Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Asado, a complex, salty-sour dish of pork shoulder slowly cooked in tomato sauce flavored with garlic, soy sauce and calamansi (a small citrus fruit), is a dish frequently eaten in Pampanga, said to be the culinary capital of the Philippines, and it is often served at large gatherings. This recipe comes from Chad and Chase Valencia, brothers and owners of the Los Angeles restaurant Lasa, who serve their mother’s asado alongside turkey and honey-roasted ham at Thanksgiving. The trick to the asado’s rich depths is evaporated milk; for a little extra salt and heft, you can add grated queso de bola, the nutty Filipino cheese served during the holidays. Don’t skip the overnight refrigeration step, which really allows the flavors to deepen. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

This modern take on badam burfi, from the latest cookbook, “Desi Bakes” (Hardie Grant, 2024), by the food writer Hetal Vasavada, layers the classic South Asian almond confection over tart, Barbie-pink, ruby chocolate in bark form. The chocolate is not only a photogenic topping; it — along with freeze-dried strawberries — also tempers the sweetness of the burfi and compliments the cardamom. This recipe sidesteps the hardest parts of making burfi — it gets pressed into a pan, meaning no need to do any individual shaping — while still producing a beautiful, portable treat. A little salt brings out the best from this nutty, fruity, floral confection. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Mustard oil is a key ingredient in many South Asian dishes, but is especially important in Bengali cuisine. Its earthy, astringent flavor can bring complexity to a simple cooked vegetable, pickle or tadka. This weeknight dish is inspired by bhetki paturi, a mustard oil-coated fish that gets cooked in a banana leaf. In this recipe, foil is a stand-in for banana leaf (though feel free to use the leaf if you have one!), steaming the fish gently and infusing it with flavor. Coconut and mustard oil are a stellar combination here, as the sweetness of the coconut tempers the bitterness of the mustard oil and seeds. The juices that pool around the cooked fish are especially delicious; be sure to spoon those over the cooked rice.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Bhel puri — a type of chaat made with puffed rice, chutneys and various toppings — is the ultimate entertaining dish, whether you are hosting or bringing a dish to a potluck. Most of it can be prepared in advance, leaving mostly the assembly which allows you to really put on a show for your guests. You can make a good chaat with store-bought chutneys and bhel mix. But it’s the homemade chutneys and fried tortilla strips that make this exceptional, providing the sweet-salty-fresh-crunchy combination that is the hallmark of chaat. The ingredient list is long, but after you make the chutneys, you are 80 percent of the way there. When you have the components prepared, set them out in bowls, invite all your guests to gather around, and make your chaat live, tasting and tossing for everyone to see.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Callaloo is a simple stewed dish of greens, tomatoes, onions and Lawry’s Seasoned Salt. The dish is eaten across the Caribbean, but this version comes from Hazel Craig, the mother of the pastry chef Jessica Craig of L’Artusi in Manhattan. Hazel makes the dish every Christmas exactly as she ate it in Jamaica: with saltfish, which adds heft and a pleasant funk. If you’re not able to get callaloo (which can be found in fresh or canned form at Caribbean markets and some international grocery stores), any sturdy green will do, like kale or Swiss chard. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Badam burfi, a rich, fudgy treat made of almonds, milk and sugar, is a classic Indian sweet. This version, developed by Ashvin Patel, who runs Surati Farsan Mart in Artesia, Calif., incorporates caramel for an even more decadent sweet that tastes somewhere between mithai and a candy bar. These treats are eaten throughout the South Asian subcontinent for celebrations both big and small, from Diwali to a good score on a test. They travel well and can be frozen for at least a few weeks. If the almond base seems a bit dry, kneading it with your hands will help incorporate the milk mixture more completely.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

