Milk & Cream
3644 recipes found
Maque Choux
This classic Cajun side dish is a sweet, hot, juicy, milky, buttery combination of corn, onions and peppers. It’s often cooked in rendered bacon fat and enriched with heavy cream, but this version relies upon only butter and a little water in their place, which allow the ingredients’ flavors to sing more clearly. While it is commonly understood that Fat Equals Flavor, there is a point at which too much fat actually masks complexities in flavors and dulls their vibrancy. Try the maque choux this way and see if you notice how bold and lively it tastes. If you miss the smokiness that bacon imparts, try instead a pinch of smoked paprika stirred in at the end.
Poppy Seed Tea Cake
Poppy seeds belong to the small-but-mighty clan of ingredients: Their flavor is nutty, their aroma earthy, and their color, a gorgeous blue-black, dramatic. Even though they’re minuscule, they crack pleasantly under a light bite. Sprinkle poppy seeds over something sweet or savory and you add interest. Give the seeds a star turn and you add surprise. Although this simple loaf cake includes vanilla extract and lemon juice, it’s the flavor that you get from an abundance of poppy seeds that brings everyone back for more. The cake can be served plain, but it’s pretty spread with white icing and speckled with seeds. Remember that because poppy seeds are oily, they can go rancid — store them in the freezer and taste a few before using them.
Peanut Chicken Wings
Here's a lively twist on the traditional chicken wing. Just grill or broil the wings until they're cooked through, then toss with a simple sauce of coconut milk, peanut butter, soy sauce, fish sauce and lime juice. Return to the grill or oven until they're crisp. You might never go back to Buffalo.
Nashville-Style Hot Tofu Sliders
Nashville hot chicken is seasoned with a bold dose of ground cayenne and hot sauce, deep fried then brushed with a final coat of spicy oil. In these vegetarian sliders, hot butter imparts mild tofu with an extra-spicy kick reminiscent of the chicken that inspired them. Tofu has a high water content, but a quick dredge in rice flour and a dip in batter creates a barrier that prevents excess splattering during frying. The carbonation in seltzer keeps the batter light and airy, perfect for delicate tofu. (This is also a great trick for frying vegetables and shrimp.) The result is a golden sandwich filling with a crispy exterior and soft center. For larger sandwiches, stuff standard hamburger buns with two pieces of the fried tofu and finish with the toppings.
Beet and Potato Salad
This is a better version of a ubiquitous salad found in takeout shops all over France. Salade Russe, as it is called, is a mayonnaise-dressed mixture of potatoes, diced carrots, peas and other vegetables, but usually not beets. Yogurt vinaigrette stands in for mayonnaise here.
Borani-yeh Karafs (Celery Yogurt Dip)
Borani is an Iranian yogurt-based dish that highlights one ingredient, typically a vegetable. This one combines crisp celery with Greek yogurt for a cooling snack. Dried mint and dried dill are Iranian pantry staples and are always ready to be used in an array of dishes. Don’t think of them as substitutes for fresh herbs but as stars in their own right. You can use fresh dill, if you prefer, but the dried mint here delivers a unique flavor and fragrance not found in its fresh counterpart. The dried cranberries add texture and color, and balance the celery with a hint of sweetness. Serve this dish as a dip or dig right in with a spoon.
Blue-Potato Soup
Ashley Judd's Peanut Butter Cake
Garlic Aioli Potato Salad
Homemade garlic aioli gives this otherwise classic potato salad a pungent kick. If you don’t want to add the hard-cooked eggs, use another 1/2 pound of potatoes instead. This is best served at least an hour or so after making to allow the flavors to mellow. Or make it the day before and store it in the refrigerator; bring it to room temperature before serving. If you can find garlic chives, there’s no better place for them than here.
Sour Cream and Roasted Red Onion Dip
Here’s how to make onion dip without standing near the stove for an eternity, waiting for onions to caramelize: Roast rings of onion in the oven with the teeniest bit of sugar for 40 minutes for effortlessly faux-caramelized onions. Red onions are naturally a bit sweeter and mellower than white ones, especially when they get brown and slouchy, but lemon juice, chives and raw garlic will perk them right up. The creaminess — what we’re here for — comes from three sources: sour cream, mayonnaise and Greek yogurt, a nice counter to the crisp potato chips you'll, of course, serve it with.
Roasted Broccoli With Almonds and Cardamom (Malai Broccoli)
This recipe comes from the British cookbook author Meera Sodha, who adapted it from a dish she tasted in Goa, India. It's a smart, simple technique that turns the broccoli crisp and creamy at the same time: charred florets with a lick of thick nutmeg-spiced sauce baked into every nook and cranny. Ms. Sodha uses a mix of cream cheese, yogurt and ground almonds. Don't be afraid to get messy and use your hands to thoroughly coat the broccoli in the sauce; it pays off later.
Spinach and Pea Fritters
As a vegetable-forward weeknight meal, these spinach fritters have it all: sweet peas, gooey cheese and crispy bits. Made from thawed, frozen peas and spinach, the work is minimal. If you’d like to use fresh peas and spinach, you’ll need to quickly blanch and drain them first. Fresh mozzarella adds a pleasant creaminess, but goat cheese or feta would work, too. Serve these over quinoa or rice, or top with a poached or fried egg for brunch.
