Recipes By Kim Severson
156 recipes found
Shirred Farm Eggs with Roasted Small Heirloom Tomatoes
Roasted Potatoes With Figs and Thyme
A fall walk through New York’s Greenmarket with Eleven Madison Park’s chef, Daniel Humm, brought the idea for this unusual dish. Hot black tea lends a deeper flavor to dried figs, which are scattered with potatoes on a pan with thyme and then roasted. The recipe calls for fingerling potatoes, but any waxy potato will do. (And for everything you need to know to make perfect potatoes, visit our potato guide.)
Lucy Buffett’s Oyster Dressing
Lucy Buffett and her famous brother, Jimmy, grew up in Mobile, Ala., where seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is a key player in the culinary canon. Mr. Buffett went on to a giant career in music. His sister Lucy opened the freewheeling LuLu’s restaurant in Gulf Shores, Ala. When they were children, oyster stuffing was always on the Thanksgiving table. And it still is. “Usually, it’s all gone by the end of the day because the kids go back for thirds and fourths, just digging directly into the pan,” she said. Ms. Buffett likes to use cornbread with a little sugar in it, often relying on a box mix. But any cornbread recipe will do. The best bread is an inexpensive white loaf from the grocery store that will break down into a smooth texture. The oysters don’t have to be from the Gulf of Mexico, but fat Gulf oysters are best for conjuring the brackish low tides and sunsets of the Buffett family youth.
Beet Red Velvet Cake
Pamela Moxley, the pastry chef at Miller Union in Atlanta, developed this cake as part of a book project for Steven Satterfield, the co-owner and chef. She uses dutched, nonacidic cocoa powder so she punched up the acid with extra lemon juice, which helps with the bright red color. She adds goat cheese to her cream cheese frosting, to play against the subtle beet flavor. The chef liked it so much that he added it to the restaurant menu.
Cheater’s Pickles
This recipe was developed by accident when Dora Charles was working on her book, “A Real Southern Cook: In Her Savannah Kitchen.” The pickles come together fast, with a shock from ice cubes and a touch of sugar helping them move from raw to something between a pickle and a refreshing salad in just about a half-hour. Fresh herbs other than dill, like basil or a bit of mint or chive, can be used. A few slivers of sweet onion are nice, too.
Brooklyn-Style Hoppin’ John
Hoppin’ John and greens are two simple dishes that are required eating each New Year’s Day for Southerners (or anyone else, one imagines) who want to bring luck and prosperity.
Southern Shrimp Scampi
Scampi can mean different things in different cultures. The British deep fry langoustines in batter. In Italy, the langoustines are often sautéed in garlic and olive oil. Italian immigrants in America swapped in shrimp, and from there a thousand variations were born. This is a dish that cooks quickly and rises or falls on good-tasting shrimp. It is worth buying shrimp with the shells on and peeling them yourself.
Roast Heritage Turkey and Gravy
Heritage turkeys can be tricky to roast; the flesh is firmer than that of a supermarket bird. P. Allen Smith, the Southern cooking and lifestyle expert from whom this recipe is adapted, suggests a day in a brine sweetened with apple cider and then roasting the bird on a bed of rosemary. Roasted giblets and a chopped hard-boiled egg add texture and depth to his country-style gravy. “The eggs and giblets make it a little more rustic and a little more interesting,” he said. “It’s the gravy that saves that dry turkey.”
Cabbage-Radish Slaw With Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette
Savoy Cabbage Slaw With Applesauce Vinaigrette and Mustard Seeds
Lazy Sonker
It’s not a pie, nor is it really a cobbler (though, to some, they are one and the same). As Kim Severson reported in 2013, when she traveled to Mount Airy, N.C., to try the regional dish: “Most people seem to agree that the essential characteristics of sonkers are these: They are juicier than cobblers. They are deeper than cobblers. They used to be made in what Southern country cooks called bread pans.” This recipe, adapted from Wilma Fleming of Barney's Cafe, draws its flavor from strawberries, or pitted cherries, and is capped with a simple crust of milk, sugar, flour and salt, whisked to the consistency of pancake batter. It’s a perfect dessert for spring or summer gatherings, and best served while it’s still warm.
Summer Fruit Shrub
Bruised apricots, smashed berries and or overripe pears are just some of the fruit that can be made into a shrub, a tart drinkable vinegar that is softened with sugar and time. The base needs to sit overnight, and the shrub, once it’s all put together, mellows and changes with more time in the refrigerator. Herbs, peppercorns and vegetables can be added to the basic formula to create endless variations. Other vinegars may be substituted. When in doubt, apple cider vinegar is a good fall back.
Tamarind Shrimp With Coconut Milk
Raghavan Iyer has dedicated his life to helping people learn to cook Indian food. He dissects the four main culinary regions of the country into manageable bites, and develops recipes that are simple to make but have complex flavors. In this recipe for puli jingha, he marries shrimp and coconut milk spiked with sambhar masala, a spice blend common in southern Indian kitchens. Nearly every household has its own version, and you can make the one he grew up with quite easily. Serve this curry over lime-scented rice or yellow split peas.
