Recipes By Melissa Clark
1476 recipes found
Seared Frozen Rib Steaks
Adapted from “Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking,” by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet
Grilled Bone-In Rib-Eye Steaks With Blue Cheese
The usual formula for cooking an amazing slab of steak is as simple as they come: salt plus pepper plus a short stint over a hot fire. But there are times when you want an extra shot of flavor. Some good crumbled blue cheese sprinkled on the hot steak so it melts over the top does just that, especially when you spike it with hot sauce and butter. I like to use a combination of direct and indirect heat when grilling a bone-in piece of meat; it allows a crust to form but not burn while keeping the meat juicy inside. But you know your grill best, so let your instinct guide you as to where to move the steaks and when you think they are done. And if blue cheese isn’t your thing, follow the grilling directions here but leave your meat bare except for the salt and pepper. If you start with good meat, you will never go wrong.
Seared Rib Steak
A bone-in rib steak, 1 ¼ to 1 ½ inches thick, will feed two. Scaling up is easy; just buy a thicker steak. A two-inch slab serves three to four, and it requires only a few extra minutes in the oven. Then add steaks as needed, bearing in mind that each one should cook in its own skillet.
Classic Banana Split
The key to a great banana split is a combination of textures and temperatures. There’s the velvety cold ice cream, the pleasingly sticky hot fudge and the crunchy wet walnuts (here, made with maple syrup and honey), all nestled in a sliced ripe banana and topped with whipped cream. You can use any ice cream flavors you like: classics like chocolate, vanilla or strawberry, or get creative with your favorite varieties — maybe even a scoop or two of fruity sorbet. Naturally, banana splits are meant to be split between two (or three) people, so find some friends to share the sweetness.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Made with much less confectioners’ sugar than the usual cream cheese frosting, it’s sturdy, dependable and not too sweet - just right for a child’s birthday party or to ice three-dozen cupcakes for a bake sale. While it’s not quite as silky as a buttercream based on beaten eggs and sugar syrup, it’s much, much less persnickety to make and it holds up well without refrigeration for several hours before it starts getting soft. Plus, the cream cheese makes it incredibly creamy while adding a tangy bite that helps tone down the sweetness of the confectioners’ sugar. To make lemon cream cheese buttercream (which tastes a little like a cheesecake), substitute one tablespoon lemon juice for the vanilla and add a teaspoon of grated lemon zest to the frosting.
Sweet and Salty Grilled Steak With Cucumber Salad
The marinade on this steak is inspired by a classic Vietnamese dipping sauce called nuoc cham. Since it consists mostly of pantry staples – Asian fish sauce, brown sugar and garlic – all you need to pick up on the way home are some fresh limes and jalapeño. Nuoc cham works as a salad dressing, too. Here we drizzle it on crisp cucumbers and radishes, but sliced ripe tomatoes work just as well. You could serve it as it is with the salad on the side, or put everything on top of a bed of rice noodles or rice for a more substantial meal.
Rosemary White Beans With Frizzled Onions and Tomato
A speedy, pantry-friendly dish, canned white beans braised in olive oil and tomatoes become stewlike and creamy. Pinches of fresh or dried rosemary, chile flakes and lemon zest add complexity to the mix, while a topping of frizzled, browned onions lends sweetness and a chewy-crisp texture. Serve this with toasted country bread drizzled with olive oil, or over a bowl of rice or farro for an easy, satisfying weeknight meal.
Rhubarb Pound Cake
This tender poundcake has slivers of vanilla-poached rhubarb running across the top and shot through the center, adding a tangy sweetness to the buttery crumb. For the most vivid stripes, use the reddest rhubarb stalks you can find. They will fade to hot pink after poaching and baking. Green rhubarb also works; the cake won’t be quite as striking, but it will be equally delectable. This cake is best served within a day of baking. After that, the rhubarb will start to dry out.
Fennel-Apple Salad With Walnuts
A bright and tangy salad cuts the heaviness of the typical Thanksgiving meal. This one, with fennel, celery, apples and toasted walnuts, is all crunch, which the carb-heavy meal can generally use more of. You can make the dressing a day ahead and store it in the fridge, but don't dress the salad until an hour before serving.
Sweet and Spicy Grilled Flank Steak
There are some steaks that need nothing more than a little salt and pepper to bring out their beefy goodness. Flank steak is not one of them. This bold marinade is just the sort of seasoning the brawny cut begs for: lime juice and zest add brightness, brown sugar sweetness, and jalapeño and sriracha a complex heat. Just whiz it all together in a food processor and slather it on the meat. Marinate overnight (or 20 minutes if that's all the time you have) before tossing it on the grill. Lastly, always make more flank steak that you think you want. Leftovers are the best part.
Spiced Salmon With Sugar Snap Peas and Red Onion
Seared sugar snap peas and red onions make a sweet accompaniment to silky salmon fillets in this lovely springtime one-pan meal. The salmon fillets, coated in a garlicky spice blend, are briefly browned, leaving fragrant, savory drippings in the pan. Those drippings then season the vegetables, infusing them as they cook. Keep an eye on the salmon, especially if you prefer it on the rare side. Thin fillets in particular are all too easy to overcook.
Green Papaya Salad
This tangy, piquant salad is a version of the classic Vietnamese dish, which can be served as a first course, or a fiery side dish next to simple grilled meats or fish. It comes from Chris Shepherd, a Houston chef who is trying to tell the story of his city's food, among the most diverse in the country. If Thai chiles are too hot to bear (or not available), substitute other, milder peppers like serrano or jalapeño. Just don't use regular papaya even if it seems unripe; it won't have the right flavor and texture as a true green papaya. And if you can’t get green papaya, you can make this with green mango, seeded cucumber, cabbage or kohlrabi. The intense, funky dressing will work with any practically any cooling, crunchy vegetable you’ve got.
