All recipes

100 recipes, showing 12

Stews and chili

Brick-Red Chili with Toasted Chiles and Masa Crunch

Chili powder is a shortcut, and it tastes like one. This pot starts with whole anchos and guajillos, toasted until they smell like dried fruit and smoke, then soaked and blended into a brick-red paste. Unsalted chicken stock keeps you in charge of the salt, a little dark chocolate and coffee add bass notes nobody can name, and masa is there if you want it thick. Beef and chile bring the depth, a hit of vinegar wakes it up, and lime-pickled onion and a pepita crunch give every spoonful something sharp and something loud.

View recipe · 4 servings

Breads

Brown-Butter Banana Bread with a Crackly Demerara Top

This is the loaf on the counter that disappears by the end of the day, so we made every part of it count. The move is browning the butter first: its milk solids toast until they smell like hazelnuts, and the whole loaf picks up a deep, toffee-ish edge. Very ripe, nearly black bananas bring the sweetness and the perfume, toasted walnuts the crunch, a little salt the balance, and a coat of demerara sugar on top bakes into a crackly crust like the top of a bakery muffin.

View recipe · 10 servings

Soups

Weekend Pho with a Charred-Aromatic Broth

This is a Saturday project that pays you back all week. Pho is the broth, so we spend the effort there: onion and ginger charred until they're properly black, whole spices toasted until the kitchen smells like star anise, and a pot kept at lazy bubbles for hours, with fish sauce going in only at the end. Then set the table like a pho shop and let everyone build their own bowl. Bones and brisket bring the depth, char the smoky sweetness, spices the perfume, fish sauce the savory backbone, and a house chili-garlic vinegar, lime and fistfuls of herbs the bright, hot, crunchy finish.

View recipe · 4 servings

Salads

Charred Caesar with Anchovy Breadcrumbs

A Caesar is salt, fat, sour and crunch fighting over a cold leaf, and most versions let the crunch lose. Here half the romaine gets charred hard in a screaming-hot skillet for smoky bitterness, and the croutons become anchovy breadcrumbs so every bite crackles. The dressing skips the raw yolk for mayonnaise, mashed anchovy, lemon and a rude amount of black pepper. Anchovy and Parmigiano bring the salt, lemon the sour, mayonnaise the richness, the char a bitter edge and the crumbs the noise. The cheese goes on last, grated over the top like fresh snow.

View recipe · 4 servings

Middle eastern

Herb-Packed Chickpea Fritters with Green Tahini and Quick Pickles

Meat-eaters keep stealing these off the vegetarian plate. Most chickpea patties come out beige; these come out green, with twice the parsley plus cilantro and dill pulsed right into the mix. The move that matters is water control: wring the onion dry, pat the chickpeas dry and bind with a spoon of chickpea flour, so the fritters hold together and build a hard, crisp crust. Chickpeas bring the earthy body, the herbs and garlic the brightness, green tahini the richness, vinegar pickles the snap, and sumac and chili oil a sour, smoky finish.

View recipe · 2 servings

Indian

Tamarind Chana Masala with Crispy Onions

The weeknight pot that tastes like it took all day. The secret is three moves in one skillet. Fry a handful of sliced onion until crisp and keep the oil, then brown chopped onion in it until it's nearly dark and jammy, and cook the tomato paste until the oil separates. Tamarind goes in with the chickpeas for a sour backbone, and garam masala and lime go in again at the end so the top notes stay fresh. Deep onion brings the sweetness, tamarind and lime the sour, chile the heat, yogurt the cool, and crispy onions the crunch.

View recipe · 2 servings

Desserts

Fudgy Cookies-and-Cream Brownies with Espresso and Flaky Salt

This is the pan you bring to a party so people remember you. Melted dark chocolate does the heavy lifting alongside the cocoa, giving a fudgy middle that cocoa alone can't, and a spoonful of espresso powder makes the chocolate taste darker than its sugar without tasting like coffee. On top, real cream whipped with mascarpone replaces the frozen tub, and flaky salt keeps every bite from going flat. Chocolate brings the depth, espresso the bitterness, the cookies the nostalgia, mascarpone the cool richness and salt the snap.

View recipe · 16 servings

Breads

Cardamom-Cinnamon Rolls with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Make these on a holiday morning, or any morning you want the house to smell like a bakery. The move is a tangzhong: a little of the dough's own flour cooked with some of its milk into a paste before anything else happens. That cooked starch holds extra moisture, so the rolls bake up soft and stay soft for days. Cardamom joins the cinnamon in the dough and the filling, brown butter makes the swirl taste toasty instead of just sweet, and an orange cream cheese frosting, spread while the rolls are warm, brings the tang and the brightness.

View recipe · 12 servings

Soups

Smoky Clam Chowder with Charred Corn and Oyster-Cracker Crumbs

Late-summer coast food: cold beer, a big pot, newspaper on the table. Bottled clam juice tastes like the bottle, so we skip it. The clams steam open in white wine, and their liquor, topped up with plain water, becomes the whole base. Keep it spoonable, not gluey: a light flour roux and a pot that never boils once the dairy goes in. Clams and wine bring the brine, bacon and smoked paprika a campfire edge, potatoes and cream the comfort, charred corn the sweetness, and buttery cracker crumbs, chive oil and lemon the crunch and lift.

View recipe · 4 servings

Pies

Cider-Caramel Apple Pie with a Cheddar Crust

Most apple pies hide a gap: the apples shrink in the oven and leave the top crust domed over air. We cook the filling first, in cider boiled down to a dark caramel, so the slices shrink in the pot instead of under the lid, and the pie tastes of apples twice. Then sharp cheddar goes into the crust, a pairing associated with New England that sounds odd until salt and tang meet sweet fruit. Tart apples bring the backbone, cider caramel the depth, lemon the lift, cheddar the savory edge and demerara the crackle on top.

View recipe · 8 servings

Vegetables

Crispy Eggplant Bake with Burrata and Basil-Chili Oil

Soggy eggplant ruins this dish, so ours never sees a frying pan. The slices get salted, dried and roasted hot until their edges go brown and crisp, which keeps them meaty under the sauce instead of oily. Lemon zest and black pepper wake up the ricotta, a Parmesan crumb top brings crunch, and burrata goes on torn and cool the moment the tray comes out. Roasted eggplant brings the depth, tomato the sweetness, ricotta and burrata the richness, lemon the lift, chili oil the heat and crumbs the crunch. It's the Sunday tray that feeds everyone.

View recipe · 8 servings

Soups

Peak-Tomato Gazpacho with a Crunchy Toppings Bar

Heat-wave lunch: no oven, cold glasses, tomatoes so ripe they smell like the vine. The real move happens before the blender. Salt and sherry vinegar sit on the chopped vegetables until red juice pools in the bowl, so the flavor is already loose when the blades start; then olive oil streams in and turns it silky. Then the toppings make it a meal: olive-oil croutons for crunch, chopped egg for richness, diced cucumber and pepper for snap, chili oil for heat and flaky salt for pop. Ripe tomato leads, vinegar brightens, and everyone builds their own glass.

View recipe · 4 servings