Recipes By Melissa Clark
1479 recipes found
Crunchy-Topped Whole-Wheat Plum Cake
When blue-black prune plums come into season in the fall, this cake must be made. The recipe was created by the reporter Marian Burros well before The New York Times went digital; each fall, she would grumble about having to print it, by popular demand, once again. It is absurdly simple (just plum halves nestled into batter), but somehow the liveliness of fruit, sugar, and spice on top of plain cake brings out the best of both worlds. In 2010, the recipe got an update with whole-grain flour that works well with the red and black plums of summer. You can also make it with cherries and peaches.
Roasted Radish Crostini
Of all the things you can do with a radish — slice it into salads, chop it into salsa, shred it into slaw or top it with a thick layer of sweet butter and a sprinkling of flaky sea salt — the last thing most people think to do with it is cook it. But you should. Heat transforms the spicy, crisp and crunchy radish into something sweet, succulent and mellow. Here, pan-roasted radishes are served atop toast with a quick sauce made of butter, anchovies, garlic, red pepper and olive oil.
Brandied Plums With Cinnamon and Vanilla
Citrusy Roast Chicken With Pears and Figs
This juicy, citrus-scented chicken is a perfect dish for that shoulder season between summer and fall, when pears and figs overlap in the market, and evenings cool down enough to turn on the oven. As the chicken roasts, its skin crisps and its fat renders, flavoring the caramelizing fruit in the pan. Before it’s served, everything is topped with a garlicky orange relish flecked with parsley and drizzled with sherry vinegar. It’s a sweet and savory meal that’s simple enough for a weeknight (if you can marinate the chicken the night before), yet festive enough for guests.
Caramel Peach Skillet Pie
In this decadent pie baked in a skillet, fresh peaches are coated in caramel before being topped with a homemade puff pastry crust. The trick to controlling the sweetness here is making sure to cook the caramel until it’s very dark brown but not burned. You’re looking for the color of an Irish setter: deep brown with a reddish cast. The puff pastry is a shortcut version (often called quick or rough puff pastry) that’s less labor-intensive than the classic kind. Its texture is somewhere between flaky pie dough and typical puff pastry, with a deeply buttery flavor. You can make it up to three days ahead (or longer if you freeze it). This said, purchased all-butter puff pastry is a fine substitute. You’ll need a 12- to 14-ounce package.
Cranberry Cordial
Scarlet-hued, with just enough sugar to offset the tartness of the berries, this vodka-based spirit submitted by Corey Balazowich was a resounding success. It’s also a good place to use up cranberries left over from Thanksgiving.
Fried Peach Pies with Bourbon and Cinnamon
A Southern specialty, deep-fried pies are basically turnovers that can be stuffed with anything either savory or sweet, though peaches are a favorite.
Butternut Squash Oat Muffins With Candied Ginger
Green Tea-Ginger Marshmallow Shortbread
Black Bean Tacos With Avocado and Spicy Onions
Spicy pickled onions add brightness and tang to these hearty black bean tacos. The filling is a bit like chili but without the tomato, and perfect to wrap up in a tortilla. You can make the black beans up to 5 days ahead; they even freeze well. Then just warm them up, along with the tortillas, right before serving. The spicy onions will last for weeks in the fridge. Use them on everything: soups, salads, even grilled cheese sandwiches.
Spicy, Garlicky Meatloaf
This meatloaf is as pungent and zesty as a meatball, but baked in that iconic, sliceable loaf form. A combination of chilies and sage add a spicy, earthy note, and a glaze of tomato paste and olive oil elevates a traditional dish away from its ketchup roots. The pine nuts are a visual cue: this is something a little different. And it tastes great the day after.
Sausage With Chard and Rhubarb
This quick sausage dish is perfect for spring. The dark green chard adds freshness, while the rhubarb lends a citrus-like sour note that cuts through the richness of the sausages. If you don’t have any mustard seeds on hand, leave them out. While they do add a pleasant heat and gentle crunch, you won’t miss them if you didn’t know they were supposed to be there. Use any kind of sausage you like here: pork, duck, lamb or turkey all work well with the rhubarb and greens.
