When I lived in Peterborough, N.H., in the early 1990s, I had two obsessions: One was the lettuce mix from organic farming pioneer Rosaly Bass, who charmed me so much I signed up for a subscription that let me and a handful of others pick what we wanted off her land all season long. (I tended to swing by at midnight after a long day as editor of the weekly Monadnock Ledger and shovel up carrots by moonlight.) The other was this addictively pungent salad dressing, made by chef Hiroshi Hayashi at his elegant, health-minded Japanese restaurant, Latacarta. While Rosaly's farm is still going strong (it’s the state’s oldest certified organic farm), Hayashi long ago closed the restaurant and started the Monadnock School of Natural Cooking and Philosophy, where he continued making this vegan dressing for many years. He died in 2012. I use the concoction to dress simple salads of butter lettuce with cherry tomatoes and carrots, taking care to slice them into perfect julienne the way I remember Hayashi did, and I have since learned that you can substitute in any herb you like, any vinegar, any oil, and have played around with many a combination. This also makes an excellent dip for crudites.
What Santibañez wants cooks to realize, he told me, is this: "There is a very important textural thing to guacamole -- we never really mush up the avocado. You want to feel everything." He crushes only enough of the avocado to warrant it consideration as a dip rather than a salad, but leaves the rest of the cubes intact, bathing them in the vividly flavored chile sauce, "a bit like salad properly dressed in vinaigrette," he writes. Recipe adapted slightly from Truly Mexican (Wiley, 2011). —Genius Recipes
Sauce can be made 1 week ahead. Transfer to an airtight container; cover and chill.
Have you ever had one of those nights when you’re almost too exhausted to cook or even think about what to make for dinner? Enter Tammie Teclemariam’s minty pork meatball recipe. Two ingredients to pick up from the grocery store and you’re well on your way to a delicious and quick dinner.
Try serving these minty meatballs with rice, and yogurt that’s been thinned down with lemon juice and grated garlic. You’ll thank Tammie later for your new go-to meal.
Indian cheese, known as paneer or chenna, is a delicacy that all Indians- particularly northerners-love. Its use in the preparation of savory dishes is limited, but the few dishes created with it are absolute masterpieces. The most popular, without doubt, is Matar Paneer--moist pieces of sautéed cheese with sweet green peas wrapped in a luscious red sauce bursting with the fragrance of spices and fresh coriander leaves. Matar Paneer, a classic North Indian dish, is popular with vegetarians and nonvegetarians alike. The flavor and texture of the paneer are of prime importance here. The cheese should be sweet and fresh-smelling; it should feel firm to the touch but not hard; it should be moist but not wet; and finally, its texture should be close and compact, not porous. (If the paneer is dry and too solid, the cheese pieces will taste hard and rubbery, and the sauce will not penetrate the paneer, leaving it with a bland taste. If the paneer is too wet and loose-textured, it will not hold its shape, but will fall apart while it is being fried, disintegrating into the oil.)
Making an amazing dish out of whatever bits you have lying around feels so heroic, and this version of that experience happens to be just to my odd taste. It is all the things I love together, and honestly, it’s so incredible that I really struggle not to make myself a second bowl after I finish the first. It’s a strange hybrid of nations and flavors, but it is so spicy and umami and sweet and savory that I just can’t stop eating it. It’s my kind of pantry pasta, using all the things I always have left over, like half or less of a box of pasta, some butter and garlic and chile paste and honey, and usually a partially finished bottle of wine. I wish I could help you all develop your own version of pantry pasta, but here is mine to get the creative juices flowing.
Freezing tofu allows the moisture inside the tofu to expand, and thawing it ensures that those spaces remain expanded. This results in a texture that’s more spongy and amenable to marinade than tofu that is just pressed. Freezing-then-thawing firm or extra firm tofu, coating it, and frying it results in a chewy, dense texture not unlike a chicken nugget. Consider this recipe a basic formula, but feel free to experiment with different marinades and sauces.
This is the most popular snack in my house. It used to be my favourite snack growing up and now it’s my kids’ favourite, too. My mum would always keep a box of papdi in the cupboard and refill it as soon as it was empty. I make them often but not as often as she did, as I find they disappear faster than I can make them. No one can ever have just one.
There’s nothing new about marinating chicken with herbs and citrus, but the addition of fish sauce takes this tried-and-true technique to something seriously next level. The fish sauce works its way deep into the chicken to impart its funky, salty flavor all the way through. This recipe also shows off the special relationship between fish sauce and sugar (in this case, honey) and how they work together to create caramelization without tipping the scales of flavor into something too sweet. If you’d rather not mess with a whole chicken, feel free to swap in chicken thighs or breasts.
Ingredients