Recipes By Rachel Wharton
7 recipes found
Chung Yul Bang (Scallion Pancakes)
The cookbook author Grace Young learned to make these scallion pancakes from her mother, who is from Hong Kong, and first published the formula in her book “The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen” (Simon & Schuster, 1999). In homage to the Cantonese immigrant experience, Ms. Young phoneticized dish names in the same way they appeared on Cantonese-American restaurant menus and titled this recipe chung yul bang. They have the perfect blend of crispy flakiness and tenderness. The trick is a mix of boiling and cold water: The boiling water gives you a soft, malleable dough that is easy to work, the cold water just the right chewiness in the fried pancake. She prefers these served without any dipping sauce: “Hot out of the wok, they don’t need anything,” she said. “They’re perfect the way they are.”
Pan de Muerto
You’ll find this pan de muerto, or bread of the dead, at the center of the elaborate Day of the Dead altar festooned with sugared skulls, flowers and other mementos of the family’s departed.
Handvo (Savory Vegetable Semolina Bread)
Handvo, a savory vegetable bread from the Indian state of Gujarat, is a near constant in the home of Anita Jaisinghani, the chef and owner of Pondicheri restaurant in Houston. Using hot water in the dough helps meld the flavors and hydrate the flours, as well as kickstart the leavening process. Ms. Jaisinghani makes many different versions — this carrot one is layered with the fragrance of toasted spices, the warmth of ginger and the freshness of herbs. Thanks to the pumpkin and sesame seeds that toast on top while it bakes, it also has an extra crunchy crust. The accompanying yogurt sauce is quickly — and deliciously — seasoned with aromatic spices tempered in oil. This is typically served as a snack, but is substantial enough to be a light meal when served with a salad.
Pasteles
Most of the components for pasteles, a traditional Puerto Rican holiday dish, can be made a day or two in advance, then brought to room temperature for assembly. You can prepare the masa ahead, and freeze it for up to several months. Pasteles can also be cooked right away, refrigerated for a few days or frozen in zip-top containers for several months. Some use only green bananas or green plantains – which are unripe, firm and very green – for the masa; some add potatoes or pumpkin; some add yuca, also known as cassava, and others use only yuca. If you can’t find one or more ingredients, use what you can find. Lucy Ramirez adds pork gravy to the masa (other cooks may add milk or oil) and makes sure there’s a little pork in every bite of the pastel. Traditionally, pasteles were fully wrapped in banana or plantain leaves before being wrapped in parchment paper or foil. Today, many cooks use a piece or strip of banana leaf to give each pastel the nutty flavor of the leaf. Serve them with a side of hot sauce or ketchup. Click here to learn how to assemble the pasteles.
Carne Guisada con Papas
Adapted from Adán Medrano, a Houston-based chef and writer, this steak-and-potato guisada, or stew, uses technique and time to draw out flavor from just a handful of ingredients. Beef and potatoes are centuries-old pantry essentials in South Texas, and this dish is served in homes and family-run restaurants all over the region. While many restaurants tend to cook the steak in large pieces, cutting the meat into small cubes allows the beef to soak up more flavor. The key is the Texas Mexican spice blend — black peppercorns, cumin and garlic — plus a little fresh Serrano. Serve with tortillas and an optional garnish of cilantro and chile.
Tacos de Picadillo
In Texas, picadillo is a ground-beef mixture that can be tucked into tacos, stuffed into peppers or burritos, or even eaten like stew with tortillas. Adán Medrano, a chef and writer whose work focuses on the Mexican-American food he grew up on in South Texas, created this dish based on the rolled tacos served for nearly seven decades at the Malt House in San Antonio, a beloved Texas Mexican spot that was demolished in 2018. The meat is flavored with what Mr. Medrano calls the “holy trinity,” a Texas Mexican spice paste of peppercorns, cumin and garlic. While many Mexican-Americans soften the tortillas in hot oil as for enchiladas, Mr. Medrano dips them in caldito, a broth created from the picadillo liquid.
Samosa Pie
Hot water pastry crusts — technically made with boiling water — are the secret behind classic savory British pies that bake up unfathomably tall, stand on their own power and don’t crumble when sliced. Boiling water creates a silky, sturdy dough that is a breeze to roll and form, and also to flavor. This pie from the British author and television host Nadiya Hussain riffs on the lamb samosas she grew up eating with her Bangladeshi family. Here, Ms. Hussain’s turmeric-infused crust turns a brilliant golden brown as the pie bakes.