The beauty of chaat — a category of tangy, sweet, fiery and crunchy Indian snacks — is that it’s built for customization. The only common denominator is that alchemy of flavor sensations, often driven by a combination of sweet-and-sour tamarind chutney, a bright herb chutney (like this cilantro-mint chutney or this green chile chutney) and cooling raita. Otherwise, base ingredients and toppings (and even those chutneys!) can all be interchanged. This spirit is the driving force behind Maneet Chauhan’s chaat party, from her cookbook, “Chaat” (Clarkson Potter, 2020), a choose-your-own-adventure spread that allows eaters to build a chaat suited to their tastes: More crunch! Less spicy! More sweet! More herbs! It’s entirely up to you. This is a great way to entertain, and also a quick, no-cook dinner. Use this list as a starting point for ingredients, but feel free to get creative. If you are able to get banana leaves, spread them out over the table before arranging everything else on top

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

This vibrant green chutney from Maneet Chauhan’s “Chaat” (Clarkson Potter, 2020) is as easy to make as it is versatile. The combination of mint, cilantro, green chiles and lime juice makes for a fresh and bright sauce, but the mango pulp is especially key, giving the chutney a slightly creamy texture and a subtly sweet flavor. This chutney has a lot of uses in Indian cuisine — a building block for chaat, or a dipping sauce for pakora, for example — and it can also be used as a sandwich spread or marinade. It lasts up to two weeks, refrigerated, in an airtight container, but it will start to lose its vibrancy and flavor after a week — best to make it one batch at a time to enjoy that day. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

These round treats are a coconut lover’s dream — and best of all, they’re just three ingredients. Coconut laddoo is a type of mithai, or sweet, typically found in South Asian shops and served for celebratory occasions. While many types of mithai are milk- or nut-based, this one lets the coconut do all the talking, and a little bit of cardamom provides a floral edge. This particular variety is a crowd favorite at Jayasri Sweets in Herndon, Va., and the recipe comes from the shop’s owner, Jayasri Gampa. This recipe works best with fresh coconut (frozen is fine); dried coconut doesn’t have enough moisture for the mixture to hold together.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Saag paneer is a classic North Indian dish — but it’s also endlessly riffable. Swap out the paneer for feta or halloumi, the mustard greens for kale or spinach, and so on. This is a particularly stellar riff, in which coconut milk enriches an already aromatic and verdant sauce that can be paired with either the traditional paneer, or extra-firm tofu. The final hit of coconut oil infused with smoky cumin seeds and red chile powder adds loads of depth, making this dish quite possibly the most luxurious way to eat a pound of greens.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Indian cooking is filled with one-pan sabzis that come together fast and deliver big, complex flavor. This variation on a potato and green bean sabzi has a twist: almond butter, which gives the vegetables a nutty, almost tempura-like coating, made fragrant with warm spices, ginger and garlic. The green bean and potato combination makes for a nice contrast of textures, but you can easily make swaps: potatoes for sweet potatoes, green beans for broccoli. Chaat masala — a salty, tart and delightfully funky spice blend — is widely available in South Asian grocery stores or online and is well worth having in your pantry to give sabzis like this one some extra sparkle.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

It’s the details that make these herbed cucumber sandwiches feel special: slicing the cucumbers thin, salting and patting the slices dry and making sure the dill gets evenly distributed in the cream cheese. Soft bread is key here, as is the generous amount of whipped cream cheese — both elements give these sandwiches their delightful texture.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Yogurt rice is a nostalgic dish for many South Asians, and especially South Indians. It’s the ultimate comfort food, and a no-fuss dinner that’s easy to put together. Cool, creamy yogurt and crunchy, warm spices create a dreamy contrast that makes this dish feel more whole meal-worthy than snack-friendly (though it’ll serve you well for both). Traditional versions include mustard seeds, curry leaves and urad dal, but this variation includes a different set of pantry staples: cumin seeds, cashews and red chile powder. The trio, plus fresh green chiles, gets sizzled in ghee, enhancing all the rich, smoky, spicy flavors, then gets poured directly over the yogurt rice. Add grated carrots and zucchini to give the rice more heft, or try it with a different combination of spices.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Hazel Craig, the mother of the pastry chef Jessica Craig, prepares this hearty, spicy dish from her native Jamaica with her homemade curry powder blend. It’s worth making to maximize the dish’s depth and complexity, and the recipe here makes extra (which can be used in any kind of stew or braise). Hazel insists that the best way to prepare goat is not to brown the meat first, but to cook everything all at once in the same pot. “When you heat everything up together,” she said, all the flavor “gets locked in there.” Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

