Innholdsfortegnelse for August/September 2018 i Cook's Country

Presto: Pesto Recycle –Scott Miraldi, Sandy Hook, Conn. When I’m making pesto, a small but significant amount of the mixture always ends up underneath the food processor blade and in the corners of the workbowl after I’ve emptied it. Rather than spend time scraping it out with a rubber spatula, I add ½ cup more oil to the processor and give it a quick pulse. The oil splashes up into those hard-to-reach spots and drags out the stubborn bits of pesto so I can easily pour it out of the workbowl; I save this pesto-flavored oil in a squeeze bottle in the refrigerator and use it for vinaigrette, as a dipping oil for breads, and for drizzling over grilled meats. Avocado Ice –Adrienne Mendoza, Washington, D.C. I’m a little ashamed…

WHEN MOST PEOPLE hear “Chicago-style pizza,” they think doughy deep-dish. But deep-dish pizza is not the only pie in town. Head to the South Side of Chicago, to restaurants such as Vito & Nick’s (see “Pride of Chicago’s South Side”), and you’ll find locals devouring a different but equally local style of pie. This style, sometimes called “tavern” pizza (but not at Vito & Nick’s), is built on a thin, crisp crust similar to the cracker style made famous by St. Louis. It features a lightly sweet sauce and dark, spotty-brown cheese reaching all the way to the pie’s charred edge. It’s cut into easy-to-pick-up small squares. A few experiments with recipes for this style of pie revealed the good news: This dough came together quickly in the food processor…

HERB KEEPERS ARE designed to extend the life span of herbs. Resembling covered vases, they hold the stems in water while protecting the leaves. To find the best model, we selected five, priced from $14.86 to $30.47, and used them in the refrigerator with one bunch each of tender cilantro and hardy thyme. Curious if they would work outside the refrigerator, we also tested them with basil, an herb that is typically stored at room temperature. For comparison, we also stored herbs according to our recommended storage methods. The herb keepers all performed similarly, and they didn’t offer much improvement over our regular storage methods. What set the best models apart was access—how easy it was to add or remove herbs. The main advantage of an herb keeper is its…

CIPOLLINE IN AGRODOLCE is a traditional, country-style Italian side dish featuring small, flat cipollini onions that are braised and bathed in a brightly sweet and sour vinegar-and-sugar glaze (in Italian, agro means “sour” and dolce means “sweet”). These saucy little onions provide a pop of flavor when served alongside any number of main dishes: a holiday roast, weeknight chicken, or baked fish. They’re even good on their own. I wanted to create a simple recipe for them so home cooks could enjoy them whenever the craving hit. But there was one catch: Disk-shaped cipollini onions can be hard to find and are a pain to peel. As an alternative, I wanted to use readily available, prepeeled frozen pearl onions. I gathered several existing recipes and found that their ingredients varied…

TIRED ZUCCHINI. THAT unused half red bell pepper. The bag of carrots that has been in the refrigerator for months. Thankfully, there’s hope for those leftovers: vegetable fritters. They transform imperfect produce into something that’s tender, crisp, delicious, and fun to eat. I learned a lot by making a few existing recipes. Some vegetables, such as zucchini, were best shredded; others, such as onions and bell peppers, needed to be sliced to hold their shape. Fritters also need a batter to bind them, usually some combination of water, eggs, and either flour or cornstarch. And finally, fritters fried in different amounts of oil came out with completely different textures. To give my recipe a solid foundation, I’d need a carefully measured amount of grated and/or chopped vegetables. I settled on…

30 - MINUTE SUPPER Prosciutto, Apple, and Goat Cheese Salad with Fig Vinaigrette Serves 4 WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: With a bright fig dressing and the classic combo of pork and apples, this filling salad gets dinner on the table in no time. ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil¼ cup cider vinegar3 tablespoons fig preserves½ teaspoon salt¼ teaspoon pepper10 ounces (10 cups) mesclun1 apple, cored, halved, and sliced thin½ cup blanched hazelnuts, toasted and chopped coarse6 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, torn into bite-size pieces4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled (1 cup) 1. Whisk oil, vinegar, preserves, salt, and pepper together in bowl. 2. Toss mesclun, apple, hazelnuts, and 6 tablespoons vinaigrette together in large bowl. Divide salad evenly among 4 dinner plates. Top each salad with 1½ ounces prosciutto and ¼ cup…

