Recipes By Melissa Clark
1478 recipes found
Spaetzle With Kielbasa and Caramelized Onions
Spaetzle is basically a blank, buttery canvas that will absorb whatever flavorings you care to mix into it. I’ve served the dumplings plain with melted butter and chopped chives. I’ve crisped them in a pan of brown butter and almonds. I’ve topped them with hearty beef stew. But layered with cheese and caramelized onions is still my favorite variation.
Caramelized Kohlrabi Soup
This is a great way to use the mountains of kohlrabi and turnips available in winter at the farmers’ market (or crammed into your community-supported agriculture box). When caramelized in the oven and simmered into soup, these hardy roots turn sweet and mellow, making for a comforting and cozy soup.
Rye Spaetzle Gratin
Unless you have an Eastern European heritage or a penchant for replicating the hearty cuisine of German beer halls, it may never have occurred to you to make spaetzle at home. I have both, and the small, squiggly egg dumplings are one of the first carb-heavy, comfort-food dishes I crave when the weather turns cold. Making spaetzle is simpler than you may think. Mixing the ingredients is as easy as making pancake batter and uses pantry staples. The only potentially tricky part is turning the batter into fluffy little dumplings. There are several approaches to this. Some people like to make a thick dough and grate it through the holes of a cheese grater. But if you keep the spaetzle mix as runny as cake batter, you’ll be able to push it through a spaetzle maker (or colander) into a pot of boiling water fairly quickly.
Sacher Torte
In this version of the classic Viennese Sacher torte, from Luisa Weiss's cookbook "Classic German Baking," two dense chocolate cake layers are filled and topped with rum-scented apricot jam, then coated in a fudgelike chocolate glaze. Making a perfect Sacher torte with a level top and pristine shiny icing takes patience and precision. But don’t let that discourage you from having a go. Even if the glaze is slightly smudged and the top a bit askew, it will still taste delicious, and there are few cakes as richly satisfying as this. You can make a Sacher torte up to 3 days before serving. Store it under a cake dome or loosely covered, at room temperature. (Update: Some readers were having trouble with the glaze seizing in the original recipe. Luisa Weiss retested it, and we made some updates to the recipe that should clear it up.)
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake With Pecans
By substituting pecans (or other nuts) for the usual maraschino cherries, this twist on a classic upside-down cake is less sweet and crunchier than the usual recipe. Caramelizing the brown sugar in a skillet before adding the fruit gives you a particularly deep, complex flavor. Because of the moisture in the topping, you’ll need to bake this cake a little longer than other, similar butter cakes. Underbaked cake will be soggy and apt to fall apart, but an ideal result will have a well-browned surface and dark, slightly crunchy edges.
Beef Barley Soup With Lemon
With a higher ratio of broth to barley than one usually sees, and the addition of plenty of fresh baby spinach, this beef barley soup is a little lighter than most of its kind. However, it’s still a substantial, satisfying meal that gets a heady aroma from spices (coriander, cumin and paprika) and a brightness from lemon. If you like your meals with a kick, top this with thinly sliced jalapeño, which will wilt slightly from the heat of the soup. Leftovers freeze perfectly for at least three months, though if using the jalapeño, don’t add it until serving time.
Baked Eggs With Crème Fraîche and Smoked Salmon
Runny-yolked eggs baked in individual ramekins or custard cups make for a very elegant brunch or light supper. These are bathed in a shallot-steeped crème fraîche and topped with smoked salmon for an especially rich result. Serve them with toast, croissants or crusty bread — something to mop up the last bits of yolk and cream at the bottom of the ramekins. You won’t want to leave behind a single drop.
Chocolate Coconut Cake
The fine, feathery crumb of this dessert, which is on the lighter side of chocolate cakes, is balanced by a slather of glossy, fudgy frosting. A topping of shredded coconut provides additional richness and texture. Make it the day before serving; its flavor only improves overnight.
Maple-Honey Pecan Pie
Using maple syrup and honey instead of the usual corn syrup in pecan pie makes for a complex and richly flavored confection that’s still wonderfully gooey in the center. This recipe also has double the amount of pecans compared with most recipes, giving it plenty of crunch. You can bake it the day before serving; it keeps very well at room temperature for at least 24 hours. It also freezes reasonably well for up to 3 months, though the crust won’t be quite as flaky.
Triple Chocolate Trifle With Raspberries
The imagination has no limitations, as we see from this recipe. It’s chocolate pudding, chopped chocolate, whipped cream and raspberries layered over brownies, repeatedly. It’s a fairy tale dessert to satisfy all comers.
Matzo Brei with Caramelized Apples
This recipe is adapted from the restaurant Jane in downtown New York. There, the chef Glenn Harris offers a matzo brei that is an expanded version of his mother's. Mr. Harris's mother, in Brooklyn, made sweet matzo brei with honey or jelly, or matzo meal pancakes the size of silver dollars sprinkled with sugar. His version is much more elaborate, with cubes of caramelized apples, a vanilla-honey sauce and mascarpone.
Smoky Beef and Vegetable Sliders
Sliders are a great way to stretch out a small amount of ground meat. I made this dish, which is reminiscent of a sloppy Joe (though a lot tidier), to use up the half-pound of left-over ground beef, and added vegetables to bulk it out and lighten it up.
