721 recipes. Page 18 of 31
Pasta, steak, and other Western recipes
Thin slices of potato soak up garlic-scented cream during a long, gentle bake at 170 degrees until they are almost melting, while the Gruyere on top turns golden. The layers need a short rest to set before cutting, as they slide apart when sliced straight from the oven.
Instead of the long, thin baguette shape, this dough is rolled into short, plump loaves like sweet potatoes, which keeps more moisture in the crumb. Steam and a 220°C oven give a thin, firm crust, and the cocoa bitterness comes through ahead of the sugar.
Rendered guanciale fat, not olive oil, carries this Roman sauce. Six to eight minutes over medium-low heat melts the fat out and crisps the edges before the chili, white wine, and hand-crushed tomatoes go in. The tomatoes keep a little texture, and the reduced sauce lodges in the ridges of the rigatoni. Pancetta works when guanciale is hard to find. Both the pork and the Pecorino Romano bring salt, so salt only after tasting.
Mustard and lemon juice keep the mashed yolk filling from tasting heavy, giving each halved white a sharp, creamy center. The white works as the container, and eggs cooled all the way through before cutting give clean, unbroken edges. A pinch of paprika on top is mostly about color against the pale filling. Serve them cold, before the surface starts to dry.
A small spoonful of doenjang, Korean fermented soybean paste, goes into the brown sugar caramel spread under the apples, but the aim is for it to sit behind the sweetness as a faint salty, savory depth rather than taste like doenjang. Pea-sized bits of butter left in the dough make the crust bake up flaky, and the cinnamon apples soften in the oven.
Roasting the kabocha squash until its edges brown concentrates its sweetness, and once blended it thickens the sauce without any flour. Even with cream and Parmigiano, the sauce stays a bright orange, with nutmeg rounding out the squash flavor. The squash can be roasted a day ahead, and butternut squash works in its place.
Crisp, rendered duck skin set against a glossy, bittersweet orange sauce makes this French classic work. Starting the breast skin-side down in a cold pan lets the thick fat melt out slowly and leaves the skin thin and crackling instead of greasy. While the breast rests somewhere warm, the sauce is built in the same pan from a quick caramel of sugar and red wine vinegar, then orange juice and zest reduced until glossy. Push the reduction too far and the zest turns bitter. Butter swirled in off the heat gives the sauce its shine before it is spooned over the duck, sliced on the bias.
Salted caramel works because salt lifts sugar, and these mini tarts take the idea further by stirring a little doenjang, Korean fermented soybean paste, into the caramel alongside the salt. Taken off the heat before it reaches a deep amber, the caramel stays merely sweet and the doenjang disappears. Toasted pecans are coated in it and piled into the shells, and the tarts set at room temperature into a firm top that cracks under a fork.
Even with no meat in the dish, each cube of eggplant, seared over high heat until just browned, soaks up tomato and soy sauce like a sponge and turns soft and savory. Sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds lend a nutty Korean finish, and fresh basil sits on top.
Slow cooking in duck fat turns the legs tender enough to pull apart with a fork, and a final sear in a pan brings the skin back to a crackling crisp. The 12-hour salt cure in the fridge means starting the day before. Rinse and dry the legs thoroughly after curing, since water left in the folds makes the hot fat spit. Although confit began as a preservation method, this home version is not meant for long storage: refrigerate leftovers and use them within 3-4 days.
Thin batter poured into a blazing cast-iron pan puffs up the sides into a tall, browned bowl while the middle stays soft and custardy. Lemon juice and powdered sugar are the classic finish for this German-American pancake; berries or cream turn it into a brunch main. A pan that is not hot enough is the usual reason the edges stay low.
Searing the shrimp first, lifting them out and returning them only at the end keeps them tender instead of simmering in cream. The garlic and cream sauce is made in the same pan, and the sweetness of the shrimp lightens the rich Parmesan and cream.
Breaded, pan-browned eggplant slices layered with tomato sauce, mozzarella, and Parmesan bake into a casserole that should still cut into clean layers. Salting the slices first draws out water and some bitterness, and without it the eggplant goes soft under the sauce. Restraint with the sauce matters just as much, because a pool of it around the dish softens the crust. A five-minute rest after baking lets the layers settle before slicing.
The Earl Grey leaves are ground until no coarse bits remain and stirred through the batter, so every slice is flecked with tea. Ripe bananas are mashed only until small pieces of fruit are left, and the top splits open as it bakes.
Five sliced garlic cloves cook slowly in butter over low heat, turning sweet and fragrant while staying pale. The large shrimp then get about 90 seconds a side, just until pink, so the centers stay tender. White wine lifts the garlic butter off the pan and reduces into a light sauce, and the lemon juice squeezed in at the end cuts through the butter while red pepper flakes leave a mild, lingering heat.
Thin lengthwise strips of eggplant get roasted before rolling, which makes them bend around the ricotta filling without cracking. Keep the filling thick and use less than seems right; overstuffed rolls split or unravel in the oven.
Two Earl Grey tea bags steep in warm cream that then goes into the cream cheese filling, so the cheesecake tastes like milk tea under the richness of the cheese. The cream is only warmed at the edges, never boiled, and the bags come out without squeezing. Baked in a water bath over a pressed digestive-biscuit base, the filling sets smooth and even.
Finely chopped shiitake and button mushrooms stand in for ground meat, and a tablespoon of soy sauce reduced with tomato paste and white wine gives the ragu a salty depth. Mushroom liquid left in the pan is almost always behind a watery sauce. The mushrooms stay on high heat until they stop steaming and brown, and only then does the ragu cling to the wide pappardelle.
A runny poached yolk spills into warm hollandaise and soaks the toasted English muffin underneath, with crisp bacon or ham in between. The sauce is the delicate part. Melted butter is poured as a thin stream over a gentle double boiler; pour too fast and the emulsion splits. If it starts to separate, a teaspoon of cold water whisked in brings it back. The poaching water should only show small bubbles, never a hard boil.
French pastry shops usually fill eclairs with vanilla custard; this version uses whipped cream and tops the long choux shells with melted dark chocolate. With a plain cream filling, the bitter chocolate and the crisp shell come through more clearly. The eggs are beaten in one at a time, stopping once the paste looks glossy and drops slowly from the spatula.
Sirloin is seared, rested for five minutes and sliced over the noodles, while the sauce comes from the same pan: meat juices, butter, sliced garlic, soy sauce and a spoon of mentsuyu, the Japanese bonito-and-kelp noodle base. The pasta water is added and emulsified quickly into a glossy coating, before long simmering can turn the soy sauce harsh and salty.
Spinach wilted briefly in butter takes the place of bacon or ham, sitting between a toasted English muffin and a soft poached egg under hollandaise. Moisture is what ruins it: squeeze the spinach hard and keep the toasted halves spread apart so their steam does not turn them soggy. Fresh eggs hold a neater shape in the poaching water, and the hollandaise needs a gentle bain-marie, since too much heat splits it.
Cooked on a covered pan over low heat instead of in the oven, these flat yeast rounds develop a cornmeal crust on both faces and an open, irregular crumb inside. Toasting crisps the edges of those holes, and butter, jam, or a runny poached yolk sinks into the gaps. They are the usual base for Eggs Benedict and just as good split and buttered at breakfast.
Short rib cut into 3cm pieces braises with red wine, whole tomatoes and soy sauce for an hour or more, until a spatula presses it apart into shreds. Its collagen melts into a sticky sauce that coats the wide pappardelle, and the soy brings a fermented saltiness ordinary Bolognese lacks.