Recipes By Florence Fabricant
974 recipes found
Jambon Beurre
Unlike ham and cheese, a sandwich that’s ubiquitous across the globe, jambon beurre (ham butter) is strictly French. Though it’s a seemingly sparse construction — simply baguette, cooked ham and butter — the ingredients for this interpretation from L’Ami Pierre in New York require careful selection. High-quality baguettes are now sold in many bakeries. High-butterfat butter enhances the sandwich, providing more fat than 80 percent supermarket standard, and the ham, preferably silky jambon de Paris, a cooked ham sliced, in the finer shops, from a bone-in joint, can make it or break it. French-style or similar cooked ham is available in many areas; to avoid are boneless, often waterlogged deli hams. Like most sandwiches, this one is designed as a treat for one, but, cut into smaller sections and served on a platter, it can enhance a buffet, even at holiday time.
Pumpkin Soup With Ancho and Apple
Chances are the contents of that can of pumpkin purée you may be using for pie, soup, biscuits, custard, ice cream or bread came from Illinois. It’s the state that produces the most pumpkin for canning. This vibrant soup, from the chef Rick Bayless, an owner of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo in Chicago, is inspired by Mexico, where pumpkin is as typical an ingredient as the pepitas, ancho chile, canela and crema that are also in the recipe. His original calls for fresh squash or pumpkin — about 1 1/2 pounds, peeled, seeded, cut in chunks and added to the pot with the apple. But Mr. Bayless was amenable to adapting his recipe for canned purée, paying homage to Illinois.
Fancy Pigs in a Blanket
For decades, pigs in a blanket have been a staple on the cocktail-party circuit. The little sausages are the easy part. It’s the pastry which, at its finest, should approximate buttery, flaky French puff pastry or pâte feuilletée. Suppose you could make decently flaky puff pastry in minutes? Christian Leue, the manager of La Boîte, a spice emporium in New York, has developed just such a marvel. And it works.
Dutch Baby
This large, fluffy pancake is excellent for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dessert any time of year. And it comes together in about five blessed minutes. Just dump all of the ingredients into a blender, give it a good whirl, pour it into a heated skillet sizzling with butter, and pop it into the oven. Twenty-five minutes later? Bliss. It's wonderful simply with sugar, syrup or preserves, but you also can serve it with fresh berries and whipped cream, apple slices cooked in butter and sugar or banana slices lightly cooked then dusted with brown sugar.
Romesco Sauce
Giblet Gravy
While the turkey is in the oven, get some rest — and make the gravy. Giblet gravy requires the cook to use the neck, gizzard and heart of the bird to make deeply flavored stock, which is then combined with the pan drippings, a bit of flour and wine or brandy. Finally, the cooked neck, gizzard and heart are finely chopped and added to the rich, savory gravy, to make for a more interesting texture.
Radicchio Salad With Anchovy Vinaigrette
Salt is the best way to tame a bitter flavor, and so a radicchio salad benefits from a dressing that tilts toward saltiness. It does not matter which type of radicchio you use — the common tight round head, clusters of white stems with burgundy leaves, or maroon-trimmed endives to name a few — they all deliver some bitterness. The vinaigrette here is bolstered with anchovies and capers.
Chicken With Prosciutto and Sage
Versatility is what you get with this dish, which borrows its flavors from the Italian staple saltimbocca, a combination of veal, prosciutto and sage. Here, the dark meat of chicken takes the place of veal, and instead of meat slices topped with the ham and herbs, there are plump bundles with the sage inside. Boneless chicken thighs make for easier slicing. Leaving the skin on to brown, provides more flavor, especially with some of the sage tucked underneath. Fingerling potatoes simmer as the chicken braises, and fresh peas contribute a touch of spring for a one-pot meal, not instant but hardly demanding. A final, judicious splash of balsamic vinegar intensifies the sauce.
Spiced Shrimp
The basic recipe for these quickly broiled shrimp is elastic, easily halved or scaled up. And the spice choices can vary. Here I have opted for ras el hanout, a complex North African blend that delivers modest peppery heat along with pungent elements of cumin, fenugreek and coriander, as well as the warm astringency of allspice and cloves. Harissa, a North African hot sauce, seasons the dip. Serve it as an appetizer or pair it with a grain like rice or farro, or a buttery tumble of fluffy couscous for a more substantial meal.
Red Snapper Tacos With Tomatillo Salsa
These tacos are best served fresh, but can be wrapped in foil and held in a warm oven.
Rum Manhattan-Style
The combination of dark rum, amaro, brown sugar syrup and bitters hails from Saltine restaurant in Nashville, where it’s called Old Barbados. But as you savor it, the cocktail dispels any notion of a sunlit Caribbean beach. A snowy slope is more like it: Though iced in the making, the drink delivers a generous and lingering sense of warmth.
Drop Biscuits With Corn and Cheese
These savory bite-size biscuits are the perfect way to whet the appetite before a big meal. Adapted from “Potluck: Food and Drinks to Share With Friends and Family,” from the staff of Food & Wine magazine, the biscuits are inspired by elote, the Mexican street snack of roasted corn slathered in cheese and spices. These drop biscuits may be made in advance and frozen. Just bring them to room temperature before reheating. Desire a dip alongside? Stir a shot of lime juice and a handful of minced cilantro into some sour cream.