30 - MINUTE SUPPER Quick Green Chicken Chili Serves 4 WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: Using ready-made supermarket products such as rotisserie chicken and jarred green salsa makes this bold, delicious green chili quick and simple. 1 tablespoon vegetable oil1 onion, chopped fine¾ teaspoon pepper¼ teaspoon salt3 garlic cloves, minced2 teaspoons ground cumin4 cups chicken broth2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, rinsed1 cup jarred green salsa1 (2¼-pound) rotisserie chicken, skin and bones discarded, meat shredded into bite-size pieces (3 cups)¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro 1. Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion, pepper, and salt and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Stir in garlic and cumin and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. 2. Increase heat to medium-high. Stir in broth, beans, and salsa and bring…

30 - MINUTE SUPPER Grilled Chicken and Scallions with Romesco Serves 4 WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: Topping grilled chicken and charred scallions with a simple yet flavorful food-processor romesco sauce takes this weeknight dinner to the next level. 13 scallions, trimmed¾ cup jarred roasted red peppers, patted dry½ cup almonds, toasted½ cup fresh parsley leaves6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil2 tablespoons red wine vinegar2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed Salt and pepper4 (6- to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed 1. Pulse 1 scallion, red peppers, almonds, parsley, ¼ cup oil, vinegar, garlic, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper in food processor until finely chopped, about 12 pulses. Set aside romesco. 2. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Rub chicken with 1 tablespoon oil and season with salt and pepper.…

CRUNCHY, PIPING - HOT CHINESE restaurant egg rolls, with dipping sauces at the ready, check off a bunch of the boxes that trigger the pleasure sensors in our brains: crispy, salty, sweet, savory, spicy, and meaty. But home versions seldom satisfy in a similar way. If I’m going to do the work of cooking the filling, wrapping the rolls, and frying them, I want the egg rolls to be great. And in making my own egg rolls, I also wanted to minimize the prep and mess and avoid hard-to-find ingredients. After preparing and tasting five seemingly promising recipes, I realized I had my work cut out for me. To prep the filling alone, I had to mince fresh pork, thinly slice a mound of cabbage, and laboriously cut carrots and…

A BOUNTY OF ripe summer tomatoes is one of summer’s most precious gifts … until you realize they’ll go bad if you don’t figure out a way to use them. There are, of course, a thousand tomato recipes. I wanted to steer away from projects that required all-day simmering or canning. I had my mind on oven-drying the tomatoes into slightly chewy, savory-sweet morsels with deep, concentrated tomato flavor (oven-dried tomatoes are sweeter, much less chewy, and fresher-tasting than their sun-dried cousins). The test kitchen has a few recipes, but they all take several hours. I even found a few recipes that take 12 hours. Wasn’t there a quicker way? I hoped that both my choice of tomatoes and my prepping method could work to shorten the time the tomatoes…

MY SISTER AND I used to beg our mother to take us to our local market when we were young—not because we thought the young man working the fish counter was cute (although that didn’t hurt) and not even for the floor-to-ceiling bulk candy bins. We were after the market’s signature blueberry cornbread. A far cry from savory, dense, and crumbly cornbread, this was fluffy and sweet, rich with butter, and loaded with juicy blueberries. My mom would buy it for dessert, but my sister and I would eat it any time of day. When I started developing a recipe inspired by this cornbread, I discovered that our small North Carolina grocer wasn’t alone in making it. I uncovered blueberry cornbread recipes from a variety of sources all over the…

A PROPER RECIPE for barbecue baked beans should offer up creamy beans draped in a glossy sauce bursting with complex barbecue flavors: vinegar, tomato, molasses, brown sugar, smoked pork, and a touch of heat. Low-cost, low-maintenance, and high-reward, it’s the kind of dish that ought to be a perfect fit for the slow cooker, where, once you load it all in, the beans can sit unattended, deepening in flavor until ready to serve. But so many versions of barbecue baked beans (especially the canned ones) are one-dimensionally sweet. I was willing to put in a bit more work for barbecue beans that would pay out with deep, rich, smoky flavor. For my recipe, I decided on a combination of half pinto beans and half navy beans. Both are traditional choices,…

