Dinner
8856 recipes found
Cheater’s Pickles
This recipe was developed by accident when Dora Charles was working on her book, “A Real Southern Cook: In Her Savannah Kitchen.” The pickles come together fast, with a shock from ice cubes and a touch of sugar helping them move from raw to something between a pickle and a refreshing salad in just about a half-hour. Fresh herbs other than dill, like basil or a bit of mint or chive, can be used. A few slivers of sweet onion are nice, too.
Barszcz (Classic Polish Borscht)
Most Slavic countries have their own form of beet soup, a winter staple across Central and Eastern Europe. Barszcz, the Polish variation, is usually served as a clear burgundy broth with bright, wintry flavors. It is sweeter and beefier than Ukrainian or Russian borscht, and much less textural: Most vegetables are strained after imparting their flavor, though the soup may include grated beets or morsels of meat. This recipe is adapted from “From a Polish Country House Kitchen,” an anthropological cookbook by Anne Applebaum and Danielle Crittenden (Chronicle Books, 2012). Strain the vegetables entirely and sip the restorative broth directly from a mug, or serve the soup with sour cream and enjoy with pierogi.
Eggplant Torte
This is a dramatic dish, like a molded eggplant parmesan inside a double crust. It makes a great vegetarian dinner party main dish.
Griot (Spicy Pork Shoulder)
Grilled Clams and Mussels with Garlic, Almonds and Mint
Grilling clams and mussels gives them a smokiness you can’t get inside on your stove. Use hardwood charcoal if you can; it gives the best, smokiest flavor. The cooking time may vary depending upon your grill and the temperature of the shellfish when you put it in the pan. (Very cold seafood may take a few minutes longer.) Keep checking, pulling out the open clams and mussels with tongs as you go. And don’t forget to pour the heady pan juices on top of the shellfish; dunking grilled bread into that garlicky pool may be the best part of the dish.
Pizza Calzone
A calzone unveils itself slowly, bite by bite, especially if you’ve layered the fillings with several elements. For those who can’t give up the pie, I offer a pizza-calzone hybrid. Based on an elaborate dish I sampled at Don Antonio by Starita, a Midtown pizzeria, it has basil-perfumed ricotta and Parmesan in the center, and tomato sauce and melted mozzarella on top. It’s the best of both worlds, and an unexpected thing to do with a ball of pizza dough.
Crab, Beef and Okra Stew
Seared Salmon With Caper-Raisin Vinaigrette
In this rich one-skillet dinner, seared salmon and cauliflower are topped with frizzled capers, plumped raisins, browned butter and vinegar. For cauliflower with bite, sear florets until they’re caramelized but still snappy, then toss with vinegar and raisins. Cooking the salmon skin-side down (and not flipping) ensures a crisp skin and tender fish that won’t dry out. Finish with a baste of brown butter, garlic and capers. Serve alone, with bread or over orzo or farro.
Basic Meatloaf
Smoked Trout and Beet Salad With Pink Caviar
This pretty winter salad gets an upgrade with a garnish of trout roe, sometimes known as pink caviar. Salmon roe is an option, too, as is a dab of relatively inexpensive paddlefish caviar. Make the salad as a first course composed on individual plates, or, for a stand-up cocktail affair, serve a small amount of the mixture spooned into the sturdy red leaves.
Skillet Meatballs With Juicy Blackberries
In this one-skillet dish, fresh blackberries collapse into a sweet-tart sauce alongside juicy meatballs studded with crunchy whole spices and thyme. For the meatballs, use ground pork or lamb as their plentiful, flavorful fat fortifies the pan sauce. As for accompaniments, creamy Greek yogurt or labneh is the ideal backdrop for this sweet-and-savory combination, but grains, cauliflower rice, polenta, mashed potatoes, warmed pita, wilted greens, roasted mushrooms or chickpeas would be good, too.
Five-Spice Duck Breast With Blackberries
Once you know the technique, cooking a large Muscovy duck breast is no more difficult than cooking a steak. Fragrant five-spice powder — a heady mix of Sichuan pepper, fennel, clove, star anise and cinnamon — is the perfect duck seasoning, and juicy blackberries make this a brilliant summertime dish. Muscovy duck is found at better butchers, from online sources or even at some farmers' markets. Grill the duck if you prefer, but make sure to keep dripping fat from igniting and scorching the meat. The breast meat is quite lean despite its fatty skin, so it is best cooked to a rosy medium rare or it will be dry. Serve it warm, at room temperature or cold.
