Recipes By David Tanis
750 recipes found
Savory Sticky Rice Bowls (or Stir-Fried Sticky Rice)
Savory Potato Tart
We all love a rich, creamy French potato gratin, but for a special occasion, or just for fun, make this version, which is encased in buttery flaky pastry so the gratin becomes a savory tart. Serve a small slice alongside roasted meats, or a larger portion for a vegetarian lunch, accompanied by a green salad. If you want to make it a few hours ahead, or even a day before, it reheats beautifully.
Creamy Chicken Liver Pasta With Wild Morels
Fresh wild mushrooms are the most delicious indulgence, whether it’s gray-brown morels in the springtime, golden chanterelles in the summer, or russet-colored porcini in the fall. True, they are expensive (unless you know how to pick your own), but a mere half-pound is all you need for this creamy pasta — and chicken livers are cheap. Serve the pasta in small portions; it is undeniably a bit on the rich side. If you can’t find wild mushrooms, use an assortment of cultivated mushrooms, like cremini, oyster mushrooms, King trumpets or shiitake. To give them more wild mushroom flavor, soak just a few a few dried morels or porcini in warm water. When softened, chop them very fine and stir into the sauce.
French Chicken Liver and Green Bean Salad With Garam Masala
Monkfish Roasted With Herbs and Olives
Firm-fleshed fish can be described as "meaty" — monkfish fits this category — and are often best roasted in a hot oven. Tart lemon slices, aromatic herbs and olives enhance and complement that meatiness, just as they would roast lamb or chicken. A smear of rustic zesty black olive paste is the perfect condiment to complete this simple dish. Use whatever kind of olives appeal to you. At most supermarket self-serve olive bars you can combine 3 or 4 types in one container. I prefer a mixture of green and black whole olives with pits to roast with the fish. For the olive paste, pitted black olives are ideal. But it’s fine to use just one type of olive, of course, and go pit-free throughout — it is a forgiving, malleable sort of recipe. To that end, if monkfish is unavailable, consider halibut, swordfish, grouper, sea bass or snapper.
Basic Dough for Fresh Egg Pasta
Fresh pasta isn’t something you can master in one go. There’s a learning curve. Only experience can teach you how the dough should feel and how thin to roll it. (Not that it needs to be rolled by hand with a rolling pin. A hand-crank pasta machine is a fine tool, perfect for a small batch.) But pasta making isn’t rocket science either. Most competent home cooks will succeed, even if they never match the prowess of mythic Italian nonnas. Fresh homemade egg pasta is definitely worth the effort, though, and it is always better than commercially produced versions.
Chana Dal Sundal
Sundal is an addictive South Indian snack made with chickpeas, spiced with mustard seeds, chiles and grated coconut, and sold on the beach in paper cones by roaming vendors. A bit like popcorn in nature, though with a softer texture and a lot more zing, it is meant for casual nibbling. (It makes great party food.) It is also prepared for certain Indian religious festivals throughout the year. Here you make it with a small split chickpea called chana dal, but is often made with large chickpeas or other legumes, like peanuts. Look for chana dal and (other dals) at any Indian grocery or online if you can’t find it at the market.
Pan-Fried Baby Artichokes With Gremolata
Here is an appetizer course to beat the band. Baby artichokes dipped in seasoned flour, fried and served with a gremolata of parsley, garlic, lemon zest, orange zest and capers. Snap off a few of the tough, dark exterior leaves of the little artichokes until the pale green centers are visible. Then cut a half-inch or so off the tops of each artichoke and trim the stem end with a paring knife. Cut them lengthwise into halves or quarters and put them in a bowl of water with a good squeeze of lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown. This can be done an hour or two before cooking. Use olive oil to fry them if you’re feeling extravagant, or a frugal combination of olive and vegetable oils.
Kichri With Massour Dal
Kichri, a traditional Indian dish, is a delightful savory combination of dal and basmati rice cooked together. Lots of other cultures serve something similar: rice and pigeon peas throughout the Caribbean, or rice and brown lentils in many Middle Eastern countries. It can be served alone, with a dollop of yogurt, for breakfast or lunch, or as a side dish with grilled or roasted meats. Some cooks add more liquid for a kichri that is more on the soupy side. Sizzling the spices in ghee makes the kichri quite aromatic.
Flounder With Herb Blossom Butter
Herb blossom butter sounds fancy, but it’s really just a prettier, more floral, summery version of herb butter, perfect with any white-fleshed fish, salmon or trout. If you have no access to flowering herbs, simply use chives, thyme and dill instead to make a plain herb butter. Look for herb blossoms at farmers markets or buy a couple of blooming potted herb plants, or ask a friend with a vegetable garden. Edible flowers and all sorts of herb blossoms are also available online.
