Memorial Day
605 recipes found
Pulled Lamb Shoulder
This pulled lamb is an homage to the barbecued mutton of Western Kentucky. Smoke the meat over charcoal and wood, not gas. It’s bonkers delicious. Or at least make the dry rub that covers the meat and use it to cook something else.
BBQ Country-Style Pork Ribs
This basic barbecue has big flavor and no ketchup or Coca-Cola (no disrespect meant to those who favor that type of seasoning). There’s no fire involved; you use a standard oven. The spicing trends toward Caribbean, with plenty of sweet spice and as much Scotch bonnet or habanero chile heat as you wish. County-style ribs are meaty bone-in pork chops cut from the shoulder end of the loin, so use those or a whole bone-in pork shoulder roast. Cooked until it’s ultratender, it can be cut in chunky pieces and served in its juices with beans, rice and cornbread. Or shred the cooked meat to make pulled pork sandwiches or tacos. It’s quite good accompanied with a crisp slawlike cabbage salad or your favorite version of coleslaw.
Grilled Flank Steak With Worcestershire Butter
Grilled steak covered in melting herb butter is a cornerstone of summer cooking. Here, both the steak and the compound butter are spiked with Worcestershire sauce, fresh thyme and garlic for an intensely brawny flavor. Then, the steak is garnished with a mix of charred tomatoes, scallions and basil, which gives everything a juicy sweetness brightened with lemon. You can use any cut of beef here; the flank steak has a deeply mineral taste and chewy texture that’s at its best sliced thin. But rib-eye, skirt steak and sirloin also work; just be sure to adjust the cooking time for thinner or thicker pieces.
Inside-Out Lamb Cheeseburgers
Grind the lamb for these smoked mozzarella-stuffed patties yourself and you'll be rewarded with burgers that are full of flavor. "Grinding" may sound intimidating, but it's easy and quick to do it at home with a food processor. Then be sure to handle the meat gently. Make the patties with a light hand, and resist the urge to press on them with a spatula as they cook.
Reverse-Seared Steak
Reverse-searing is a grilling technique for steak that ensures a dark, sizzling crust and a rosy center that is perfectly cooked to your desired degree of doneness. This brilliant grilling method combines the low and slow cooking of traditional barbecue with the high heat charring practiced at steakhouses. Though it works well with any thick steak, from picanha to porterhouse, this recipe calls for a cut of steak popularized in Santa Maria, Calif., and is today known and loved across the U.S. as tri-tip. As the name suggests, it’s a triangular or boomerang-shaped steak cut from the tip of the sirloin, blessed with a robust beefy flavor.
Grilled Pork With Whole Spices and Garlic Bread
Deeply flavored from a rub of fennel, coriander, caraway and cumin, and crisp-edged from the grill, this pork feeds a crowd, and most of the work can be done in advance. You can use either boneless loin or shoulder here: The shoulder is chewier, brawnier and more irregular in shape, while the loin is neater to slice and softer to eat. But both are delicious, especially when showered with fresh lemon or lime juice at the end to cut the richness. You don’t have to make the buttery garlic bread, but its herbal flavors go well with the smoke and char of the meat. If you do skip it (your loss), serve the pork strewn with plenty of fresh, bright herbs. If you’re not grilling, you can roast the pork in a 500-degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes, flipping it halfway. Then run it under the broiler at the end to sear the fat.
Cocotte Burger
Céline Parrenin, a co-owner of Coco & Co, a two-level place devoted to eggs that opened in St.-Germain in 2007, and her business partner, Franklin Reinhard, invented the Cocotte Burger. The Cheddar cheeseburger, with pine nuts and thyme mixed into the meat, sits on a toasted whole-wheat English muffin pedestal. In a wink at the restaurant’s egg theme and recalling the time-honored steak à cheval, a fried egg is placed on top.
Peach Raspberry Pie
The character of fresh raspberries can be fleeting when cooked, especially when the berries are mixed with other fruit like ripe, juicy peaches. To deepen the berry flavor in this summer pie, a little raspberry jam is mixed into the filling in place of some of the sugar. Instant (minute) tapioca serves as a clear, flavorless thickener here, with the tiny tapioca pearls echoing the texture of raspberry seeds. For a runny, syrupy pie that leaks when you cut into it, mix in the minimum amount of tapioca. Using all 3 tablespoons yields a pie with a thick, jammy filling. As for the stone fruit, peel the peaches or don't, to taste. Or substitute ripe nectarines, whose peels are less pronounced.
Strawberry Galette
A strawberry galette served with a side of fresh whipped cream or ice cream is a spring salve that is just as soothing to prepare for oneself as it is to share with others. Inspired by the baker Alice Medrich’s yogurt-butter pie dough, the dough in this recipe includes almond flour for a flaky, subtly nutty crust that comes together without much fuss. This dough is very forgiving and works well with the rustic charm of a galette. It’s OK if the edges of the crust crack and some juices leak. Even out-of-season strawberries would work, as there’s just enough sugar here to coax them back to life. Make sure you give the galette enough time to rest before slicing into it, so that the juices have time to set.
