Western Recipes

Prep 15min Cook 55min 4 servings

Crispy Fan-Cut Potatoes (Garlic Butter Accordion Bake)

Cut almost all the way through and roasted, these potatoes fan open in the oven: thin, chip-crisp edges outside, soft flesh in the center. Laying chopsticks on either side of each potato stops the knife before it slices through the base.

Danhobak Cream Cheese Swirl Muffin (Kabocha Cream Cheese Swirl Muffin)

Split one open and you get orange kabocha crumb with white ribbons of cream cheese running through it. The cream cheese goes on unsweetened and stays tangy against the sweet, cinnamon-spiced batter.

Prep 15min Cook 3min 8 servings

Hot Honey

The heat moves from the chili flakes into the honey during a 10-minute steep off the burner, not while it simmers. The pan comes off as soon as small bubbles show at the edge, before the honey boils down into a syrup too thick to drizzle once cool. Flakes left in keep making the honey hotter in the jar, while straining it warm holds the heat where it is. A splash of cider vinegar trims the sweetness, and the sauce is drizzled on pizza or fried chicken after cooking so the honey never meets direct heat and burns.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Prep 20min Cook 12min 4 servings

Honey Madeleines (Buttery Shell-Shaped French Cakes)

These shell-shaped cakes are best eaten within 30 minutes of leaving the oven, while the edges are still crisp, with black tea or coffee alongside. A generous amount of melted butter browns those edges deep gold, and honey in place of part of the sugar gives a rounder, faintly floral sweetness that granulated sugar alone does not.

Prep 10min Cook 15min 2 servings

Huevos Rancheros (Fried Eggs on Tortilla with Salsa)

Warm corn tortillas carry a layer of half-mashed black beans, a fried egg, and a tomato salsa sharpened with jalapeño. What makes the plate go soggy is water: the salsa should be reduced until a spoon leaves a trail, and the beans thick enough to spread. Cook the whites fully, and use pasteurized eggs for a runny yolk. A squeeze of lime at the end is optional.

Prep 10min Cook 12min 2 servings

Injeolmi Croffles (Soybean Powder Croissant Waffles)

Pressed in a waffle iron, frozen croissant dough gets heat from both plates at once, and the outside turns far crisper than an oven-baked croissant while buttery layers stay inside. Honey and condensed milk go on in thin lines, and just before serving, roasted soybean powder (the nutty coating on injeolmi rice cakes) mixed with a pinch of salt is sifted over the top.

Prep 10min Cook 15min 15 servings

Hush Puppies

Spoonfuls of cornmeal batter with grated onion and buttermilk fry into small golden fritters. The batter relies on self-rising cornmeal mix and self-rising flour, which already carry salt and leavening; plain cornmeal or cornstarch in the same amounts will not rise the same way. Large spoonfuls brown before their centers set, and breaking open the first fritter shows whether the rest should be smaller.

Prep 30min Cook 45min 4 servings

Injeolmi Crumble Cheesecake

Sweet rice flour in a dense cheesecake batter gives it a faint mochi-like chew. Only part of the roasted soybean powder, the coating on injeolmi rice cakes, goes into the batter; the rest is rubbed with melted butter into a crumble that bakes crisp on top, putting the nutty flavor in two separate layers. After a full day in the fridge, the soybean aroma comes through more clearly.

Prep 20min Cook 90min 4 servings

Irish Stew

Some of the potatoes break down into the broth as it simmers, giving the stew body without any flour. Large pieces of lamb shoulder brown best when left alone until they release from the pot on their own. With just lamb, onion, carrot, potato, and thyme, the result depends on gentle heat: a hard boil toughens the lamb, so keep the lid ajar and only small bubbles at the edge of the pot. Once the lamb pulls apart with a fork and some potato has crumbled, it is time to season. Made a day ahead, it tastes even better.

Injeolmi Crumble Muffins (Roasted Soybean Crumble Top)

Despite the name, there is no separate crumble mixture. The batter, heavy with roasted soybean powder, is left rough on top and dusted with more powder, and those craggy peaks bake up crisp. Inside, small mochi cubes, cut and separated before going in, give pockets of chew.

Prep 30min Cook 30min 6 servings

Jalea (Peruvian Fried Seafood)

Fried fish, squid and shrimp share the plate with green plantain chips and a lime-dressed onion salsa. The salsa sits on the side so the lime juice does not soften the coating, and extra lime wedges get squeezed over while eating. Instead of a batter, the seafood gets a single coat of flour shaken off in a sieve, and any surface moisture makes it clump thick. Each type cooks at its own pace and fries separately, and a golden outside is no proof of doneness: fish should hit 63°C in the thickest piece and shrimp should be opaque all the way through.

