Rice & Grains
2019 recipes found
Carrot Risotto With Chile Crisp
Simple yet surprising, this pantry risotto is a study in contrasts: Luscious, creamy risotto is topped with caramelized carrots that are roasted with spicy chile crisp while you make the rice. The risotto base — a classic approach using shallots, garlic and white wine — is the foundation for a cheap though lush meal that can be cobbled together with pantry ingredients. This one is subtly sweetened with freshly grated carrots, then topped with a pile of smoky roasted carrots. Don’t underestimate the versatility of chile crisp: This tingly, crunchy condiment can animate any number of rich dishes like risotto, pizza and macaroni and cheese with a robust dose of heat. In recipes, as in life, opposites attract.
Sholeh Zard (Persian Rice Pudding)
This cozy dessert from Sara Mardanbigi and Edgar Rico, the owners of Nixta Taqueria in Austin, Texas, is a take on sholeh zard, a loose, heavily spiced Persian rice pudding Ms. Mardanbigi grew up eating. It also borrows influence from the Mexican arroz con leche of Mr. Rico’s childhood. Their take is warm and smoky with black cardamom and saffron, velvety from egg yolks and butter, and has a savory finish. It calls for arborio rice instead of the usual basmati to add a slight chew, and strawberry powder instead of rosewater to provide similar floral notes with a punch of acid.
Crispy Baked Fish With Tartar Sauce
Charming fish shacks and salty sea air aren’t a weeknight possibility for most of us, but thankfully, this recipe is. It features a clever technique from recipe developer Molly Kreuger: Creamy tartar sauce is spread on the fish to add flavor, keep the fillets moist during cooking and help the bread crumbs adhere to the fish. (Feel free to use your favorite tartar sauce in place of the one below.) The fish is baked until nearly cooked through, then broiled to toast the breadcrumb topping. The end result is crispy, creamy, tangy and moist, all of which is achieved without having to deal with a big pot of oil. Eat with more tartar sauce and a squeeze of lemon.
Turkey Silog (Garlic Fried Rice With Eggs)
Silog, rice bathed in lots of garlic and crowned with a runny egg, is a hearty and essential part of any Filipino breakfast, and it comes together very quickly. For Chad and Chase Valencia, brothers and owners of the Filipino restaurant Lasa, in Los Angeles, the best time to make silog is the morning after Thanksgiving, when they top it with seared leftover turkey (or ham), and gravy to moisten the bits of rice. You're going to have to plan ahead for this recipe, as it’s best made with day-old rice; freshly made rice won't get as crisp in the pan. And don't be intimidated by the amount of garlic here — it all mellows out, while still providing a potent punch. Chad notes that this dish will work in almost any nonstick pan, except for a steel or aluminum-bottomed pan; you could even use a well-seasoned cast-iron pan or wok.
Vegetable Pulao
Pulao is a weeknight staple in many Desi households, as it can be made in one pot, has a flexible ingredient list and makes no sacrifices on flavor. Whole spices, which give the pulao its intense, complex flavor, are key in this recipe. But the beauty of pulao is that it can be easily adjusted according to your preferences and what you have around. You can swap the carrots for cauliflower, or the potatoes for sweet potatoes. In a pinch, a frozen bag of carrots, peas and corn will work just fine. And if you don’t have one of the spices, fret not and carry on. Pulao is often served with achaar, or pickle, yogurt and papad — but it’s also wonderful by itself.
Puritan Pudding
A mass of cornmeal, milk and molasses, baked for hours, this dessert was born of the Puritans’ nostalgia for British hasty pudding and their adaptation to the ground-corn porridges of their Native American neighbors. (Early settlers called it Indian pudding.) Originally served as a first course, it grew sweeter (but not too sweet; Puritanism runs deep) and migrated to the end of supper. For a proper historical re-enactment of the dish, you need meal stone-ground from Rhode Island whitecap flint corn, a hard, tough-to-crack corn, less sweet but more buttery than hybrid strains. One of the oldest incarnations of the plant, it was cultivated by the local Narragansett and saved from extinction by a few equally flinty Rhode Island farmers. This recipe comes from George Crowther, owner and chef of the Yankee diner Commons Lunch, which has stood on the town square of Little Compton, R.I., since 1966.
Du Jour Doughnuts
This classic yeast doughnut is a specialty of T. J. and Vera Obias, the husband-and-wife team of pastry chefs at Du Jour Bakery, in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The dough is light and airy, and the sugar crystals add crunch. After cutting out the doughnuts, test whether they have risen enough by touching them with a fingertip; if they spring back slowly, they are sufficiently proofed. Springing back fast means they need more time, and not springing back means they are overproofed.
