Recipes By Melissa Clark
1476 recipes found
Grilled Steak Tacos With Cherry Tomato-Avocado Salsa
In this supremely summery taco recipe, chile-rubbed grilled steak is topped with a spicy tomato-avocado salsa before being rolled into warm corn tortillas. Grilling the onions, garlic and jalapeño for the salsa adds a concentrated sweetness, while lime zest keeps everything sharp and bright. If you don’t have access to a grill, feel free to use your broiler.
Shortbread, 10 Ways
Shortbread is not only one of the easiest desserts you can possibly make, it’s also one of the most adaptable. As long as you keep the butter-to-flour ratio constant (1 stick butter to 1 cup flour), everything else is negotiable. You can reduce or increase the sugar and salt, or mix in any type of flavoring from citrus zest to vanilla to herbs and spices. You can even alter the type of flour, swapping in some rice flour for all-purpose flour for increased crunch, or cornmeal for a nubby texture. Just be cautious about adding liquid to the dough; any more than one tablespoon could interfere with the texture. Here we give a master recipe and nine variations to play around with.
Baked Brie
Serve a creamy, runny-centered, pastry-wrapped baked brie at your next party and watch your guests cluster around it, slicing off bits until it completely disappears. Don’t be tempted to use a fancy, artisan brie from a cheese shop here. This recipe works best with the regular kind of brie you find at the supermarket; fancier bries may leak out of their pastry. Choose any flavor jam for the topping. Orange or ginger marmalade will give you something tangier than, say, raspberry and cherry jam, which are sweeter, more mellow options. While a wedge of brie will work in this recipe, a round of brie looks prettiest.
Ambrosia Cake
If you love the combination of oranges, coconut and marshmallows found in a traditional ambrosia — the salad or dessert that often also contains pineapple, bananas, cherries and some kind of creamy dressing such as whipped cream or sour cream — you’ll adore this cake. The coconut is baked into the cake layers and used as a sweet, shaggy garnish, while the oranges (in this case, diminutive, seedless clementines) are juiced into curd and sliced fresh for the filling. Then, as a final, fluffy touch, a homemade marshmallow frosting tops it off. It may be a lot of work, but it’s an impressive result. And you can make the curd and cake a few days ahead. Just be sure to make the frosting and assemble everything within 8 hours of serving. Otherwise the fruit starts to break down and the icing may crystallize.
Roasted Carrot Salad With Arugula and Pomegranate
This composed, bright salad of roasted carrots, thinly sliced fennel and arugula gains a fruity depth from a splash of pomegranate molasses in the dressing. You can find pomegranate molasses in Middle Eastern groceries and specialty food shops, and it’s worth seeking out for its complex, sweet-tart acidity. Once opened, it will last for years in your pantry. This salad makes a delightful side dish or light main course, especially if you include the optional toasted walnuts or pita chips, which add a satisfying crunch. If you can find multicolored carrots, this already striking salad becomes even prettier.
Baked Oatmeal With Berries and Almonds
A fruit-filled take on an Amish recipe, this homey baked oatmeal is crunchy from chopped almonds but still soft and comforting from the buttery egg custard that suffuses the oats. You can use any fruit here instead of — or in combination with — the berries. Cubed apples or pears, bananas, pineapple or even mango will add a sweet juiciness to the mix. And for something even richer, serve this doused in heavy cream.
Classic Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies
Full of nubby oats and plenty of sweet raisins, these lightly spiced cookies are pleasingly chewy in the center and crisp around the edges, with a hint of butterscotch from the dark brown sugar. They keep really well, so you can make them up to a week in advance and store them in an airtight container at room temperature. They’re also great for mailing when a package of cookies is in order. Why You Should Trust This Recipe Melissa Clark, a food writer for more than 25 years, creates her fresh takes on classic recipes by trying at least half a dozen different approaches. A professional recipe tester then makes her recipe a minimum of three times (and sometimes more than 12) to ensure it’ll come out perfectly for all home cooks. For these cookies, Melissa achieved the ideal balance of chewy center and dark, crinkly edges by glossing the oats with brown sugar.