In many South Asian households, making yogurt is standard practice. The writer Priya Krishna’s father has been making yogurt at the family’s home in Dallas for as long as she can remember, using a yogurt culture he has kept going for more than 25 years. No store-bought yogurt has ever held a candle to the homemade version, which is thick and pleasantly tangy. You can really taste the milk. (Organic milk will often yield a creamier result.) You may have been told that you need special machines and containers to make yogurt, but this recipe, which appears in her 2019 cookbook “Indian-ish,” is quite simple: All that’s required is a heavy-bottomed pot and an oven. You can use one batch of yogurt as the culture for the next, and watch your yogurt evolve over time. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

The warming, soothing and downright healing effects of dal are well known throughout South Asia and its diaspora. This is an everyday dish for a good reason: It’s simple to make but tastes complex, and the flavor only deepens over time. There are countless ways to make dal; this version requires just 10 minutes and five ingredients (not including salt), all serving important purposes: The lentils cook quickly, the turmeric lends an earthy wholesomeness and the rich chhonk, or tempering, made by sizzling spices with ghee, brings instant depth. To gussy it up, try adding a packet of frozen spinach, or stirring minced garlic into the chhonk. If you’re tempted to use ground cumin instead of cumin seeds, resist! The seeds have a distinctly smokier flavor and add a pleasant texture to the dal.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Breakfast is hugely important in Filipino culture, a legacy of the country’s rich agricultural past, when farmworkers ate large morning meals to get through the day. Accordingly, the morning after Thanksgiving, the brothers Chad and Chase Valencia — who own the Filipino restaurant Lasa in Los Angeles's Chinatown — make breakfast sandwiches for their family out of leftover asado (a salty-sour pork dish), ham or turkey. The sandwiches are endlessly customizable: Chase mixes the asado and its accompanying sauce into the eggs, like a scramble, to become the base of the sandwich, while Chad crowns his with a fried egg. But the constants are the queso de bola, a nutty Filipino cheese (similar to Edam cheese) served during the holidays that melts elegantly atop the meat, and pan de sal, a slightly squishy, yeasted roll whose sweetness stands up to all the savory components of the sandwich. Both the cheese and the pan de sal are readily available at many Asian grocery stores, and well worth ge

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

This chicken, which is the brainchild of my aunt Sonia, is legendary among our cousins. Until recently, though, no one knew what, exactly, went into it. Whenever my aunt would make it on a family vacation, she’d disappear for a half-hour and reemerge with a Ziploc bag filled with the marinade and the chicken breasts. No one (not even her only daughter, Isha) was allowed to know the contents. The marinating chicken would smell so good, I’d legitimately have thoughts about eating it raw, carpaccio-style (which is disgusting, I know!). Well, folks, I am here to tell you that, after much negotiation, I have finally pried that chicken recipe out of Sonia’s hands. Both the marinade and the cooking method (low and sort of slow) feel ingenious to me, and the payoff is huge: Charred, spicy, slightly funky, juicy chicken that is equally wonderful by itself or rolled up in a roti, taco-style, and served with various salads and chutneys. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

In her cookbook, “Chaat” (Clarkson Potter, 2020), the chef Maneet Chauhan refers to this bright, spicy chutney as a “workhorse staple in the Indian pantry.” She uses it primarily in chaat, but also drizzles it on top of roasted vegetables, dollops it onto soups and spoons it over scrambled eggs. This chutney “makes virtually any Indian recipe taste better,” she said, with its harmony of lively, complex flavors, such as chaat masala and asafetida. Like a lot of chutneys, it also includes toasted dal, which brings nuttiness and a little texture. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Think of this as the most luxurious Hamburger Helper you’ve ever had. It’s how Mark Rosati, the culinary director of Shake Shack, turns leftover ground beef into a complete weeknight dinner. The entire dish — even the pasta — is made in one pot, and melds the indelible comfort of macaroni and cheese with the complexity of a good Bolognese. This definitely has a kick, so adjust the hot sauce according to taste.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

