These Japanese burgers, known as hamba¯gu in Japanese, are such a comforting, nostalgic meal for me. My mother would make them with a red wine and ketchup sauce that was especially delicious, as it soaked into the short-grain rice. Because my kitchen has no ventilation—it’s awkwardly placed in the middle of the apartment, the farthest point from all the windows—I particularly appreciate making patties in the oven on a sheet pan. I can make a big quantity (ten!) without setting off the fire alarm. The ketchup sauce is the best part and gets made right on the hot sheet pan as you scrape up bits and pieces and mix everything together. If you’re not in the mood for cabbage, you can also serve the burgers and rice with a different vegetable, such as blanched broccoli, our Simplest Arugula Salad (page 274), or even some sliced cucumbers sprinkled with a little salt and vinegar.
Almond butter is pretty mild in flavor, but crisp almonds, chocolate, and punchy freeze- dried strawberries make these a special little snack. Feel free to substitute peanut butter or any other nut butter for the almond butter. If your almond butter is unsalted, add an additional pinch of salt to the dough. Toast the almonds in the oven while the bars are baking to save yourself some prep time.
Kimchi is deeply ingrained in Korean cooking and usually appears in a few different guises. I love the deep red colour that this pancake takes on from the kimchi and its liquid.
The combination of textures from the crispy outside and soft, gooey inside adds dimension and interest to any meal. You can make a few smaller, individual pancakes or two or three larger ones as you wish, depending on how much batter you add to the pan at a time.
Okay, now don’t freak out, but there is mayonnaise in this cake. I know: crazy. But it takes the place of the oil in the recipe, as well as the eggs (though, yes, I do throw in one, for good measure). And the texture is so perfect, as well as the flavor, that you need to put any mayo-phobias behind you and get baking. The marshmallow frosting here is epic, but if you’re just not feeling like pulling out your stand mixer for it, I totally understand and suggest you glaze this cutie with Cream Cheese Glaze instead.
I adore àkàrà. These sumptuous, deep-fried fritters are enjoyed across West Africa and the diaspora. A true triumph for the humble black-eyed pea, they are known as koose in Northern regions and acarajé by custodians of West African culture in Brazil. I remember joyous mornings feasting on the classic duo of steaming hot àkàrà and Nigerian “pap”—a creamy custard made with fermented corn. In my version, ginger and spring onions add a little warmth and bite to the fritters. Àkàrà is wonderful served plain, stuffed in a baguette (as you’ll find them in Dakar, Senegal), or stuffed with chunks of spiced prawns and peppers, as enjoyed in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.
This recipe from Nick Leighton and Leah Bonnema–hosts of the hilarious etiquette podcast Were You Raised by Wolves–pretty much sums up everything we look for on our podcast The One Recipe.
It’s a recipe with provenance. It comes from Cathy Burgett, a cooking instructor at the legendary Tante Marie Cooking School in San Francisco where, while he was still in High School, Nick took evening and weekend classes. It’s a simple, and adaptable recipe, as Leah learned, when she swapped in blueberries for the cranberries. And it yields a sneakily fancy result because, according to Nick, everything feels more fancy when it’s upside down.
These little cornmeal pancakes are a Southern classic with a California twist. The lore is that they once were made on the blade of a garden hoe over an open fire. They’re heavier than crepes but still fluffy. Hoecakes are versatile with both salty and sweet toppings; try them as appetizers with salty smoked salmon or as full-size pancakes with syrup.
Every Filipino family has its own version of lumpia, a fried roll that’s often filled with meat and vegetables and served at parties. Accordingly, this recipe yields a lot of pieces and takes some time, especially if it’s your first time rolling them, but if you’d like to cook a smaller batch, assembled, uncooked lumpia freezes well and can be fried from frozen. My favorite wrappers are the lumpia wrappers from Simex, but in their absence, I like Spring Home’s TYJ Spring Roll Pastry or any other thin wheat-based wrapper meant for spring rolls.
Celebration IPA season is a magical time at the brewery as we toast the start of the holiday season. Celebration IPA is layered with citrus and rich sweet malt notes which pair nicely with the bitterness of the chocolate and accentuates the citrus zest in the crust. The ginger adds a little punch to tie it all together.