Summer Tomato and Basil Soup With Farro
Potato Cavatelli
These are an easy, homey version of handmade pasta that freeze well. They are sturdier and more toothsome than gnocchi but have more character than dried cavatelli. It takes a little practice to get the flip of the indentation just right, but once you get the feel for it you can turn out enough for dinner quickly. They hold up well under a heavy tomato ragù, but also take well to a simple sauce of butter, a little pasta water and Parmesan or pecorino. This recipe is easy to double, too, which leaves plenty to freeze for another night. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet dusted in flour, then store in a zippered plastic bag.
Watermelon and Ginger Spritzer
Dora Charles’s Lost-and-Found Lemon Poundcake
The South has about as many poundcake recipes as there are grandmothers. This one produces a higher, lighter cake than many recipes. It came from Dora Charles’s aunt Laura Daniels, who got it from a nursing-home patient she was working with in the 1970s. The patient, Mary Martin, mailed it to her long after she left the nursing home, but because of a stroke, her handwriting was shaky. Ms. Charles found the recipe and deciphered it, and included it in her cookbook "A Real Southern Cook: In Her Savannah Kitchen." You can use lemon juice and zest instead of lemon flavoring, which the original recipe called for, or increase the vanilla by a teaspoon if you are leaving out the lemon altogether. The cake, which is a perfect base for peaches and whipped cream or another fruit topping, gets better after a couple of days and will be good for a week if you keep it well wrapped. It freezes well, too.
Aunt Phillomena’s Pizzelle
At the holidays, these crisp, simple cookies are stacked everywhere in Italian kitchens. My family was from Abruzzi, and my mother always used the recipe from her older sister. You can scent these cookies with orange, almond or lemon or just vanilla, but we always made plenty with anise at Christmas. You can use a simple stove-top pizzelle maker or an electric one. I prefer the kind without a non-stick coating. A little shot of cooking spray or a wipe with some cooking oil helps prime the press. Like pancakes, you will probably throw away the first one.
Chewy Chocolate Snowcaps
Dense and rich with the flavor of toasted pecans and dark chocolate, these cookies evoke brownies or fudge. They are made with egg whites for leavening and contain no flour, so they are a great gluten-free alternative. The batter comes together fast, although it will seem like the egg whites can’t possibly provide enough moisture. Just keep stirring with a strong spoon and a very thick batter will quickly materialize.
Linzer Trees
These are a reworking of an old “Joy of Cooking” recipe I learned from my friend in Atlanta, Allison Dykes. They are the precious stars of her holiday cookie plate. The dough can be slightly finicky but can be re-rolled and re-chilled several times so all the scraps get used. The ideal thickness is somewhere between an eighth and a fourth of an inch. They need to be thin but not so thin that the delicate cookie breaks. The roasted almonds can be ground in a food processor.
Cuban-Style Arroz Congrí
The combination of white rice and black beans is a Cuban staple. Black beans served on top of or next to white rice is most commonly called Moros y Cristianos, a reference to the medieval battle between Islamic Moors and Christian Spaniards on the Iberian Peninsula. When rice and beans are mixed with sautéed aromatic vegetables and sometimes bits of pork, the result is called congrí. (In some Cuban households, it is also called Moros y Cristianos.) As a rule, congrí is a fluffier and drier dish than Moros y Cristianos. Yolanda Horruitiner, who has lived in Cuba for all of her 70 years, makes this simple version of congrí without pork or cumin, which is a staple in some versions. Feel free to add either to the sofrito base. This recipe uses a stovetop to cook both the rice and beans, although the dish can be assembled more quickly using a pressure cooker and rice cooker and making the sofrito in a separate sauté pan, then mixing it into the rice before it’s all cooked.
Strawberries With Brown Butter Shortcake
This recipe came to The Times from David Guas, a New Orleans chef. He substitutes a spongecake enriched with browned butter for crumbly shortcake. And instead of simply seasoning raw berries with sugar, he cooks them lightly over steaming water with orange zest, which fills the kitchen with the smell of warm, simmering fruit.
California Date Shake
Sweet dates and creamy ice cream blended together. Nothing could be easier and nothing could taste better on a warm summer evening.
Date Cake Delicious
The women of the Thursday Afternoon Cooking Club in Wichita, Kan., have been preparing lunches for each other since 1891. Originally conceived as a way to improve the domestic arts in a fast-growing prairie town, the club has become a repository for more than 124 years of cooking trends and recipes. In 1922, the club published a cookbook. This recipe was adapted from it, updated only to give more precise measurements and cooking times. It has more fruit than a typical date-nut bread and takes nearly an hour to bake. The good news is that you can mix it up quickly.