Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Tomate de árbol (also called tamarillo) is an unusual ingredient that tastes like a savory, tomatolike passion fruit. Available frozen or as pulp at many Latino or South American grocers, it is blended in the mountain city of Cuenca into an easy vinaigrettelike sauce with chiles, onion, cilantro and oil. Use it as a hot sauce, a dip or an accompaniment to meat or fish.

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

The author Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan’s family serves this simple chile sauce with everything; its heat and tartness complement this Singaporean braised duck nicely. It’s very hot, though, so feel free to add more citrus and sugar to suit your taste. It can keep for weeks, refrigerated. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Homestyle Bangladeshi chicken korma is likely more aromatic, flavorful, and deeply chicken-flavored than the heavy, creamy versions served in Indian restaurants. This recipe, adapted from Shama Mubdi, is also incredibly easy to make: You just stir everything together in a pot and turn on the heat. A last-minute addition of butter-fried onions adds sweet complexity. Serve with basmati rice and salad or South Asian pickles. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Bigos is usually translated as “hunter’s stew” and is sometimes referred to as the national dish of Poland. This version, adapted from Monika Woods, is rich with meat but heightened with caraway balanced by the tartness of sauerkraut, tomato and sweet fresh cabbage. Woods's mother makes it with the ends and scraps of meat saved and frozen over months’ worth of meals, so feel free to experiment with different cuts. Smoky kielbasa is the only necessary constant. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Unlike slow-cooked southern American treatments of this vegetable, this version retains the collards’ vibrant color and satisfying crunch. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

The key here is the scallion dressing for the noodles and the bit of oyster sauce you drizzle on for depth and umami. Feel free to substitute in any meats, fish, tofu or vegetables you like for the toppings; this is just a template for any number of quick, delicious meals.

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

A twist on the Cantonese classic ginger-scallion sauce, this aromatic purée focuses on the flavor of scallions slow-cooked to draw out their gentle sweetness. Adding more scallions at the end brings a fresh complexity to the sauce, but if you want to keep the whole thing mellow and sweet, feel free to omit that step, and just cook all the scallions at once. It's great as a dressing for noodles, boiled or roasted vegetables and simple meats and fish.

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Cheese pupusas — stuffed, griddled masa cakes — and their accompanying slaw, curtido, are quintessential Salvadoran street foods. This recipe is adapted from Janet Lainez, who has been making them for homesick Latinos every summer at the Red Hook Ball Fields for nearly 25 years. She likes to use mozzarella rather than Salvadoran cheese — preferably Polly-O, established in Brooklyn, 1899. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

This recipe for kottu roti, a popular Sri Lankan street food, comes from Sanjeewa Gooneratne, who prepares the dish at events around New York on a griddle the size of a sled. A flaky flatbread is stir-fried with eggs and spices and finished with a curry sauce. Don't let the long list of spices deter you from making the dish. You can omit a few and still experience its fantastic depths of flavor. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

This West African favorite, adapted from Rama Dione and Papa Diagne, balances the richness of peanut butter with tomato and aromatics, cooked down to a thick gravy. The addition of Southeast Asian fish sauce gives the dish depth and is somewhat traditional, given the Vietnamese influence, via the French, in Senegal. But absolutely traditional would be to eat this with guests, directly from a large platter, to demonstrate welcome and unity. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Home-style Chinese food at its simplest and, arguably, tastiest, this dish is the object of nostalgia for many Chinese immigrants (and their children). Well-seasoned eggs scrambled until just-set combine at the last moment with a sweet-tart ginger-tomato sauce. Serve with lots of steamed rice. When tomatoes are out of season, canned tomatoes in juice work best.

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Many cuisines have some version of a starchy vegetable stuffed, then fried, but the corviches of Ecuador speak to tropical and African influences in a delicious way; the plantains give them great crunch and a mild sweetness, while the peanuts offer an intriguing toasted, buttery taste. Stuffed here with quickly stewed tuna, they're great as appetizers or as a light meal when paired with a salad.

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

This gently-fried topping takes a little patience, but leaves you with sweet, aromatic, crunchy bits that will elevate salads, sandwiches, pasta or noodles. And the oil you fry it in also takes on terrific flavor — also great for drizzling on most anything you can think of.

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Often served alongside pupusas, curtido is quick to assemble, but aged over three days so the shock of pink cabbage can develop high notes and deep flavor. Transfer your finished curtido to clean jars, which make it easy to store and give away to friends.

