Recipes By Melissa Clark
1479 recipes found
Rhubarb Custard Bars
Imagine lemon bars, but made with a tangy rhubarb curd instead of citrus, and you’ll get a sense of this sweet-tart confection. The rhubarb curls on top make it pretty, but they don’t add much in terms of flavor, so feel free to skip Step 5. With their crisp crust and soft topping, the bars are at their absolute best when served within a day of baking. But you can store leftovers in the fridge for up to five days. They’ll get a little soggy, but the flavor will still be excellent.
Green Garlic Toast
Green garlic is harvested while still immature, before the bulb has a chance to fully develop the cloves we know so well. It looks a lot like a scallion, with a mild garlic flavor that’s bright and fresh tasting. You can use both the white and green tender green parts of the stalk, trimming away any yellowing or woody parts near the top. In this recipe, minced raw green garlic is mixed with butter, Parmesan and chives, then used to top toast. It’s pungent, herbal and sweet with a bite from the chile flakes. Serve these plain, or top with any number of embellishments – sliced avocado, sliced tomatoes, dollops of ricotta cheese, fillets of anchovies or sardines. They make an excellent nibble with drinks, or serve a large portion with a salad for a light lunch. If you’re not using it immediately, the green garlic butter will freeze well for up to 3 months. And the piquant butter can also be used to cook eggs, or tossed with asparagus, pasta or rice.
Double Garlic Soup
This creamy soup of pairs two spring delicacies: green garlic, which are the tender bulbs that arrives early in the season, still attached to the greens, and garlic scapes, which look like curlicue tulip stems are the flower shoots of the garlic bulb. The two are sautéed in butter, then puréed.
White Chicken Potpie
Crispy Calamari, Lemon and Maitake Salad Over Arugula
Sauteed Squid with Chiles, Mint and Lime
Eggs Poached in Buttery Sorrel Sauce
Here's a delightful brunch number that takes great advantage of the first sorrel of spring, with the zesty leaves folded into a sauce made of scallions and loads of butter. Add eggs and cook until just set, then scoop everything up with toast.
Linguine With Clams, Roasted Tomatoes and Caramelized Garlic
Here is a very cool recipe that calls for roasting cherry tomatoes with garlic and oil, then using that mixture as the base of a pasta sauce heavy with clams. The juxtaposition of the slick linguine with the roasted, caramelized tomatoes and garlic, as well as the soft, briny clams, is an uncommon delight. Work hard to make sure not to overcook the pasta, so that it may finish in the sauce.
Steamed Clams With Spring Herbs
A pot full of garlicky steamed clams needs nothing more than some crusty bread – or even just a spoon – to accompany it. In this version, tarragon and chives add a bracing freshness to the clams while lime juice and zest brighten things up. Take your time when cleaning the clams; they need a good scrubbing under running water to remove all the sand and grit. If you do find grit in the sauce after cooking, either strain it through a sieve lined with a dish towel, or let it settle to the bottom of the pot and spoon the sauce off the top. This recipe also works with mussels if you add 1/4 cup water to the pot along with the shellfish.
Garlic-and-Herb-Rubbed Butterflied Leg of Lamb
Charred Lamb and Eggplant With Date-Yogurt Chutney
You can marinate the meat ahead of time or, in a pinch, make it while the eggplant roasts. Use half the marinade to slather the meat and to the rest, add almonds, dates and cilantro, and spread that over the finished cubes of eggplant. Then roast and broil the lamb to char the surface and keep the meat juicy and rare. Nice dinner!
Endive and Apple Salad With Spiced Walnuts
Queso Fundido
This ooey, gooey cheese dip gets a little kick from the addition of fresh jalapeño pepper and chorizo sausage. Serve the dip hot with soft tortillas, or tortilla chips, depending on your mood.
Shredded Butternut Squash With Brown Butter, Sage and Pecans
Honey-Glazed Pear Upside-Down Cake
This delightful cake emerges from the oven as golden as a pear tarte Tatin, but with a moist, cake-y layer that sops up all of the luscious pear drippings. Let the oohs and aahs begin.
Savory Pumpkin Tart
This rustic dish is inspired by a recipe served in France, in the Loire Valley, during harvest time. At lunch, this delightful tart shared the table with green lentils and pork sausages. Feel free to make the tart the focus of a meal, perhaps with a side of bright greens.
Holiday Stollen
Shrimp and Roasted Sweet Potato Hash Stuffing
Farro Salad With Roasted Rutabaga, Ricotta Salata and Hazelnuts
Chipotle Chicken Sausage
Avocado-Mint Dip
This luscious dip has a velvety smooth texture and a fresh herbal bite. You can substitute any other herbs for the mint; cilantro makes it somewhat guacamole-like, while chives add their allium sweetness, and basil is sharp and bright. Serve with crudités or heap on toasted bread to make crostini.
Seared Shishito Peppers With Corn and Japanese Curry
Japanese curry paste both flavors and thickens a simply made, buttery sauce for corn kernels and shishito peppers in this colorful vegetable sauté from the Houston chef Chris Shepherd. It’s an intense, rich side dish for roast chicken, pork or a full-flavored fish like salmon or mackerel. If it’s not corn season, substitute frozen corn and shave a minute or two off the cooking time. In either case this dish comes together in a flash.
Gluten-Free Pizza
This pizza has a full-flavored, crackerlike crust with a pleasing if slight chew.
Tarte Flambée
Traditionally, this onion and bacon tart was a baker’s treat made from dough scraps leftover from bread baking. The scraps were rolled out, topped with raw onion, bacon and fromage blanc (a soft, yogurtlike cheese) and baked until the dough puffed and the onions singed at the edges. Now you’re as likely to find this savory tart at a restaurant or coming straight from someone’s kitchen as at a bakery. This version, adapted from the chef Gabriel Kreuther, uses a biscuitlike crust made with baking powder instead of the usual yeasted dough. Since you don’t have to let the dough rise, you can have a tarte flambée on the table in under 45 minutes. Serve this as an appetizer, a light main course, or for an unusual brunch offering. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.