7 Coolers 9 Tests Pack with 32 pounds of ice and measure and track melting rate Load with ice packs and 36 cold cans of soda and track soda temperatures Pack full with groceries to assess usable space Carry or wheel packed coolers across asphalt, concrete, grass, and gravel Haul packed coolers up stairs Lift packed coolers into and out of SUV Drop packed coolers from SUV gate Operate all latches, handles, and lids a minimum of 100 times Saw in half to measure and assess insulation A $25.00 COOLER was once the norm, but in recent years premium products have entered the market. Sleek, certified bear-proof, and “virtually indestructible,” Yeti coolers in particular have gained a cultlike status among outdoor enthusiasts. But do less expensive options work just as…

Quick Picks In your baking recipes, what do you mean by “when a toothpick comes out clean”? –Maggie Lovering, Fort Collins, Colo. Given all the variables of a kitchen—oven temperature accuracy, small differences in ingredients (every egg is different, for example), thickness or materials of baking vessels, etc.—we call for a range of baking times in most of our baking recipes. The visual cues we provide when checking doneness, such as “until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean” (for muffins, cupcakes, and some cakes) and “until toothpick inserted in center comes out with few moist crumbs attached” (for brownies and fudgy cakes), are meant to help determine when to remove a baked good from an oven without having to rely solely on specific timing. To test a cake for…

COTTAGE CHEESE IS a tasty snack when eaten plain, and it’s also a handy ingredient: We use it in baked pastas because it stays creamy, and we add it to pizzas, dips, and desserts, where it contributes moisture and richness. To find the best one for both snacking and cooking, we selected five top-selling, nationally available full-fat cottage cheeses and sampled them plain and in lasagna. Texture proved critical: Our highly rated cottage cheeses were drier and less liquid-y, while our least favorite products were watery. However, we noticed that wetter products had additives such as xanthan gum, guar gum, and locust bean gum—all meant to bind ingredients and reduce wateriness. Our winner and runner-up had no gums at all and the shortest ingredient lists in the lineup. Dr. Dana…

THERE’S A GREAT butcher shop near my house that I visit at least once a week. But while their steaks and chops are excellent and I’m crazy about their homemade bacon, I’ve been disappointed by their Italian sausage. Not enough pungency, not enough spice, not enough personality. I knew I could do better. I set out to create an everyday, all-purpose Italian sausage to crumble up and use on pizza, in pasta sauces, or even for making sausage patties to slide onto burger buns. And it had to be easy. Italian sausage—pork ground with plenty of fat and mixed with salt and spices—is more of a style than a specific recipe. One family’s version can be surprisingly different from another’s. Most versions start with coarsely ground pork, which gives the…

WE ALL KNOW green goddess salad dressing, which is made with lots of fresh herbs and rich mayonnaise, as a creamy, tangy complement to sweet butter lettuce or as a dip for crunchy crudités. But I’ve recently seen recipes that use the intensely flavorful concoction on chicken, fish, and other unexpected items. Intrigued, I headed into the test kitchen to try out a few existing recipes for green goddess roasted chicken. Though mayonnaise is a main component of the dressing, only one of these recipes called for slathering the herby mayo-based dressing on bone-in chicken pieces before roasting, with poor results: flabby skin and an overpowering mayo flavor. Other recipes called for buttermilk instead. These versions worked better—sort of: The skin was lovely (nicely rendered and not flabby), but the…

MOST OF THE Thai, Japanese, and Chinese restaurants in my family’s rotation have a variation of chicken skewers on the menu. And I’m thankful for that because my kids love them; they stay happily occupied dunking their skewered meat into a dipping sauce while my wife and I busy ourselves with the rest of the menu. But every time I reach over and steal a skewer, I’m reminded that I’m not a fan of the bland, chalky chicken strips most restaurants serve. It’s easy to see chicken satay’s potential: deeply seasoned, lightly charred, juicy chicken with a spicy-sweet peanut sauce. I set out to create a homemade version that lived up to this promise. I started with the chicken. Nearly every version uses boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into strips;…

