Adis is a traditional lentil stew made with just a few simple ingredients: lentils, onions, tomatoes, and spices. My mom used to prepare it for me when we lived in Brussels. (I was often anemic, and this dish has always been one of my favorite iron-rich meals.) Sometimes she would enhance it with some khlii (see Preserved Beef, page 73), or add leafy greens and carrots for a nutritional boost. In this version, I’ve opted for sun-dried tomatoes for their sweet, intense flavor and kale for its earthy notes as well as its nutritional value. The vinegary red onion topping is optional, but it brings an appealing sweet-tart punch to the dish. I usually serve this comforting stew with crusty bread, but rice and quinoa are also good options.
Here is a light and fresh interpretation of jerk. Salmon is marinated with robust seasonings and pan-seared to perfection. The zesty herb salsa combines the freshness of cilantro, the heat of Scotch bonnet, and the tang of lime. If you’re not feeling herby, try the Mango Salsa (page 217) with this salmon instead. This recipe is perfect for everyday dinners and special occasions alike and embodies the bold, dynamic spirit of Jamaican cuisine. Enjoy it with a squeeze of lime to bring all the flavors together.
Scientist and inventor Dr. George Washington Carver, the child of a Mississippi slave, believed peanuts, sweet potatoes, and science could free Southern farmers from poverty. Cotton had exhausted the soil of the Deep South, and at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University) in southeastern Alabama in the early twentieth century, he showed farmers the benefits of planting sweet potatoes. They were well suited to Alabama, and he worked to grow demand by developing 118 products made from them, including flour, vinegar, molasses, ink, rubber, and even postage stamp glue.
And, of course, he cooked with them, slicing them into this tantalizing pie where, with spices, molasses, and cream, they cook down inside the flaky pastry. When you fork into a bite, it’s a bit like pie and a bit like your favorite sweet potato casserole. This recipe is adapted from The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro (1958).
A good molasses cookie should achieve a harmony between the sweetness of brown sugar, the bitterness of molasses, and the gentle heat of spices. This cookie does all that, but where it really delivers is the texture: perfectly soft and chewy. The dough can be portioned and frozen ahead of time, making these your all-purpose holiday cookie.
Serves 12
Made with a gingerbread-spiced dough tucked around a bright, tart fresh cranberry filling, this galette is an unexpected way to bring classic holiday flavors to life, like a pie-shaped mash-up between gingerbread cookies and cranberry sauce, in the best possible way. Just be sure to serve the galette slightly warm, with big scoops of cool vanilla ice cream. If you can’t find fresh cranberries, fresh blueberries make a good substitute; just reduce the sugar in the filling by ½ cup.
Parkin is a form of oatmeal gingerbread common to Yorkshire and other parts of England where oats were grown in abundance. Dark and treacly, parkin makes the perfect accompaniment to mid-autumn holidays like Bonfire Night – an occasion for which it is often made. Once baked, cover well and allow to mature and soften up for a few days before serving.
The flavors of a tagine without the fuss. This dish is quite sweet, because of the prunes, so it does need the preserved lemon to cut through that. If you don’t like prunes (I know they divide people), use dried apricots or pitted dates instead.
Our pecan sticky buns are justifiably famous, since they beat Bobby Flay in a throwdown. We once calculated that we bake off about 220,000 sticky buns a year (that’s over 600 daily) just to keep up with the demand. When something is that popular, is there any reason to tweak it or improve it? Well, in New England we can’t help but get pretty excited about apple season every fall. I myself eat at least an apple a day (I have one in my bag now) and when the idea to switch out the pecans for apples came up, I couldn’t wait to try it. I love how the tart cider and the fresh, spiced apples bring our sticky bun to a whole new level. These are insanely good and I actually love them better than the original.
Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Crunch
FROM YANKEE MAGAZINE