Recipes By David Tanis
750 recipes found
Fennel, Mushroom and Radish Salad
Salsa Cruda
Baku Fish Kebabs
In her new cookbook, "Taste of Persia," Naomi Duguid gives this simple recipe from Azerbaijan for fish kebabs marinated with lemon juice and dill. To serve, the fish is sprinkled with tart sumac powder, available in most spice shops or online, and served with a fresh pomegranate relish. Cooking the fish mostly on the skin side keeps it moist.
Twice-Cooked Duck With Pea Shoots
The duck meat is meant to be simmered well ahead of the final cooking, so this recipe can be prepared several days ahead. (In the process, a bonus broth is achieved, some of which is used to make the sauce. Leftover broth can be saved for a little noodle soup.) Then, at the last minute, the chopped, cooked meat is briefly stir-fried; showered with aromatics like ginger, orange zest, garlic, cumin and hot pepper; splashed with rice wine; and finished with just-wilted pea shoots.
Polenta al Forno With Spinach, Ricotta and Fontina
Mezzelune Pasta With Peas and Shiitake Mushrooms
These delicate little half-moon stuffed pasta bundles (virtually the same as ravioli but for its name and shape) are fun to make and perfect for a light springtime meal or first course. Though best made with homemade egg pasta, alternative choices are to use fresh lasagna sheets or dumpling wrappers. Or feel free to make standard square ravioli, or even mix and match shapes, as long as they’re the same approximate size. To keep the project manageable, complete some of the tasks in advance: Make the pasta dough and filling a few hours ahead. The mezzelune (in English the plural is mezzalunas) may be filled and refrigerated well in advance of dinner — up to 3 hours ahead.
Persian-Spiced Lamb Shanks
Rare grilled lamb chops or a roasted leg of lamb can be delightful and are easy to cook if you’re in a hurry. However, with a little planning, you’ll find it’s the shank of the lamb that deserves the most praise. Careful, slow simmering will coax lamb shanks to a flavorful succulence unlike the other cuts. Lamb shanks are versatile, too, easily adaptable to recipes from many different cuisines. This heady Persian spice mixture yields a braise that is complex and nuanced, yet the flavors are balanced, with subtle hints of orange, lime and rosewater. Basmati rice is the perfect accompaniment. Prepare the lamb shanks up to 2 days before serving, if desired. Refrigerate them covered in broth and reheat for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven or over gentle heat on the stovetop.
Burrata With Fava Beans, Fennel and Celery
Good fresh burrata — mozzarella’s luscious, creamy-centered cousin — really needs no adornment, just good bread to accompany it (and perhaps a drizzle of olive oil and few arugula leaves). To make it more festive, add a quickly made seasonal vegetable topping and serve the gilded burrata as a salad or antipasto. Bright green fava beans, celery and fennel make a lovely rendition for spring.
Roasted Halibut and Potatoes With Rosemary
This is a great method for roasting any type of firm-fleshed fish fillet. The seasoning mimics one often used for pork chops, and all the cooking is done in the oven, except for the initial boiling of the potatoes. The result ticks all the boxes — it is easy to prepare; it uses a minimum of pots and pans; and most important, it is utterly delicious.
Spiced Lamb Shanks With Orange and Honey
There are many ways to cook lamb shanks throughout the year, but these taste like the beginning of spring. The orange fragrance and the honey’s perfume are complemented by the similarly sweet carrots and turnips. A shower of freshly snipped herbs adorns the dish just before serving. The recipe is easy to prepare in two parts: The shanks are simmered to tenderness first, which produces the broth. This can be done several hours ahead or up to 2 days in advance. Then, the bones are removed, and the meat can be finished in the sauce.
Hot Italian Sausage
Homemade hot Italian fennel sausage isn't a chore. Lightly browned and crumbled, this pork sausage makes a terrific topping for pizza or an addition to a rustic pasta dish.
Vietnamese Rice Noodles With Lemongrass Shrimp
Nearly every little shop in Vietnam serves some version of this satisfying, simple dish. Bowls of room-temperature rice noodles are festooned with wok-fried or grilled shrimp (or beef, pork or chicken), scented with lemongrass, splashed with a sweet-and-spicy dipping sauce, and then served with pickled vegetables and tender, aromatic herbs.
Sake-Steamed Kabocha Squash With White Miso
This steamed kabocha squash is astonishingly delicious straight from the pan or cold the next day.