SETTLE IN AND get comfortable. Like drinking 18-year-old single-malt Scotch, smoking a whole brisket is a task best taken slow. But if you’re willing to invest a bit of time, attention, and patience—and take a bold leap of faith—truly sublime eating is well within reach. As any Texan worth their spurs will tell you, a properly smoked brisket holds irresistible appeal—ultrabeefy, tender, and juicy inside, with a dark, peppery, smoky crust (or “bark”). Legendary Texas barbecue joints don’t even offer sauce; instead they season the meat sparely and confidently with salt, pepper, and smoke. Why cook a whole brisket? Most home cooks use just half a brisket, either the lean flat cut or the fattier point cut, because whole briskets are so large and take so long to cook. But…

30 - MINUTE SUPPER Crunchy Cod with Spicy Broccoli Serves 4 WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: Potato sticks, melted butter, thyme, and Dijon form an easy, flavorful, crunchy crust for this quick roasted cod. ½ cups potato sticks3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter1 tablespoon Dijon mustard1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme Salt and pepper4 (6-ounce) skinless cod fillets, 1 inch thick1 pound broccoli florets, cut into 2-inch pieces3 tablespoons water2 garlic cloves, sliced thin¼ cup thinly sliced jarred hot cherry peppers, plus 1 tablespoon brine 1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Using fork, lightly crush potato sticks with melted butter, mustard, thyme, and ¼ teaspoon pepper in bowl. 2. Spray rimmed baking sheet with vegetable oil spray. Pat fillets dry with…

30 - MINUTE SUPPER Chorizo and Potato Quesadillas Serves 4 WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: Weighing down the quesadillas with a saucepan evens out the cooking and promotes crispy tortillas. 12 ounces fresh Mexican-style chorizo sausage, casings removed2 cups frozen diced hash brown potatoes1 onion, chopped fine1 poblano chile, stemmed, seeded, and chopped fine8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (2 cups)¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro4 (10-inch) flour tortillas3 tablespoons vegetable oil 1. Cook chorizo, potatoes, onion, and poblano in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until chorizo is cooked through and potatoes are tender, 10 to 12 minutes, breaking up chorizo with wooden spoon. Transfer to bowl and let cool slightly, about 5 minutes. 2. Stir Monterey Jack and cilantro into chorizo mixture. Spread 1 cup chorizo mixture over half of…

30 - MINUTE SUPPER Linguine with Chickpeas and Zucchini Serves 4 WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: Softened zucchini and mashed chickpeas make for a creamy and flavorful pasta sauce. 1 pound linguineSalt and pepper⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for serving4 garlic cloves, sliced thin½ teaspoon red pepper flakes2 zucchini, shredded and patted dry1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed2 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, grated (1 cup)3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley1 tablespoon lemon juice, plus lemon wedges for serving 1. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in Dutch oven. Add pasta and 1 tablespoon salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Reserve ½ cup cooking water, then drain pasta. 2. Heat oil, garlic, pepper flakes, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper in now-empty pot over medium heat until garlic is…

The American-style egg roll is essentially unknown in China. Its origins are murky, but its first surge in popularity came in 1930s New York City, and no restaurant served more than Chinatown’s Port Arthur Chinese Restaurant, founded by Chinese immigrant Chu Gam Fai in 1897 and named for his hometown, the Chinese port city now known as Dalian. Famous for its banquet-style dining and lavish decor, Port Arthur was the first Chinese restaurant in New York to obtain a liquor license, making it a fashionable dining destination for hard-partying New Yorkers. The restaurant finally closed in 1974. EASY EGG ROLLS Makes 8 egg rolls This recipe can easily be doubled: Extend the cooking time of the pork mixture to about 5 minutes in step 1 and fry the egg rolls…

Jan Iron, a member of the Navajo Nation in Shiprock, New Mexico, has been making fry bread since she was 4 years old, but she still thinks of the simple dough as a work in progress. Some batches are just better than others. “We always say a prayer for it to be delicious and soft,” she says. Beginning in 1864, nearly 10,000 Navajos were forced to relocate, traveling 300 miles across the desert on foot and leaving behind cornfields, orchards, and flocks of sheep. Thousands died. After enduring three years of internment, they were allowed to return to their lands and given rations of unfamiliar commodity ingredients, including processed white flour and lard. Fry bread was born from this experience. These bleak origins fuel a contemporary controversy. “Fry bread has…

