Kwanzaa
121 recipes found
Shrimp Étouffée
Found in both Creole and Cajun cuisines, étouffée is most commonly made with crawfish tails, which have a distinct flavor, but crawfish have a short season and aren’t readily available in most places. This version, with shrimp, is more than a worthy substitute, and an excellent dish all its own. The dish takes its name from the French word "étouffée,” which nods to its protein being smothered with sauce. This recipe uses a shortcut version of a roux: The flour is added after the onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic have already been sautéed in the butter. If you omit the hot sauce, add apple cider vinegar in its place.
Spicy Sweet Potato and Cheddar Croquettes
Sweet potatoes and cheese are flavored with cumin, smoked paprika, black pepper and cayenne for warmth, smokiness and a little bit of a kick. Once these croquettes are breaded and deep fried, a crisp crust delicately encapsulates the soft and gooey mixture within. They are very straightforward to prepare, but the process makes them a labor of love, perfect for entertaining or simply showing off your kitchen prowess.
Candied Sweet Potatoes
When Fred Harvey opened his first Harvey House restaurant in 1876 on the railway line in Topeka, Kan., his idea was radical for the time: Railroad passengers would be fed good food in a pleasant environment. His concept was so successful that it spawned 84 restaurants, a Hollywood movie and an official cookbook. And it was in “The Harvey House Cookbook” that we found this excellent recipe for sweet potatoes candied with confectioners’ sugar and butter. It is best served warm rather than piping hot, which makes it convenient for big meals like Thanksgiving. Bake it before you roast your turkey, then reheat it briefly just before serving.
Stephanie L. Tyson’s Sweet Potato Cornbread
Stephanie L. Tyson, the chef at a Winston-Salem, N.C., restaurant called Sweet Potatoes, likes to blend one Southern staple into another: sweet potato cornbread laced with a holiday-friendly undercurrent of cinnamon and nutmeg. Ms. Tyson has said that the cornbread just clicks with a side of greens, but we have a feeling it will play well with cranberries and gravy, too.
Greg Collier’s Sweet Potato Pikliz
Haitian pikliz traditionally uses cabbage, but this version from Greg Collier, chef and co-owner of Leah & Louise in Charlotte, N.C., calls for grated sweet potato. It’s victory garden larder meets Caribbean flavor. If you have a well-stocked pantry, you are halfway to this relish, but note: Not every sweet potato is the same; look for the jewel variety for its vibrant orange flesh. This pikliz is mild in spice level compared to traditional versions. Serve it with Memphis Dry-Rub Ribs or Memphis Dry-Rub Mushrooms.
Candied Yams
Sweet enough for dessert but savory enough for a side, candied yams are a quintessential Southern staple for Sunday dinner, get-togethers or holidays. Many supermarkets use the terms “sweet potatoes” and “yams” interchangeably. For this recipe, any orange-fleshed varieties like Jewel or Garnet will do. Whatever you use, this dish will definitely round out anything savory on your plate, on Thanksgiving and beyond.
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.
Sweet Potato and Onion Dip
George Washington Carver, the botanist, educator and inventor, was known as “the peanut man,” but he geeked out over sweet potatoes as much as peanuts. He recorded recipes for sweet potato flour, sweet potato starch and commercial canning. “The delicate flavor of a sweet potato is lost if it is not cooked properly,” he wrote in his 1936 Bulletin No. 38. (His paper booklets were distributed to rural farmers to assist with crop rotation and provide instructions for added-value products.) Dr. Carver considered baking the best way to cook sweet potatoes while preserving the most flavor. Use varieties like Covington, Vardaman or jewel; the sugary notes balance the alliums and warming spices. Raw vegetables or tortilla chips make practical dipping utensils for this spread, or lather the dip over toasted thick-cut bread.
Warm Sweet Potato-Apple Pone
Sweet potato pone is a baked custard pudding-like dish that’s something like a crustless sweet potato pie. This version is made with whole shreds of sweet potato, which is how it’s often served during the holidays throughout the Caribbean and parts of the American South. It’s a versatile dessert that can be made with other warming spices like ginger, nutmeg or clove, a little orange zest, or even rum-soaked raisins. This is a simplified version that replaces half of the sweet potatoes with shredded apple, which adds natural sweetness and a bit of creaminess as it cooks down. Choose from baking varieties like Honeycrisp, Fuji or Gala. Serve the pone warm from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Paul Prudhomme's Sweet Potato Pecan Pie
This recipe came to The Times in 1983 from the renowned Louisiana chef Paul Prudhomme. Like its traditional pecan cousin, this pie is very sweet, so serve it with a little Chantilly cream on top.