Spaghetti and Chicken Meatball Soup
Tomato soup meets spaghetti and meatballs in this one-pot, 30-minute crowd-pleaser. To keep chicken meatballs juicy and light, skip the bread crumbs (which can create dense or bland meatballs) and the browning (which can cause precious juices to evaporate). Instead, plop them into the simmering soup to cook through. Any juices they do release will be captured in the tomato soup, which is creamy from olive oil and Parmesan. Feel free to adapt this recipe to suit your preferences: Add chopped onion, crushed fennel seeds, dried oregano or chopped parsley or basil to the meat or the sauce. The pasta will absorb the soup as it sits, so it’s a dish best eaten right when it’s made.
Roasted Golden Beet and Winter Squash Salad
Golden beets are more savory and earthy than their sugary ruby counterparts and fare better alongside the caramelized roasted winter squash in this many-textured salad. But red beets will work, too, if you don’t mind a slightly sweeter dish over all. If you can’t find delicata squash, other varieties, such as sweet dumpling (shown here), honey nut or acorn squash, make fine substitutes.
Salmon Steaks With Mustard and Dill
Ann Romney's Meatloaf Cakes
Ronald Reagan had his jelly beans, Poppy Bush had his pork rinds and Mitt Romney has his — meatloaf cakes? “Meatloaf cakes,” Mr. Romney affirmed from the back of his charter plane as it idled on the tarmac in Ohio in March 2012, explaining to the traveling press corps the special birthday meal his wife prepares for him every year. The traditional birthday meal, Mr. and Mrs. Romney added, includes mashed potatoes, corn on the cob and carrots.
Grilled Baby Back Ribs With Spicy Peanut Shake
Marinating, it’s said, not only adds flavor and moisture that will stay with the food through the rigors of the grilling process, but also tenderizes whatever you’re about to put over the coals. There’s only one problem with this comforting culinary scenario: It’s mostly not true. These ribs are grilled naked, save for some salt and pepper. Afterward, they are cut into individual ribs and tossed with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, orange juice and ginger and sprinkled with a spicy peanut shake. You get the ease of last-minute preparation and brighter, clearer, more direct flavors and you can show off a bit for your guest as you mix and toss at the last minute.
Sous-Vide Rib Steaks With Spicy Salsa Verde
When you invest in really good rib steaks, you don’t want to mess things up. Cooking them with a sous-vide machine until they are done to taste, then searing them on the grill until charred at the edges gives you the ultimate control.
Fritto Misto di Mare
Every culture does fried food, but Italian cooks do it especially well. The concept of fritto misto (mixed fried things) can apply to vegetables, fish or meat. Here, with a beautiful assortment of shellfish, the only requirement is that everything be spanking fresh. In Italy, fritto misto is nearly always served as a first course. It is especially nice in bite-size pieces, to precede a meal as a stand-up antipasto.
Chicken Rice With Shallot Sauce
This rendition of chicken rice, where the chicken is delicately poached with aromatics then served at room temperature, is common throughout Southeast Asia and parts of China, but every family is likely to have a slightly different technique. This recipe is from 93-year-old Nancy Fam of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, who used to offer a whole poached chicken, with its head and feet still attached, as part of an elaborate altar ritual for deceased family members. After the spirits had been satiated, she’d carve up the chicken and serve it to the living, paired with a dipping sauce made with shallots, lime and ground bean sauce (a fermented soybean paste), a recipe she inherited from her late mother. A celebration of family both present and past, the chicken is served at room temperature, but eaten with a piping hot serving of jasmine rice.
Leg of Lamb With Moroccan Spices
There’s nothing like the combination of cinnamon, cumin and coriander to give your kitchen an inviting aroma — and the finished lamb will have a beautifully dark and redolent exterior. Don't know how to carve a lamb? Mark Bittman shows you how in this video.
Gumbo’s Daddy With Chicken, Shrimp and Turkey
This recipe, adapted from Gail Jennings of North Carolina, is what her family thinks of as the daddy of all gumbos, a thick mix of leftover roast turkey rounded out with plump shrimp, chicken wings and collard greens. Ms. Jennings spikes the soup with a mix of curry powder and King’s Pepper, a spice blend that she developed based on a West African recipe. But any chile powder, including cayenne, can be substituted. Add it to taste; Ms. Jennings and her family like it fiery hot, then served over rice to mitigate the burn.
Chocolate-Walnut Mousse Cake
Green Chile Cheeseburger Deluxe
In New Mexico, where many traditional dishes contain roasted green chiles, it’s only natural that hamburgers get the chile treatment, too. If you don’t have access to fresh New Mexican green chiles, try fresh Anaheim chiles. Lacking those, use roasted jalapeños that have been peeled and chopped; thinly sliced raw jalapeños; or pickled jalapeños — a compromise perhaps, but better than no chiles at all. As for cheese, any good melting kind of “queso amarillo” will do, but domestic Monterey Jack or Muenster may be even better.