I don’t think many people know about choriqueso, but this cheesy dip with hidden specks of smoky Mexican chorizo is so velvety and melty that they won’t forget it once they try it! I love to serve it in a mini cast- iron pan for a bit of a restaurant feel, but it’s just as good in a large pan. This molten golden gooey deliciousness is guaranteed to draw a crowd. Use fresh Mexican chorizo sausage if you can find it. This is not a dried Spanish chorizo situation. Feel free to swap in shredded mozzarella if you can’t find Oaxaca cheese.
This is wildly simple to make and one of those desserts that my friends can’t stop eating. It’s a sweet dessert that’s just pulled back from the edge by the bitterness of the tahini, alcohol and walnuts, resulting in something altogether grown-up. The caramelized walnuts, which – I warn you – are completely addictive, are adapted from Alison Roman. Meanwhile, the brown sugar bananas, while optional, add further indulgence and make this dinner-party-worthy.
It is best to use a Middle Eastern brand of tahini for this recipe in order to get the right texture. This dessert requires freezing overnight.
You’ll find these juicy, sticky, charred wings at Singapore’s hawker centers (or food courts), where there’s usually at least one vendor flipping them over a charcoal grill. The chicken wings are marinated in dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and garlic, then served with a spicy dipping sauce made of chiles and lime.
Triple onion power here, with caramelized onions, spring onions and onion powder for maximum flavour. Get your favourite crunchy crisps out and enjoy.
This is a perfect brunch party dish when served with shrimp and a poached or fried egg on each plate. Leftover grits can be used to make griddled grit cakes or saved and warmed for later.
My mom adapted this from her Italian mother-in-law’s whole steamed artichoke recipe (see page 232) to make a dish that easily feeds a crowd. It uses the same flavors but eliminates the prep work required for whole artichokes and capitalizes on that mid- twentieth-century game-changer—frozen food—in the form of a package of frozen artichoke hearts. As in many ethnic families who have added their personal flavor to the standard Thanksgiving meal fare, this is my family’s “Italian” staple side dish and the first leftover scavenged the next day.
I think there's something so enjoyable about eating this way, whether for dinner, snacking, or sharing plates. While I love more traditional nachos, I tend to lean more to this flavor proflle, which means it's essentially all my favorite snacking foods on one giant plate. It looks like a lot of ingredients, but please forge ahead as you're mostly piling a ton of delicious ingredients on top of each other. Pita chips can be made one of two ways: Either peel apart the two layers of the pita for thinner chips, or keep them as is for thicker ones. Here we're going for thicker chips that can hold up to the toppings.
Pizza rolls are a very popular street food and this tear-and-share traybake makes a great and always welcome addition to an informal dinner buffet, a picnic or a kids’ birthday party.
Common fillings include the usual tomato sauce, mozzarella and often ham; however, this recipe uses one of my favourite combinations based on ripe red sweet peppers and onions. The vegetables are simmered before being blended to a cream: the cooking brings out their sweetness and makes them easier to digest. The creamed filling also makes a delicious dipping sauce, so don’t throw away any leftovers!
SERVES 4 TO 6
Tsukune is a Japanese-style meatball that is typically cooked yakitori style over live coals and accompanied by a rich dipping sauce. They are most often made with ground chicken thighs for rich flavor. At my parties, however, I have switched to ground turkey—US groceries sometimes won’t even sell ground chicken, let alone ground thighs, and turkey is both readily available and inexpensive. The following recipe finishes the meatballs under the broiler, but they are also marvelous grilled.