Main Course
8665 recipes found
Miyeok Guk (Seaweed Soup)
People eat miyeok guk on birthdays to celebrate not just their own birth, but their mother’s sacrifice as well — which is why it is often known as birthday soup. This miyeok guk (ME-yuhk gewk) forgoes the more common beef broth for mussels and an aromatic base of onion, garlic and anchovies. Though not traditional, the addition of parsnip, for sweetness and umami, yields a broth with body, like the kind you would get with the usual brisket. Scooped out of their shells, mussels become little morsels in the soup, nuggets of briny joy.
Family-Meal Fish Tacos
This is a fast, satisfying fish dinner with Cajun flavors. Chad Shaner cooked it for staff meals when he was a line cook at Union Square Cafe in Manhattan. It was, he said shyly when The Times talked to him in 2013, one of the restaurant staff's favorites. “Everyone loves taco day,” he said. The recipe is not particularly Mexican. Shaner hails from Smyrna, Del., and served in the Navy before he went to cooking school. He makes a forceful kind of American food that borrows its flavors from wherever they are strongest. His fish tacos, he said, are something he cooked up one night with his brother, Andy, a bartender. “We were looking for intense flavor,” he said of the Cajun-style rub they used on the fish.
Shrimp And Roasted Peppers
Beef Brochettes With Red-Wine Marinade
Escarole Salad With Smoky Halloumi Croutons
If you believe the only thing better than cheese is fried cheese, then you may just love halloumi. Because of its high melting point, halloumi browns before it melts, making it perfect for frying, grilling or any kind of searing. Here, it’s pan-fried with smoked paprika, then added to an escarole salad with a garlicky, lemony dressing. Slivered red onion adds pungency, while fresh parsley leaves brighten everything. If you can get the pomegranate seeds, do use them; they add a juicy sweetness that’s perfect with the richness of the cheese. Serve it by itself as a first or salad course, or with roasted vegetables, fish or chicken to round it out.
Quinoa Salad With Chicken, Almonds and Avocado
Tricolor quinoa combines the tenderness of white quinoa with the pop of the red and black grains. All soak up a Dijon-sherry vinaigrette in this blend of chewy tangy cranberries, crunchy salty almonds, creamy avocado and refreshing parsley. This salad —tasty warm, at room temperature or cold — is a great way to use up leftover or rotisserie chicken. It’s perfectly satisfying without the chicken, too, if you’re vegetarian.
Millet Polenta With Mushrooms and Broccoli or Broccoli Rabe
I had envisioned serving this savory mix of mushrooms over a bowl of farro, and farro — or brown rice or barley, for that matter — would certainly work well. But I made the mushrooms on the same day that I made the Millet Polenta With Tomato Sauce, Eggplant and Chickpeas and ended up spooning them over the millet, which was so delicious and comforting that I voted on the millet as the accompanying grain. Cornmeal polenta would also work well.
Fried Fish With Vodka-and-Beer Batter
Heston Blumenthal, the chef at the Fat Duck near London, updated classic British fish and chips in his book "In Search of Perfection" (Bloomsbury, 2006), using a batter that includes beer and vodka. The alcohol dissolves some of the gluten proteins in the wheat flour, so the crust doesn’t get tough and boils off faster than water, so the batter dries out, crisps and browns quickly, before the delicate fish inside overcooks. The coating ends up especially crunchy — with each bite, you crush many thin layers of crust.
Rice Salad With Peanuts and Tofu
With a little advance preparation, this spicy salad can be made in 30 minutes. You can cook the two kinds of rices together if you soak the red rice for an hour first; the antioxidant-rich pigment from the red rice will bleed into the white rice, turning it an attractive pale rusty color, which is nice. The marinade and the rice will keep for about 3 days in the refrigerator. The baked tofu will also keep, in the marinade, for a couple of days.
Swordfish With Couscous Salad
Rabbit With Morels, Spring Peas and Sage Grits
There’s nothing fancy about this rabbit with mushrooms and peas, but it is surprisingly hearty and straightforward.
Roasted Herbed Baby Chickens With Spicy Mango Barbecue Sauce
Seared Fish With Shiitake Mushroom Ragout
Here is a main dish that can work with many kinds of skin-on fish fillets. Crisp the skin to a crackle in a pan, then finish cooking in the oven; the method can also work with meaty, skinless fillets like hake and mahi-mahi. As you cook, season little by little, tasting all the while, and feel free to adjust to your own palate. Though Chinese stir-fries are often thickened with a slurry of cornstarch, this recipe uses miso, which adds nuanced depth. A slick of sesame oil enriches the sauce and burnishes the fish. A crisp, off-dry riesling makes a fine pairing.
Tuna Noodle Casserole
This updated tuna noodle casserole recipe stays true to the classic 1950s dish, but substitutes a rich, homemade sauce for the can of cream of mushroom soup. The addition of cremini mushrooms — along with celery, onions, peas and parsley — makes this casserole surprisingly vegetable-packed, while briny capers complement the tuna and balance out the creamy sauce. Like any good tuna noodle casserole, this recipe’s pièce de résistance is the potato chip topping.
Penne With Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Chicken
Turkey Patties With Curry Sauce
Salmon or Tuna Carpaccio with Wasabi Sauce
Sushi-grade salmon or ahi tuna will work nicely for this easy, delicate dish, and you don’t even have to be a whiz with a knife to make it.
Broiled Eggplant With Cheese and Tomato Sauce
Shrimp With Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce
Mushroom and Turkey Burgers
Let’s face it: turkey burgers can be boring. I spiced these up with a Middle Eastern spice blend, called baharat, that is great to have on hand.
Pasta From Bari
Shrimp Fra Diavolo
Turkey Patties With Mustard Sauce
Simple Lamb Kebabs With Greek Flavors
In days gone by, Italian dressing might have been a go-to marinade for lamb. After you soak, say, some lamb skewers in this dressing for a while and then grill them, what you get is grilled lamb with a kind of vague mix of vinegar, oil and faded herb taste. Contrast this with grilling the lamb, then putting it in a bowl and adding an acidic flavor, like lemon juice or vinegar, the oil and whatever herbs you choose. You’ll get the smoothness of the oil, the sharp hit of the acid (in this case, lemon juice), the aroma of the herbs (in this case marjoram) and the sweet meatiness of the lamb, each distinct flavor complementing and reinforcing others.