ripe tomatoes in season from the market or farm stand, or, even better, pick them straight from the garden. The anchovies (they are rinsed briefly to tame them) are an important feature, the perfect counterpoint to the tomatoes’ sweetness. Add a large handful of aromatic basil leaves just before serving.
Crab Cake Banh Mi Sandwich
Classic banh mi, one of the most delectable sandwiches known to humankind, is built in a crisp baguette spread with mayonnaise, and contains pâté, ham and roasted pork, along with strips of pickled vegetables, cilantro and hot chiles. But there are countless variations on this Vietnamese staple. Some are filled with chicken, others with beef, and a Louisiana po’ boy-style banh mi contains fried oysters. Miniature crab cakes are another option — what’s not to like?
Green Beans With Herbs and Olives
A salad of freshly picked green beans is a true treat. Whatever the color — green, purple or pale yellow — choose smaller beans, which are naturally more tender.
Corn, Avocado and Cucumber Salad
This straight-from-the-garden vegetable salad is the essence of summer on a plate. It’s very easy to make, but you’ll need to buy sweet young corn, tender enough to eat raw, as well as perfectly ripe avocados and the freshest cucumbers. Feel free to add cherry tomatoes and radishes, and sprigs of crunchy purslane, if you can find it.
Cherry Frangipane Tart
The classic combination of cherries and almonds is irresistible. For this tart, whole pitted cherries are baked in a rich almond batter called frangipane. Softly whipped cream, crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream make nice accompaniments.
Coconut-Cardamom Panna Cotta
Frozen Espresso Zabaglione
Zabaglione (or Zabaione) is a classic Italian dessert custard, but is basically nothing more than egg yolks whipped with sugar, usually served warm or at room temperature. It is typically flavored with sweet Marsala wine, which has a caramel-like flavor, but other wines or liqueurs may be substituted for variation. In this version, espresso coffee and Cognac are used, and the zabaglione is frozen for several hours or overnight. It’s an easy way to make gelato at home, with a light airy texture.
Paella With Shrimp and Fava Beans
“Sometimes the simplest paellas can be the most satisfying,” David Tanis wrote in 2012, when bringing this recipe to The Times. Here, fresh, wild-caught shrimp are peeled and deveined, the shells saved for a broth to flavor the rice (though a chicken broth can also be used, if you’re short on time). The shrimp is then marinated, and cooked separately, layered over a bed of rice, fava beans and chorizo.
Ricotta-Stuffed Shells With Pesto
Classic stuffed and baked Italian-American jumbo shells are an easy sell. This summery version dispenses with the tomato sauce: The shells are instead drizzled lightly with olive oil, dusted with grated pecorino and bread crumbs, baked briefly until nicely browned, then napped with a bright green garlicky pesto sauce. The effect is more akin to crispy ravioli than a juicy, long-baked casserole. Serve 2 or 3 shells as a first course, 5 to 6 for a main.
Garlic Shrimp Brochettes
This garlicky green sauce is a good match for shrimp, which are threaded onto skewers and grilled — preferably outdoors, over hot coals, though this recipe also works fine on a stovetop in a cast-iron pan, or under the broiler. The resulting brochettes, which are small (about 2 ounces each), are perfect party food. Threading each piece of meat onto two skewers, rather than one, keeps the meat from twirling and makes it easier to grill. (If you’re using bamboo skewers, soak them in warm water for 15 minutes, so they won’t catch fire.)
Beef Tenderloin Stuffed With Herb Pesto
Stuffed beef tenderloin is always an impressive main course. This one is summery, with a zesty, garlicky herb pesto, ideal for grilling over coals. It is delicious served at room temperature for an elegant summer buffet. Ask your butcher for a nice center-cut piece of tenderloin. If you aren’t comfortable with butterflying the meat yourself, ask the butcher to do that too, but it’s really not very difficult.
Lamb Steak With Lebanese Spices
The Lebanese seven-spice mixture baharat (the Arabic word for spices) usually has a base of black pepper and allspice, along with coriander, cumin, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, but that's not set in stone. Sometimes powdered ginger, cardamom and hot paprika are part of the mix. There are often more than seven spices, and sometimes fewer. It is an all-purpose spice blend, good for adding depth to stews, and as a rub for meat. London broil is what butchers call a boneless piece of meat from nearly any cut that is broiled or grilled and then sliced before serving, almost like a little roast. A butterflied leg of lamb has four such pieces, and grilling each separately is easier than cooking the whole boneless leg. You can buy chops instead, but they usually cost more.
Thai-Style Sea Scallop Cakes
This version of the Thai appetizer tod mun is not completely authentic, but it is pretty faithful to the flavors of the original. Makrut lime leaf provides the unique floral, citrusy flavor. The lime leaf is not absolutely necessary in this recipe, but it’s a bit of a pity to leave it out. The leaves are available, if not from your local Asian grocery, then online. Most tod mun recipes call for any white-fleshed fish, but this recipe calls for sea scallops, which give the cakes a wonderful texture.
Baked Romanesco Broccoli With Mozzarella and Olives
Sicilian cooks make a traditional cauliflower dish, using a pale-green variety that is baked with soft mild sheep’s milk cheese and studded with meaty black olives. It can also be made with romanesco broccoli (confusingly called Roman cauliflower in English), the very bright chartreuse-colored cauliflower with pointy spiral florets you find at farmer’s markets. But regular white cauliflower is fine, and will give delicious results, too.
Freekeh With Chicken, Almonds and Yogurt
Freekeh is unbelievably delicious. Just a bowl of it with a dab of yogurt would suffice, but for the full effect it should be topped with a savory stew of chicken or lamb. Freekeh is made from wheat that is harvested when the berries are still green and then burned to remove the chaff. It is often described as roasted, but when I say smoky, it really is. Use cracked freekeh as the whole-grain version takes longer to cook.
Golden Beet and Beet-Greens Salad with Yogurt, Mint and Dill
Turkey Biryani
Biryani is a natural choice for Thanksgiving leftovers. With broth made from the turkey carcass and a pile of leg meat (use the white meat for sandwiches), all that is necessary is a handful of spices and some good basmati rice. If you don’t have leftovers, the recipe here can be prepared with fresh turkey legs. You can make it completely vegetarian if you wish, using roasted squash, potatoes or cauliflower, and adding legumes or green peas.
No-Fuss Jerk Chicken
Jerk chicken — spicy and grilled — is a dish for which Jamaica is justly famous, though it is made across the Caribbean basin and has been for more than 400 years. The pungent marinade includes lots of allspice (called pimento in the islands), black pepper and clove, but gets an even bigger kick from ultra-spicy yellow Scotch bonnet peppers, similar in shape and intensity to habanero chiles. You can certainly grill it in the island manner. But this easy recipe puts the chicken in the oven instead, which fills the kitchen with intoxicating flavors. Vacation on a plate.
Deviled Crab Meat and Chicory Salad With Egg Dressing
Chilled Watermelon Soup
This simple, refreshing gazpacho-like chilled soup depends on the sweetness of the watermelon, tempered by the addition of olive oil, vinegar, lime juice and salt, to create the perfect balance of flavors. A little spiciness in the form of cayenne or crushed red pepper is welcome, too, as is an extra squeeze of lime juice at the table.