Green Garlic Broth
Soy-Steamed Fish With Scallions and Pistachio
This simple Chinese method for steaming fish fillets on a plate yields remarkable results. If you don’t have a steamer, use a large wok with a lid or a wide, deep skillet. The untraditional pistachios add a pleasant nuttiness, but feel free to leave them out. Serve with steamed rice for a satisfying, light-tasting meal.
Beef Short Ribs With Star Anise and Tangerine
Red-Cooked Beef Short Ribs With Daikon
This technique, called red cooking, involves simmering meat with soy sauce, sugar and sweet aromatics like star anise and cinnamon. It happens in a wok, but instead of a quick high-heat stir-fry, it is a slow braise, more like a savory stew. Once the stew is assembled and simmering, it’s mostly a matter of waiting. Top off the liquid from time to time, but add only enough to barely cover the meat. The final step of cooking down the sauce intensifies the seasoning, accentuating the pungency of ginger and orange.
French Salt Cod and Potato Brandade
Your feelings about salt cod may depend on where your roots are. If your memories of the dish evoke words like bland and woolly, you likely had it in the Midwest. If you grew up in a Portuguese or Caribbean community, you may have more fond recollections. This recipe, common in France, is an opportunity to give salt cod a second chance, or to try it for the first time. The cod should be rinsed and soaked overnight, but that doesn’t take much effort. For tender fish, the trick is not to overcook it. Keep the flame low, just under a simmer. Cooking the fish in a combination of milk and water, along with a few aromatics like bay leaf, thyme, clove and peppercorns, will keep the fish sweet. While the cod is warm, flake it into a bowl and roughly mash with potatoes and moisten with garlicky olive oil and cream. A bit of cooking liquid is added to lighten the mixture. Serve smooth or chunky, as you like.
Baked Fish With Sesame and Ginger
Here's a virtuous though incredibly flavorful way to prepare any firm white-fleshed fish like cod, halibut or rock fish. Marinate the fish in a bit of fresh ginger and sesame oil then bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. Finish it off with a sprinkling of black sesame seeds, chopped scallions and a few slices of pickled ginger. Serve over a bed of steamed spinach and tender white rice.
Darina Allen's Shepherd's Pie
This is an adaptation of an irresistibly homey recipe from the Irish chef Darina Allen's cookbook “Grow Cook Nourish: A Kitchen Garden Companion in 500 Recipes.” She devised it for leftover roast duck and gravy, but here, meaty duck legs are braised especially for the dish (they may be cooked up to 2 days in advance). The topping is an earthy blend of potato and parsnip, a brilliant counterpart to the rich saucy filling. To be true to the spirit of the recipe, you should feel free to replace the duck with other combinations of cooked meats, vegetables or mushrooms. You’ll need 5 to 6 cups of filling in total.
Giant Green Pie (Torta Pasqualina)
This savory pie, called torta pasqualina in Italy, is many times made for special occasions because the preparation is a bit fiddly. The finished product, though, is impressive to behold, and you’re sure to draw compliments from your dining companions. Traditional cooks use a strudel-like pastry, rolled out very thin into a large circle, for the pie. At least four layers are necessary, brushed with oil to achieve a flaky crust. (You can get good results with phyllo dough or ordinary pie dough.)
Parsnip Gratin With Turmeric and Cumin
Parsnips are underappreciated but are by far the tastiest of winter vegetables, sweet and deep-flavored. Here, they are parboiled and splashed with cream, then baked with an unlikely but delicious combination: turmeric, cumin and feta.
Grape Salad
This grape salad, which falls into the same category of old-fashioned party dishes as molded Jell-O salad, comes from a Minnesota-born heiress, who tells me it was always part of the holiday buffet in her family. It couldn’t be simpler to prepare and has only three ingredients: grapes, sour cream and brown sugar. Rather like a creamy fruit salad with a crisp sugar topping, it really is delicious, though the concept sounded strange to me before I first tasted it. Other versions, I hear, call for softened cream cheese and nondairy “whipped topping”; I can’t say I’ll be trying that. Some cooks caramelize the brown sugar under the broiler and some don’t, but I definitely recommend this step, which gives the dish a crème brûlée aura.
Game Hens With Sumac, Pomegranate and Cardamom Rice
There’s very little difference these days between the small chickens marketed as game hens and the ones called poussins. Both names are used, and they refer to a bird that weighs about 1 pound. And both birds work here in this recipe. The hens are beautifully burnished and seasoned with sumac and pomegranate molasses, which adds a tart sweet and sour flavor. (You can find the molasses at Middle Eastern groceries.) Figure one whole bird per person, or half a bird for smaller appetites. Fragrant cardamom-spiced basmati rice makes a perfect accompaniment.