GRILLED SALMON FILLETS Serves 4 To ensure uniform pieces of fish, we prefer to purchase a whole center-cut salmon fillet, trim it, and cut it into four equal pieces. We use a clean rag to apply oil to the grill because it’s sturdier than paper towels. Serve with lemon wedges, if desired. SAUCE ½ cup mayonnaise2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil1 tablespoon lemon juice1 garlic clove, minced¼ teaspoon kosher salt Pinch cayenne pepper SALMON 1 (2- to 2¼-pound) center-cut, skin-on salmon fillet, about 1. inches thick1 teaspoon kosher salt½ teaspoon pepper Vegetable oil 1. FOR THE SAUCE: Whisk all ingredients together in bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate while preparing fish. 2. FOR THE SALMON: Trim away and discard thinner bottom 1 inch of salmon to make salmon more consistent…

THANKSGIVING IS MY favorite holiday, and the stuffing—crisp-moist, herby, buttery—is by far my favorite part of the big meal. But where is it written that stuffing lovers can enjoy this classic side dish only when it accompanies a giant roast turkey? I set out to develop a recipe for roast chicken breasts and stuffing that would satisfy two hungry diners any time of the year. The test kitchen has plenty of experience cooking chicken, so I had plenty of knowledge to draw on for that part of the recipe. I started with bone-in, skin-on breasts because I wanted plenty of tender white meat but also because I wanted the flavorful crisped skin. I showered the chicken pieces with salt and pepper, seared them to golden on both sides in a…

POTATO CHIPS ELICIT strong opinions—which variety is best? A few years ago we concluded that it was thick, salty kettle-cooked chips, but recently we decided to resurvey the options. We identified nine top-selling, nationally available potato chips and purchased each in its simplest salted flavor. Our lineup included four “regular” chips and five thick “kettle-style” chips. Tasters sampled the chips plain, and to gauge sturdiness in a practical application, we dragged the chips through creamy French onion dip and ate them. All the chips contain just potatoes, oil, and salt, yet there were noticeable flavor and texture differences. To find out more about the role of processing, we spoke with Molly Mancini, innovation manager for Utz, a Pennsylvania-based company that makes potato chips in various styles under several brand names.…

TO MAKE THIS CAKE, YOU WILL NEED: 3 cups vanilla buttercream frosting*2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)3 (8-inch) yellow layer cake rounds*3 cups pastry cream*6 ounces (1¼ cups) blueberries8¾ ounces (1¾ cups) raspberries8¾ ounces (1¾ cups) blackberries1 teaspoon confectioners’ sugar FOR THE FROSTING: Combine buttercream and lemon zest in bowl. TO ASSEMBLE: Place 1 cake layer on cake turntable. Spread 1 cup pastry cream evenly over top. Repeat with remaining 2 cake layers and remaining 2 cups pastry cream. Spread frosting in even layer around sides of cake. While spinning cake turntable, run spatula horizontally from bottom to top of side of cake to create textured stripes. Arrange blueberries in single row around base of cake. Alternate raspberries and blackberries around top edge of cake. Scatter remaining berries over…

What’s the best way to freeze fresh summer peaches for baking? –Cassandra Cohen, Northampton, Mass. To determine the best way to freeze peaches, we tested freezing sliced peaches peeled and unpeeled, as well as freezing the fruit at different stages of ripeness (very ripe and soft, ripe but firm, and underripe). We thawed the peaches and sampled them plain and in our Peach Cobbler for Two. Whether to peel or not before freezing came down to personal preference; the peels were minimally noticeable in the baked cobbler, and many tasters said they would rather not go through the effort of peeling peaches for baked desserts. The real difference had to do with ripeness. Peaches that had been frozen when very ripe and soft had great flavor but broke down into…

