These beautiful pastries can be found in many Chinese bakeries, particularly throughout Hong Kong. We’ll use the same fluffy dough as that of the sausage-filled Czech klobásník (page 112), but instead of leaving it whole like a pig in a blanket, the hot dog–filled pastry is sliced and twisted to form the shape of a flower before being topped with sesame seeds and scallions. Once baked, the flowers are glazed with sugar syrup to give them a nice sheen.
Bacalaítos are crispy, greasy, salty, and my absolute favorite fritura (fried food). They are made by frying scoops of a savory batter dotted with salted codfish. Fresh bacalaíto batter is a bit labor-intensive to make, but if you’re game, I have a recipe for you. Bacalaíto batter from scratch isn’t always in the cards for me. That’s why I use boxed bacalaíto mix for these onion rings. Serve with Spicy Mayo-Ketchup.
In LA, you can’t walk far without stumbling upon a taco stand that’s offering some of the best tacos you’ve ever had. I was inspired to start my own food cart, Thum and Thum, in the heart of Koreatown. Instead of tacos, though, I sold the kind of street food you’d find in Laos, like spicy, pungent papaya salad bursting with bold flavors. LA’s rich diversity is an exciting playground for culinary innovation, a place where foods from different cultures evolve naturally, and sometimes intermingle. A few years after I started Thum and Thum, this laab taco was born, a product of my love for both Lao food and LA’s taco culture. The crispy rice paper shells are filled with flavorful pork laab and topped with a cooling avocado crema. Each bite perfectly captures my Lao- Cali experience.
SERVES 4
Bakeries in Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia, all sell these classic almond cookies, each garnished with a single almond in the center.
I questioned whether I should include yet another recipe for amaretti—they are sprinkled throughout this book, and the ingredients for most of them are more or less identical. And yet, the results are all quite distinct, thanks to differences in the handling of those ingredients. In fact, it was eye-opening, as I researched this book, to see how many different and unique iterations the same set of ingredients could create.
In the end, I am glad I included these. They are easy to make and they have a particular appeal, puffing up beautifully in the oven and forming small telltale cracks on their sugared surfaces. They are crunchy on the outside and tender and chewy within. Use the freshest almonds you can find to give these cookies their due. Sardinians use a special nut grinder to achieve the correct texture, but a food processor works well. Note that the dough benefits from an overnight rest in the refrigerator, so start them a day before you plan to serve them.
These beans are a favorite dish I make at Ci Siamo, but this is the same way I cook them at home. Fried rosemary and sage add a little crunch, while a shower of Piave cheese and a drizzle of good olive oil elevates their humbleness. Plus, the oil-cured black olives are fun—they look like beans in the bowl at first glance, but one bite in, and you get a hit of their salty richness. For the best texture, use a mix of white, brown, and black beans since the smaller ones will break down just enough to create a velvety sauce
“Jerk” refers to both the seasoning, and the style of cooking over pimento wood. Pimento is unique to the region, and Jamaica remains the largest producer, which is why it has become so deeply tied to the island’s culinary identity. The global popularity of jerk cooking has led to the excessive harvesting of pimento wood, significantly reducing its availability.
Sofrito: This aromatic mixture is the heart of many traditional Puerto Rican dishes. Use as a base for rice, beans, stews, or marinades to add authentic Puerto Rican flavor.
Green seasoning is one of the most important building blocks in Caribbean cooking. Almost every island has its own version, and it is the first layer of flavor in countless dishes. At its heart, it is a blend of fresh herbs, garlic, onions, peppers, and citrus, pounded or blended into a paste. Some cooks lean heavily on culantro (chadon beni), while others use more parsley or thyme, and the balance of heat depends on what peppers are at hand. Green seasoning is more than just a marinade—it’s memory and instinct in a bottle. You season your chicken with it before it ever touches a pot, rub it into fish before frying, stir it into stews, or even fold a spoonful into rice for depth. Every cook has a jar tucked into the fridge, and every family swears by their version. To understand Caribbean food culture is to understand that seasoning begins here.
When I studied abroad in Rome, my curriculum was supposed to be focused on architecture, but the education I actually took home was how good down-to-earth authentic Italian cooking could be. One of the most memorable things I ate that year was asparagus simply topped with grated Parmesan. That’s it! That’s all it needed to be perfect. Since asparagus is one the stars of the spring season, I like quickly roasting until it’s perfectly tender and then spooning on this light spring jacket of a Parmesan sauce. And while I personally only wear a light spring jacket one or two days out of the year, I find this sauce gets worn much more frequently.
This dish was on Suerte’s opening “Vitamina T” menu, and it counts as the only recipe from the restaurant to be immortalized in this cookbook because: (1) it’s just that special, and (2) we couldn’t stand waiting for the official Suerte cookbook any longer, Fermín. Here, boiled beets are tossed in a smoky-sweet-savory peanut-based salsa macha and rounded out with pickled red onions for an explosive finish.
There will be no buttercream in this book. I find it persnickety and overly sweet. Layer cake is an act of balancing flavor—if the base is sugary, as most cakes are, the fillings should introduce tang. Fruit is great for this purpose, but in winter, when fresh berries seem like a distant memory, or I’m sick of citrus, I turn to dairy for an acidic punch: cream cheese, labneh, or sour cream. Rather than relying on my unsteady hand to level the cakes, I bake three layers individually. I use Natasha Pickowicz’s stress-free method for building cakes, constructing the layers in a deep, sturdy cake pan or pot so the layers remain stable. Together, the tender chocolate cake, coconut custard, and dark chocolate cream cheese frosting taste like heaven. The addition of coconut flakes on the exterior adds a pleasing crunch and hides any crumb coat missteps. This base recipe also works beautifully for a single layer cake; just divide the recipe in half and bake it in a 9-inch (23 cm) round cake pan.