I just love salad. When I’m in the city, I eat salad every day for lunch. When I’m on the road for business, I often order salad from room service for dinner. Of course, I understand that not everyone shares this leafy passion (take my husband, please), so when I…
Hamburgers are so central to American culture that messing with them can seem almost sacrilegious. And it’s kind of perilous to boot. Replace the beef with low-fat turkey, as in this recipe, and you risk creating a drier, less flavorful burger, a burger unworthy of the name. Here I’ve countered…
Known as onglet in French, hanger steak is sometimes called butcher’s tenderloin in English because there is only one of these delicious cuts per animal and butchers tend to hog it for themselves. In other words, it is not something that is regularly stocked in the supermarket meat case, so…
An egg roulade is sort of like an enormous spongy omelet. It is a big rolled-up container for just about any tasty ingredients. From an entertaining point of view, the beauty of an egg roulade is that you can make it the day ahead, chill it overnight, and then fill…
The first time I ate soft-shell crabs was at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. Looking back, I can’t imagine where I found the nerve to try them. I didn’t even like fish. But try them I did, and I was knocked out by the sweet crabmeat and that…
Perfect for a springtime brunch or a quick dinner, this is a cross between an omelet and a soufflé and doesn’t take too much work as long as you have electric beaters. Make sure you beat your egg whites just to soft peaks; otherwise they won’t fold properly into the…
Funny thing about mushrooms: although they’re about 80% water to begin with, they have the spongelike ability to soak up a bunch more liquid besides. In this meatless recipe, the mushrooms start by absorbing a very flavorful lime-and-cumin marinade. Then they’re charred under the broiler along with tomatoes, onion, and…
Red beans and rice is one of the signature dishes of New Orleans, a city rich with the influences of Latin America and the Caribbean. Indeed, that’s why Louis Armstrong, New Orleans’s pioneering cultural ambassador to the world, used to sign off his letters, “Red beans and ricely yours….” Now…
When I was just getting started on this book, I asked Jennifer Day, my chef de cuisine at Gourmet, to put on her thinking cap and pass along her best recipe ideas. She and her husband, Matt, cook dinner at home almost every night, and they’re always experimenting with new…
I have recently been getting a lot of requests for this recipe from Sara’s Secrets for Weeknight Meals. The cornmeal mush known as polenta, one of the national dishes of Italy, emerged in its original form as the field ration of the Roman soldier. Although pulmentum was made of millet…
Rock Cornish Game Hens, a cross between a White Rock Hen and a Cornish Hen, are underrated. Maybe it is because ounce for ounce they are a little more expensive than chicken or perhaps it is because they are a little scary for people who are used to chicken in…
This easy recipe from Sara Moulton Cooks at Home is ideal for entertaining. You can put it into the oven and it minds itself while you do other things. When I told my mentor and good buddy Jean Anderson that this book needed her chicken recipe — it’s become one…
This easy recipe from Sara Moulton Cooks at Home is ideal for entertaining. You can put it into the oven and it minds itself while you do other things. When I told my mentor and good buddy Jean Anderson that this book needed her chicken recipe — it’s become one…
I enjoy cooking and serving vegetable main dishes all year long. I love to let the vegetables shine in the center of the plate. You’ll find a whole chapter of meatless recipes in all three of my cookbooks. My Portobello Burgers are absolutely wonderful meatless sandwiches. In the center is…
This recipe is based on a Japanese dish called shabu-shabu, but I left out the kombu (dried kelp) and the tofu, then poked it here and pinched it there, so I can’t pretend that my version is even remotely authentic. But both recipes are built around poached beef. I’d almost…
The Husband tends to scorn the BLT as an “air sandwich.” Of course, it’s delicious—how can it not be as long as bacon is involved—but it’s hardly what you’d call filling. That’s why I’ve bulked up the traditional BLT with some “fried” fish. I’ve also tricked up the standard-issue mayo…
I first learned about “pasta pizza” from Leslie Glover, one of Gourmet’s test cooks, who developed it for “In Short Order.” It is ridiculously simple and so tasty. Anytime you make angel hair pasta, just cook double the amount you need. The leftover pasta, recast as the star of this…
This dish, from Sara’s Secrets for Weeknight Meals, is perfect for those warm summer nights when you don’t even want to switch on the stove. Melon and prosciutto is such a refreshing summertime appetizer that I wondered if there was a way to make it entrée-hearty without ruining its essential…
This recipe from Sara Moulton Cooks at Home is the happy result of an unhappy incident. My friend and fellow chef Sandy Gluck was trying out for a job at a very fancy cutting-edge restaurant in New York City in the early eighties. One of the many reasons she decided…
My favorite eggs are poached or fried (I love those runny yolks), but scrambled eggs are a close second, as long as they’re properly cooked. The right way to do it is slowly and at a very low temperature; this guarantees the eggs’ creaminess, but it also requires a measure…
This hearty sandwich from Sara’s Secrets for Weeknight Meals (page 103) is featured on Episode 104 of my public television show, Sara’s Weeknight Meals. Lots of folks prefer breakfast to any other meal. These range from the relative few who pour themselves a bowl of cereal in the evening and…