ROSE GEORGE IS making chop suey when I arrive at Vito & Nick’s on the South Side of Chicago. She tells me to wait a second and then turns to shake my hand. She has a vice-like grip. It’s 11:00 a.m. on a Wednesday, and the bar is already half-filled with regulars drinking beer; Rose has been there since 2:00 a.m., cooking and “taking care of things,” including making chop suey for her employees and some regulars. In the early 1920s, Rose’s grandparents, Vito and Mary Barraco, opened Vito’s Tavern. Mary, who was Sicilian, did most of the cooking, and they sold basic fare such as sandwiches, sausages, meatballs, and spaghetti in Chinese takeout containers. In 1945, Vito’s son Nick joined the business and they began selling pizza. Twenty years…

I LOVE SUMMER corn boiled and buttered, grilled until lightly charred, or simply cut from the cob and tossed fresh into salads. But I desired a new way to turn my favorite side dish into a satisfying, corn-centric main course. And I wanted it to be fast and easy enough to throw together on a sweltering weeknight. I spent some time in our cookbook library and uncovered a handful of recipes for an approach I’d yet to try: corn and bacon pasta. The promise was a comforting bowl of pasta napped in a creamy, corny sauce and set off with salty, smoky, crunchy bits of bacon. But the promise faded when I prepared and plated up these recipes for my team in the test kitchen. We could see the corn…

BOILED AND BUTTERED red potatoes are a reliable side dish—they’re simple and satisfying, and the little spuds look great on the plate. But they can be a bit boring. Adding herbs to the butter can help, sure, but the seasonings and buttery goodness remain on the outsides of the potatoes, leaving the interiors tasting bland. How do you get flavor inside the spuds? By lightly crushing them so the seasonings can soak right in. Easy, right? Well … To be clear, I wasn’t looking to wind up for a fully smashed or mashed potato. My goal was to only lightly break the potatoes open so they just split apart; this way the melted butter (and other seasonings) could find their way into the nooks and crannies while the potatoes maintained…

MANY OF US are familiar with Caprese salad, the Italian salad of fresh mozzarella cheese, ripe tomatoes, and basil leaves dressed simply with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The green, white, and red platter not only represents the colors of Italy’s flag but also highlights three of the iconic flavors of the country’s cuisine. While each ingredient is delicious on its own, the simple and complete harmony of their union has made this salad omnipresent on Italian American menus throughout the United States. But what are we, Americans, if not innovators? To give this salad a new twist, I dared to highlight a different seasonal fruit in place of tomatoes: peaches. I know they have fundamental differences, but peaches and tomatoes are both sweet, supple, and bursting with flavorful juiciness…

30 - MINUTE SUPPER French Onion Hamburger Steaks with Potatoes and Gravy Serves 4 WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: The dried onions and savory flavor of Lipton Onion Soup and Dip Mix make a great match for simple ground beef. 1½ pounds small Yukon Gold potatoes, unpeeled, halved1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted, plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter½ teaspoon salt½ teaspoon pepper½ cup panko bread crumbs2 tablespoons Lipton Onion Soup and Dip Mix8 ounces cremini mushrooms, trimmed and sliced thin1 tablespoon all-purpose flour1 cup beef broth2 tablespoons minced fresh chives 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Toss potatoes, melted butter, salt, and pepper together on rimmed baking sheet and flip potatoes cut side down. Roast until potatoes are tender and well browned, about 30 minutes.…

30 - MINUTE SUPPER Grilled Steak Sandwiches Serves 4 WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: Packing tons of beefy flavor and taking only about 5 minutes to grill to doneness, skirt steak pairs perfectly with a bold blue cheese spread on these quick steak sandwiches. ¾ cup mayonnaise3 ounces blue cheese, crumbled (¾ cup)1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar1 tablespoon Dijon mustard Salt and pepper1 (1-pound) skirt steak, cut crosswise into 4 equal pieces and trimmed4 ciabatta sandwich rolls, halved lengthwise¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil2 ounces (2 cups) baby arugula1 small red onion, halved and sliced thin 1. Process mayonnaise, blue cheese, vinegar, mustard, and ¼ teaspoon pepper in food processor until smooth, about 30 seconds. Set aside blue cheese sauce. 2. Pat steak dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper.…