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

The flavor bases called sofritos exist throughout the Hispanic world, and many are made with peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic. Blanca Arzu, a Garifuna woman from Honduras, makes a lighter, more herbal version based on cilantro, onions, garlic and sweet peppers. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Edna Lewis mastered dozens of bread and biscuit recipes over the years, and in “The Taste of Country Cooking,” she offers two for biscuits; this is the flannel-soft version. Be sure to use homemade baking powder, which you can make easily by sifting together 2 parts cream of tartar with 1 part baking soda. It leaves no chemical or metallic taste. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

After reading that Edna Lewis preferred extra-fine cornmeal, I adapted her recipe to use corn flour. (Be sure to get corn flour, not pure white cornstarch.) These muffins have great corn flavor, and they have a very tender, creamy texture when hot and stay moist when cool. If you’re using regular cornmeal, the muffins are still delicious, especially warm; just reduce the buttermilk to 2 cups. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

In “The Taste of Country Cooking,” Edna Lewis offers two recipes for strawberry preserves — one for wild and one for cultivated fruit, using different techniques to highlight their nuances. For garden berries, she gives an unusual method of heating the sugar separately, cutting down on the actual cooking time of the strawberries and preserving their delicate, fresh flavor. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Edna Lewis's family looked forward to visitors during hunting season, and they would prepare elaborate, generous breakfasts like this smothered rabbit to fortify them. You brown the rabbit in butter and bacon fat, drape it with sweet onions and then slowly cook it until the onions give up their juices. The Lewises served it with biscuits or corn muffins, jellies or preserves, oatmeal and coffee or hot cocoa. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

These sweet, sour and aromatic pears are terrific served with ice cream or yogurt, or they can be canned for preserving after cooking. Edna Lewis calls for Seckel pears, but this recipe works for Bosc or other varieties that will keep their shape when cooked. If you have to substitute, try to find smaller fruit, and halve them lengthwise if needed to fit in the pan. The leftover syrup is delicious in drinks. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Manioc flour can be found in Brazilian stores. It resembles a light bread crumb, but do not confuse it with tapioca flour or starch. Once toasted in fat — here, bacon, but other kinds may be used — the manioc flour can serve as a crisp topping to the feijoada, or served alongside to soak up the juices. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

The mix of meats is personal to each cook. Have your butcher cut the feet and tails for you; they’re highly recommended for their rich gelatin and ‘‘piggy’’ flavor, but if you prefer, you can use more sausage, fresh pork belly or other cuts instead. Don’t be tempted to use too many smoked meats, though; the feijoada’s flavor should be beany and porky, not smoky. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

This recipe for embutido, a festive Filipino meatloaf featuring ingredients that appeared in the Philippines during the American occupation, is adapted from Emma Phojanakong. She often prepares it as a stuffing for chicken; inspired by that, this recipe features a simple citrus-and-soy-spiked chicken sauce to go alongside. Serve it with watercress and steamed white rice, but it also makes great next-day sandwiches.

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

This recipe is an adaptation of the smoky spinach stew served at Papaye, Samuel Obeng's restaurant in the Bronx. Built on a base of onions and ginger sauteed in palm oil, made fiery with habanero, and thickened with ground pumpkin seeds and tomatoes, the stew calls for African smoked, dried shrimp powder; its flavor is amazing. (Asian versions are typically unsmoked and chewier.) But smoked paprika and fish sauce make a serviceable substitute. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

About as humble as a dish can be, with simple ingredients and cooking instructions no more complicated than boiling water, this Haitian recipe may shock you with its deliciousness — a base of warming, garlicky polenta-like porridge topped with a velvety purée of black beans and coconut milk (see the corresponding recipe for black-bean sauce). Slices of nutty avocado offer a gentle contrast in texture and another element of richness. It was adapted from the Haitian cooking instructor Cindy Similien-Johnson, who remembers it being made in her grandmother’s house. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

This origins of this seafood soup — seared fish, shrimp and conch quickly poached in a simple coconut broth — can be discerned by its elements. It's a specialty of the Garifuna people, descendants of intermarried Africans and Carib natives who settled on the Atlantic coast of Honduras (as well as Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua), and the tropical coconut and abundant seafood speak to where they live. The fact that it's always served with machuca, a mash of sweet and green plantains, reflects the Garifunas' West African origins, where cassava and plantain mashes called fufu are a staple. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Not the high-heat stir-fry you might expect, Grace Lee’s home-style fried-rice recipe uses a simple technique — make an easy, flavorful kimchi sauce, mellowed out with butter, and sauté leftover rice in it. It's perfect for a snack or a quick, simple meal. The Spam, though optional, reflects many Koreans’ love of foods introduced by the American military. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Packed with herbs and plenty of lemon, this quick buttermilk dressing can be considered a brighter, lighter cousin of ranch. It's terrific in grain bowls, for salads or even as a sauce for poached, sautéed or grilled fish.

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Machuca is a staple of the Garifuna, descendants of intermarried Africans and Carib natives who live on the Atlantic coast of Central America. It's a sticky, satisfying mash of sweet and green plantains, rolled into bites and dunked into flavorful soups, similar to the fufus of West Africa. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

A Palestinian tradition, maqluba means “upside down” in Arabic and is a pot of stewed meat, rice and fried vegetables, cooked and flipped onto a serving dish to form an impressive tower. In Maha Sarsour’s version, the rice is richly spiced with cinnamon, allspice and more, and the chicken simmers to tenderness as it gives its flavor to the rice. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Think of this as a cousin of the classic pepper stews pepperonata or piperade, but cooked down and caramelized to feature the peppers and onions' sweetness and luscious, spreadable texture. Its terrific as a condiment for eggs, simply cooked meats and fish, or spread on toast for a quick meal with hearty toppings, like cheese and herbs, leftover meats or roasted vegetables.

