This is the kind of food that I enjoy making with family and friends who love to cook. I set out small stations for filling and rolling the cabbage rolls and then cook them together in a large pot. And when I need to do this by myself, it is still one of the most relaxing ways to pull my attention away from the everyday hustle and bustle of life.
If you end up with extra filling for whatever reason (maybe you got tired of making the rolls; I’ve been there and done that), then make the cigar-shaped logs and bread them using the same technique and breading mix used for the Golden Za’atar Onion Rings and present them as vegetarian croquettes to your dinner guests.
I love classic chiles rellenos—I make them a lot in the summer, when poblanos are in season—but the traditional method of dipping them in batter and frying just a couple at a time makes them hard to cook for a crowd. This casserole solves that problem. It has all the fresh flavors I love, but I can make it ahead of time and then put it in the oven just before my guests show up. It even makes a great brunch dish; just assemble it the day before and throw it in the fridge overnight so it’s ready to bake the next morning.
Indonesians eat a little sambal (a fiery chili condiment) with every bite of food. You’ll find it served with noodles and fried rice, plonked into soups and curries, dolloped over fritters, even eaten on its own with just a plain bowl of rice. When the idea struck to pair crisp, golden chunks of potatoes with sambal – a nod to the iconic Spanish dish patatas bravas, in which fried potatoes are served with spicy tomato sauce, sometimes topped with mayonnaise – I ran to the kitchen.
While traditional patatas bravas, and most Indonesian potato recipes, use a deep fryer, I’ve opted for roasting them in the oven until golden for ease. This simple sambal begins with a paste of red chiles, garlic, shallots and ginger, a quintessential base for many Indonesian meals. The sauce, once reduced, reaches a peak of tomatoey-umaminess hot enough to tingle your mouth.
Combined with the crispy, golden potatoes and a liberal coating of Kewpie mayonnaise (use vegan mayo if you prefer), it will keep you diving back in for more. Is this dish an appetizer, an entrée or a side? It could be any of these, but whatever you serve it with, it will be certain to steal the show.
This recipe is made in about a 10-inch cast iron or carbon steel pan on the stove. It can easily be scaled up to six eggs, or to eight, just by increasing the ingredients and cooking it in a 12-inch pan instead. If you do increase it, make sure to use two cans of tomatoes so that there’s enough liquid in the sauce that it doesn’t burn while you’re cooking the eggs.
When I was growing up, we ate several dishes that I thought were really unusual and unique to my mother. Macaroni soup was one of them. Small pasta shapes swimming in chicken or veggie broth, flavored with shiitake mushrooms, peas, carrots and ham. Sometimes Spam was also in that bowl. To me, this didn’t feel like a distinctly Chinese dish, so I assumed it was just something my mum made when she was short on time. I continued to think it was a family recipe until a very recent trip to Hong Kong, where I saw it on the breakfast menu at McDonald’s and practically every other cafe and cha chaan teng menu. I was shocked. Only then did I realize it was actually known as “Hong Kong–style breakfast”; it dawned on me that I still had much to learn about my family culture.
At a cafe close to my hotel in Hong Kong, I ordered a variation of this dish—tomato soup brimming with macaroni pasta, topped with scrambled egg. My love for this dish was instant, inspiring a childlike wonder for a bowl full of textures and childhood memories, just with a little twist.
There are two things going on with this 30-minute dinner that will probably appeal to kids: (1) the crunchy and (2) the cheesy. I love how those melty mozzarella rounds recall a classic baked chicken Parm—but there’s not an obscene amount of cheese. The recipe as written makes enough for four medium portions. Pair it with a simplegreen salad and some crusty bread.
Italian sausage and white bean braise is a super-easy start-up variation on meatballs. The key is to buy good-quality pork and fennel sausages, either at your local butcher or the supermarket.
Here’s a new take on Tex-Mex. The salsa that roasts under the kebabs is something like a cross between salsa and baked beans. It’s spicy and not too sweet, despite the tiny amount of brown sugar which aids in caramelization. Serve the beef and salsa with tortillas and jarred pickled jalapeño slices for easy homemade tacos.
Paella’s lesser-known cousin, fideos, boasts small toasted noodles simmered in a smoky tomato sauce. For a weeknight version, we swapped chorizo and shellfish for chickpeas, fennel, and kale.