It is easy to fall in love with hotteok, a Korean street food that’s crisp on the outside, and chewy underneath thanks to sweet rice flour. The center oozes with hot sugary nuts (or other fillings — feel free to experiment). The dish came to South Korea by way of Chinese immigrants in the 19th century, and this version is adapted from “Korean Soul Food” (Frances Lincoln, 2019) by the chef Judy Joo. She uses muscovado sugar, as it gives the interior a rich flavor and gooey texture, but the more traditional dark brown sugar works well, too. It’s tempting to eat hotteok straight out of the pan, but make sure to let it cool down slightly before enjoying, so the melted sugar doesn’t burn the roof of your mouth. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Peda, a fudgy, milky South Asian sweet, is a staple of mithai shop cases. In this recipe, the founder of Malai Ice Cream, Pooja Bavishi, smartly uses melted ice cream as a base, incorporating milk powder, cardamom and salt for a snackable treat that’s toasty and nutty in flavor and aromatic with spices. The melted ice cream gives the peda its rich texture and subtle, sweet undertow and makes the dough easy to handle and shape. If the dough starts to dry out as you are shaping the balls, just knead it again until smooth. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Of all the places my mom, who lives in Dallas, has traveled for work, her favorite will always be London — the cobblestone streets, the limitless sights, the walkability and, most important, the pubs. She spent a lot of time in pubs on early '90s London business trips, and the only vegetarian dish was very often a baked potato. This is where she discovered the ingenuity of filling a soft, steamy potato with all kinds of tasty toppings that absorb nicely into the starchy flesh. In this recipe, she subs out the big potato for smaller, thin-skinned ones (for a prettier presentation), and the bacon bits, chives and packaged cheese for spicier, brighter toppings: chiles, chaat masala, onions and ginger. This dish takes almost no time to put together once the potatoes are baked, but looks very impressive as an appetizer or a small side. Tip: Cut the ginger, onion and chiles while the potatoes bake, so everything is ready for assembly. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

These vegetarian nachos take their cues from paapdi or papri chaat, the spicy, tangy and sweet Indian snack of fried dough wafers piled with chickpeas, tomatoes, onions, yogurt and various chutneys. This take starts with standard nacho elements: tortilla chips, black beans and a healthy amount of bubbly, melted cheese. But the classic chaat pairing of spicy and verdant cilantro chutney with sweet and sour tamarind sauce provides another level of brightness and complexity. Don’t skip the chhonk, a sauce made of melted ghee, cumin seeds and red chile powder that is drizzled over the top of the nachos. It provides a rich finish and even more crunch.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

There are two secrets to this silky, not-too-sweet pudding, a Jamaican holiday staple from Hazel Craig, the mother of the pastry chef Jessica Craig: Freshly grated nutmeg provides the warm, toasty flavor and batatas (white-fleshed sweet potatoes) give the dish its dense, starchy texture. The combination of sweet potato and coconut is decadent, but not overly so — like a poundcake merged with a cheesecake. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

At the Brooklyn Mexican restaurant, Cruz del Sur, practically every table has this salad on it. Why? It tastes as refreshing and vibrant as it looks. The key to its greatness comes from Tajín, the mildly spicy-tangy chile-lime salt that goes into the dressing (double the batch, trust us) and also gets sprinkled on top of the finished salad. Tajín and fruit are a classic sweet-salty combination in Mexican food, but bringing herbs, chiles and vegetables like jicama and cucumber into the mix make it even better. At the restaurant, the chef Hugo Orozco varies the herbs and flowers seasonally. He also recommends adding a few slices of perfectly ripe avocado on top, if you have access to them. Priya Krishna and Cathy Lo

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

This cozy vegetable main is an ode to earthy, maple-y fenugreek, a staple spice of Indian cooking that is a perfect match for the mild sweetness of butternut squash. Normally roasted, butternut squash is gently stewed here with ginger, onion, turmeric, tomatoes and brown sugar, bringing out a unique and addictive sweet-and-sour flavor. Kaddu is traditionally paired with puri, a type of fried bread, but roti, tortillas and even toast work well with this bright and hearty one-pot dish. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

