Recipes By Melissa Clark
1468 recipes found
Lamb and Couscous Salad With Chickpeas, Mint and Feta
Couscous Salad With Dried Apricots and Preserved Lemon
While summer is still with us, you can serve any vegetable-laden dishes you’ve been enjoying all season alongside your meat. Or for something different, I offer a couscous and dried apricot salad dressed with preserved lemon and plenty of herbs. If you can’t find any preserved lemons, and can spare a few weeks, here’s a recipe to make them yourself.
Baked Asparagus With Shiitake, Prosciutto and Couscous
In this satisfying, set-it-and-forget-it spring dinner, asparagus, mushrooms and prosciutto are steamed in a parchment packet under low heat. The technique was inspired by a recipe in Paula Wolfert’s “The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen: Recipes for the Passionate Cook.” The parchment insulates the ingredients, while keeping the temperature steady and allowing the flavors to mingle. Here, the result is tender asparagus infused with earthy and sweet flavors from the mushrooms and prosciutto alike.
Lemony Couscous and Pecan Dressing
Lamb, Harissa and Almond Sausage Rolls
In this sassy twist on a classic sausage roll, the Australian chef Paul Allam of Bourke Street Bakery riffs on North African flavors to create something fragrant, rich and generously spiced. Harissa pastes can vary widely in heat content; Mr. Allam uses a moderately hot homemade paste in his recipe. If your harissa is especially potent, consider using half the amount called for here.
The Best Roast Beef for Sandwiches
The best cut of roast beef for sandwiches isn’t necessarily the same as what you’d want hot from the oven. A hot roast demands plenty of marbling so that the rich fat can melt and baste the meat with its goodness. Roast beef sandwiches work better made from a leaner cut, preferably one with a mineral, earthy taste and a nice chew. A top loin roast is ideal. It’s got plenty of brawny flavor, and all of the fat is on the surface, which you can easily trim off after the meat is cooked. Here, the beef is roasted low and slow to ensure rare, juicy meat. This said, if you want a more economical cut, use bottom, top or eye round here instead. Just adjust the roasting time if the cut is larger or smaller. As long as you pull the meat out of the oven when it reaches between 125 and 130 degrees, you’ll get nicely rare meat. More sandwich recipes.
Figs and Pigs in a Blanket
Arguably better than pigs in blankets — or, at least, more elegant — these, flaky hors d’oeuvres will be the first things to disappear at a party. The filling of chopped dried figs and prosciutto or salami is a balanced mix of savory and sweet, but feel free to substitute other dried fruit, like apricots, raisins or cranberries, for the figs. And if you can find all-butter puff pastry, it really makes a difference here, adding a deeply golden color and rich flavor.
Za’atar Parmesan Pinwheels
These crunchy, savory snacks have the irresistible can’t-stop-eating nature of cheese straws, but with the added allure of a sprinkle of herby, sesame-flecked za’atar, a Middle Eastern seasoning mix available in large supermarkets and spice shops. Rolled into logs and sliced into pinwheels before baking, they puff into domes in the oven’s heat, turning golden, crisp and wonderfully flaky. If you can find all-butter puff pastry, it really makes a difference here, adding a rich, deep flavor and an especially bronzed color.
Pasta With Kale Pesto and Roasted Butternut Squash
Here is a one-pot meal designed explicitly for the hungriness of a long-distance runner, with garlicky kale pesto and sweet roasted butternut squash. Making the pesto with kale instead of basil gives it a structure the basil-rich original lacks, and it interacts beautifully with the crisp-and-soft smoothness of the roasted squash. A terrific dish.
Roasted Apple, Shallot and Blue Cheese Tart
This sweet and savory apple tart is both substantial and sophisticated. The chewy, pizza-like crust is fortified with three kinds of flour. The topping is a comforting, mellow jumble of sweet roasted apples and shallots scented with thyme and zipped up with pungent blue cheese.
Campari Olive Oil Cake
When I posted a photo of this very modest-looking cake on Instagram, I was blown away by the response. Honestly, it didn’t look like much — a generic yellow cake with a golden top. I think just the very notion of putting Campari and olive oil in a cake is what made people stop and “like” it. And it is a pretty terrific flavor combination: The citrusy bittersweet character of the Campari goes really well with the fragrant oil, to which I also add melted butter for richness, as well as lots of fresh citrus juice and zest. On its own, the cake is a pretty plain-looking thing, but you can dress it up for a party, adding orange segments, berries and dollops of whipped cream or crème fraîche to the top. If you want to go one step further, simmer some Campari and a bit of sugar down to a syrup, and drizzle that all over the cake. It turns the cake more pink and accentuates its boozy flavor.
Brown-Butter Orzo With Butternut Squash
In this autumnal one-pot meal, rice-shaped orzo is cooked with stock and butternut squash until it’s tender and creamy, a little like risotto but without as much stirring. Brown butter, lemon zest and sage add depth of flavor, while red-pepper flakes give this zip and heat. An optional dollop of ricotta intensifies the creaminess but feel free to skip it for a lighter dish. This recipe also works well as a hearty side for roasted meats and fish.
Sticky Cranberry Gingerbread
Sticky, spicy and full of cranberries, this gingerbread is perfect for the holidays. The recipe has been designed to make ahead, and will taste as good 2 days after baking as it does on the same day. (It will keep for 4 to 5 days.) To store it, wrap it well, stick it in the fridge and then bring to room temperature before serving. Whipped cream or crème fraîche, spiked with a little bourbon if you like, is nice on the side.
