Labor Day
317 recipes found
Estela's Candied Sesame Seeds
This is one of the more rewarding ways to spend 10 minutes. As you stir sesame seeds in a sticky syrup, suddenly the water disappears and a dry crystalline layer of sugar pops to the surface. At Estela, chef Ignacio Mattos’s curve-shattering restaurant in New York City, they roll scoops of caramelized white chocolate in the candied seeds, but the seeds are also just as good sprinkled over ice cream or paletas, or topping a brownie or a slice of cheesecake—anywhere you want a little crunchy sesame-flavored twinkle. Recipe from Genius Desserts: 100 Recipes That Will Change the Way You Bake (Ten Speed Press, September 2018). To read the whole story, go here, and to get the recipe for Dori Sanders' No-Churn Fresh Lemon Ice Cream, go here.
Dori Sanders’ No-Churn Fresh Lemon Ice Cream
When it’s too hot to make a custard, it’s nice to know that you can still have sweet-tart, bracing no churn lemon ice cream all the same. This recipe is perfect!
Classic Lasagna
While not a 30-minute meal, this lasagna is quicker and more straightforward than most. If you’re in a real time crunch, use your favorite jarred red sauce. For greater success with the lasagna noodles, which have a tendency to stick together, boil them in the largest pot possible or work in batches — they need as much water as possible to move freely so they don’t clump. This lasagna can be assembled, baked and refrigerated up to five days ahead, or frozen up to a month ahead if wrapped tightly.
Best Lemon Bars
Lemon bars are all about contrast: sour lemon and sweet sugar, crumbly base and creamy topping, buttery crust and tart filling. Two common ingredients lift this recipe above the pack: baking powder for a fluffy filling and shredded coconut for a rich, round-tasting crust. (Once baked, the coconut flavor almost disappears.) Bakers who avoid preservatives will find an easy version of homemade sweetened coconut in the tip below the recipe.) For thicker lemon squares, use the square baking pan; for thinner ones, the large rectangle. For an easy lemon tart, simply cut the recipe in half and bake it in an 8-inch round tart pan, pressing the crust up the sides.
Ratatouille
In this classic Provençal dish, summer vegetables, like eggplant, onions, peppers, tomatoes and zucchini, are covered in olive oil and roasted separately, then all together, until they become a soft, harmonious stew. This recipe calls for seeding and peeling the tomatoes, which is a bit of work. But it’s worth it for the intensity of flavor and the velvety texture. Ratatouille takes some time to make, and tastes better the next day, so plan ahead. The upside is that it’s a perfect make-ahead dish for a party. You can store it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, then gently reheat it, or bring it to room temperature before serving. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Kristin Donnelly's Watermelon Agua Fresca
Bitters are an ingredient you can apply much more widely than you probably realize, because they won't beach themselves on top of everything else. They wriggle in and help existing flavors bloom, much like a subtle jolt of salt or acid or heat can. If you want to know if this riff really makes a difference, taste a little cup before and after adding the bitters. The drink will become fuller-flavored and more inviting, but in a hard to pin down way. Though the "before" cup will be good, it will likely taste two-dimensional by comparison. Adapted slightly from Modern Potluck (Random House, 2016).
Simplest Grilled Shrimp
Here is the easiest way to grill shrimp. It can be done on a gas or charcoal grill, with skewers or a grill basket or without. Whichever method you use, remember that shrimp cook quickly, particularly when they’re peeled. Larger shrimp are better for the grill.
Grilled Roast Chicken With Spinach-Ricotta Crostini
This whole chicken cooked on the grill is truly a best-of-both-worlds recipe: You get the incredibly succulent meat and brittle-crisp, burnished skin of a roast chicken, combined with the deep smoky flavor of the grill. To make it, you essentially use your grill like an outdoor oven, cooking a whole splayed chicken in a skillet instead of directly on the grill grate. Splaying the bird first — that is, flattening the legs so they lay flat in the skillet — helps the dark meat cook quickly and evenly. The skillet helps to distribute the heat and captures the juices, which would otherwise incinerate in the fire. Those juices are then put to good use as a cooking medium for dill-flecked, garlicky spinach. The greens absorb all of the chicken drippings before being heaped upon ricotta-smeared crostini. Added bonus: You don’t have to worry about setting off your smoke detector. Here, the smoke stays in the grill with the bird, which is exactly where you want it.