Garlic and Thyme Roasted Chicken With Crispy Drippings Croutons
This roast chicken recipe puts all of the juices that normally collect at the bottom of the roasting pan (only to be discarded) to gloriously good use. The bird, which is stuffed with garlic, lemon and herbs, is placed on top of a pile of stale bread (all different kinds of breads work, including baguettes, country loaves and even pita) that's been drizzled with olive oil. As the chicken cooks, the juices are absorbed by the bread, resulting in arguably the most delicious jumbo-sized croutons in the history of the world.
Cock-a-Leekie Soup (Scottish Chicken and Leek Soup)
Leeks star in this classic Scottish chicken soup, adding their sweet, oniony flavor to the meaty, fragrant broth. Some versions of this recipe omit the prunes, but their rich fruitiness is what sets this dish apart from other chicken soups. Rice, either brown or white, can stand in for the barley, and some recipes call for oats (in which case use an equal amount of steel-cut, rather than rolled). For a heartier, more stewlike soup, use 3/4 cup barley.
Small-Batch Gravlax With Fennel-Orange Butter
Macarons
Filled with ground almonds and flavored with vanilla beans, these classic French macarons are soft in the center, with a crunchy meringue shell that shatters gloriously when you bite. Buttercream is the most traditional macaron filling, but you can substitute jam, chocolate ganache, dulce de leche or lemon curd. And feel free to play with the flavorings: Instead of vanilla, try a dash of rose water, some grated lemon zest or ground cinnamon. If you want to tint the macarons, add a drop or two of food coloring to the batter. These are best made a day or two in advance, and will last for up to 5 days stored airtight at room temperature.
Meat and Potato Skillet Gratin
This hearty, wintry dish is a cross between a shepherd's pie and potato gratin. It's got a layer of browned ground beef spiked with onions, sage and spinach on the bottom, with a luscious, cheese- and cream-slathered root vegetable topping that turns golden and crisp-edged in the oven. If you aren't a rutabaga fan, you can use all potatoes, or a combination of white and sweet potatoes. This gratin reheats very well, so feel free to make it ahead and reheat it uncovered in a 350-degree oven. And although it qualifies as a one-pan meal (with meat, green vegetable and starch altogether), a fresh and tangy green salad on the side would round things out nicely.
Brown Butter Coconut Financiers
These tender and very buttery financiers have a deep coconut flavor and a slightly chewy, almost macaroon-like texture from the addition of shredded, unsweetened coconut. When making the brown butter, be sure to let it get dark golden in color for the nuttiest flavor; you want it just shy of burnt. This is the ideal way to use up all those egg whites in your freezer.
Shaved Turnip Salad With Arugula and Prosciutto
Potatoes Dogana
You can serve potatoes Dogana alongside any simple protein — grilled meats, roasted birds, sautéed fish, for example. Or simply slide a pair of sunny-side-up eggs over the potatoes before sprinkling on the relish. Then you can call it dinner, or even brunch, just to mix things up even more.
Spinach Salad with Prosciutto and Persimmon
This colorful salad, a mix of spinach, sweet persimmon, prosciutto and plenty of Parmesan-laced croutons, is satisfying enough for a light dinner. Or serve it as a somewhat unusual first course. Make sure to add enough oil and vinegar at the end to just coat the spinach, but not weigh the leaves down. The croutons can be made the day before; store them in an airtight container at room temperature.
Fig-Hazelnut Financiers
Lamb and Fig Skewers With Honey and Rosemary
This easy recipe bridges that strange period of cooking that falls at the end of summer, when there's a chill in the air, and grilling might require a sweater instead of a cold beer. Make sure your figs are very ripe, and allow the lamb several hours to marinate in the fridge.
Lot 2's Pecorino Fried Bread With Broccoli
Katherine Youngblood, the chef de cuisine at Lot 2 in Brooklyn, sautées heirloom broccoli with garlic, chile flakes, anchovy and plenty of lemon, and serves it heaped on olive oil-fried bread showered with pecorino. The oily crunch of the bread, the saltiness of the cheese and the sweetness of the broccoli combine into something that, had it not been for my sense of propriety, would have had me licking the plate. I made a few minor edits while testing the recipe, taking down the olive oil by just a bit and streamlining the method. The result is a wonderful melding of simple ingredients and techniques that is easy to replicate at home, whenever the craving strikes.