Creamy Vegan Polenta
While traditional Italian polenta is typically finished with butter and grated Parmesan, the porridge-like texture of simmered cornmeal makes for a dish that’s creamy and comforting without dairy. This recipe uses a few tablespoons of vegan butter (any kind will do) to lend richness, and substitutes nutritional yeast for Parmesan. Use the nutritional yeast sparingly: The right amount beautifully mimics the nutty, fragrant flavor of Parmesan, but use too much, and it can overpower. This dish is a versatile side, but can easily be turned into a main, like this creamy vegan polenta with mushrooms and kale, with the addition of sautéed or roasted vegetables.
Buldak Pizza (Korean Fire Chicken Pizza)
Buldak (literally “fire chicken”) is a modern South Korean drinking dish of marinated chicken grilled and bathed in a spicy-sweet sauce flavored with gochujang, soy sauce, sweet rice syrup and hot chile flakes, often served with a topping of broiled, browned, bubbly mozzarella. The sweet-savory-smoky-cheesy combination and beer-friendliness is so reminiscent of barbecue chicken pizza that it’s worth putting the two together. With some tweaking, it works.
French Onion-Braised Lamb Shanks With Barley and Greens
This warming stew starts with a mountain of lightly caramelized onions and leeks to combine the sweet-savory flavors of French onion soup with rich, red wine-braised lamb shanks. Onion soups can be delicious whether made with lightly caramelized onions or deep, dark, sweet onions, and achieving either is a simple matter of adjusting the cooking time on the onions. Barley and greens added toward the end of cooking make it a complete one-pot meal, though the stew would be equally delicious spooned over polenta or mashed potatoes. (If serving with potatoes or polenta, omit the barley and cook as directed.) Not into lamb (or can’t find shanks)? Try the exact same recipe with beef short ribs or oxtail.
Low-Knead Bread
This recipe produces a loaf of bread with significantly improved hole structure and flavor compared with this no-knead version (inspired by Jim Lahey’s original no-knead bread recipe), and requires not much extra work. Increasing the water content produces bread with a more custardy crumb and a more open, holey structure. Adding a few turns during the initial fermentation stage gives this wetter dough strength, letting it better retain its hole structure as it’s shaped. The low, slow fermentation in the fridge allows for lots of flexibility, as the dough can rest there for up to three days before you decide to shape and bake it. Dough flavor and texture will improve with time, though after three days the flour may start oxidizing, producing unattractive gray spots. (If you're looking to make sandwiches, we also have a recipe for low-knead sandwich bread.)
Wild Rice With Mushrooms
In Wisconsin, wild rice is truly wild, not cultivated as in other states, the tassels rising and swaying over rivers, lakes and floodplains come late August and September. Called manoomin by the local Chippewa, it is a protected crop that can be harvested only by state residents holding a valid license. And only by hand, as the Chippewa have always done, using wooden flails gently (the grains should fall from the stalk without great effort) from canoes propelled by paddles or push poles. Shellie Holmes of Rhinelander, Wis., who shares her recipe here, likes to cook wild rice just until it pops open. This is a break with her family’s tradition, which favored a chewier texture and did not allow popping. “Do not mix with other rice,” she urged, lest you lose the flavor of the wild.
Bean and Cheese Burritos
Mexican refried beans are a cinch to make at home on a weeknight thanks to some staple pantry items and a few basic fresh ingredients. Buttery canned pinto beans are perfect in this dish, breaking down into a creamy, silky mixture. (Black beans would also work great.) While the beans are often fried in lard or bacon drippings, this vegetarian version builds flavor with caramelized onion, bell pepper, garlic and smoked paprika instead. Pico de gallo adds a touch of tang to counter the rich beans. Pan-frying the wrapped burritos guarantees a golden, irresistibly crispy exterior and an interior that oozes with melted cheese.
Mochi Rice Stuffing
Thanksgiving dinner in Hawaii may start with pineapple-Vienna-sausage skewers and litchis stuffed with cream cheese. Later there is turkey and ham, but also Spam fried rice and Filipino lumpia, maybe poke (sashimi salad), laulau (ti-leaf-wrapped meat or fish) and a Molokai sweet potato pie topped with haupia (coconut pudding). It is the crazy-quilt, all-embracing nature of the feast that makes it local-kine — that is, island-style. Lara Mui Cowell of Honolulu offers this recipe from her popo (maternal grandmother), Jannie Luke Thom, a second-generation Chinese-American who was born in Hawaii before it became a state. The dish is a Chinese take on Western-style sage stuffing, swapping out bread crumbs for mochi rice and adding lap cheong (Chinese sausage) and char siu (Chinese barbecue pork). But in true Hawaiian style, you may substitute Portuguese sausage — or even Spam.
