This is one of the most popular recipes of all time on my blog. Normally, a restaurant chef would deep-fry the eggplant and then cook it with the sauce in a large wok over extremely high heat to keep it glossy and crispy. To avoid all that hassle, I’m sharing my favorite method for preparing eggplant without deep-frying while still making it crispy. The eggplant is then finished in a savory, sticky sauce—just enough to coat the eggplant so that it won’t turn soggy.
Spatchcock chicken—also known as butterflied chicken—is the easiest way to roast a whole bird, full stop. Removing the backbone and flatteningout the bird allows the breast meat and leg meat to reach their target temperatures—around 150°F for the breast and 165°F for the legs—at the same time, which is a challenge whenever roasting a whole chicken (unless you truss it, which is another lesson for another cookbook). Another trick for roast chicken excellence is rubbing the meat with an intensely flavored spice paste, and the North Afri- can-inspired one I use in this recipe is a delicious blend that will give the chicken’s skin a beautiful brown hue, and works equally well on pork, fish, and slow-roasted meats.
If you like hash browns but want something healthier, the sweet potato hash that follows is a dish I make a lot for my sons when I want to work some extra nutrients into their supper (which is always).
The flavors of brown butter are incredible, adding a rich, nutty flavor to the simplest of dishes. To round out the richness of the brown butter sauce, the dish is paired with crispy panko breadcrumbs with notes of sesame and lime juice to add a beautiful brightness. This recipe combines bold flavors and simple techniques to create the perfect weeknight dinner to add to your repertoire.
This simple and delicious chickpea recipe is the dish Hrishikesh requested every year for his birthday and also, the first thing he learned to cook. His mother was a formidable cook, cooking Indian food every night for her family. and her recipe could not be simpler; chickpeas, tomatoes, onions, and spices that use whatever you have on hand.
Chef Hooni Kim, author of My Korea: Traditional Flavors; Modern Recipes, shares this building block recipe for traditional Korean fritters, jeon. Use this technique with anything you like - - from slices of tofu and mushrooms to fish or beef to sweet potatoes. Or start here with zucchini!
My Ammamma used to say that you were already aged two on your first birthday, that wearing a bra really showed a lack of decorum, and that Jaffna’s famous crab curry should be cooked like meat. Look, we didn’t agree about everything, but on crab, or nandu, and I know everyone says this about their own granny, there just isn’t a greater authority. And of Sri Lanka’s hundreds of lovely curry recipes, Jaffna crab curry is widely regarded as our best.
My mother got this recipe from her friend Judy, a Korean woman who immigrated to Argentina before making her way to the States. Judy’s empanadas are like grown-up hot pockets, neatly packaged meals of tomato-y beef, melty cheese, hard-boiled egg, and a single olive tucked into each like in a dirty martini (which makes all the difference). Stored in the freezer, they feed the family happily throughout the holiday season.
Tempering the toppings in hot oil, a technique known as making a tadka, brings out their flavors and is the perfect counterpoint to the cooling yogurt in this simple, comforting dish. Be sure to use plain whole-milk yogurt, not a strained, Greek-style yogurt, for the creamiest porridge-like texture. Food & Wine restaurant editor Khushbu Shah makes this comforting yogurt rice whenever she needs some self-care after a long trip.
Similar to red-braising (紅燒 hóngshāo) , when you cover and slowly cook an ingredient in a flavorful liquid, smother-braising (燜 mèn) is simpler and shorter and often relies on more delicate, lighter-colored condiments instead of dark soy sauce, allowing the color of the vege- table to shine through.
In this dish, the squash’s natural sweetness is complemented by the salty, savory fermented black beans, and the squash is cooked until buttery and tender, on the verge of falling apart. My favorite is kabocha squash, which has a velvety, starchy softness and flavor rem- iniscent of roasted chestnut, but any firm-fleshed winter squash, like red kuri, butternut, or Hubbard, will work.