I’ve made these so many times, so you won’t have to. On the surface this seems like a dead-simple recipe, but it took quite a bit of tinkering to nail. Tahini has a complex molecular structure made up of lots of tiny carbohydrate molecules that cling to liquid for dear life, seizing up the way chocolate does if you add liquid to it at the wrong time. But if you play your carbs right and add the tahini last, after all of the other ingredients, it stirs in smoothly and bakes up into these sexy little squares that get better as they sit around. To make these non-dairy, swap in a neutral-flavored olive oil or vegetable oil instead of the butter.
For this Asparagus Puffs recipe, we blanched the asparagus spears until tender before incorporating them into the cheese mixture. And we were sure to thoroughly thaw the puff pastry so it did not crack when unfolded.
The inspiration for this recipes was Pan Bagnat, the traditional Nice “sandwich,” in which the top of a round loaf would be sliced off and some of the crumb hollowed out, mixed with tuna, olives, anchovies, etc. then spooned back in and the “lid” put on top. Later variations are often made with ham and cheese, and sometimes peppers layered up neatly inside the bread “shell,” but I thought it would be fun to stuff the ingredients between the slices of a whole loaf, and bake it. We often make this for lunch. and everyone loves it warm, but it is also a great picnic showstopper. You can carry it with you, still in its foil, then just open it up, drizzle with oil and let everyone help themselves. Although I have suggested using prosciutto and mozzarella, which melts very well, I always associate pain surprise with Provence, as I like to make it when I am there on holiday with the family, but using local cured ham and cheese instead.
Erin Jang has seen, first hand, the power of food as an expression of love. The child of immigrants from South Korea, Erin watched as her hard-working parents juggled several jobs alongside the demands of cooking hearty and delicious nightly meals. While Erin describes her homemade Korean meals as simple, it is aweinspiring to understand how some cultures interpret simplicity in food—by today’s standards, Erin’s daily multi-layered fare would be deemed a feast.
Chitra Agrawal calls herself an American Born Confused Desi, a term commonly used to describe a “desi” or South Asian born and brought up in the US. In Chitra’s case, she is of Indian descent, born in New Jersey, raised in California, and now settled in Brooklyn, New York. While labels can be hard to shake, for Chitra, this cultural disparity was her fuel. In 2009, she started her inspiring blog, The ABCDs of Cooking, a journal of vegetarian recipes rooted in traditional Indian cooking and reflective of Indian diaspora. She also channels her heritage into Brooklyn Delhi, her line of premium achaars, an Indian pantry staple.
People have been stuffing vegetables with tasty fillings for centuries. In Mexico, poblano chiles stuffed with cheese are very popular. The fresh cheese gets warm and soft but not too gooey. Angie’s husband prefers the cheese stuffing over the more traditional ground beef filling found in her home state of Monterrey.
There’s nothing quite like this combo on a summer Pasta Night. Ricotta, basil, corn, and summer squash varieties. It’s good warm, but it’s really, really good at room temperature, when all the flavors have a chance to meld. So tonight’s a night when it’s okay if dinner gets cold—pour a glass of crisp rosé, set the table outside, and let everyone leisurely make their way to dinner.
Seriously. Addicted. To. This. Corn. It’s next level. There is nothing better than sweet, fresh corn on the cob. Corn is one of my favorite vegetables, up there with potatoes and ketchup! I love smelling the nuttiness of hot corn off the grill on a hot summer day. This corn gets brushed with my jerk-spiced mayo, and then I make it rain toasted coconut! Whoa, I told you, next level!!
If you have never made a cake before and love chocolate, this is the cake that you should bake. Because it is an easy cake for a beginning baker, I sometimes refer to it as the world’s easiest chocolate cake—but don’t think that it doesn’t deliver in the flavor department! The results are spectacular. Plus, this is the cake that I always make for a crowd, as you can cut it into as many as 48 pieces. In this variation on a Texas sheet cake, I’ve loaded both the cake and the icing with ground cinnamon, giving it a distinctive Tex-Mex flair.
When it comes to fried eggs, there are some people who prefer a pristine, pillowy white, without any trace of browning or crispness. I am not one of them. When I want a cushion of soft egg white, I poach. For me the perfect fried egg has a white that curls and ruffles as soon as it makes contact with the hot fat in the pan, turning lacy and crunchy at the edges while remaining plump and soft at the yolk, which should run like hot lava at the merest touch of your fork. This recipe achieves exactly that, using olive oil as the frying medium. But what really elevates this dish are the sweet fried scallions and woodsy fried sage leaves that get caught in the white. They turn a plain breakfast staple into an unusual and very quick dinner. Serve this with toasted country bread or flatbread, and maybe a big salad if you need some vegetables. Consider this a light dinner, for nights after you’ve had a big lunch, when you’re peckish rather than starving.