Recipes By Priya Krishna
46 recipes found
Bhel Puri for a Party
Bhel puri — a type of chaat made with puffed rice, chutneys and various toppings — is the ultimate entertaining dish, whether you are hosting or bringing a dish to a potluck. Most of it can be prepared in advance, leaving mostly the assembly which allows you to really put on a show for your guests. You can make a good chaat with store-bought chutneys and bhel mix. But it’s the homemade chutneys and fried tortilla strips that make this exceptional, providing the sweet-salty-fresh-crunchy combination that is the hallmark of chaat. The ingredient list is long, but after you make the chutneys, you are 80 percent of the way there. When you have the components prepared, set them out in bowls, invite all your guests to gather around, and make your chaat live, tasting and tossing for everyone to see.
Pescado a la Talla (Contramar’s Red and Green Grilled Snapper)
This photogenic, red-and-green whole fish from Contramar in Mexico City has been replicated at restaurants across the country, and for good reason. The bright, zingy parsley sauce painted on one side and the smoky, spicy chile sauce on the other make for a brilliant balance of flavors and colors. The dish is based on a traditional coastal Mexican dish, but it was the addition of the parsley sauce and the presentation — the brainchild of Gabriela Cámara, the chef of Contramar — that made this dish a worldwide sensation. It may look dramatic, but the technique is quite simple, and can easily be adapted for fillets rather than a whole fish.
Ice Cream Peda
Peda, a fudgy, milky South Asian sweet, is a staple of mithai shop cases. In this recipe, the founder of Malai Ice Cream, Pooja Bavishi, smartly uses melted ice cream as a base, incorporating milk powder, cardamom and salt for a snackable treat that’s toasty and nutty in flavor and aromatic with spices. The melted ice cream gives the peda its rich texture and subtle, sweet undertow and makes the dough easy to handle and shape. If the dough starts to dry out as you are shaping the balls, just knead it again until smooth.
Badam Burfi Bark
This modern take on badam burfi, from the latest cookbook, “Desi Bakes” (Hardie Grant, 2024), by the food writer Hetal Vasavada, layers the classic South Asian almond confection over tart, Barbie-pink, ruby chocolate in bark form. The chocolate is not only a photogenic topping; it — along with freeze-dried strawberries — also tempers the sweetness of the burfi and compliments the cardamom. This recipe sidesteps the hardest parts of making burfi — it gets pressed into a pan, meaning no need to do any individual shaping — while still producing a beautiful, portable treat. A little salt brings out the best from this nutty, fruity, floral confection.
Cucumber Sandwiches
It’s the details that make these herbed cucumber sandwiches feel special: slicing the cucumbers thin, salting and patting the slices dry and making sure the dill gets evenly distributed in the cream cheese. Soft bread is key here, as is the generous amount of whipped cream cheese — both elements give these sandwiches their delightful texture.
Salmon Onigiri
Onigiri are a classic Japanese snack, the compact rice balls are a staple of the country’s convenience stores. They are portable, flavorful and filling — the ideal travel companion — and include dozens of variations. The technique is simple: The filling of choice (salmon, in this case) gets spooned into balls of rice that are shaped into triangles and wrapped in crispy seaweed. Wetting and salting your hands before working with the rice is key — it seasons the rice and prevents the grains from sticking to your palms.
Shahi Toast
White bread transforms into a luxurious dessert in this classic South Asian sweet. Think of shahi toast as the ultimate bread pudding — cold, creamy, dreamy, crunchy and fragrant with cardamom, which tastes citrusy, sweet and floral. Buttered, toasted squares of bread are soaked in a citrusy-sweet cardamom cream until soft (but not soggy!) and topped with crunchy pistachios. This was one of my mom’s favorite desserts as a kid growing up in India and this is her shortcut version, with my upgrades (hint: butter). It is amazing how luxurious this tastes considering how easy it is to make.
Tea Sandwiches
These have the transformative power to turn snack time into something far fancier. The two easy classics are building blocks for afternoon tea or a baby shower, but also work just as easily for lunch. It’s the little things that make these sandwiches feel special: slicing the cucumbers thin, salting and patting the slices dry and making sure the herbs get evenly distributed in the compound butter. Soft bread is key here, as are the generous amounts of butter — both elements give these sandwiches their delightful texture. Make one version or both, and scale the recipe up or down as needed. These sandwiches are best served immediately, but can sit out for about an hour.
Everyday Dal
The warming, soothing and downright healing effects of dal are well known throughout South Asia and its diaspora. This is an everyday dish for a good reason: It’s simple to make but tastes complex, and the flavor only deepens over time. There are countless ways to make dal; this version requires just 10 minutes and five ingredients (not including salt), all serving important purposes: The lentils cook quickly, the turmeric lends an earthy wholesomeness and the rich chhonk, or tempering, made by sizzling spices with ghee, brings instant depth. To gussy it up, try adding a packet of frozen spinach, or stirring minced garlic into the chhonk. If you’re tempted to use ground cumin instead of cumin seeds, resist! The seeds have a distinctly smokier flavor and add a pleasant texture to the dal.