Ratatouille
In this classic Provençal dish, summer vegetables, like eggplant, onions, peppers, tomatoes and zucchini, are covered in olive oil and roasted separately, then all together, until they become a soft, harmonious stew. This recipe calls for seeding and peeling the tomatoes, which is a bit of work. But it’s worth it for the intensity of flavor and the velvety texture. Ratatouille takes some time to make, and tastes better the next day, so plan ahead. The upside is that it’s a perfect make-ahead dish for a party. You can store it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, then gently reheat it, or bring it to room temperature before serving. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Omelet
This recipe is for a basic French omelet with three eggs: enough for a hearty breakfast or brunch, or a light supper for one. The key to mastering this recipe is controlling the heat so the eggs do not brown, and whisking the eggs in the skillet so they set on the exterior but remain fluffy inside. A good nonstick or well-seasoned carbon-steel skillet is central to cooking the ideal omelet, which should be tender and slightly runny. Once you’ve got the technique down, you can play around with your seasonings, adding minced herbs, grated cheese, diced ham or sautéed vegetables. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Lamb Tagine
The word "tagine" refers to both a North African cooking pot with a conical lid, and the aromatic stew traditionally cooked inside. Tagine, the stew, classically incorporates savory and sweet ingredients to make a complex dish with a richly spiced sauce. Here, dried apricots, cinnamon, nutmeg and a sprinkling of almonds toasted in butter provide the sweetness, while lamb, saffron, turmeric, tomato paste and a bright garnish of scallions, herbs and lemon juice make it deeply savory. If you have a tagine, the pot, feel free to use it here. Otherwise, a Dutch oven or a different large pot with a tightfitting lid will work well. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Sole Meunière
The dish that made Julia Child fall in love with French cuisine, sole meunière highlights the simple flavors of fresh fish, butter, lemon and parsley. Fish is the center of the dish, so using a quality fillet is important: A true English Dover sole is preferred. Clarified butter, which takes a few extra minutes to prepare, can take on heat without browning, making it ideal for pan-frying fish. A classic sole meunière is made with a bone-in fillet, but boneless sole is faster and easier. You'll find a recipe for clarified butter here. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Melissa Clark's Cassoulet
This slow-cooked casserole of white beans and several kinds of meat has long been considered the pinnacle of regional French home cooking. It takes planning (you’ll need to find all the ingredients), time and a good deal of culinary stamina. But the voluptuous mix of aromatic beans surrounding rich chunks of duck confit, sausages, roasted pork and lamb and a crisp salt pork crust is well worth the effort. Serve this with a green salad. It doesn’t need any other accompaniment, and you wouldn’t have room for it, anyway. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Buckwheat Popovers
These airy, crisp popovers have a rich, nutty flavor, thanks to the combination of buckwheat flour and a little whole-wheat flour stirred into the batter. If you’ve never made popovers, they’re extremely easy to mix up with just a bowl and a whisk, no electric beaters required. Or you can use a blender if you like. The only thing to keep in mind is that you should not open the oven door during baking until the very end, or they might not puff. Use your oven light and window to check on their progress. You can make the batter a few hours or even the night before (store it in the refrigerator). Just give it a quick whisk before pouring it into the pans for baking. Then serve your popovers hot from the oven, with plenty of butter and jam. The recipe makes six popovers, using a popover pan, but you can stretch that to 12 popovers if you use a muffin tin instead.
Farro With Roasted Squash, Feta and Mint
Falling somewhere between a grain bowl and a warm grain salad, this colorful dish is substantial enough to be a meatless main course, or it makes a hearty side dish to simple roasted meat or fish. You can use whatever kind of squash you like here, either peeled or unpeeled. Squash skin is perfectly edible; let anyone who objects cut theirs away at the table (though see if you can get them to try it first). If you don’t have farro, you can substitute brown rice. Just increase the cooking time by about 20 minutes.
Spinach Salad With Pancetta and Fried Eggs
Laced with nuggets of pancetta and crisp-edged fried eggs, there’s a lot going on in this hearty salad, and you need a green that can stand up to it all. With its thick, ruffled leaves and almost mineral flavor, mature spinach (as opposed to those ubiquitous baby leaves) does the job well. If you can’t find it, you can substitute baby spinach, though it will wilt when it makes contact with the hot eggs. Or try kale, which also holds up nicely. Serve this for a light dinner or a hearty brunch with some good bread and olive oil for dipping on the side.
Coconut Pork Stew With Garam Masala
Coconut milk adds richness and a gentle creamy sweetness to this hearty pork stew, while garam masala, cumin, and cayenne add fragrance and a jolt of spice. Because yellow split peas are cooked along with the pork, you don’t necessarily need to serve this over another starch, making it a warming one-pot meal. However, a side of rice will tame the heat if you’re looking for a slightly mellower meal. And if you want to cool this down even further, substitute mild chiles for the hot ones called for in the garlic coconut oil.
