721 recipes. Page 29 of 31
Pasta, steak, and other Western recipes
Steamed sweet potatoes vary in how much water they hold, so part of the 90 ml of milk is held back and added 10 ml at a time until the batter drops slowly from the spatula. The fat is plain oil, which means no butter to melt or cream.
Snow crab legs, shrimp, potatoes, corn, and sausage are tossed in a red butter sauce of garlic, Cajun seasoning, and Korean chili flakes, then spread out across the table. The potatoes and corn boil in water while the seafood steams separately, so the crab and shrimp stay dry enough for the sauce to cling. The sauce stays over low heat so the garlic and spices do not scorch, and the chili flakes push the heat beyond what the Cajun seasoning gives alone. Shaking everything with the warm sauce in a large bowl or bag works it into the crab joints and shrimp shells. Expect to eat it with your hands, cracking shells as you go, with lemon on the side.
No tart pan is used: the dough is rolled into a round, topped with the filling, and its bare 4 cm border folded up over the edge. The filling combines steamed sweet potato, cream cheese, honey and cinnamon. A drier, chestnut-type sweet potato keeps the base from going soggy and bakes up crisper.
Sole fillets, dusted lightly with flour, fry in butter until golden; the butter left in the pan is then taken further until it browns and smells of toasted nuts. Lemon juice and parsley stirred into that brown butter make the sauce, its acidity cutting the richness. The window between brown and burnt is short, so the heat comes down the moment brown specks and a nutty aroma appear.
With no wheat flour, just tapioca starch scalded in hot milk and butter, these bake up stretchy and chewy like Brazilian pão de queijo, and the steamed sweet potato adds a gentle sweetness. Parmesan in the dough leaves a salty finish, so they eat more like bread than a sweet snack.
Cream cheese and sour cream form the base of this warm dip, with spinach, artichoke, Parmesan, and mozzarella folded in before it bakes until bubbling. Each cheese has a role: cream cheese for body, sour cream for a light tang, Parmesan for salt, mozzarella for stretch. One dish in the middle of the table feeds a group, scooped up with baguette slices or tortilla chips while it is still hot.
Cold, pea-size butter crumbs scattered over a moist sweet potato batter give this loaf its crunchy top. Keep the streusel chilled and sprinkle it on without pressing, so the clumps survive baking. The loaf bakes for 48-50 minutes and the top color runs ahead of the center, so a skewer that comes out free of wet batter is the better signal.
A dark, crisp crust and a pink, juicy center come from heat and a dry surface rather than from seasoning, which stops at salt and pepper. A damp steak in a pan that is not hot enough turns gray instead of brown. Butter melted with garlic and rosemary near the end gets spooned over the meat, adding a nutty, herbal layer to the crust. Potatoes on the side turn it into a full plate.
Frozen croissant dough is spread thinly with a paste of glutinous rice flour, milk and sugar, folded and pressed in a waffle iron. The flattened butter layers go crisp, and the rice paste makes the inside stickier and chewier than a plain croffle. Honey and a dusting of cinnamon finish it.
Coarsely crushed peppercorns pressed into the sirloin give every bite a sharp, aromatic crackle, while finely ground pepper would add heat but lose that fragrance. The sauce comes from the same pan, where the browned bits left by the steak meet shallot, brandy, cream, and Dijon. Cream rounds off the pepper's bite and the mustard adds a quiet acidity that keeps the sauce bright rather than heavy.
Pears fanned over almond frangipane, with small gaps left so the cream puffs up between the slices, make up this French tart. Fresh pears need slicing thin enough to cook through in the oven, while canned or poached ones must be drained of their syrup first.
Steak frites lives or dies on two techniques at once: a well-seared sirloin and properly double-fried potatoes. The first fry at 160°C cooks the potato sticks through while they stay pale, and the second at 190°C turns the outside crisp and golden. Soaking the cut potatoes in cold water first washes off surface starch so they do not stick together in the oil. The steak gets only salt and pepper, then a quick baste with butter, thyme, and garlic.
Apples cook first in a butter-and-sugar caramel in an ovenproof pan, then bake under a sheet of pastry before the whole thing is flipped onto a plate, caramelized fruit on top. The apples are peeled, cut into thick pieces and packed upright in the pan with no gaps. After only 3 to 5 minutes out of the oven, a plate wider than the pan goes on top and both are turned over in one motion.
With so much tomato in the pan, the eggs end up as small soft curds scattered through red pulp instead of big scrambled pieces. The clear juice tomatoes release at first would water everything down. The tomatoes cook until the flesh collapses and no liquid pools when pushed aside, with a little tomato paste adding body in that short time. Cherry tomatoes counted one for one are not the same amount as small tomatoes. With feta bringing salt, a pinch is enough, and it goes to the table right away with bread before the eggs dry out in the leftover heat.
Small balls of butter dough get a shallow press from a thumb, and the dent becomes a cup for strawberry jam. Jam swells in the oven; each well gets only half.
The mushroom stems are not thrown away: they are chopped, cooked with garlic and mixed into a filling of cream cheese, Parmesan and breadcrumbs that goes back into the caps. In the oven the top of the filling turns golden and the melted cream cheese mingles with the mushroom juices.
Pork sausages roast first, then Yorkshire pudding batter is poured in around them and puffs up in the oven. It comes out with crisp brown edges rising high and the sausages set into a soft middle. Gravy goes alongside.
Small beef meatballs simmer in a creamy milk gravy, usually alongside mashed potatoes to catch every bit of sauce. Tenderness comes from a light hand: overworking the mixture tightens it into dense, rubbery balls. The pan is never wiped before the flour goes in, because the gravy owes its depth to the browned drippings the meatballs leave behind. Once the flour loses its raw smell, the milk is stirred in a little at a time so the gravy stays smooth. A splash of Worcestershire sauce gives the cream a savory edge.
There is no butter in this cocoa loaf. Mashed soft tofu and grapeseed oil fill that role, and dark chocolate chips are folded through. Wet tofu can add 3 to 5 minutes in the oven, which is why it sits in a sieve for 5 minutes first.
Mashed canned sweet potatoes, sweetened with brown sugar and cinnamon, sit under a layer of mini marshmallows toasted pale brown. The can holds the orange-fleshed kind packed in syrup, often labeled yams in American stores, and its 40 oz figure includes the syrup. Draining that syrup lets the butter and sugar mix into the potatoes instead of floating in liquid. The marshmallows go on only for the last few minutes, because they color far faster than the base heats through.
Swiss chard in a sweet pie sounds unlikely, but the leaves are mixed with apple, rum-soaked raisins, pine nuts, and brown sugar under a double crust. A dusting of powdered sugar once the pie has cooled through makes it read as a dessert from the first look.
Small whole potatoes come out of a heavily salted bath with a pale, dry salt film on their skins and a fluffy center. That salt sets the strength of the cooking water; scattering the same amount over boiled potatoes would not give this result.
Golden syrup, coarse breadcrumbs and lemon make the filling of this British tart, sticky and deeply sweet. A little wobble in the center when it comes out is fine. The filling firms as it cools. Pull the tart once the top is lightly browned, and wait until it is completely cold before slicing.
Pork shoulder marinated red with achiote and guajillo chilies gets sliced thin, seared, and tucked into corn tortillas with grilled pineapple. This home version cooks the slices in batches in a pan or on a grill; crowding them releases so much liquid that the meat steams instead of browning.