721 recipes. Page 25 of 31
Pasta, steak, and other Western recipes
Mixed nuts, toasted and tossed in a cream caramel, are packed into a blind-baked butter crust and baked a second time. The filling is mostly nuts held together by caramel that firms as the tart cools, and each slice crunches instead of turning sticky.
Thick veal shanks braise in tomato, white wine and chicken stock until the meat separates under a fork, with the marrow still sitting in the middle of each bone. That marrow is the best part, so the shanks are turned and lifted gently with tongs rather than jolted. A light, well-shaken coat of flour on the shanks browns in the oil instead of scorching. Onion, carrot and celery soften in the same oil until sweet, and white wine lifts the browned bits from the bottom to start the sauce. The shanks braise covered in the oven with their tops just showing above the liquid. Gremolata, a mix of lemon zest, parsley and garlic, is scattered on just before serving to brighten the long-cooked sauce.
Rolled oats outnumber the flour in this dough and drive the texture: chewy, a little rough, clearly an oat cookie. Brown sugar and cinnamon give a warm sweetness, and raisins sit through it as soft, juicy bits. Resting the dough in the fridge lets the oats soak up moisture and firms the butter again, which helps the cookies hold their shape as they bake.
Each oyster bakes in its own half shell under a spinach, sour cream and Parmesan topping, with a little Pernod and garlic mixed in. Frozen spinach thaws in the refrigerator the day before and is squeezed hard, otherwise the topping slides off the shells. Melted cheese and curled edges say little about the oyster underneath, which needs to turn opaque all the way through.
Omija, the Korean five-flavor berry, goes in as a syrup stirred into the frangipane, tinting the almond cream a faint red and giving it a tart edge. The mixed berries on top sink halfway into the almond filling as it puffs in the oven, and a cut slice shows fruit set into the cream.
Pastırma, thin-sliced Turkish air-dried beef, has little in common with smoked sandwich pastrami, and together with kaşar cheese it salts the filling, so none is added. Red pepper added while still hot, or a torn sheet of yufka, lets the melting cheese leak into the oil.
Small cubes of cream cheese go into a batter made with grapeseed oil, and they stay as distinct pockets after baking. Omija syrup flavors the batter and is brushed thinly over the warm tops straight out of the oven for a reddish sheen.
Unlike a dry baguette sandwich eaten right away, pan bagnat is meant to soak: the bread takes in olive oil and red wine vinegar, then gets pressed in the fridge. During that time the tuna, boiled egg, tomato, red onion, olives and anchovies settle into compact layers.
Slice an opera cake and you see thin, level stripes: almond sponge, espresso buttercream, dark chocolate, repeated. The sponge uses only almond flour, eggs, and powdered sugar, with no wheat flour at all. Coffee leads the flavor, the chocolate adds bitterness underneath, and the overall result is far less sweet than it looks.
Small lumps left in the batter make for a fluffier stack. Mixing stops before the batter turns smooth and the cakes turn tough, and the batter then rests a few minutes to hold on to the bubbles from the baking powder. A pan kept at medium-low lets the centers cook before the outsides scorch. Wait for the surface bubbles to burst and the edges to look dry, then flip only once, since an early or second turn spoils the shape.
Pain au chocolat uses the same laminated, buttery dough as a croissant, rolled around two batons of dark chocolate instead of shaped into a crescent. Pulled open after a short rest, the crisp outer shell flakes away and the inside separates into thin layers with two soft lines of chocolate running through.
Bite-size potato cubes roast on a hot tray rather than in a fryer, picking up firm, crisp edges before a smoky, spicy tomato sauce is spooned over them. Rinsing the cut cubes until the water runs clearer, drying every surface and spacing them apart on the tray gives those edges their crunch, since wet or crowded pieces steam.
Rolled in from both long edges and sliced, sugared puff pastry opens as it bakes into the symmetrical butterfly shape that gives palmiers their look. The sugar melts and caramelizes to amber, soft while hot and shatter-crisp once cool, around light, flaky layers inside.
Somewhere between a burger and a grilled cheese, a patty melt puts a thin beef patty, deeply caramelized onion and cheddar between slices of sandwich bread griddled until crisp. Three heat levels do three jobs: low heat for at least 20 minutes sweetens the onion, medium-high heat browns the thin patty, and medium-low heat crisps the bread while the cheese melts.
Corn kernels, blended with cream and eggs, flavor this Mexican cake, which is why it tastes of sweet corn rather than the gritty cornmeal of cornbread. The puree spreads color and corn flavor through every slice, and the butter and cream give a dense, moist crumb closer to pound cake than to an airy sponge.
The skin is peeled back while still attached on one side so the seasoning can be pushed into deep cuts in the meat, and only salt touches the outer skin, which lets it puff and crisp in the final hot stage. A small piece of pork will not follow the same timing as the one whole shoulder of about 5kg this recipe is built around.
Traditional pandoro from Verona goes through several rounds of kneading and long rises. This home version cuts it down to one sponge and two proofs, so it fits into half a day. The crumb won't be quite as fine as a bakery loaf, but you still get the tall star shape and a yellow interior rich with butter and yolks.
Paper-thin beef, onion and green pepper hit a hot pan for only a couple of minutes, then get melted provolone and a toasted hoagie roll. That thinness starts in the freezer: 30 minutes firms the outside of the ribeye or top round enough to slice it without a struggle. Stacked slices won't cook in so short a sear, so each piece gets pulled apart before it goes in.
Candied orange peel and raisins run through this tall Italian loaf, built on a dough rich with eggs and butter. The fruit goes in only after the butter has fully disappeared into the dough. Added sooner, it leaves the dough slack, and a slack dough will not climb the high cylindrical mould. With a 70-minute first rise and a second rise in the mould, this is a bake to start early in the day.
Salty green olives and sweet raisins scattered through browned ground beef give this Cuban dish its push and pull of flavor. Cumin warms the beef, and crushed tomatoes reduce until they cling to the meat rather than pooling around it. Leaving the beef alone for a moment after it hits the pan lets it brown instead of turning gray and steamed.
Sliced almonds bake onto a ring of choux, and the split ring is filled with whipped cream folded with hazelnut praline paste. Using whipped cream instead of a butter-based mousseline keeps the nut flavour while making each bite lighter. Eggs go into the choux only until it falls from the spatula in a slow V, and finishing with some beaten egg left in the bowl is common.
Potato, farmer's cheese (twarog) and onion softened in clarified butter fill these Polish dumplings, and the batch makes about 60. The dough skips egg, using hot water and oil, and a 30-minute rest makes it easy to roll thin. Firm block twarog matters: soft tub cheese or cream cheese turns the filling slack and the seams hard to close. Clean edges, free of filling and flour, seal tight, and the pot stays at a gentle simmer rather than a rolling boil.
Popular in both Australia and New Zealand, this meringue dessert cracks into a thin, brittle shell when you cut it, with a soft, marshmallowy middle underneath. Whipped cream with strawberries and kiwi on top is the usual way to finish it.
Loose, creamy cornmeal makes a soft bed for mixed mushrooms seared until their edges brown. The polenta is sprinkled into the boiling water little by little while whisking, since dumping it in all at once leaves lumps, and it is spooned into bowls while it still flows, before standing firms it up.