Victoria Sponge Cake
This traditional British layer cake is made up of two buttery, tender spongecake rounds that sandwich a thick layer of jam and, often, a dollop of sweetened whipped cream. It’s a simple, homey confection that works as well with a cup of afternoon tea as it does for dessert. Feel free to substitute other flavors of tart jam for the raspberry. Apricot and blackberry work particularly well.
Roasted Chicken With Figs and Rosemary
This is truly one of the easiest company-worthy chicken dishes out there. Marinated with citrus zest and rosemary then quickly roasted at high heat, the chicken turns golden, juicy and richly flavored, while the figs cook down into sweet jammy puddles. Use your favorite bone-in chicken parts here, or a mix of pieces. Or if you’re starting with a cut up small whole bird (here's a video demonstrating how to do that), add a couple of drumsticks or thighs to reach the 4 1/2 pounds you’ll need.
Burrata With Romano Beans and Roasted Eggplant
Although burrata is inarguably the star of this stunning summery salad, roasted eggplant, cherry tomatoes and Romano beans add a brilliant mix of colors, textures and flavors to the creamy mozzarella. The eggplant is soft and rich; the tomatoes, juicy and sweet; and the Romano beans, which look like flat, broad green beans, add a nice crunch. Then, to season it all, the vegetables are tossed with a piquant mix of garlic oil, capers, olives and fresh herbs. Serve this as a light meal or a first course, with grilled or toasted country bread, perhaps smeared with a little of the garlic confit left over from making the garlic oil.
Crunchy Berry Almond Crumble
The paradox of a fruit crisp is that it's usually not crisp, nor is a fruit crumble necessarily crumbly. Here, however, the crumbs are as crisp as cookies, offering a textural contrast to the puddinglike berries. This delicious treat is at once crispy, crumbly and profoundly fruity.
Grilled Roast Chicken With Spinach-Ricotta Crostini
This whole chicken cooked on the grill is truly a best-of-both-worlds recipe: You get the incredibly succulent meat and brittle-crisp, burnished skin of a roast chicken, combined with the deep smoky flavor of the grill. To make it, you essentially use your grill like an outdoor oven, cooking a whole splayed chicken in a skillet instead of directly on the grill grate. Splaying the bird first — that is, flattening the legs so they lay flat in the skillet — helps the dark meat cook quickly and evenly. The skillet helps to distribute the heat and captures the juices, which would otherwise incinerate in the fire. Those juices are then put to good use as a cooking medium for dill-flecked, garlicky spinach. The greens absorb all of the chicken drippings before being heaped upon ricotta-smeared crostini. Added bonus: You don’t have to worry about setting off your smoke detector. Here, the smoke stays in the grill with the bird, which is exactly where you want it.
Coconut Almond Cluster Granola
As terrific as homemade granola tastes, its texture often lacks the thick, crunchy clusters found in store-bought versions. This recipe is an exception, filled with crisp, sweet clumps of oats, coconut flakes and seeds. The secret is grinding a portion of the oats and coconut into flour, which helps bind the ingredients together. Feel free to mix up the spices, nuts and seeds to taste, and to add dried fruit or chocolate chips after it cools if you like. Granola is adaptable, so make it the way you like it. You can also cut the brown sugar in half. The granola will be less sweet and less cluster-packed but still quite satisfying.
Braised Chicken With Artichokes and Olives
Imbued with the classic Mediterranean flavors of artichokes, garlic, mint and olives, this braised chicken is complex and highly satisfying, with a white wine sauce brightened with lemon. Fresh artichokes have the most pronounced character and meatiest texture, but if you can’t get them or don’t want to go to the trouble of cleaning them, you can substitute frozen artichoke hearts (you'll need a 9- or 10-once package). Serve this with crusty bread for sauce-mopping.
Beef With Horseradish-Beet Aioli
For this modern take on traditional boiled beef, a beef fillet is very gently simmered (never boiled) with root vegetables in stock, then sliced up rosy rare and dolloped with a homemade horseradish aioli and some flaky sea salt. It’s piquant, juicy and on the lighter side of a beefy main course. Tenderloin works best here, but it's not generally considered kosher, so if you are making it for Passover, Rosh Hashana or another Jewish holiday, use a boneless rib roast or center cut London broil. The magenta-colored beet horseradish keeps in the fridge for weeks, and it's also great on roast beef sandwiches.