Recipes By Mark Bittman
981 recipes found
Chicken With Apricots
Chicken with dried apricots is hardly a new idea, but I had issues with its most common interpretations. For one thing, they were almost always cloying; the routine addition of cinnamon and cloves does nothing to offset the apricots' sweetness and makes the dish taste more like dessert than dinner. For another, they were usually stewed rather than braised, turning the chicken skin sodden. I brown the chicken in a nonstick skillet with no fat, and that works well. A tablespoon or two of butter, stirred in at the end, will make the sauce richer. Or you can render some bacon, remove it, and brown the chicken in the bacon fat, then crumble the bacon and stir it in at the end of cooking. Finally, any dried fruit can be used, or a combination; with the short cooking time, even prunes will remain intact. But be aware that fruit dried with sulfur (the common method) becomes tender much faster than fruit dried organically, which needs a couple of hours of soaking before cooking.
Curried Sweet Potato Soup With Apricots
Miso-Broiled Scallops
Miso, the traditional Japanese soybean paste, is one of those convenience foods whose complexity belies its ingredients: it contains only soybeans, salt and grain (usually rice or barley, though others are used too), inoculated with the Aspergillus orzyae bacteria and aged for up to three years. The production process is not unlike that for good hard cheese, and miso is frequently compared with Parmesan. It is equally complex, and both are known for the strong presence of umami, the Japanese word for the fifth taste (after salt, sour, sweet and bitter), roughly translated as ''deliciousness.'' Here, miso is combined with little more than scallops, then allowed to sit for a while before grilling or broiling. The combination and preparation are traditional, the equivalent of slathering something with barbecue sauce before cooking. Of course, miso is a far cry from barbecue sauce: its elegance is unmistakable.
Knafeh à la Crème
Stuffed Butternut Squash
Scallop Salad
This ultrasimple scallop salad, brought to The Times in 2012, comes from Jair Téllez’s restaurant in Mexico City, MeroToro. Easy enough for a weeknight, it requires only a few ingredients. Tender, earthy boiled potatoes complement the quick-seared scallops, while spring onions lend a bit of sharpness.
Lentils With Pasta and Caramelized Onions
Classic Choucroute
Pizza With Arugula, Corn And Bacon
Pear, Gorgonzola And Mesclun Salad
Roasted And Braised Duck With Sauerkraut
Yum Yai Salad
This recipe first came in The Times in a magazine article by Mark Bittman about the Silicon Valley executive-turned-restauranteur Pim Techamuanvivit and Kin Khao, her Thai home-cooking restaurant in San Francisco. This dish is an adaptation of one served there: a combo of raw, steamed and fried vegetables drizzled with a chile-jam dressing laced with fish sauce and lime.
Eggs Poached in Red Wine
This 2006 recipe from Mark Bittman takes that workhorse of the kitchen — the egg — and makes it a bit more glamorous. By cooking the eggs in simmering red wine, they become something even greater, worthy of a simple, but still indulgent, dinner.
Green Tomato Pizza
Zucchini-Sausage Pizza
Borscht Salad
There are loads of ways to prepare beets beyond just pairing them with goat cheese, and in 2013, Mark Bittman looked at about a dozen or so of them. Here, they’re grated, not roasted whole, and paired with shredded cabbage and dill, some of the dominant ingredients in borscht. It’s a nontraditional approach to beets and borscht alike, ready in minutes.
Shaved Artichoke Salad
Prepping artichokes can take time and patience, but they are among the most delicious of nature’s gifts, so are well worth the effort. In this dish they are served raw to showcase their flavor, which is enhanced here with olive oil, lemon juice and Parmesan.
Warm Corn Salad With Bacon
Bok Choy with Shiitakes and Oyster Sauce
Chana Dal, New Delhi-Style
Julie Sahni, an Indian cooking teacher, cookbook author and chef, says that in much of Indian cooking, the less you fuss with beans, the better they cook. This recipe, for spiced split chickpeas, calls for a mathani, a sort of hand blender, but if you don’t have one and don’t want to buy one, a potato masher will do the trick.
Roasted Beets With Pears and Pistachios
Fennel
Easy Chicken Curry
Weeknight cooking doesn't get any easier than this endlessly adaptable five-ingredient, 30-minute curry from Mark Bittman. Sauté a pile of chopped onions in a little oil, then stir in curry powder (or red curry paste for Thai flavors). Pour in a can of coconut milk and swirl to combine. Add chicken, simmer until it's cooked through and finish with some chopped tomatoes. And dinner is served! This recipe lends itself to experimentation, so change it up. Be generous with spices. Toss in chopped bell pepper or carrots with the onions. Add a can of drained chickpeas or a generous handful of fresh spinach with the tomatoes. Instead of chicken, try shrimp, duck, turkey, firm fish, tofu, lump crab meat or beef. Just watch the cooking time: Fish, shrimp and crab cook faster than other meats. Also, don't forget to season as you go with salt and pepper.
Stir-Fried Coconut Noodles
Coconut milk brings distinctive flavor and creamy heft to these rice noodles, which are stir-fried with pork or chicken, bell pepper and eggplant. Be generous when you're seasoning the dish with nam pla (fish sauce), which adds umami and some welcome funk. No nam pla? Use soy sauce instead.