Cheesy Bread Balls in Tomato Sauce
It’s hard not to love this combination of tomato sauce, melted cheese, bread balls and garlic oil, which is sort of like a pizza, deconstructed. If you prefer not to stuff the bread balls, you can skip that part and simply roll them until round, baking them in the same way. The extra cheese can then be added to the sauce around the bread balls just before broiling. This dough method isn’t complicated, but you could work with store-bought pizza dough to save on time.
Fluke au Gratin
This is a very old recipe, taken from the kitchen of Henri’s in Lynbrook, N.Y., opened by an extravagant French restaurateur named Henri Charpentier in 1910. It asks for flounder, known on Long Island as fluke, but you could make it with cod or haddock or halibut, with freshwater trout or catfish, with any mild-flavored fish. It’s an elegant and really quite simple preparation, the fish fillets baked on top of and beneath a butter sauce cooked with chopped shallots, garlic, chives, parsley and minced mushrooms, brightened with lemon juice and white wine, and with bread crumbs, sliced mushrooms and dots of butter strewn across the top. You can make the sauce in the morning, if you like, and assemble the dish for the oven just before dinner, making it a breeze for weeknight entertaining. But it’s no stretch to do it all, as Charpentier might have said, “à la minute.”
Lamb Meatball and Semolina Dumpling Soup With Collard Greens
This hearty soup is a meal in a bowl. It is very much inspired by Iraqi kubba hamuth. “Hamuth” means sour in Arabic, which refers to the soup’s sour tomato and lemon broth. Traditionally, the soup contains lamb-stuffed semolina dumplings called “kubba.” The divergence here is that they exist as two separate components — meatballs and semolina dumplings — and add a wonderful textural contrast. If you can’t find collard greens, feel free to swap these out for an equal amount of Tuscan kale.
Plum and Raspberry Cornmeal Crisp
This summery fruit crisp has a bit of a savory edge thanks to crunchy cornmeal in the topping and pinches of salt. Plums and raspberries are a wonderfully sweet-tart pair, but you can use any fruit you like. Simply use a little less sugar if your fruit is particularly sweet. You can also prepare this dessert ahead to enjoy later: Make the topping (Step 3) and freeze it for up to one month. If traveling or bringing this dessert to make elsewhere, mix the dry topping ingredients in a bag and pack the remaining ingredients separately to assemble and bake at your destination.
Risotto Milanese With Parmesan Stock
Hang on to those Parmesan rinds because they make excellent stock. Simmer them in water for a couple of hours with some aromatics, then strain and chill the liquid. I recommend that you make it a day ahead so you can remove the waxy layer of fat that settles at the top once the stock has chilled.
Brown Rice Bowls With Stewed Peppers
I always include at least three elements in my grain bowls: the grains, the topping and something to garnish the topping, usually a protein, often a poached egg. I wanted some contrasting crunch as well as some cheese, so I made Parmesan crisps, also known as frico, one of the easiest, best-kept secrets in the Italian repertoire.
Fried Okra With Rémoulade
“Fresh, never frozen” — that’s Joseph J. Boudreaux III’s motto when it comes to making the best fried okra. The Tipping Point Coffee co-owner and Houston home cook believes fried okra relies on fresh okra pods and a righteous cornmeal breading. Paired with a creamy rémoulade that’s infused with a bit of heat, Mr. Boudreaux’s fried okra recipe pays homage to his father, who grows the flowering plant right in his backyard in Texas. It captures all that the South adores about the quintessential summer side: simplicity, ease and plenty of flavor. If you'd rather not deep-fry, you also can pan-fry okra or stir-fry it.
Quick Pickles
Keep this easy recipe in your back pocket for when you want to add crunchy, zingy punch to whatever you're serving. The flavor of the rice vinegar creates a pickle that goes particularly well with Asian dishes.
Pan-Fried Okra
As one of the most respected cooks in America’s Lowcountry region, Emily Meggett knows a thing or two about taking humble ingredients and transforming them into an irresistible plate of food. Such is the case for the matriarch’s pan-fried okra, from her cookbook “Gullah Geechee Home Cooking: Recipes From the Matriarch of Edisto Island” (Abrams, 2022), a book that I co-wrote. Her recipe is constructed around the use of fresh, seasonal okra pods. Mrs. Meggett dismisses what she views as the excessive use of dairy-based cornmeal batters in restaurant versions of fried okra; instead, she lightly coats her okra, allowing the beauty and taste of the vegetable to shine in each mouthful.
Lemon Risotto with Summer Squash
Lemon risottos of any kind always delight guests. The lemon juice and zest are added to this comforting mixture at the end of cooking.