Recipes By Melissa Clark
1478 recipes found
Grilled Cured Salmon
Green Garlic Caesar Salad With Anchovy Croutons
Roasted Pears With Coconut Butterscotch Sauce
Treat yourself this weekend with oven-roasted pears smothered in a thick, nearly candied butterscotch sauce.
Pineapple-Ginger Crumb Cake
Chunks of juicy, caramelized pineapple are strewn throughout this sour cream coffee cake, adding bright, fruity notes to the tender crumb. The streusel topping is suffused with ginger — both candied and ground — giving the whole thing a spicy bite. Serve it within a day of baking, or freeze it. It’s good for well for up to 1 month.
Smashed Roasted Carrots
This wintry salad, inspired by Asian smashed cucumbers, stars sweet roasted carrots. After being roasted until just tender, the carrots are lightly flattened to create texture on their surface, then broiled to char their edges. The gingery, garlicky dressing is a bracing contrast to the sweetness of the carrots. You can use either black vinegar or rice wine vinegar here. Although their flavors are completely different — the black vinegar is caramelized and rich, the rice vinegar lighter and fresher — they each harmonize with the other ingredients in the dressing. Serve this salad warm or at room temperature: It holds up well if you want to make it a few hours in advance. This salad will also work with parsnips.
Charred Okra Salad With Garlicky Yogurt
Broiling okra until golden crisps it nicely throughout and chars it at the edges. In this recipe, it’s then spiced with cumin and turned into a salad filled with herbs, lettuces, tomatoes and other vegetables. Dressed with yogurt and topped with spicy cayenne onions, it makes a flavorful and unusual side dish or a light, vegetable-filled meal.
Tangy Pork Noodle Salad With Lime and Lots of Herbs
This light, bright salad, full of lettuce, leafy herbs and silky rice noodles, is seasoned with just enough ground pork to add richness without weighing it down. The fish sauce and citrus juices make it intense and tangy, while the honey softens its gingery bite. This salad is best served when freshly made and still very crisp, but won’t suffer much from sitting out for an hour or two.
Multicolored Tomato Tartlets
This is what guests who come over to my house during tomato season are served: individual warm puff pastry tarts topped with basil, nutty Parmesan and jewel-like slices of tomato. When I want to go all out, I’ll use one perfect slice for each tart, cutting them from different heirloom varieties; you can mix the unused tomato parts into a gorgeous salad. As long as you use all-butter pastry and good tomatoes, you can vary or skip the cheese and herbs. Or if you have some mascarpone left over from your baked stuffed tomatoes, a smear of it at the bottom of the crust makes a luxuriant cushion.
Kimchi Gazpacho With Clams
Fresh Herb Kuku
Kuku is a traditional Persian egg dish similar to a frittata. This version by the Iranian food writer Najmieh Batmanglij was served at the White House at Michelle Obama's Nowruz celebration on April 6. In it, a variety of fresh green herbs are mixed with fragrant spices, chopped walnuts and just enough eggs to bind everything together. Dried barberries, caramelized with grape molasses or sugar, make a pretty and sweet-tart garnish. If you can’t get barberries, substitute dried cranberries. Kuku can be served warm or at room temperature, and can be made a day in advance. Leftovers make excellent sandwiches when stuffed into lavash or pita with yogurt.
Carrot Ring
A cross between a carrot cake and a carrot pudding, this velvety, warm, gently sweet side dish is a classic Jewish holiday offering. This version is adapted from Dana Green of Benicia, Calif., who got it from her grandmother. "Everyone who encounters it is wary of the name, carrot ring, but they end up loving it, they have seconds," Ms. Green said. You can make this ahead by allowing the ring to cool in the pan, then wrapping the whole thing in plastic wrap, pan and all, and freezing it for up to one month. Let thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Unwrap and reheat in a 300-degree oven for about 30 minutes or so before serving.
Roasted Rhubarb Cobbler
In this buttery cobbler, slices of rhubarb are roasted with sugar before rounds of biscuit dough are added to the pan. This extra step allows the rhubarb juices to condense into a sweet-tart syrup and eliminates the need for a thickener like cornstarch or tapioca, which can muddy the flavors. The result is a bright-tasting, flaky cobbler that’s gently scented with vanilla and a little orange zest. Topped with a drizzle of heavy cream or a scoop of ice cream, it makes a rose-tinged dessert that’s both lighter and bolder than others of its kind.
Braised Flanken With Pomegranate
I’d always thought that flanken was specific to boiled beef or soup. But a little research divulged that the brawny cut is hugely popular in braises (and pot-roasting is arguably the same as braising), especially in Germany, Austria and Hungary. It also shines in Asian cuisines, particularly Korean, in which it’s seared and served rare. Arthur Schwartz, in his book “Jewish Home Cooking” (Ten Speed Press, 2008), extols the virtues of flanken. He points out that it’s from the same part of the animal as short ribs, cut across rather than along the bones. But while short ribs have achieved culinary stardom and high prices, flanken remains cheap and obscure. And just as tasty.