Spam Macaroni and Cheese
This decadent yet simple recipe pairs creamy macaroni and cheese with crispy, salty-sweet diced Spam for a dish that bridges Puerto Rico and the South. It’s much quicker than most homemade macaroni and cheese recipes (which often require making a roux and cream sauce), without sacrificing texture or flavor. It is also incredibly adaptable, because it will work with most cheeses. If you have the time and the will, sprinkle the finished macaroni with extra cheese and bake under a low broil for 5 to 10 minutes until toasted. During tough times, a box of instant mac and cheese and a can of Spam will also yield delicious results.
Parmesan Smashed Potatoes
My friend Antonia Bellanca taught me this old fashioned recipe, which I featured in “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook” (Clarkson Potter, 1999). These are simple, flavorful and come together quickly. Use an electric mixer and don’t peel the potatoes!
Eve's Pudding
Parmesan Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes are an essential Thanksgiving side dish but can be time consuming. Instead of starting with raw potatoes, then peeling, cutting and boiling them, start with these prepared potatoes and no one will know you didn’t make the dish from scratch. I tested many varieties of prepared mashed potatoes and Bob Evans refrigerated potatoes were the best.
Sweeney Potatoes
This is a variation of a dish sometimes called "company potatoes," popular in the postwar kitchens of the 1950s, made with canned condensed soups and frozen hash browns. Maura Passanisi, of Alameda, Calif., shared it with The Times as a tribute to her grandmother, Florence Sweeney, who originally served it as a Thanksgiving side dish. Ms. Passanisi uses fresh russet potatoes and no condensed soup, but plenty of cream cheese, sour cream, butter and cheese. "Legendary," she calls the dish. And so it is. Small portions are best. It's rich. And feeds a crowd.
Coconut Kale
The kale in this recipe, adapted from Meeru Dhalwala and Vikram Vij of Vij’s Restaurant, in Vancouver, British Columbia, is rich and fiery, sweet and salty all at once. Grilling softens the texture of the kale without entirely removing the mild bitterness of the leaves, while the marinade of coconut milk, cayenne, salt and lemon juice caramelizes in the heat to create a perfect balance of flavors. Made over a charcoal fire or even in a broiler or wickedly hot pan, it becomes a dish of uncommon flavor, the sort of thing you could eat on its own, with only a mound of basmati rice for contrast.
Good for Almost Everything Pie Dough
Mashed Sweet Potatoes With Maple and Brown Butter
This recipe is a grown-up take on sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows. A generous swirl of browned butter and maple syrup give the potatoes an earthy sweetness and great depth of flavor, while salted, toasted pecans sprinkled on top add a savory crunch. To save time on Thanksgiving, toast the pecans and make the brown butter up to a day in advance. Simply store the pecans in an airtight container, and the brown butter in the refrigerator. (Gently melt the butter in the microwave before using.)
Roasted Beets With Yogurt, Pistachios and Coriander
This sophisticated side is easy enough for a weeknight, but fancy enough for entertaining thanks to a few unexpected additions: Seasoned Greek yogurt forms the basis of an effortless sauce, while toasted coriander seeds and chopped pistachios add texture. Roasting sweet, earthy beets concentrates their flavor, and a splash of balsamic balances out their sweetness. This dish can be prepared in advance and served hot, cold or at room temperature, but its assembly should be done just before serving so the toasted coriander seeds and roasted pistachios retain their crunch.
Scalloped Potato Gratin
Is there anything better than a molten, golden-topped potato gratin? I don’t think so, either. This one stays fairly classic — scented with sage, garlic and nutmeg, then showered with lots of nutty Gruyère. My tweak is in form rather than flavor. Instead of piling the potatoes an inch or two deep in a gratin dish, I shingle the slices in a shallow sheet pan. It gives the whole thing a more elegant look, and you get maximum browning and crunch on top. There’s less of the gooey center, but what it loses in ooze it makes up for in increased surface area for the crisp-edged baked cheese.
Potato Mousseline
Here is a riff on the classic side dish that calls for running the potatoes through a ricer (if you don't have one, a splatter screen over a bowl will work just as well), the addition of brown butter and a sprinkling of grated nutmeg. The result is something just as comforting, but a bit more complex and flavorful. (And for everything you need to know to make perfect potatoes, visit our potato guide.)
Roasted Butternut Squash Salad With Green Goddess Dressing
This colorful salad of sweet, soft roasted squash and crisp, bitter greens finished with a creamy, tangy green goddess dressing is an elegant mix of contrasting flavors and textures. The squash is good both warm and at room temperature, so feel free to roast it ahead of time. Some bitterness is nice against the sweet winter squash, but if you want to mellow radicchio’s bite a bit, you can soak the pieces in ice water for 10 to 30 minutes, then drain and dry before adding to the salad. Just taste before you soak; you’ll want a little bit of its bitterness. The dressing will keep for at least three days in the fridge. Serve it over other salads, or as a dip for cut-up vegetables and chips.