Italian-Style Braised Rabbit With Rosemary and Mushrooms
Green Gnocchi With Peas and Fresh Sage Butter
Winter Vegetable Curry
There are lots of authentic vegetarian Indian dishes, but this hearty curry is more a seat-of-the-pants improvisation, actually based on a French technique. The recipe, however, may be used as a template for any number of variations. Make it with other winter vegetables, or change the combination to match the seasonal vegetables available throughout the year. Just don't forget to remove the whole chiles before eating.
Feta-Stuffed Peppers
These peppers have some heft and give a satisfying main-course feeling. Here, extra-small bell peppers are stuffed with a mild feta cheese and baked with a generous handful of herbaceous bread crumbs. It is a very simple dish, with a surprisingly complex taste, good warm or at room temperature.
White Bean Stew With Carrots, Fennel and Peas
A supply of dried white beans in the pantry means you can always make some sort of white bean stew without a trip to the store. White beans are welcome in any season, though this dish is perfect for spring, with its bright green peas. Use any kind of white bean: ordinary white northern or navy beans, larger cannellini or corona beans or, as pictured here, a small Italian heirloom variety called purgatory bean. This stew is versatile; it's equally delicious served hot or at room temperature, and it can be a first course, a main course or part of an antipasto. Finish with a drizzle of good, fruity extra virgin olive oil. The spicy herb topping makes a bright embellishment.
Halibut With Brown Butter, Lemon and Sage
This is a simple method for cooking firm, white-fleshed fish on the stovetop from start to finish. If halibut is not available, use thick flounder fillets, snapper, grouper or large sea scallops. The flavor of sage permeates the quick, easy pan sauce and the buttery bread crumbs provide crunchy texture.
Yucatán Fish
Yucatecan fare differs from other Mexican food. It is a cuisine rooted in the cooking of the native Maya people, crossed with that of the many conquerors who passed through. The ingredients there are rather particular; among them is achiote, also called annatto, a hard seed that imparts a delicious musky flavor and bright color to many marinades. Achiote is at its best in the company of garlic and hot chiles, along with an assortment of pungent spices, ground to a paste. The thick red sauce is diluted with the juice of sour oranges and tiny limes. The Yucatecan custom is to coat fish, tikin xic, with the spice mixture and wrap it in banana leaves with pickled onions before cooking. Fish prepared this way is always wonderfully moist, and the banana leaves, aside from making the ideal parcel for grilling or pit roasting, add a subtle aroma and taste.
Steamed Asparagus With Pistachios and Brown Butter
This versatile brown butter sauce could enhance all sorts of other vegetables, or fish for that matter. But it just so happens to be a delightful pairing with perfectly cooked fresh green asparagus.
Fresh Multi-Bean Salad with Charred Red Onion
Shaved Asparagus Salad With Ginger and Sesame
Succulent, fat, fresh asparagus is thinly sliced by hand for this raw salad — easier than you'd think, and safer than using a mandoline. It’s very refreshing and bright tasting.
Asparagus With Mustard Vinaigrette
Here is an easy, springtime recipe that takes no time at all and puts the light flavors of the season right onto your table. Cooking time is key: both the asparagus and the eggs must be watched carefully. Arrange everything on a plate beautifully, and throw open the windows to spring.
Broiled Leeks Vinaigrette
A classic French first course, cooked leeks dressed with a mustardy vinaigrette can be wonderful or dull, depending on the size of the leeks. Don’t use giant ones; choose medium to small leeks for tender results. A few minutes under the broiler adds flavor to this version, which is served warm.
David Tanis’s Risi e Bisi
This traditional Italian dish of rice with peas is best made in the spring when fresh peas in the pod are at their sweetest. It is similar to risotto, but a bit on the soupy side, and less rich. A flavorful homemade chicken broth is essential. Look for peas that haven’t quite filled their pods — larger peas will be starchier. Asian markets and some farmers’ markets carry leafy pea tendrils, but any tender greens are fine.
Shaved Asparagus With Arugula and Parmesan
You can get asparagus from Peru all winter long, and early spring asparagus from Mexico and Southern California. This is not a dish to make with those. It celebrates your local, regional asparagus, whenever it shows up in your local farmers' market, after months of apples, potatoes and sturdy greens. Simply shaved, then dressed with oil and paired with arugula and Parmesan, it makes for a spring salad of enormous satisfaction.