Crispy Green Bean and Potato Sabzi
Indian cooking is filled with one-pan sabzis that come together fast and deliver big, complex flavor. This variation on a potato and green bean sabzi has a twist: almond butter, which gives the vegetables a nutty, almost tempura-like coating, made fragrant with warm spices, ginger and garlic. The green bean and potato combination makes for a nice contrast of textures, but you can easily make swaps: potatoes for sweet potatoes, green beans for broccoli. Chaat masala — a salty, tart and delightfully funky spice blend — is widely available in South Asian grocery stores or online and is well worth having in your pantry to give sabzis like this one some extra sparkle.
Coconut Saag
Saag paneer is a classic North Indian dish — but it’s also endlessly riffable. Swap out the paneer for feta or halloumi, the mustard greens for kale or spinach, and so on. This is a particularly stellar riff, in which coconut milk enriches an already aromatic and verdant sauce that can be paired with either the traditional paneer, or extra-firm tofu. The final hit of coconut oil infused with smoky cumin seeds and red chile powder adds loads of depth, making this dish quite possibly the most luxurious way to eat a pound of greens.
Cumin and Cashew Yogurt Rice
Yogurt rice is a nostalgic dish for many South Asians, and especially South Indians. It’s the ultimate comfort food, and a no-fuss dinner that’s easy to put together. Cool, creamy yogurt and crunchy, warm spices create a dreamy contrast that makes this dish feel more whole meal-worthy than snack-friendly (though it’ll serve you well for both). Traditional versions include mustard seeds, curry leaves and urad dal, but this variation includes a different set of pantry staples: cumin seeds, cashews and red chile powder. The trio, plus fresh green chiles, gets sizzled in ghee, enhancing all the rich, smoky, spicy flavors, then gets poured directly over the yogurt rice. Add grated carrots and zucchini to give the rice more heft, or try it with a different combination of spices.
Bengali-Style Mustard Oil Fish
Mustard oil is a key ingredient in many South Asian dishes, but is especially important in Bengali cuisine. Its earthy, astringent flavor can bring complexity to a simple cooked vegetable, pickle or tadka. This weeknight dish is inspired by bhetki paturi, a mustard oil-coated fish that gets cooked in a banana leaf. In this recipe, foil is a stand-in for banana leaf (though feel free to use the leaf if you have one!), steaming the fish gently and infusing it with flavor. Coconut and mustard oil are a stellar combination here, as the sweetness of the coconut tempers the bitterness of the mustard oil and seeds. The juices that pool around the cooked fish are especially delicious; be sure to spoon those over the cooked rice.
Magnolia Bakery’s Banana Pudding
To many, the banana pudding at the famed New York shop Magnolia Bakery is even more iconic than the store’s beloved cupcakes. Airy, creamy and delightfully reminiscent of childhood packaged snacks (thanks to instant vanilla pudding mix), this dessert is both a crowd pleaser and easy to assemble. If you’re making 12 individual servings rather than one large one, you’ll have enough cookies to use two per layer. If you prefer more coverage, make only two layers and use three cookies per layer.
Kaddu (Sweet and Sour Butternut Squash)
This cozy vegetable main is an ode to earthy, maple-y fenugreek, a staple spice of Indian cooking that is a perfect match for the mild sweetness of butternut squash. Normally roasted, butternut squash is gently stewed here with ginger, onion, turmeric, tomatoes and brown sugar, bringing out a unique and addictive sweet-and-sour flavor. Kaddu is traditionally paired with puri, a type of fried bread, but roti, tortillas and even toast work well with this bright and hearty one-pot dish.
Strawberry Poke Cake
One easy way to elevate a simple sheet cake is to infuse it with strawberry-flavored gelatin. The method of poking holes in the cake and pouring gelatin into them serves two purposes: giving the cake a poppy pink-striped look when you cut into it, and ensuring you get that nostalgic strawberry flavor in every bite. Like many gelatin-based dishes, poke cakes were likely popularized in the 20th century as part of an advertising push for Jell-O mixes.This recipe is adapted from April Anderson, an owner of Good Cakes and Bakes, a bakery in Detroit, whose mother used gelatin mixes to punch up some of her desserts. The basic poke cake formula is made to be modified: If you don’t like strawberry-flavored gelatin, try lemon or cherry.