Nashville-Style Hot Fried Chicken
This version of Nashville hot fried chicken, adapted from Peaches HotHouse in Brooklyn, will make your tongue sizzle and fill your eyes with tears from a combination of cayenne and ghost chile powders. (The latter is one of the hottest chiles in the world, reaching 1,000,000 on the Scoville heat scale.) Note that the recipe calls for both granulated and powdered onion and garlic. Try to use both. The powdered stuff is stronger in flavor while the granulated has a little more texture to it. (However if you can’t find both, either kind will work throughout the recipe.) The traditional way to serve this is on top of a piece or two of soft white bread, which helps mitigate the heat. A cold beer wouldn’t hurt, either.
Polenta and Broccoli Rabe Lasagna
This lasagna layers noodles, polenta, mozzarella, sauce and broccoli rabe for a wonderfully savory and multi-textured one-dish meal. A note about the lasagna noodles: You don’t have to boil them, nor do you have to buy special no-boil noodles. You can soak the noodles in a bowl of water while you prepare the other ingredients, then slap them in the casserole dish. They will start to soften in their cold bath and finish cooking as the lasagna bakes.
Spicy Clam Dip
In this chile-flecked take on a classic 1950s clam dip, the cream cheese-based mixture is spooned into a gratin dish, sprinkled with Parmesan and baked until the topping melts and the dip turns molten and savory. Canned clams are traditional here, providing a gentle saline note and nubby texture without an assertive flavor. If you’re starting with cream cheese straight from the fridge, soften it briefly in the microwave before adding it to the bowl; cold cream cheese is a lot harder to mix.
Fig Tart With Caramelized Onions, Rosemary and Stilton
I used packaged puff pastry here because I thought the dense, almost candied figs would work well with an airy, flaky crust — one that I didn’t have to make. The cheese and rosemary helps balance the intensity of the figs, while a drizzling of honey at the end brings out the sweetness of onions and figs.
BLT Tacos
Without the bread muffling the crunch of bacon and crisp lettuce, BLT tacos are a lot more texturally exciting than the usual sandwich. Here, hot sauce-spiked mayonnaise adds spice; avocado adds creaminess; and chopping the tomatoes into a salsa with jalapeño, lime juice and cilantro makes everything juicy and bright. You can serve these for brunch, lunch or a light, fast dinner.
Lemon Chicken With Garlic-Chile Oil
Jarred chile-garlic oil is available from many brands and in many incarnations, but it’s also extremely easy to make at home. The trick is to cook the garlic in the oil slowly and gently so it doesn’t blacken and burn, which will make the whole thing acrid and unpleasant. This pungent and nutty chile-garlic oil recipe was inspired by one published in David Tamarkin’s wonderful cookbook, “Cook90” (Little, Brown and Company, 2018). Here, some of it is used as a sauce for chicken cutlets with lemon and capers. But keep leftover oil in the fridge to drizzle on hummus, steamed or roasted vegetables, or on top of avocado toast for a nutty, spicy kick.
Tartiflette
This Alpine potato and bacon casserole bakes up golden and gloriously gooey thanks to the slices of soft, pungent rind cheese nestled on top. More traditional recipes call for boiling the potatoes separately in one pot, browning the onion and bacon in a skillet, and then combining everything into a casserole dish for baking. This streamlined version accomplishes it all in one large sauté pan. Serve this with a leafy salad of peppery, bitter greens to cut the richness.
Creamed Corn with Gorgonzola, Tomatoes and Pine Nuts
This light summer meal comes together quickly: Corn kernels are simmered in a cream enhanced with blue cheese and pepper. It's then served on tomato slices and topped with pine nuts for a meal that embraces and enhances the season’s bounty.
Rio’s Spicy Chicken Wings
Ganso, a Japanese restaurant in downtown Brooklyn, is justly known for its steaming bowls of fragrant ramen. But the fiery, crunchy chicken wings there are the stuff of dreams. This recipe, from the chef Rio Irie, hits all the right notes: spicy from chile paste and fresh ginger, salty from soy sauce, funky from fish sauce, sweet from mirin.
Tomato Ketchup
The quality of your ingredients counts for a lot here. Don’t bother making ketchup until you can get luscious, ripe tomatoes. Grape tomatoes work, but feel free to use plum tomatoes instead. You want a meaty tomato for this, so save delicate heirlooms for salads. Many ketchup recipes call for loads of spices, but this one is kept simple with just a little black pepper and Worcestershire sauce for complexity — a close approximation to that inimitable flavor of classic Heinz, without the high-fructose corn syrup.
Bullinada (Catalan Fish Stew With Aioli)
Bullinada is a creamy Catalonian seafood stew infused with saffron and garlicky mayonnaise, and brimming with potatoes. This version, made entirely from fish fillets rather than a combination of fish and seafood, is adapted from the cookbook “Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean.” Ms. Roden writes that “it has a mysterious, delicate flavor and beautiful warm color,” and that you can make it mostly in advance. Just add the fish a few minutes before serving so you can be sure it won’t overcook.
Sautéed Brussels Sprouts and Apple With Prosciutto
At the elegant restaurant Piora in the West Village, the chef Chris Cipollone separates each brussels sprout into individual leaves to make this autumnal dish. Thinly slicing the sprouts is faster, though less refined. The slivered sprouts are then sautéed with cubes of sweet apples, and garnished with an icy, porky snow made from frozen prosciutto grated on a microplane. Grated pecorino cheese can be used instead for a meatless version.