In the “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series (later known on television as “Game of Thrones”), George R.R. Martin devotes a lot of ink to lemon cakes, a favorite of the Lady of Winterfell Sansa Stark. The cakes have since become a pop culture totem for fans of the series. This recipe is inspired by a version found in “A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook” by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Sariann Lehrer. You don’t need to be a fan of “Game of Thrones” to love these cookielike treats, which are dense in texture, bright in flavor and boast a tart-sweet lemon glaze. The cakes are easy to throw together for a potluck or to satisfy a teatime craving. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

A staple of Liberian cuisine, this chicken tastes complex with its mix of spicy heat and richness, but comes together simply in just one pan. For the chef Thalmus Hare and other Liberians, this dish is part of the Thanksgiving table. (Liberia is one of the only countries outside the United States to celebrate Thanksgiving.) Peppers are staples in Liberian cuisine, and this recipe incorporates two kinds: sweet red bell peppers and more fiery habaneros. They’re a satisfying counterbalance to the intense chicken flavor that’s supercharged by both broth and Maggi seasoning. This shares similarities with Liberian pepper chicken, another popular dish, but is much saucier. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

To many, the banana pudding at the famed New York shop Magnolia Bakery is even more iconic than the store’s beloved cupcakes. Airy, creamy and delightfully reminiscent of childhood packaged snacks (thanks to instant vanilla pudding mix), this dessert is both a crowd pleaser and easy to assemble. If you’re making 12 individual servings rather than one large one, you’ll have enough cookies to use two per layer. If you prefer more coverage, make only two layers and use three cookies per layer. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

The chef Fany Gerson’s spicy, dynamic take on a classic matzo ball soup is a staple of her Rosh Hashana table. The broth gets a bright kick from green chiles, cilantro and garlic; the matzo balls are blended with onions and fresh herbs (use an extra-large pot to prevent the balls from overcrowding); and the finished soup is garnished with even more onions, chiles and cilantro, plus avocado and lime for freshness and color. The broth calls for two chickens, even though you use the meat from only one of the chickens shredded in the soup. Ms. Gerson says using two chickens boosts the flavor of the broth, and you can use the meat from the second one the following day for enchiladas or tacos. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

The microwave is for more than just popping popcorn or heating leftovers. It can also make an excellent bowl of rice. Unlike a stovetop, which can create hot spots on a pan that result in scorched rice, microwaves provide even heat on all sides, creating uniformly textured grains. This method is also very practical: You don’t have to babysit the grains, and you won’t have to clean a pot with stuck-on bits of rice. It may take a few attempts to figure out the exact timing for your microwave as machines differ in wattage and efficiency in air circulation. If you want to jazz up your rice, try adding a pat of butter, a drizzle of olive oil or even a pinch of a spice blend like ras el hanout before microwaving.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Collard greens are a mainstay of Liberian cuisine, brought to the country from the United States by formerly enslaved Africans. Here is a classic Liberian preparation that’s spicy with habaneros (Liberia is known for being the “Pepper Coast” of Africa), and rich with the flavors of ham, turkey and chicken. Each meat brings a distinct taste, creating the base for a gravy that you’ll want to spoon over rice. This is one of those vegetable dishes that’s hearty enough to be a main, whether it’s for Thanksgiving — which is celebrated in Liberia with foods like this one — or any other gathering. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Here’s a simple, no-bake sweet that riffs on peanut laddoos, a bite-size Indian confection made of ghee, sugar and nuts, with a chocolate coating inspired by buckeyes, the peanut butter and chocolate treat popular in Ohio. It was dreamed up by Hetal Vasavada, the blogger and author of the dessert cookbook “Milk & Cardamom,” which combines the traditional Indian flavors she grew up with and the Western sweets she encountered as an American kid in New Jersey. The cardamom, ghee and jaggery provide both an interesting twist to the traditional flavor combination and a slightly grittier texture, which Ms. Vasavada likens to that of a Butterfinger candy bar. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

