Dinner
8856 recipes found

Egg Noodles With Soy Broth
This is a tasty, fast, cheap, infinitely variable broth-and-noodle combination. Its preparation is slowed down only by waiting for the water to boil. A key ingredient is ketchup; if you can’t bear that thought, you can use tomato paste instead. There’s also Sriracha, soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil, all of which add character. The noodles I use are fresh egg pasta, but just about any kind of noodle can be used. Once you’ve made this once, you’ll probably want to take it to a showier place. Cook thinly sliced shallot, ginger or garlic in a little peanut oil before adding the water for the “broth,” or add sliced celery, bean sprouts, snow peas or sliced carrots to it. Switch to rice noodles, soba, ordinary dried pasta or mung bean threads if you like.

Baby-Back-Rib Kebabs

Siu Yuk (Crispy Pork Belly)
Known as siu yuk in Cantonese, this pork belly features two contrasting textures: a crunchy, crispy skin that crackles and pops and a tender slab of meat underneath. To achieve success with both components, a lot of care and time has to be put into the prep. The pork belly needs to be cooked low and slow to break down the tough sinewy bits, then the skin needs to be dried overnight until leathery and blasted under high heat until crisp. This recipe comes from Hong Kong resident Cherry Tang, who used to make siu yuk in the supper clubs she hosted back when she lived in London. Ms. Tang prefers to broil the meat under direct heat, which guarantees a crackling crust — but do keep an eye on the skin, so that it doesn’t char.

Sugar Snap Peas With Yogurt, Feta and Dill
Much of the appeal of sugar snap peas comes from their juicy, sweet crunch, which means you’ll want to take care when blanching them. They turn from perfectly crisp-tender to soft in seconds. The key is to have a bowl of salted ice water next to the stove and a slotted spoon at the ready. The salt in the ice water seasons the peas, and the ice stops them from overcooking. In this savory salad, they’re tossed with a garlicky dressing for brightness, and a creamy feta-yogurt sauce for richness. Serve them with crusty bread as a summery appetizer, or as a side dish for grilled fish or meats.

Beef Braised in Red Wine

Chris Schlesinger’s Pulled Pork
Mr. Schlesinger is the chef and an owner of the East Coast Grill in Cambridge, Mass., which he opened in 1985. He is also the author, with John Willoughby, of six cookbooks that relate somehow to the pleasures of fire. This is an adaptation of his recipe that calls for slowly cooking the pork over coals for almost 14 hours, but that's largely unattended, and your patience will be rewarded.

Colombian Beef and Potato Empanadas
Colombian empanadas are typically quite small — a couple of bites each — and have a crisp corn crust. There are a wide range of fillings you’ll find across Colombia, but this meat-and-potato mixture is the most common. Small yellow potatoes called papas criollas are the potato of choice here, but they are nearly impossible to find in the United States, so I use Yukon Gold instead. My wife’s family typically keeps the seasonings simple — salt, pepper and a dash of paprika — though many recipes include cumin or Triguisar, a powdered seasoning mix that contains ground cumin, paprika, achiote, turmeric and garlic. I season my filling with a little chicken bouillon, but you could use plain salt instead. The filling uses half an onion and half a tomato, so save the other half for the fresh, cilantro-based ají, to serve with the empanadas.

Barbecued Chopped Chicken

Chinese-Style BBQ Ribs
These are the best oven-roasted ribs ever, and they can also be finished on a grill for extra smoky flavor. Creating steam in the oven is the key to tender meat. The ingredients here are close to the ones used by traditional Cantonese barbecue masters to produce sticky-salty-sweet meat that has a reddish, caramelized crust — with ketchup standing in for Chinese red fermented tofu. (It can be left out if desired.) Although these ribs are presented as an appetizer in many American Chinese restaurants, barbecued meat is traditionally a main course, served with freshly cooked rice and a green side like smashed cucumber salad or stir-fried bok choy.

Mackerel With Olives, Almonds and Mint
Unlike other types of mackerel, which can have a strong flavor, Spanish mackerel is very mild and quite tender. It’s a bit like salmon in that it’s meaty and easy to cook. Here, the fish is roasted in the oven while a buttery, wine pan sauce speckled with olives and toasted sliced almonds is whisked together on top of the stove. Fresh mint adds color and brightness, but use any herbs you like. Basil and parsley are great substitutes.