Tater Tots
There's no need to peel the new potatoes for these otherwise labor-intensive tots, which are little short of a revelation. Serve with ketchup, of course.
Braai-Spiced T-Bone Steaks
Grilling meat is practically the South African national sport, crossing lines of wealth, geography and even race. Braai means grill in Afrikaans, and some say it’s the only word recognized in all of the country’s 11 official languages. There’s no reason this braai sout, a fragrant dry rub, can’t be used on steaks other than a T-bone. But the T-bone has had special status there since Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as part of a campaign to bring all South Africans together around the braai, pointed out that the shape of that steak mimics the shape of Africa itself. Serve with whole potatoes roasted in the coals, and drink beer or one of South Africa’s excellent wines.
Summer Berry Cream Cake
A sweet ending for a summer solstice party, this spongecake is light and not too sweet, and the cream and berries make it seem almost more of an unmolded trifle than a cake. I seem to remember that in Norway alcohol is poured over the split sponge, but here I’ve moistened the cake with a strawberry purée. You can use any fruit.
Tart Dough
While Dorie Greenspan uses this dough for savories, it’s really an all-purpose recipe that produces a not-too-rich, slightly crisp crust that is as happy holding pastry cream for a strawberry tart as it is encasing a creamy cheese filling for a quiche. This is a good dough to use anytime you see a recipe calling for pâte brisée. Be prepared: The dough should chill for at least 3 hours.
Spicy Clam Dip
In this chile-flecked take on a classic 1950s clam dip, the cream cheese-based mixture is spooned into a gratin dish, sprinkled with Parmesan and baked until the topping melts and the dip turns molten and savory. Canned clams are traditional here, providing a gentle saline note and nubby texture without an assertive flavor. If you’re starting with cream cheese straight from the fridge, soften it briefly in the microwave before adding it to the bowl; cold cream cheese is a lot harder to mix.
Lemony Roasted Chicken Wings
These meaty out-of-the-ordinary roasted wings are infused with lots of lemon, garlic and rosemary, then roasted on a bed of fingerling potatoes. Use a large roasting pan that's at least 3 inches deep, or a big earthenware gratin dish, or a couple of Pyrex lasagna pans side by side. The lemony chicken and potatoes are delicious hot and crisp, but just as good at cool room temperature.
The Real Burger
Here's one way to know you're using great meat in your burger: Grind it yourself, using chuck roast or well-marbled sirloin steaks. “Grinding” may sound ominous, conjuring visions of a big old hand-cranked piece of steel clamped to the kitchen counter, but in fact it’s not that difficult if you use a food processor, which gets the job done in a couple of minutes or less. The flavor difference between this burger and one made with pre-packaged supermarket ground beef is astonishing, and might change your burger-cooking forever.
Guacamole Tostadas
Grilled Sausages, Onions and Peppers
There is no more reliable guest at a cookout than sausage, roasted over the open fire. But before you grill the meat, get some peppers and onions soft and dark and fragrant in the heat, and use these as a bed on which to serve the links. Italian sausage works beautifully here, as do hot links and bratwurst. If cooking brats, think about simmering them first in beer and onions, then finishing them on the fire.
Green Chile Cheeseburger Deluxe
In New Mexico, where many traditional dishes contain roasted green chiles, it’s only natural that hamburgers get the chile treatment, too. If you don’t have access to fresh New Mexican green chiles, try fresh Anaheim chiles. Lacking those, use roasted jalapeños that have been peeled and chopped; thinly sliced raw jalapeños; or pickled jalapeños — a compromise perhaps, but better than no chiles at all. As for cheese, any good melting kind of “queso amarillo” will do, but domestic Monterey Jack or Muenster may be even better.
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.
Ricotta Tart With Lemon Poppy Crust
This simple, not-too-sweet tart is reminiscent of a cheesecake but with a higher crust-to-filling ratio. If you’ve got excellent, ripe fruit, feel free to lay it on top — berries, figs, poached rhubarb or pears, pineapple, plums — anything sweet and juicy will contrast nicely with the milky ricotta filling. Or just drizzle the tart with good flavorful honey and serve it plain. It’s an elegant way to end a meal. If you aren’t a poppy seed fan, just leave them out of the crust. Or substitute sesame seeds instead for a similar crunch, if different flavor.
Cole Slaw
Malted Milk Fudge Ripple Ice Cream
If you love the flavor of malted milk, you’ll adore this ultra-creamy ice cream, which tastes like a chocolate malted in solid form. To achieve the most intense flavor, seek out the barley malt syrup (available in health food stores), which deepens the malted milk powder whisked into the ice cream base. Be gentle when folding in the fudge ripple; you want the fudge to stay in distinct pockets and not disappear into the ice cream base. Or skip the rippling altogether and serve the fudge as a sauce on top of the ice cream.
Okra Salad With Toasted Cumin
Even avowed okra-phobes love this salad, which is seasoned with a warm and earthy Moroccan spice blend. The okra cooks for only 2 minutes in salted water, and the resulting flavor and texture are somewhat reminiscent of asparagus. The salad tastes best at room temperature.