Prep 20min Cook 28min 4 servings

Injeolmi Mochi Brownies (Chewy Rice Flour Cocoa Bars)

With glutinous rice flour in place of all the wheat flour, the fudgy density of a brownie comes with a mochi-like spring. Toasted soybean powder is scattered through the middle layer and over the top. Straight from the fridge the squares are firm; at room temperature they turn soft and stretchy.

Jambon-Beurre (Classic Butter and Ham Baguette)

Baguette, butter, and ham are almost the whole sandwich, so butter temperature and how the ham is layered show in every bite. Butter soft enough to dent with a finger spreads thinly without tearing the crumb. The baguette is split with the knife held low and opened by hand, never hollowed out. Thin, lightly salty ham suits it best; fold it loosely instead of pressing it into a slab, and tuck sliced cornichons between the folds and along the edges so each bite gets some acidity. If the sandwich has been chilled, give it 10 minutes at room temperature so the butter softens again.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Prep 8min 0 2 servings

Injeolmi Scone (Soybean Powder & Rice Cake Scone)

The rice cake is optional. Small pieces of it soften in the oven into chewy pockets, but even without them, the toasted soybean powder in the dough carries the injeolmi flavor all the way through, with a warm, nutty smell plain-flour scones lack.

Prep 20min Cook 20min 2 servings

Kasespatzle (German Alpine Cheese Dumpling Noodles)

Short, irregular egg dumplings end up wrapped in stretchy melted Emmental, with slow-cooked onion on top to balance the salty cheese. The batter is dropped from a spoon straight into boiling water, and the rough, uneven shapes that result are part of the dish. Drain the dumplings thoroughly before they hit the pan: clinging water thins the cheese and kills the stretch.

Prep 20min Cook 18min 4 servings

Key Lime Pie

There is no gelatin in the filling; egg yolks react with the lime's acid and set it to a smooth, custard-like slice. The oven only firms the edges in a short bake, and the fridge does the rest over at least 3 hours, ideally a full day. This Southern American pie was originally made with Florida's small, fragrant key limes.

Prep 15min Cook 40min 2 servings

Kentucky Hot Brown

Thick toast carries sliced roast turkey under a cheese-enriched cream sauce, the whole dish warmed through in the oven and then browned under the broiler, then eaten with a fork straight from the baking dish. Only a small pinch of salt goes into the sauce itself because pecorino brings much of it. The bacon goes on after the oven, where it stays crisp instead of softening under sauce. A dish rated for broiler heat is needed, as ordinary glass can crack.

Prep 25min Cook 40min 4 servings

Kimchi Bacon Quiche (Fermented Kimchi Egg Custard Pie)

Well-fermented kimchi and bacon baked into an egg and cream custard show up as flecks of red kimchi and bacon across every cut slice. The kimchi is squeezed hard and fried with the bacon and onion before it goes in, which keeps the custard from turning watery.

Prep 15min Cook 15min 4 servings

Kepta Duona (Lithuanian Fried Rye Bread)

In Lithuania, rye bread gets cut into sticks, fried, and tossed while hot with raw garlic and salt, then served under a warm sauce of melted gouda and mayonnaise. Firm, dense rye holds up in the oil where soft white bread would not, and cutting every stick 1.5 to 2cm thick means no thin pieces burn before the rest are done. The garlic stays out of the frying oil because it would scorch and turn bitter. When frying in several batches, divide the garlic and salt ahead so each batch is tossed while still hot. The bread is not meant to soak up all the oil, so whatever is left in the pan stays there. Make the cheese sauce last; it sets as it cools.

Kimchi Cheddar Scones

Barely sweet and distinctly savory, these scones carry the sourness of kimchi and the saltiness of cheddar between buttery layers. Tossing the squeezed kimchi and the cheese in the flour before adding any liquid spreads them evenly instead of leaving clumps.

Prep 15min Cook 50min 4 servings

King Ranch Chicken Casserole

Corn tortillas cut into small pieces take the place of rice or noodles, softening in layers between shredded chicken and a thick tomato-cream sauce. The sauce starts with condensed mushroom soup used undiluted. Ready-to-eat soup in its place leaves the filling runny. Most of the heat comes from the salsa, so a mild or medium jar sets the tone before any chili seasoning. A short rest after baking lets the sauce settle into the tortillas and makes the squares easier to lift.

Prep 35min Cook 40min 6 servings

Kougelhopf (Alsatian Raisin Almond Bundt Cake)

Baked in a fluted ring mold, this Alsatian yeast cake comes out shaped like a crown, with whole almonds from the bottom of the pan sitting on top once it is turned out. Butter and eggs kneaded into the dough give it a soft, brioche-like crumb, and raisins scattered throughout add bursts of sweetness.