Lime-Sugar Dipping Salt
A simple combination of sugar, salt and grated lime zest, this innovative sweet and savory citrus mix is excellent sprinkled on pork chops, chicken or salmon before roasting, or used as a seasoning for raw vegetables or corn on the cob. It’s also wonderful tossed with a little chile powder for added heat. To serve, place in a bowl or ramekin and serve with a demitasse or other small spoon for sprinkling. Or arrange vegetables on a platter and sprinkle with lime salt before serving.
Grilled Clams and Mussels with Garlic, Almonds and Mint
Grilling clams and mussels gives them a smokiness you can’t get inside on your stove. Use hardwood charcoal if you can; it gives the best, smokiest flavor. The cooking time may vary depending upon your grill and the temperature of the shellfish when you put it in the pan. (Very cold seafood may take a few minutes longer.) Keep checking, pulling out the open clams and mussels with tongs as you go. And don’t forget to pour the heady pan juices on top of the shellfish; dunking grilled bread into that garlicky pool may be the best part of the dish.
Blueberry Pecan Crunch Cake
Topped with coarse Demerara sugar and chopped pecans, this might just be the crunchiest coffee cake you’ve ever made. It’s also one of the easiest, as it’s quickly whisked together in just one bowl. Soft, juicy blueberries dot the cinnamon-scented batter, making jammy pockets in the tender crumb. It will keep at room temperature for up to three days, though the topping does lose a little texture the longer it sits. But this cake is so good, its keeping qualities may be beside the point.
Pizza Calzone
A calzone unveils itself slowly, bite by bite, especially if you’ve layered the fillings with several elements. For those who can’t give up the pie, I offer a pizza-calzone hybrid. Based on an elaborate dish I sampled at Don Antonio by Starita, a Midtown pizzeria, it has basil-perfumed ricotta and Parmesan in the center, and tomato sauce and melted mozzarella on top. It’s the best of both worlds, and an unexpected thing to do with a ball of pizza dough.
Chocolate Snacking Cake With Tangerine Glaze
This moist, darkly bittersweet snacking cake is easily mixed with a whisk. Using a neutral oil rather than butter allows the chocolate flavor to shine, and gives the crumb an especially velvety texture under a sweet-tart glaze. You can use any kind of orange for the topping. Tangerines and mandarins (including clementines) are bright and spicy, but regular navel or juice oranges work just as well. Or if you can find blood oranges, the glaze will take on a pinkish hue and a sweeter, richer flavor.
Roasted Golden Beet and Winter Squash Salad
Golden beets are more savory and earthy than their sugary ruby counterparts and fare better alongside the caramelized roasted winter squash in this many-textured salad. But red beets will work, too, if you don’t mind a slightly sweeter dish over all. If you can’t find delicata squash, other varieties, such as sweet dumpling (shown here), honey nut or acorn squash, make fine substitutes.
All-Purpose Green Sauce
This tangy, creamy sauce is the perfect home for all those extra herbs you may have on hand from other recipes — that leftover sprig of mint, the stemmy part of that bunch of cilantro, the droopy basil. You can use any combination of soft herbs here; you’ll need two packed cups altogether. And you don’t have to limit yourself to herbs. Other flavorful, leafy options include arugula, celery leaves or pea shoots. For a vegan version, skip the yogurt and use more olive oil, along with a small squeeze of lemon for some acidity.
Kale Tabbouleh
Here’s the thing about tabbouleh salad: Most of the ones I’ve had invert my preferred proportion of bulgur to parsley. What you usually get is a bowl of tabbouleh studded with bits of parsley. I like a salad that is mostly parsley, studded with grains of tabbouleh. I pictured a generous ratio of green to tan, but with kale standing in for parsley. It has a hint of parsley’s pleasing bitterness, but is far milder, which means that this tabbouleh salad didn’t have to be just a side dish, one best eaten in small portions. Instead, I could eat a whole bowl of it — a dream for a raw kale devotee.
Maple-Pecan Galette With Fresh Ginger
Like a cross between a giant Danish and a frangipane-filled tart, this not-too-sweet galette is perfect for the holidays and beyond. Maple sugar gives it a warm and toasty note, and fresh ginger and allspice, a delicately spicy nuance. You can substitute other nuts for pecans, and walnuts or slivered almonds would work particularly well. And both the dough and filling can be made a few days ahead. Serve this with whipped cream or ice cream for a sophisticated dessert, then save the leftovers for breakfast the next day. An unadorned slice is fantastic with coffee.
Sous-Vide Rib Steaks With Spicy Salsa Verde
When you invest in really good rib steaks, you don’t want to mess things up. Cooking them with a sous-vide machine until they are done to taste, then searing them on the grill until charred at the edges gives you the ultimate control.
Lemon Drizzle Cake
This light and moist lemon poundcake has a crunchy sugar glaze that crystallizes on top, giving a contrasting texture to the soft crumb underneath. It’s an easy-to-make, crowd-pleasing cake that’s excellent on its own but takes well to embellishments. A scoop of ice cream or sorbet, fruit compote and-or lemon curd are all wonderful alongside.
Gumbo’s Daddy With Chicken, Shrimp and Turkey
This recipe, adapted from Gail Jennings of North Carolina, is what her family thinks of as the daddy of all gumbos, a thick mix of leftover roast turkey rounded out with plump shrimp, chicken wings and collard greens. Ms. Jennings spikes the soup with a mix of curry powder and King’s Pepper, a spice blend that she developed based on a West African recipe. But any chile powder, including cayenne, can be substituted. Add it to taste; Ms. Jennings and her family like it fiery hot, then served over rice to mitigate the burn.