This photogenic, red-and-green whole fish from Contramar in Mexico City has been replicated at restaurants across the country, and for good reason. The bright, zingy parsley sauce painted on one side and the smoky, spicy chile sauce on the other make for a brilliant balance of flavors and colors. The dish is based on a traditional coastal Mexican dish, but it was the addition of the parsley sauce and the presentation — the brainchild of Gabriela Cámara, the chef of Contramar — that made this dish a worldwide sensation. It may look dramatic, but the technique is quite simple, and can easily be adapted for fillets rather than a whole fish. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

If you’ve never been a fan of Bundt cake, this one just might change your mind. The key to this cake’s moist crumb and sweet, nostalgic flavor is instant pistachio pudding mix, a trick that the chef Joshua Pinsky learned from his mother. A simple lime glaze and whipped ricotta for dolloping make this recipe feel more special than your average snacking cake. This also works well as a make-ahead dessert, retaining its moisture and flavor over a few days. Try making the whipped ricotta a day ahead: It’ll thicken and become even creamier overnight. Priya Krishna and Jesse Szewczyk

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

The chef Fany Gerson makes her tangy and sweet roast chicken with an apricot glaze: a mixture of apricot jam, butter and garlic that is applied while the chicken is in the oven, keeping it juicy and flavorful inside and out. The apricot butter is also whisked into the pan drippings, along with shallots and red wine vinegar, to make a vibrant sauce. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Saffron and pistachio, a combination known to many on the Indian subcontinent as kesar pista, is a classic flavoring in South Asian, Iranian and other desserts — and for good reason. The buttery richness of pistachios brings out the floral flavor in saffron. Kesar pista shines in other sweets like this nutty twist on a blondie. Seth Byrum, my partner and an avid home baker, suggested enriching the base with white chocolate, which feels reminiscent of khoya, the richly flavored milk solids in several South Asian confections. The radiantly golden frosting lets the saffron do the talking. Garnish the top with pistachios to mimic the top of more traditional South Asian sweets, like shrikhand.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Onigiri are a classic Japanese snack, the compact rice balls are a staple of the country’s convenience stores. They are portable, flavorful and filling — the ideal travel companion — and include dozens of variations. The technique is simple: The filling of choice (salmon, in this case) gets spooned into balls of rice that are shaped into triangles and wrapped in crispy seaweed. Wetting and salting your hands before working with the rice is key — it seasons the rice and prevents the grains from sticking to your palms.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

White bread transforms into a luxurious dessert in this classic South Asian sweet. Think of shahi toast as the ultimate bread pudding — cold, creamy, dreamy, crunchy and fragrant with cardamom, which tastes citrusy, sweet and floral. Buttered, toasted squares of bread are soaked in a citrusy-sweet cardamom cream until soft (but not soggy!) and topped with crunchy pistachios. This was one of my mom’s favorite desserts as a kid growing up in India and this is her shortcut version, with my upgrades (hint: butter). It is amazing how luxurious this tastes considering how easy it is to make.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

This cozy dessert from Sara Mardanbigi and Edgar Rico, the owners of Nixta Taqueria in Austin, Texas, is a take on sholeh zard, a loose, heavily spiced Persian rice pudding Ms. Mardanbigi grew up eating. It also borrows influence from the Mexican arroz con leche of Mr. Rico’s childhood. Their take is warm and smoky with black cardamom and saffron, velvety from egg yolks and butter, and has a savory finish. It calls for arborio rice instead of the usual basmati to add a slight chew, and strawberry powder instead of rosewater to provide similar floral notes with a punch of acid. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

For Haitians, soup joumou is synonymous with freedom. The story goes that during French colonial rule of Haiti, enslaved Africans were forced by their oppressors to cultivate squash for this dish but were not allowed to eat it. When Haitians won their independence on Jan. 1, 1804, they ate soup joumou to celebrate. The formula varies slightly from family to family, but usually includes calabaza squash, beef marinated in a bright epis seasoning of onions, peppers and herbs, an assortment of other vegetables and pasta. This classic version is adapted from “Let’s Speak Haitian Food: Stories from the Haitian Diaspora on Cuisine, Community and Culture” by Cindy Similien, a Haitian-American author and community advocate. The inclusion of both vermicelli and homemade dumplings adds a springy bite and thickens the broth of this one-pot dish, which can be made on Haitian Independence Day, or for any special occasion. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

