I couldn't stop eating this chili! The ingredient list is a long one, but all those extra notes of spice and flavor combine into a complex chili with just the right balance of heat, sweet, and savory. Definitely don't skip the goat cheddar -- it really made a difference.
With education from Le Cordon Bleu and training from Shawn McClain under her belt, it's no surprise that Illinois native Stephanie Izard emerged from season four of Top Chef as the first female winner in the show's history.
When I was an infant, someone gave my parents an odd gift: a food mill, so you could turn whatever you were eating into baby food. They used to feed me this stuffed cabbage—my great grandmother's recipe—as if it were puréed pumpkin.
I've created a recipe for Silk Road lamb burgers, inspired by romantic imagined scenes of travel on camel or horseback to exotic towns filled with spices, music, poetry and silk. The Silk Road refers to the many routes that plied 4,000 miles between Rome and China, connecting Turkey, Central Asia and Persia along the way. Marco Polo is famous for having traveled along this route. Valuable commodities carried west on the Silk Road included silk, porcelain and gunpowder from China, which also supplied peaches and pomegranates; pepper, batik, spices, perfumes, glass beads and gems from India; incense, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg from the East Indies; nuts, sesame seeds, glass and carpets from Persia; and coral and ivory from Siam. While functioning as an important trade route from the 1st century B.C. to the A.D. 15th century, the Silk Road also became an important crossroads of the arts, ideas and religions.
This dish is perhaps one of the most emblematic chifa (Chinese-Peruvian dishes) in Peru. It has become so embedded in the country’s national cuisine that most Peruvians don’t even think about its Chinese origins.
Purloo is a dish of economy. It is a dish of diversity. It is a dish that tells many a family history simply by ingredients the cook chooses to use. It is of Low Country origin. It is meant to serve many and it is meant to be comforting.
These were inspired by the Swedish meatballs my mom made every year for New Year's. I always looked forward to them as a kid, and meatballs will forever make me think of a party. These certainly aren't Swedish, but they are an updated take on a party meatball.
My sister is spending the year in Berlin, 10 times zones and over 5000 miles away. She's been raving about a Turkish street food called gozleme. These filled flatbreads are prepared on large griddles for eager patrons who consume them standing up around crowded tables. I thought the distance between us might feel a little less vast if I could enjoy gozlemes too. I created this recipe to match my sister's description, with a yeast dough and fragrant lamb and spinach filling. We ate them, according to my sister's instructions, hot off the griddle, sliced with a drizzle of yogurt cucumber sauce. They were delicious, but Berlin still felt very far away.
This stovetop blue cheese burger recipe makes a single portion (which is very satisfying for someone who dines alone as often as I do). But because it's exactly for one, the math to double, quadruple, or octuple the patty is fairly simple. Scale up as many times as you want—no matter what you do, make a lot of the blue cheese mayo. You won't be sorry.
This is a perfect slow cooking, take your time, cool Sunday afternoon dish. Rich lamb is complemented by a bright gremolata. We ate it with a side of lentils, but it would also be great over polenta or maybe egg noodles as well.
Sopa a la minuta isn’t something you’ll commonly find at a restaurant, even in Peru. It’s a classic example of limeño home cooking. It translates to “minute soup” because it’s something you can whip up in a figurative minute (at least compared to many of the more complex, labor-intensive, and time-consuming Peruvian soups).
This sloppy joe is native to New Jersey, where the term—elsewhere reserved for tomato saucy ground meat on a bun—means something different entirely. Here, it is a cold, triple-decker, rye bread sandwich, stacked high with meat, cheese, cabbage slaw, and so much Russian dressing.
Filet mignon has been given undue consideration for far too long: Many criticize its leanness, its dryness, its flavorlessness. But actually, if you just cook it correctly, give it a nice sear, and let it finish in a hot oven for a split second (I prefer 3 minutes in the oven for a proper rare, after which it should rest on the counter for 5 minutes for the juices to redistribute), then what you'll end up with is a gorgeously cooked piece of meat that's not mooing on the inside, but rather uniformly pink and soft throughout the center. But cooked, all the same.
This sandwich is inspired by the torta at Mike & Patty's in Boston. I can honestly say it was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. It had pulled chicken, avocado, refried beans, jicama slaw, and goat cheese, all on a chewy torta roll.
I like to eat them straight out of the pan, while my mother likes to cook them again with chicken broth - steps for both are included. You can freeze the whole tray after its first bake, but it reheats better with the chicken broth preparation.
A five-ingredient stew that takes like it has 500—it's that complex, that spiced, that satisfying. The secret is berbere, an Ethiopian spice you can find at most spice shops or online. It's made up of usually around 12 different spices, and though every blend is a little different, you'll always taste paprika, fenugreek, and dried chiles.
Our current obsession: half-veggie burgers. This recipe amps up ground turkey with caramelized mushrooms and onions. Dream pairings: Swiss cheese and Russian dressing, on a pretzel bun if you can find one.
Whether you're planning to serve chili over nachos, stir it into queso dip, make sloppy Joes, pack it into a Frito's bag for walking tacos, or whatever party snack you're planning to use it in, you don't want something too liquid-y. Adapted from Cara Nicoletti's Three Meat Chili.
This sweet-and-sour kebab is from Gilan Province in northern Iran, where people like their food extra tart. Its name in Farsi is "kebab-e torsh," or "pickled kebab," so named for the sour pomegranate marinade that gives it its flavor. The russet-colored marinade uses the same ingredients as the classic Persian stew known as Fesenjan, and is one of the tastiest discoveries I made while researching this book. Before grilling the kebabs, brush off the extra marinade, because it can burn and leave charred flakes on the meat. You can also make these kebabs using beef sirloin, fish, chicken, or vegetables. Start this recipe the day before you plan to serve it so that the kebabs can marinate overnight. (This recipe is from The New Persian Kitchen by Louisa Shafia).