West Indian Lamb Curry
Curried goat is a popular dish in the West Indies, but lamb makes a fine substitute here in the United States, where goat meat is hard to find. This version, by the chef Martin Maginley from the Round Hill resort in Jamaica, is deeply flavored with allspice and Scotch bonnet peppers, but not overwhelming spicy. If you have time to make it the day before, it gets better as it sits, and gives you a chance to scoop some of the fat off the top of the stew before reheating over a low flame. And if you can procure goat, use it here in place of the lamb.
Pizzeria Locale's Butterscotch Pudding With Chocolate Ganache
While most butterscotch pudding recipes rely simply on dark brown sugar for their flavor, Pizzeria Locale in Denver adds an intense, nutty character by caramelizing the brown sugar first. Beyond a little salt, there is no other flavor added to distract from the caramel – no vanilla, no alcohol, no spice. They are not missed. If you’re pressed for time, you could skip the ganache topping, substituting grated milk chocolate bits on top or leaving the chocolate off altogether. Even the whipped cream is optional. Butterscotch pudding this good stands on its own.
Almond Cake With Peaches and Cream
This tender, golden cake, adapted from Lindsey Shere’s “Chez Panisse Desserts,” walks the line between dense and light, with a fine, moist crumb and deep marzipan flavor that comes from a combination of homemade almond paste and a touch of almond extract. Easily made in a food processor, it’s a versatile cake that you can dress up any way you like. Here, it’s topped with peaches and cream, but it’s just as good with berries, nectarines, plums or poached pears. Or leave it plain for a more restrained dessert or afternoon snack. You can vary the nuts for the paste here, too. Substitute unsalted roasted almonds for a toasty, earthy flavor; hazelnuts for woodsy notes; and pistachios plus a dash of orange blossom water for a heady, floral notes. This cake will keep for up to two days well wrapped at room temperature or five days in the fridge.
Pumpkin-Butterscotch Custard With Spiced Whipped Cream
Butterscotch pudding gets an autumnal makeover with the addition of pumpkin purée and a fluffy, spiced whipped cream topping. To make this dish supremely festive, it’s baked in one large dish instead of individual custard cups. And because it needs to be prepared almost entirely in advance, it’s a perfect dinner party dessert. Serve it scooped into bowls, with some crisp cookies on the side.
Turkey Thighs With Pickled Cranberries and Onions for Two
Roasted turkey thighs are quicker, easier and more adaptable than a whole bird, and just as satisfying with their crisp, bronzed skin and tender meat. You can scale this recipe to feed as many as you’re serving, or if you want to make extra for leftovers. Simply double, triple or even quadruple it, spreading out the thighs on your largest sheet pan. Or you can halve it to feed one. The quick-pickled onions and cranberries are a tangy contrast to the richness of the meat, and, with their fuchsia hue, a welcome bit of color on the plate.
Pastel (Israeli Spiced Meat Pie)
This gently spiced beef pie, adapted from the “Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking” by the chef Michael Solomonov, is scented with cinnamon, dill and parsley. The recipe calls for purchased puff pastry, which makes it extremely simple to make yet wonderfully rich to eat. Leftovers will last for a few days in the refrigerator. Reheat at 350 degrees before serving.
Butterscotch-Glazed Cinnamon Rolls
Cinnamon rolls get the grown-up treatment here, with muscular brown sugar used in place of white, and a splash of bourbon in the glaze for bite. The flavor is heavenly, the smell ambrosial — and the recipe is large enough that, if you're not feeding a crowd, you can freeze a few for later in the week.
Crispy Stuffed Mushrooms With Harissa and Apricots
In this twist on stuffed mushrooms, the caps are filled with seasoned bread crumbs laced with sweet dried apricots and spiked with harissa and cumin. Showered with grated Parmesan, the caps get supremely crisp on top as they bake, staying rich and tender in the middle. These are best devoured still warm from the oven, but are nearly as good at room temperature. Or bake them up to 6 hours ahead and reheat them briefly in a 350-degree oven before serving.
Caramelized Summer Fruit Tart
Use this crunchy, flaky tart recipe as a template for any ripe summer fruit you have, adjusting the sugar and cornstarch depending on how sweet and juicy the fruit is (see Tip). Made from store-bought puff pastry that’s been coated in Demerara sugar, the crust caramelizes as it bakes, turning shiny and crisp enough to shatter when you bite down. And feel free to change up the seasonings and substitute 1/2 teaspoon ground spices or grated lemon zest for the vanilla. It’s an easy, fuss-free dessert that seems like a lot more work than it actually is. For maximum flakiness, serve this on the same day that it’s baked.
One-Pan, One-Pot Thanksgiving Dinner
Perfect for a small gathering, this streamlined Thanksgiving meal is cooked in one medium pot and on one sheet pan (and OK, yes, it also calls for an extra bowl). It has all the traditional flavors of the classic menu — juicy turkey, crisp-topped stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, roasted brussels sprouts and marshmallow-topped sweet potatoes — but with a fraction of work (and far fewer dishes).
Pickled Deviled Eggs
Before they are deviled, these hard-cooked eggs are pickled in rice vinegar, brown sugar and garlic, along with slivered red onions. The pickling brine dyes the egg whites deep pink, and the onions turn pungently sweet and sour, making a terrific garnish for the deviled eggs. And after the eggs are gone, you’ll still be left with plenty of pickled onions that will last for weeks in the refrigerator. Add them to salads, tacos, grilled meats and sandwiches. You won’t be sorry to have them on hand.