Sweet Corn It used to be that you had to eat corn within a few days of picking for it to taste sweet. That’s because the sugars in corn start converting to starch as soon as the ear is picked. But most corn you buy today has been bred to hold on to its sweetness longer. When shopping for corn, look for firm, plump ears that feel heavy for their size. The husk should be a deep green, and the silk should be dry. Cutting Kernels off the Cob Shuck corn, slice cobs in half, stand up halves, and cut down to remove kernels. Cobs: Hidden Flavor Running the back of your knife down stripped cobs releases the flavorful “corn milk.” After they’re milked, you can simmer stripped cobs in…

RECIPES FOR FRY bread differ from family to family and region to region, but the basic ingredients—flour, fat, leavening, and liquid—remain constant. These puffy 6-inch rounds of deep-fried bread with lightly crisp, golden edges and a soft and slightly elastic texture share characteristics with beignets, sopaipillas, and state-fair fried dough, though fry bread’s story is singular and remarkable (see “The American Table”). You’ll sometimes find fry bread served sweetened with a drizzle of honey or a dusting of sugar; other times it’s folded over savory fillings like a taco. The latter was the direction I knew I wanted to go in. First step was getting the bread right. The handful of existing recipes I tried were very similar: Combine the ingredients, divide and shape the dough, fry the dough in…

IF YOU’RE LUCKY enough to visit Wakefield, Virginia, you can order a slice of “World Famous Peanut Pie” at the bustling Virginia Diner. Sounds great. I had just one question: What the heck is peanut pie? The simplest answer is that peanut pie is like a pecan pie made with—you guessed it—peanuts. According to Virginia food writers, this pie should be a celebration of contrasting flavors and textures: sweet and salty, crunchy and creamy. I pored over cookbooks to find a handful of promising recipes to make. The pies were all built using a similar formula: A mixture of sweet syrup (Lyle’s Golden Syrup, maple, or corn syrup) mixed with brown sugar, eggs, butter, flavorings (vanilla, cayenne, cinnamon), salt, and peanuts was cooked in a saucepan and then poured into…

I THINK CROUTONS are the best part of any salad, so panzanella is right up my alley. Rather than being relegated to a supporting role, lightly toasted cubes of bread take the spotlight, soaking up the dressing and softening (but not sogging) into flavorful little bites. Though panzanella is often made with raw vegetables, I love mixing fresh vegetables with grilled or roasted ones for a more complex dish. I wanted to build a meal, including quick-cooking pork tenderloin, around this favorite side dish. I knew I could very easily roast vegetables and toast bread on a rimmed baking sheet. I chopped up some farm-stand favorites (summer squash, red onions, and bell pepper) and tossed them with some extra-virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper. I did the same with some…

MY LOVE FOR crispy rice cereal treats runs deep. I began making them for an after-school snack when I was in the fifth grade, and I’ve been smitten ever since. These no-bake treats are simple, sweet, and reliably fast and easy to make. And they’re a great blank canvas for all kinds of add-ins. There is, of course, a recipe on the back of the cereal box (and about a thousand more on the internet), but I wanted to raise the bar. I set out to create the best-ever crispy rice cereal treats. I wanted them to have the right amounts of crunch and chew without being too sweet or heavy and to be perfectly pull-apart soft. And, as a bonus, I wanted to come up with a handful of…

Editor in chief NO-CHURN ORANGE ICE CREAM Makes about 1 quart Use a rasp-style grater to zest the citrus. 1⅓ cups heavy cream1 cup sweetened condensed milk½ cup evaporated milk¼ cup light corn syrup2 tablespoons sugar1 tablespoon grated orange zest plus ½ cup juice1 teaspoon grated lemon zest plus 3 tablespoons juice 1. Process cream in blender until stiff peaks form, 30 to 45 seconds, scraping down sides of blender jar as needed. Add condensed milk, evaporated milk, corn syrup, sugar, orange zest and juice, and lemon zest and juice. Process until thoroughly combined, 30 to 45 seconds. 2. Pour cream mixture into airtight 1-quart container. Cover and freeze until firm, at least 6 hours. Serve. We’re looking for recipes that you treasure—the ones that have been handed down in…