Lemon Juice

This dish is packed with bold flavors of garlic, spice, and vinegar and balanced out by the rich, creamy grits. The hint of rosemary pairs nicely with the piney hop aromas of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.  This dish is so bold it needs a smooth beer like Pale Ale to cleanse your palate between bites.

I served this cocktail for my husband Michael's fortieth birthday party. He was born on June 27, 1969, which is the night when activists like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera clashed with the police during a raid of the Stonewall Inn, the famous gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. This date is regarded as a watershed moment for the LGBTQIA civil rights movement, and so Michael often refers to himself as a "Stonewall baby." While the name of the drink tells the story of the historical significance of the date, the recipe does not. The ingredients are simply Michael's favorites. So no, the drink is not rainbow-colored, nor do any of the ingredients relate to the Stonewall Riots. It's simply a modified bourbon sour.

This drink is somewhat similar to the Preserves Sour, with the addition of 1/4 ounce of simple syrup, which softens some of the acidity, as well as a dash of bitters, which provides aromatic complexity.

Refrigerator jams generally make a small batch, which means you don’t need to invest in bushels of fruit and there’s no need for canning equipment to sterilize the jars for long-term storage; you can keep the one or two jars of jam the recipe makes in the fridge and finish them off in a few weeks. We use a small amount of fruit so that it will cook down quickly to the proper consistency, and the less you cook fruit, the more of its fresh taste is preserved. A shorter cooking time also preserves more of the naturally occurring pectin in the fruit, which is necessary for proper gelling. In addition to the fruit’s pectin, we tinkered with the amounts of lemon juice and sugar to be sure that the jam would set properly, since acidity and sugar help pectin form a strong gel without the need for adding commercial pectin.

For a more assertive, slightly spicy alternative to traditional basil pesto, we first processed almonds (toasted first to enhance their rich flavor) with lots of garlic, anchovies, and a serrano chile until the mixture was finely chopped. Then we processed the mixture in a food processor with peppery arugula, lemon juice, and olive oil until the sauce was smooth.

Pomegranates never fail to delight me; their crimson juices and sweet and tart arils provided such joy for me throughout my childhood that they are forever etched in my memory and on my heart. Palestinians also hold this mighty fruit in high esteem, and here I’ve paired it with a dense and sticky almond cake, topped with a light and creamy mascarpone topping, which I love, and which I hope will enliven your passion for this magical fruit, too. You will need an 8 in./20 cm cake pan.

This recipe starts with the funny act of putting whole apples in the freezer and ends with one of the most electric desserts you’ve ever had. In the middle, when you rip the thawed apples in half with your bare hands, you get to feel like a bodybuilder on Muscle Beach or a very strong raccoon.

Often, I have a bit of chicken left over from dinner that I use up the next day for lunch. Here is a really delicious summer version, using fresh-cooked chicken breasts; obviously, you can swap in leftover roast chicken.

I adore this fragrant and refreshing strawberry-gin drink, created by Shannon Tebay Sidle of New York’s Slowly Shirley and Death & Co. The secret ingredient is a dollop of unsweetened Greek yogurt, which gives the cocktail a tangy flavor and subtly creamy texture. The final result isn’t sweet or smoothie-like; this is definitely still a cocktail. A sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper highlights the gin’s herbal character, but I also like this drink with grassy blanco tequila or a full-bodied aged rum. If your fridge doesn’t dispense crushed ice, fill a freezer bag with cubes, wrap them in a dish towel, and go wild with a meat tenderizer or rolling pin. 

A Bharta is a roasted vegetable mash traditionally made with eggplant (baingan bharta). We thought of using butternut squash in the fall and winter seasons because that vegetable is so popular and prevalent in the States. This makes a terrific Thanksgiving side dish— in fact, we introduced this dish on the Thanksgiving menu at Rasika. The tenderness of butternut squash can vary, so start checking your roasting time at the 20-minute mark. That may be enough time for the cubes to soften. Or it may take up to 30 minutes. The same holds true for the cooking time in Step 4, when you want the finished squash to be dry rather than loose. Some squash have more moisture in them than others, so this step could perhaps take an extra minute or two.