Sweet Potato Hummingbird Cake
This magnificent version of the popular banana-pineapple-pecan cake developed by Southern Living magazine in 1978 is adapted from the chef Ashley Christensen's cookbook, "Poole's: Recipes from a Modern Diner." It is a Thanksgiving-worthy dessert for the pie averse: a supremely moist, dense cake crowded with sweet potato, roasted bananas, pineapple, currants and green peanuts (if you live north of the Mason-Dixon line, the plain, roasted variety work just fine). A lightly sweet, butter-cream cheese frosting finishes it off. Set aside a solid afternoon for this project cake, as you have to roast the bananas and grate the sweet potato, and the assembly takes some patience and agility — but it is well worth the toil. This recipe is for a towering three-layer version (get out your biggest mixing bowls), but you could just make a more modest, but still generously sized, two-layer cake instead. To do so, cut all of the ingredients in half (use just 2 eggs); divide the batter between two 8-inch round cake pans; and bake at the same time and temperature.
Sweet Potato Tea Cake With Meringue
This beautiful tea cake from the San Francisco chef Elisabeth Prueitt has all the fall flavors of pumpkin spice channeled into a moist, spicy loaf with a base of sweet potato purée. It also has a delicious unusual addition: meringue, baked right into the top of the cake. Ms. Prueitt’s head of pastry at Tartine Manufactory, Michelle Lee, came up with the idea of swirling it over the top of the cake before baking. Use a spoon or toothpick to reach down into the cake batter and pull it up, creating beautiful peaks of batter-streaked meringue that bake up golden brown and crisp on the edges.
Folami’s BBQ Tofu
Kwanzaa gatherings continue to go strong in community centers and at home in dining rooms, as they have since 1966. The seven-day holiday of self-reflection, often an extension of Christmas or the winter solstice, culminates with the karamu, or feast. The spread leans heavily vegetarian. In Atlanta, Folami Prescott-Adams dries, seasons, fries and broils pounds of tofu. Store-bought, tomato-based barbecue sauce provides the comfort factor. She is a 40-year veteran of Kwanzaa and maintains a spreadsheet of potluck logistics for her family and guests. Alongside this vegetarian barbecue, Dr. Prescott-Adams’s buffet feeds more than 100 people, and the greatest hits include macaroni and cheese, red punch and black-eyed peas.
Vegetarian Gumbo
This meatless gumbo has a distinct Louisiana flavor, thanks to the roux, Creole seasoning and the “holy trinity” of Creole cooking (onion, celery, bell pepper). Gumbo is traditionally made with a variety of smoked meats and seafood, but this version gets an added bit of smokiness from an optional splash of liquid smoke. Here, the okra is roasted in the oven before being added to the pot, which eliminates the gooeyness. There is also no skimping on vegetables in this gumbo, and the red lentils thicken it while adding protein. Serving this gumbo over white rice helps make it a complete meal.
Charleston Red Rice
A Lowcountry favorite that likely descended from West African jollof rice, this classic tomato and rice dish is also sometimes called Carolina red rice – or simply red rice. It often contains sausage, but this version, inspired by how the chef Millie Peartree’s mother, Millie Bell, used to make it, relies on bacon for its depth. (Still, if you’d like to add sausage, just let it sear with the vegetables in Step 3.) To start, the “holy trinity” (bell pepper, onion and celery) is cooked in the bacon fat, infusing the cooking liquid. Then, the rice is baked to ensure it’s perfectly cooked. Serve this alongside baked chicken or ham, green beans or collard greens, for a full, satisfying meal.
Vegan Jollof Rice
The chef Tunde Wey is based in New Orleans, but he was born in Nigeria, where jollof rice is a well-loved dish. The rice is cooked in a flavorful tomato and pepper purée; his version is vegan, and laced with chile heat.