One easy way to elevate a simple sheet cake is to infuse it with strawberry-flavored gelatin. The method of poking holes in the cake and pouring gelatin into them serves two purposes: giving the cake a poppy pink-striped look when you cut into it, and ensuring you get that nostalgic strawberry flavor in every bite. Like many gelatin-based dishes, poke cakes were likely popularized in the 20th century as part of an advertising push for Jell-O mixes.This recipe is adapted from April Anderson, an owner of Good Cakes and Bakes, a bakery in Detroit, whose mother used gelatin mixes to punch up some of her desserts. The basic poke cake formula is made to be modified: If you don’t like strawberry-flavored gelatin, try lemon or cherry. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

There is nothing quite like the tangy, sweet and sour sensation of tamarind, the main ingredient in this essential Indian chutney. In chaat, a category of spicy, savory, tangy and crunchy Indian snacks, tamarind chutney provides the pungent, pucker-inducing element that makes those dishes so craveable. In this recipe, from Maneet Chauhan’s cookbook, “Chaat” (Clarkson Potter, 2020), the tamarind flavor is sweetened with jaggery, dates and raisins, and brightened up with ginger, with deep umami coming from the chaat masala. It’s possible to find high-quality store-bought tamarind chutney, but nothing beats the vibrant flavors of a fresh batch made at home. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

These have the transformative power to turn snack time into something far fancier. The two easy classics are building blocks for afternoon tea or a baby shower, but also work just as easily for lunch. It’s the little things that make these sandwiches feel special: slicing the cucumbers thin, salting and patting the slices dry and making sure the herbs get evenly distributed in the compound butter. Soft bread is key here, as are the generous amounts of butter — both elements give these sandwiches their delightful texture. Make one version or both, and scale the recipe up or down as needed. These sandwiches are best served immediately, but can sit out for about an hour.

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

I could use all sorts of fancy words to explain this dish, but the best description is this: pizza in rice form. The inspiration for the recipe, though, is oddly enough not Italian — it’s a hybrid of a classic South Indian tomato rice with onions and a shockingly fantastic Spanish rice recipe my mom and I photocopied out of my seventh-grade Spanish textbook for a school project. The crispy, bubbly, broiled Cheddar topping (use the sharpest white Cheddar you can find!) adds a little something something, making it a worthy dinner party dish. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Silog, rice bathed in lots of garlic and crowned with a runny egg, is a hearty and essential part of any Filipino breakfast, and it comes together very quickly. For Chad and Chase Valencia, brothers and owners of the Filipino restaurant Lasa, in Los Angeles, the best time to make silog is the morning after Thanksgiving, when they top it with seared leftover turkey (or ham), and gravy to moisten the bits of rice. You're going to have to plan ahead for this recipe, as it’s best made with day-old rice; freshly made rice won't get as crisp in the pan. And don't be intimidated by the amount of garlic here — it all mellows out, while still providing a potent punch. Chad notes that this dish will work in almost any nonstick pan, except for a steel or aluminum-bottomed pan; you could even use a well-seasoned cast-iron pan or wok. Priya Krishna

Priya Krishna · NYT Cooking

Pulao is a weeknight staple in many Desi households, as it can be made in one pot, has a flexible ingredient list and makes no sacrifices on flavor. Whole spices, which give the pulao its intense, complex flavor, are key in this recipe. But the beauty of pulao is that it can be easily adjusted according to your preferences and what you have around. You can swap the carrots for cauliflower, or the potatoes for sweet potatoes. In a pinch, a frozen bag of carrots, peas and corn will work just fine. And if you don’t have one of the spices, fret not and carry on. Pulao is often served with achaar, or pickle, yogurt and papad — but it’s also wonderful by itself.