Brown Butter Skillet Cornbread
This lightly sweet cornbread has a crunchy, buttery crust, which comes from baking it in a hot skillet. If you have a cast-iron pan, this is the time to use it. The heavy, heat-retaining material will give you the darkest color (which equals the most flavor). But any large ovenproof skillet will work. And if you don’t have a skillet big enough to hold all the batter, you can either halve the recipe or bake the cornbread in 9-by-13-inch pan. (Brown the butter first in a saucepan.) Your bread won’t have the same dark crust, but the moist crumb flavored with brown butter and maple syrup is ample recompense.
The Marrow's Ginger Stout Cake
This is a rich, fragrant ginger cake with a crunchy raw-sugar coating and moist crumb. The combination of grated fresh ginger root and powdered ginger, along with black pepper and cloves, gives it a particularly intense spice flavor. Make sure to use a good stout here. Since you’ll only use part of a bottle, choose one you’d be happy to finish off while the cake is in the oven. As with most gingerbread, this is a good keeping cake, and can be made a day or two ahead. Store it wrapped in foil at room temperature. Then serve it with cream whipped with a little crème fraiche or sour cream for tartness, which will offset all that crunchy sugar coating the cake.
Apple-Gruyère French Toast With Red Onion
Light and fluffy, here the bread takes on a soft, cakelike texture from its custard bath, which is a nice foil to the sharp cheese, savory onions and caramelized apple. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this sandwich could replace latkes on Hanukkah. But it sure makes a nice alternative that I could see making all year long.
Pasta With Parsnips and Bacon
They may seem like an unlikely duo, but pasta and parsnips work really well together, with the parsnips becoming almost like a sweet and soft extension of the pasta. And they’re another vehicle for the creamy, bacon-rich sauce. You can roast the parsnips several hours ahead (they’ll be fine at room temperature). But the rest of the dish is best made just before serving. Then serve it hot. There are few dishes that are cozier on a cold winter night.
Classic Noodle Kugel
With its wide ribbons of egg noodles bound by cottage cheese, sour cream and eggs, this classic dairy kugel recipe celebrates the sweeter, richer side of noodle puddings. You can make it the day before, store it in the fridge, then reheat it in a 350-degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes just before serving. But it’s also great at room temperature. Blending the cottage cheese gives this version a smooth, almost cheesecakelike interior. For a more nubby texture with bits of cottage cheese peeking through the noodles, don’t use a blender; just whisk everything together in a big bowl.
Maple Pecan Caramel Corn
Made from a combination of maple syrup and brown sugar, the rich, buttery caramel on this popcorn has a brittle, candy-like crunch that’s heightened by plenty of toasted pecans added alongside. (Cracker Jack fans can substitute roasted, salted peanuts.) A small amount of baking soda keeps the caramel from becoming sticky, but note that you’ll need an instant-read thermometer to yield the best result. If you’d rather use an air popper to prepare your popcorn, you can — just skip Step 2. The caramel corn will keep in an airtight container for at least a week.
Beet, Greens and Cheddar Crumble
This unusual, savory crumble is reminiscent of macaroni and cheese, but vegetable matter (beets and beet greens) standing in for the pasta. The vegetables are bound with a rich béchamel laced with grated clothbound cheddar, and the whole thing is topped with peppery oatmeal crumbs. As written, the recipe is at once comforting and sophisticated. If you like things on the fiery side, a squirt of sriracha does the trick. And if you or your family feel the need for meat to complete the meal, a side of grilled sausages would fill the bill beautifully.
Strawberry Shortbread and Cream
In this summery dessert, golden-edged cookies are paired with syrupy strawberries and fluffy whipped cream for a result that’s a bit like strawberry shortcake, but crunchier and a lot more buttery. These cookies have a little more sugar than most shortbread recipes, so they’re especially crisp, but since they are on the sweet side, use a light hand when adding sugar to the berries. You just need enough to get the juices flowing. A few pinches should do it. And if you use cultured butter, the cookies will be even richer.
Black and White Brownies
Baking big chunks of white chocolate into gooey, bittersweet brownies adds contrast of both color and texture. Even better, the edges of any exposed white chocolate chunks caramelize as they bake, turning golden and toasty-flavored. For the deepest flavor, be sure to use a good brand of white chocolate, one with cocoa butter as a main ingredient. The brownies will keep for up to 4 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature, and up to a week when stored in the fridge.
Steak Diane
A classic recipe, steak Diane dates to the 1930s, when it was prepared tableside at restaurants with much fanfare. The piquant sauce, a mix of cream, Cognac, shallots and Worcestershire, is speedy and simple to make from the steak’s pan drippings. Flambéing the Cognac adds drama, but you can skip that step, and just let the Cognac simmer for 2 minutes to cook off some of the alcohol. Use any cut of steak you like. Even chicken breasts or pork tenderloins will work in the heady, creamy sauce. Serve with a simple salad alongside, if you like.
Coconut Macaroon Brownies
Chocolate and coconut are a perfect combination, one that can be reimagined in myriad ways, be it a coconut-filled candy bar or macaroons drizzled with bittersweet chocolate. Here, the two star in a pan of chewy brownies, with mounds of sweetened condensed milk-bathed coconut crowning the top. Half cookie, half candy, they’re over the top in the very best way. This recipe calls for an 8-inch square pan, but, if you only have a 9-inch square pan, shave a few minutes off the baking time.