Tagliatelle With Mushrooms in Red Wine
This hearty, umami-rich pasta dish is easily assembled in less than an hour. For the best texture, use your hands and not the food processor. Chopping the mushrooms and crushing the tomatoes by hand ensures some uniformity. The sauce can be prepared in advance, since you will summon the powers of the cooking water from the tagliatelle. Use more, if needed, to moisten the mixture before serving.
Toad-in-the-Hole
Among the breakfast options at SingleThread is an English menu, with toad-in-the-hole as its centerpiece. Mr. Connaughton calls it an homage to Heston Blumenthal — the innovative English chef and owner of The Fat Duck — for whom he worked for several years. For the eggs, Mr. Connaughton uses sous-vide techniques: vacuum-sealing the eggs, processing them in a water bath and using a siphon canister. Lacking such equipment in your kitchen, you can still approximate the result by gently and softly scrambling the egg mixture. And if you prefer, even a well-trimmed poached egg can be centered on the toast and cheese.
Neapolitan Pasta With Swordfish
The lusty foods and intense wines of southern Italy provide inspiration to spare for cooks and connoisseurs. San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, succulent olives, tender pastas and fragrant olive oils, alone or combined, spell sheer enjoyment. The roots of red-sauce Italian, ever popular in the United States, are in the south — in Campania and Naples (its capital city) as well as in Puglia and Basilicata. This recipe is a riff on the traditional pasta alla puttanesca, with tomato, capers, olives and garlic, but without the anchovies. The recipe goes bigger on the fish front, with chunks of seared swordfish to bolster the mixture with meaty, briny notes.
Moroccan Chicken Salad
Just as a little saffron, garlic and paprika can conjure the flavors of Spain, so too will preserved lemons, cumin, mint and olives evoke Morocco. This salad and the accompanying couscous can be doubled or tripled to anchor a generous buffet. Both can be assembled a couple of hours in advance and set aside on a kitchen counter. Serve them at room temperature.
Pickled Mackerel
The chef Kyle Connaughton’s recipe for pickled mackerel is straight out of the Japanese playbook. It’s simple and foolproof to prepare, and the time it takes is mostly unattended. He serves it plain or over rice that’s been dressed with some cucumber and toasted sesame seeds. I also tried seasoning the rice with a couple of spoonfuls of the leftover vinegar marinade plus grated ginger, black sesame seeds, minced scallions and diced avocado, and Mr. Connaughton seconded that idea, as well as the notion of serving the pickled fish Scandinavian-style, with sour cream, sweet onions and boiled potatoes.
Spiked Mulled Wine
Wine-based cocktails require particular attention to balance, so neither the wine nor the spirits overwhelm the flavors. In this seasonal drink from Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse in New York (where it is called Mull It Over), a pair of unlikely bedfellows, cabernet sauvignon wine and bourbon, are in total harmony, united by the bitter and sweet accents of amaro and cassis. Sip it by the fire.
Manhattan With Amaro and Cocoa
A mixture of rye whiskey and amaro, with the addition of bitters, sets this simply made cocktail on the road to a manhattan. But then there are detours: the chocolate liqueur to add a mellow accent, and the cardamom for a hint of spice. I also tried substituting coffee liqueur for the chocolate, with great success. It is from the 18th Room in New York, where it is called Before Night Falls.
No-Smoker Pastrami
The lure of this pastrami recipe from La Boîte, a spice emporium in Hell’s Kitchen, is that it is a project that does not require a smoker. The essential ingredients are smoked salt and Prague powder (the curing salt sodium nitrite). Both are sold online. It will take nearly a week to make, but the meat is mostly unattended. You could start it on Monday and have it ready for Sunday dinner. The pastrami — reheated and served with warm sauerkraut, or sliced on rye with mustard and sauerkraut — makes for superb cold-weather feasting. Keep it in mind as you plan for the Super Bowl or other occasions for feeding a crowd.
Seared Daurade With Mujadara
Mujadara, an Israeli and Middle Eastern mixture of seasoned rice and lentils upholsters a plate of seared fish fillet, brightening it with a generous swath of piquillo pepper puree. Mujadara is often served on its own, topped with a tangle of crisply fried onions, perhaps with yogurt on the side. But here, the earthy combination of grain and bean, with the bittersweet addition of the Spanish peppers, brings the fish into focus. You could serve the mujadara and pepper sauce without the fish, but in that case, fried onions are a must.
Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
Depending on your appetite, this variation on a classic Caesar salad with grilled chicken makes an excellent first-course or a full-on meal. Hitting the lettuce with a little fire is an unexpectedly brilliant trick; the green leaves char and crisp and the insides become slightly tender, but you still get the satisfying crunch everyone loves about romaine. If you're a pescatarian, try it with grilled tuna, salmon or scallops.
Salmon in Parsley Sauce
Parsley is the herb taken for granted. A few sprigs solve the garnish problem. A scattering of chopped leaves enlivens almost any dish with a bright bit of green. But parsley can take a more assertive role, becoming the primary component of a sauce. Here, flat-leaf parsley is combined with capers, scallions and garlic to make a sharp, verdant sauce for salmon. It contrasts perfectly with the richness of the fish.
Salmon With Smoked Salmon Butter
Any salmon, especially the deep red wild sockeye, will benefit from a generous dollop of this smoked salmon butter. The smoky-velvet taste lends a robust character, so little other embellishment is needed. Make it in advance and keep in the freezer, and you have an uncommonly elegant dinner in no time. The butter will lift a fillet of arctic char, butterflied trout, seasonal shad or other white-fleshed fish.