Garlic-Ginger Chicken Breasts With Cilantro and Mint
This chicken, which is the brainchild of my aunt Sonia, is legendary among our cousins. Until recently, though, no one knew what, exactly, went into it. Whenever my aunt would make it on a family vacation, she’d disappear for a half-hour and reemerge with a Ziploc bag filled with the marinade and the chicken breasts. No one (not even her only daughter, Isha) was allowed to know the contents. The marinating chicken would smell so good, I’d legitimately have thoughts about eating it raw, carpaccio-style (which is disgusting, I know!). Well, folks, I am here to tell you that, after much negotiation, I have finally pried that chicken recipe out of Sonia’s hands. Both the marinade and the cooking method (low and sort of slow) feel ingenious to me, and the payoff is huge: Charred, spicy, slightly funky, juicy chicken that is equally wonderful by itself or rolled up in a roti, taco-style, and served with various salads and chutneys.
Homemade Hamburger Helper
Think of this as the most luxurious Hamburger Helper you’ve ever had. It’s how Mark Rosati, the culinary director of Shake Shack, turns leftover ground beef into a complete weeknight dinner. The entire dish — even the pasta — is made in one pot, and melds the indelible comfort of macaroni and cheese with the complexity of a good Bolognese. This definitely has a kick, so adjust the hot sauce according to taste.
Chaat Party
The beauty of chaat — a category of tangy, sweet, fiery and crunchy Indian snacks — is that it’s built for customization. The only common denominator is that alchemy of flavor sensations, often driven by a combination of sweet-and-sour tamarind chutney, a bright herb chutney (like this cilantro-mint chutney or this green chile chutney) and cooling raita. Otherwise, base ingredients and toppings (and even those chutneys!) can all be interchanged. This spirit is the driving force behind Maneet Chauhan’s chaat party, from her cookbook, “Chaat” (Clarkson Potter, 2020), a choose-your-own-adventure spread that allows eaters to build a chaat suited to their tastes: More crunch! Less spicy! More sweet! More herbs! It’s entirely up to you. This is a great way to entertain, and also a quick, no-cook dinner. Use this list as a starting point for ingredients, but feel free to get creative. If you are able to get banana leaves, spread them out over the table before arranging everything else on top for a bright pop of color.
Lalla Mussa Dal
This creamy lentil stew — a signature dish of the Indian celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor — has a base of urad dal, a slim variety of lentil that turns soft and velvety when cooked. The dal is hearty, with multiple levels of richness from the cream and butter. But its tangy complexity comes from a combination of tomatoes, garlic, coriander and fenugreek. (Look for the dried version of the greens from the fenugreek plant, not the brownish nuggets known simply as “fenugreek” on the spice shelf. You can also use the mixture of fenugreek greens, dried dill and dried leek sold at many Indian grocers.) Like most dals, this stew is best accompanied by long-grain basmati rice or roti — both excellent vehicles for sopping up the thick gravy.
Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding
There are two secrets to this silky, not-too-sweet pudding, a Jamaican holiday staple from Hazel Craig, the mother of the pastry chef Jessica Craig: Freshly grated nutmeg provides the warm, toasty flavor and batatas (white-fleshed sweet potatoes) give the dish its dense, starchy texture. The combination of sweet potato and coconut is decadent, but not overly so — like a poundcake merged with a cheesecake.
Microwave Rice
The microwave is for more than just popping popcorn or heating leftovers. It can also make an excellent bowl of rice. Unlike a stovetop, which can create hot spots on a pan that result in scorched rice, microwaves provide even heat on all sides, creating uniformly textured grains. This method is also very practical: You don’t have to babysit the grains, and you won’t have to clean a pot with stuck-on bits of rice. It may take a few attempts to figure out the exact timing for your microwave as machines differ in wattage and efficiency in air circulation. If you want to jazz up your rice, try adding a pat of butter, a drizzle of olive oil or even a pinch of a spice blend like ras el hanout before microwaving.
Tomato Rice With Crispy Cheddar
I could use all sorts of fancy words to explain this dish, but the best description is this: pizza in rice form. The inspiration for the recipe, though, is oddly enough not Italian — it’s a hybrid of a classic South Indian tomato rice with onions and a shockingly fantastic Spanish rice recipe my mom and I photocopied out of my seventh-grade Spanish textbook for a school project. The crispy, bubbly, broiled Cheddar topping (use the sharpest white Cheddar you can find!) adds a little something something, making it a worthy dinner party dish.
Sholeh Zard (Persian Rice Pudding)
This cozy dessert from Sara Mardanbigi and Edgar Rico, the owners of Nixta Taqueria in Austin, Texas, is a take on sholeh zard, a loose, heavily spiced Persian rice pudding Ms. Mardanbigi grew up eating. It also borrows influence from the Mexican arroz con leche of Mr. Rico’s childhood. Their take is warm and smoky with black cardamom and saffron, velvety from egg yolks and butter, and has a savory finish. It calls for arborio rice instead of the usual basmati to add a slight chew, and strawberry powder instead of rosewater to provide similar floral notes with a punch of acid.