Jollof Rice
A successful batch of jollof rice requires a few key ingredients (tomatoes, peppers, onions, a few herbs, spices and some stock) and a perfect sauce-to-rice ratio, so the cooked grains remain separate. I have found that the best, no-fuss way to do this is in the oven. Jollof is typically made with long-grain rice, though in Nigeria, parboiled rice is the norm. Most jollof is prepared over an open flame or on a stovetop. Missing from this oven version is the slightly smoky flavor you get from the little bits of rice that have browned on the bottom of your pan, but that’s nothing a pinch of smoked paprika can’t fix. Serve with braised goat or other stewed meats, and a side of fried plantains.
Agege Bread
Agege bread is a soft but dense sweet white bread made from a rich, low-yeast dough. This dough will take its time to rise, but it can be prepared up to 1 day in advance and slow-proofed in the refrigerator, which will develop the dough’s flavor. This recipe fits a standard Pullman loaf pan, so it makes a lot. Serve the bread in nice thick slices alongside some obe ata and scrambled eggs, or butter and toast it to enjoy dunked into milk tea.
Sweet Potato Casserole Pie
This showstopping dessert, which is inspired by the classic Thanksgiving side dish, is really a pie baked in a springform pan. (Don’t try it in a pie pan because the filling will likely overflow.) What makes this dessert a winner is the textural contrast between the creamy sweet potato filling, the crisp pecan crust and the gooey marshmallow topping. Here are a few tips for best results: Roast the sweet potatoes instead of boiling them because it enhances their flavor, and use smaller sweet potatoes because they are naturally sweeter than larger varieties. Also, it may seem fussy, but chilling the cooked potatoes, then aggressively whipping them aerates them, resulting in a silkier texture. Once baked and cooled, refrigerate the pie until right before it’s time to serve.
Brown Butter Skillet Cornbread
This lightly sweet cornbread has a crunchy, buttery crust, which comes from baking it in a hot skillet. If you have a cast-iron pan, this is the time to use it. The heavy, heat-retaining material will give you the darkest color (which equals the most flavor). But any large ovenproof skillet will work. And if you don’t have a skillet big enough to hold all the batter, you can either halve the recipe or bake the cornbread in 9-by-13-inch pan. (Brown the butter first in a saucepan.) Your bread won’t have the same dark crust, but the moist crumb flavored with brown butter and maple syrup is ample recompense.
Jamaican Curry Chicken and Potatoes
There’s nothing more comforting than chicken and potatoes, and this recipe is no exception. Getting its flavor and heat from a combination of mild Jamaican curry powder and Scotch bonnet pepper, it’s not as hot as some Indian or Thai curries. Jamaican curry powder tends to be heavy on turmeric and less on spice, and this recipe uses just one Scotch bonnet pepper, which is kept whole but punctured to gently release flavor. The result is more warming than spicy. Eat this one-pot recipe by itself as a kind of stew, or over rice, letting all the flavors meld together.
One-Pan Fish With Bacon and Sweet Corn
The delightful textures of this dish’s three main components — crisp bacon, tender fish and plump corn kernels — make for a lovely summer dinner. Tilapia, trout, bass or any other flaky yet firm white fish will work well. Naturally smoked bacon imparts a flavor reminiscent of campfire cooking or outdoor grilling over hot coals. When fresh corn isn’t in season, frozen corn can be used, but will require a minute or two more in the skillet. A squeeze of fresh lemon juice rounds out the dish with its acidity.
Berry-Jam Fried Chicken
The name sounds like a sweet-tooth parade, but this recipe makes sense when you pair it with a spicy scallion cornmeal waffle. Wells’ Restaurant, a popular 1930s Harlem supper club, cemented the chicken and waffle combination in American culinary history; Amy Ruth’s in Harlem, Beans & Cornbread in suburban Detroit and Hotville in Los Angeles continue that tradition. Almost any summer-fruit jam can be substituted in the marinade, and if you don't have peanut oil, use another oil with a high smoke point.
Pan-Fried Collard Greens
Collard greens are a mainstay of Liberian cuisine, brought to the country from the United States by formerly enslaved Africans. Here is a classic Liberian preparation that’s spicy with habaneros (Liberia is known for being the “Pepper Coast” of Africa), and rich with the flavors of ham, turkey and chicken. Each meat brings a distinct taste, creating the base for a gravy that you’ll want to spoon over rice. This is one of those vegetable dishes that’s hearty enough to be a main, whether it’s for Thanksgiving — which is celebrated in Liberia with foods like this one — or any other gathering.