Stuffing-Stuffed Mushrooms
In this recipe, classic stuffed mushrooms become an excellent vegetarian Thanksgiving appetizer or side dish by replacing Italian bread crumbs with cornbread, and using traditional stuffing flavors like rosemary, celery seeds and poultry seasoning. Two tips for making these extra flavorful: Trim the mushroom caps a bit to provide more surface area for caramelization, and pre-roast them to reduce moisture and prevent them from getting soggy. You can turn these into a main dish by using about eight large portobello mushrooms instead of two-bite cremini mushrooms, and increasing the cooking time accordingly. If you’re lucky enough to have leftover Thanksgiving stuffing, you can use it in place of the cornbread mixture (you’ll need about 4 cups); just add two beaten eggs and grated Gruyère cheese to bind the mixture before piling it onto the mushrooms and roasting.

Butternut Squash Panade
A panade, originally an economizing vehicle for using old bread to feed a family, is a delicious dish in its own right. Essentially a savory bread pudding made with layers of caramelized onions and winter squash, it makes for a hearty meatless main dish. A panade can also substitute for bread stuffing and be served alongside a roasted bird.

Garlicky Pork Burger
If you are cautious, you can cook a little meat and then taste it. Though there are virtually no reported cases of trichinosis from commercial pork in the United States, few people will sample raw pork — or lamb, with which the danger is even less. So the thing to do is season the meat, then cook up a spoonful in a skillet, taste and season as necessary. Remember that the burger is the cousin not only of the steak — which often takes no seasoning beyond salt and pepper — but also of the meatloaf and the meatball, both of which are highly seasoned. Think about adding minced garlic in small quantities, chopped onion, herbs (especially parsley), grated Parmesan, minced ginger, the old reliable Worcestershire, hot sauce, good chili powder and so on. It’s hard to go wrong here.

Turkey Burgers With Green Garlic and Parsley
I’m even adding green garlic to my son’s turkey burgers. The grated onion and abundance of green garlic add moisture as well as flavor to these burgers. Make sure not to press on them when you cook them, as turkey burgers can be dry – they need all the juice they’ve got.

Smoked Trout With Celery Salad

Pork Schnitzel With Quick Pickles
When most people think of schnitzel, they default to veal. But pork has its merits. Pork schnitzel is not only more economical than veal, it’s also richer in flavor and easier to cook (you’ve got a bigger margin of error when it comes to timing because pork isn’t as apt to dry out). This recipe calls for panko, which are fluffy Japanese-style bread crumbs that make the coating particularly light. But any bread crumbs will work. If you don’t want to make the quick pickles, serve this with a sliced up cucumber or two and/or fennel bulb with some lime wedges on the side. And if you happen to have lingonberry jam on hand, this is a great time to use it.

Shrimp With Red Sauce

Monkfish With Caper Butter

Shrimp and Potatoes in Sambal (Sambal Goreng Kentang Udang)
If you're seeking seriously intense heat and rich, layered flavors to go along with it, Indonesian sambal will deliver a two-for-one punch. The chef Retno Pratiwi uses a mix of red bell peppers and two kinds of red chiles to form the base of the exquisite, bright red sauce, softening it with a little coconut sugar and brightening it with aromatics. You can reduce the number of chiles or opt for milder ones if you're not looking for a kick. Then use it to cook shrimp, as in this recipe, or to enliven other meats and vegetables.

Rice Noodle Salad With Crispy Tofu and Lime-Peanut Dressing
Unrefined expeller-pressed peanut oil contributes a wonderful nutty flavor to this dressing

Braised Fennel With White Bean Purée
Creamy but not overtly rich, this simple preparation of earthy vegetables is infused with the flavor of salty, homemade Parmesan broth — but it’s adaptable, and could also be made using vegetable or chicken stock. If fennel isn’t your thing, try this with celery stalks or parsnips. If you are preparing the puréed beans ahead of time, keep them moist when you reheat them by adding a small splash of Parmesan broth or stock to the saucepan and stirring until warm. This deeply comforting dish can be prepared days in advance and assembled and served within minutes.

Rabbit With Tarragon and Garlic

Peppers Stuffed with Farro and Smoked Cheese
This dish combines smoky-flavored cheese and paprika with the crunch of the farro and walnuts. Simmer the farro or spelt until it splays. I was inspired to make this filling by a delicious stuffed tomato dish I ate recently at Oliveto in Oakland, Calif., in which the tomatoes were stuffed with a smoky barley filling. I used a Dutch smoked gouda-like cheese that was labeled, simply “smoked cheese.” I added paprika to the mix, which contributes to the smoky flavor, and walnuts, because I love the crunchiness with the grains. The cooked farro or spelt should be soft, so make sure to simmer until the grains splay.

Southern Shrimp Scampi
Scampi can mean different things in different cultures. The British deep fry langoustines in batter. In Italy, the langoustines are often sautéed in garlic and olive oil. Italian immigrants in America swapped in shrimp, and from there a thousand variations were born. This is a dish that cooks quickly and rises or falls on good-tasting shrimp. It is worth buying shrimp with the shells on and peeling them yourself.