Main Course
8665 recipes found
Basic Tamales
Fish Grilled In Fennel
Scallops A La Plancha
Farro Niçoise
There is one mistake many of us make, cooking grain salads: we play down everything but the grains. A pile of cold brown rice with a few chopped vegetables and some soy sauce or a mound of wheat berries with vinaigrette is about as one-dimensional as it gets. This niçoise salad turns that problem on its head, with tuna used in a powerful vinaigrette tossed with farro. Farro is interesting because it’s relatively fast-cooking for a whole grain, but any hearty grain could take its place: one of the many “brown” rices, spelt, kamut, wheat. Whichever you use, the results are nutty and sublime.
Spaghetti Squash With Oyster-Mushroom-and-Pearl-Onion Ragout
Chickpea, Quinoa and Celery Salad With Middle Eastern Flavors
It’s the sumac (available in Middle Eastern markets) and the herbs – dill, mint, chives – that give this salad its Middle Eastern accents. I love the texture and flavor of the chickpeas, which make for a substantial and comforting dish. It’s all you need for lunch and makes a delicious light supper. I love abundant, thinly sliced celery in just about any lemony salad; you will appreciate it for its texture as well as its flavor. Of course, you can use canned chickpeas, but if you have the time, try cooking some dried chickpeas to see how good they taste.
Vegetable Fried Rice
Amanda Cohen, the chef at Dirt Candy in Manhattan, loves how easy it is to make fried rice. “If you’re a chef, the idea of cooking at home on your one night off is like some kind of terrible nightmare,” she said. “Takeout becomes your best friend. but before long half your fridge is taken up by those little white cartons of rice.” At home, she digs into those cartons to make fast batches of vegetable fried rice, and she combats the threat of blandness by stocking her freezer in advance with her Secret-Weapon Stir-Fry Sauce: small, dark green ice blocks of puréed garlic, ginger, cilantro, parsley and other ingredients, which she freezes in ice-cube trays (they can be slipped directly into the hot pan). She uses brussels sprouts, fennel, chard and mushrooms, but this dish is the definition of flexibility. “As long as you maintain the proportions, this recipe can take any vegetable you throw at it,” she said. “Think of it as a chance to clean out your crisper drawer.”
Chirashi (Scattered) Sushi
Curried Beef And Bitter Greens
Chicken Potpie With Cornbread Biscuits
A showstopper of a dinner made for cold nights, this spin on classic chicken pot pie is the perfect all-in-one dinner when you’re craving something hearty and comforting. The cornmeal and buttermilk biscuits that bake on top of the filling are the best of both worlds: crisp and flaky on top and soft and dumpling-like on the bottom. A hint of sweetness in the biscuits makes them reminiscent of classic American cornbread. This is not a recipe for rushed weeknights, though you can save time by making the biscuit dough and prepping the vegetables in advance (see Tip).
Hoisin-Glazed Pork Bowl With Vegetables
Inspired by Chinese char siu pork, this weeknight recipe uses an easy cooking method that yields a tasty sauce with a subtle sweetness. The tangy hoisin marinade for the pork can do its job in just 24 seconds or 24 hours. It coats the tenderloin as it cooks, leaving behind caramelized bits in the bottom of pan, which then get deglazed to create a dressing that flavors the rice. As for the garnishes, use as many crisp-tender vegetables as you like, and change them up as you please. Sugar snap peas would be good here, as would shredded napa cabbage, or just about anything fresh and crunchy.
Miso-Glazed Sea Bass
Fish baked in miso is quintessentially Japanese, but I first learned about it years ago from the very American James Beard. Miso marries well with oily fish like salmon, mackerel or black cod, but mild firm-fleshed fish like sea bass or halibut also make fine candidates. Simply coat fish fillets or steaks with a mixture of miso, sake, mirin and a little ginger. An egg yolk may be added to help burnish and glaze the fish under the broiler. Serve with a pile of wilted greens dabbed with sesame oil.
Smoked Mozzarella And Sun-Dried Tomato Pizza
Penne With Peppers And Cream
Cantonese-Style Turkey
This turkey, inspired by the flavors of Cantonese cooking, is roasted beneath a rich glaze of fermented soybean paste, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and alliums galore, then served with roasted potatoes basted in the sauce and drippings of the bird. It came to The Times from Dr. Carolyn Ling, a physician in Carmel, Ind., whose grandfather came to the United States in the late 19th century from southern China and set up an import-export firm in Manhattan. Her grandfather, Dr. Ling told me, also had “interests in restaurants.” Those interests played a big role in the Ling family’s early Thanksgiving feasts: They ate takeout. Dr. Ling’s father loved those meals. When Dr. Ling was young, she said, her father urged her mother, a passionate home cook and reader of Gourmet, to emulate them in her holiday cooking at home in Forest Hills, Queens. The result is remarkably easy to prepare, phenomenally juicy, and rich, Dr. Ling said, “with the umami of soy and turkey fat.”
Microwaved Black Cod With Scallions and Ginger
Cornish Hens Roasted With Sun-Dried-Tomato-And-Rosemary Butter
Pickled Mushroom Salad
This recipe for roasted mushrooms dressed with sherry vinegar and spices is an adaptation of Patch Troffer’s delicious pickled mushrooms at Marlow & Sons, where it’s served simply as it is, with a drizzle of chile oil. Mixed with some sliced vegetables and roughly picked herbs, it makes for an excellent snack with a glass of wine, or a fall salad. Or serve it with a spoonful of something creamy, like crème fraîche or mascarpone, and pile everything up on thickly cut toasts.
Fillet of Beef With Smoked Paprika Butter and Shishito Peppers
Striped Bass with Fresh Figs
This recipe is inspired by a dish served at a pinot noir dinner at Bar Boulud, one of the chef Daniel Boulud’s restaurants. There, a whole wild striped bass was swaddled in fresh fig leaves and stuffed with fresh black figs in a red wine sauce. The brooding sauce bathed velvet figs, and its earthy depths made the already succulent fish a fine partner for some excellent bottles of red. My version, which uses fillets and omits fig leaves, is about as delicious as I remembered and much easier than I expected.
Barley Baked With Olives And Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Lamb Necks Braised in Wine With Peppers
Ina Garten’s Make-Ahead Coquilles St.-Jacques
Here is an easy version of coquilles St.-Jacques, the classic French preparation of scallops in a creamy sauce, under a crust of bread crumbs and cheese. It comes from Ina Garten, the celebrated cookbook author and television star, who has been cooking it for dinner parties, she told The Times, practically since the start of her marriage to Jeffrey Garten in 1968. It makes for a beautiful entree that matches well with a green salad, flinty white wine and good conversation. It can be made the day before serving and heated through in an oven while guests gather. “A lot of dishes taste better after they sit for a while,” Garten said. With its whisper of curry powder in the rich, unctuous sauce, this is one of them. You can make it in a casserole, but little gratin dishes are better and come in handy far more often than you might think. One per guest.