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

With the vegetal sweetness of caramelized peppers and onions as the base, a topping of fresh ricotta, flaky salt, and mint leaves is a simple way to make a terrific breakfast or lunch. It tastes fresh, deep, milky and rich, and the flavor of mint comes on like a surprise.

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Fany Gerson makes her paletas, Mexican fruit ice-pops, the traditional way: with real fruit for intense flavors. Although this flavor isn't traditional, it was inspired by esquites, a favorite Mexican street food of corn dressed with sour cream, lime and chile. To make it, infuse milk with fresh sweet corn and chile, and then blend it into a smooth base. Fold in some lime and sautéed corn for texture, and freeze for a rich, sweet-savory treat. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

This dish is somewhere between a shrimp salad and a ceviche – just-cooked shrimp dressed with a sour-savory-sweet mixture of lime, fish sauce, and sweet chile paste, then showered with herbs and chiles. In classic Thai fashion, it’s combination of many tastes, each moment on your palate different from the next. It’s a favorite of Pornpong Kanittanon, the Consul General of Thailand in New York, and the recipe is adapted from his wife, Jaisamarn. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Take a healthy hashbrown, plump it up with more potatoes and a few eggs, and slowly bake it for a couple hours and you’ll get this potato kugel. Its crunchy top gives way to a super-soft, almost mashed-potato center, and the soft aroma of onion will fill your kitchen. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

With pliant skins surrounding a rich mash of potatoes and cheese, Julia Hlinka’s pierogies are the epitome of satisfying northern Slovakian farm food. Instead of the traditional sheep's cheese, she uses American cheese — a reminder of her move to the United States in the 60s — which melts into the potatoes. She tops the pierogies with bacon as a treat. Alternatively, you can also serve them dressed with a little melted butter and chopped chives. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

This simple, classic braise from northern France brings together the fall flavors of sweet apples, yeasty cider, cream and chicken. The only trick is flambéing the Calvados or brandy, which gives it a toasty flavor — it’s literally playing with fire, so if you’d prefer not to do that, you can stay safe and get very similar results by pouring the liquor in off-heat, and gently simmering it to evaporate the alcohol. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Full of chewy grains, caramelized broccoli and juicy mushrooms, this delicious blend of textures and flavors can feel like the best way to get your vitamins and fiber. The omelet ribbons come together almost like fettuccine on top, and the lemony, herbal buttermilk dressing lends the bowl some decadence. If you have the vegetables and grains already cooked and stashed in the fridge, this dish comes together in just a few minutes. Feel free to use any combination of roasted vegetables and grains you like — this recipe can be a template for all your leftovers.

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

This traditional Montenegrin dessert, adapted from Jasmina Bojic, is a kind of open-faced marshmallow sandwich. The syrup from the meringue seeps into the cake as it rests, befitting Montenegro's position between layer-cake-loving Central Europe and the syrup-soaked pastry traditions of the Mediterranean. Serve with strong coffee to balance the sampita's rich sweetness. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

The Singaporean flavors of star anise, galangal and molasses-like soy sauce are a natural with duck — they may seem unfamiliar for some, but they parallel the idea of pairing fruits or warm winter spices with the bird. Reflecting her modern sensibility, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan took this recipe from her grandmother and tweaked it to serve the duck at a slightly pink medium rather than fully cooked. Of course, you may cook it through if you prefer. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

This velvety purée of black beans and coconut milk is the perfect accompaniment to Mayi Moulen, a Haitian recipe for garlicky polenta-like porridge. Slices of nutty avocado offer a gentle contrast in texture and another element of richness. It was adapted from the Haitian cooking instructor Cindy Similien-Johnson, who remembers it from her grandmother’s house. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

Long a star on Camille Orrichio Loccisano’s traditional Italian-American Feast of the Seven Fishes table, these stuffed squid were also a hit at her restaurant, the appropriately named Casa Calamari. After a slow simmer in briny tomato sauce, diced shrimp and peppery crumbs plump up into a rich stuffing that fills tender calamari bodies; they're like seafood dumplings in reverse. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

This “tofu” comes together fast; it’s essentially a quick chickpea flour porridge that you cool and slice. The tart, savory tamarind dressing and crispy shallots and garlic with oil give the dish tons of flavor. As an untraditional addition, you could also add corn and diced tomatoes for a fresh summer meal. Francis Lam

Francis Lam · NYT Cooking

This savory, herbal Trinidadian chickpea-and-potato curry is an island adaptation of a common north Indian dish. It comes from the Trini cooking teacher Dolly Sirju, who dislikes comparisons of Trinidadian food to Indian. “India is totally different than Trinidad,” she says. This dish swaps out tomatoes, ginger and whole spices for Madras curry powder and waves of cilantro-like flavor. Serve it with steamed white rice or roti flatbread.