Perfect Peach Pie
Eat a perfect peach under the summer sun and you'll experience the fruit at its messy, dripping, sugar-bright best. Rinse your chin and understand that no melon, apricot or blackberry can compete. But how often does this happen? For most of us, a great and truly perfect peach is a rare event. We can expect but one or two a season, for all our trying. Enter the pie. A peach pie can elevate good peaches to excellence and great ones to the sublime. Even a peach pie made with frozen fruit is a terrific thing. The addition of sugar helps; so, too, do a dash of lemon juice and a light sprinkle of nutmeg, which offers a slight bitterness to offset the sweet. Add a crown of vanilla ice cream for a perfect diner-style à la mode effect.
Grilled Branzino with "Greek-Style Fish Sauce"
A whole grilled branzino is the perfect outdoor party centerpiece, and this recipe shines bright with a Greek-style vinaigrette and fresh oregano.
Strawberry Margarita on the Rocks
We love a fruit cocktail made with real fresh fruit. This recipe for a strawberry margarita on the rocks uses real strawberries and no sweet and sour mix.
Tom Collins
This classic Tom Collins cocktail is an easy-to-make refresher. A pared-down garnish of a lemon wheel and cherry keeps the focus on the citrusy gin.
The Perfect Negroni
This Perfect Negroni recipe is a classic Italian cocktail worth knowing. The Negroni's ingredients are gin, Campari, and vermouth—but its flavor is complex.
Basil Vodka Gimlet Cocktail
This simple, refreshing gimlet cocktail is a pitch-perfect blend of basil, fresh lime juice, and vodka that was made for sipping outside with friends.
Blackberry Caipirinha
This blackberry caipirinha has a bold hue and complex fruity flavor for a cocktail sure to brighten your happy hour. Grab your muddler and enjoy!
Turkey Burgers
Turkey burgers are much leaner than hamburgers, but they can be dry and dull. Moisten them by adding ketchup and a bit of grated onion to the ground turkey — or mayonnaise and a bit of mustard. The idea is to emphasize condiments, and keep the turkey moist.
Grilled Chicken Wings With Provençal Flavors
Like most chicken parts, wings are best grilled in two stages. Start them over indirect heat, away from the hottest part of the grill. Cook them there, more or less undisturbed, until most of their fat is rendered and they’re just about cooked through. This takes only 10 or 15 minutes, especially if you cut the wings into sections first (more on this in a second). At this point they’ll be pale and not especially appetizing, but move them over to the hot part of the grill, brown them under a watchful eye, and they’ll turn gorgeous.
Southern Pan-Fried Chicken
In this recipe, Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock call for an overnight brine for the chicken and a further buttermilk bath that should last for 8 to 12 hours. That’s a lot of unattended prep time before you get around to frying them in a slurry of lard and butter flavored with country ham. This is a time commitment, but the result — cooked in a cast-iron pan — is food to impress, and impress deeply, a dish made of humble ingredients that would be welcome on the finest china. Even better? It’s just as good cold as it is hot.
Crostini of Rabbit With Mache and Green Almonds
Lamb Meatballs with Mint
The Brasserie's Gazpacho
Best Peach Cobbler
Everyone has a different idea about what a cobbler should be. Biscuit-topped? Double-crusted? Cakelike? We’re not here to cast a vote, merely to present a simple Southern cake-style cobbler that makes the most of ripe summer peaches (or the frozen ones languishing in the back of your freezer). All you really need is a bowl, a saucepan, a baking pan and a spoon. This recipe is all about showcasing the fruit, so when you transfer the batter to the pan, it will not completely cover the bottom, nor will it cover the top of the peaches. As it bakes, the batter will rise up along the sides of the pan and through the peaches, developing a crisp exterior and tender interior. If you'd like a taller cobbler with a higher cake-to-fruit ratio, do as many readers do, and double the batter.
Coleslaw With Red Pepper
