Recipes

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

The South likes to claim pimento cheese as its own, but its origins can actually be traced back to New York, the home of cream cheese, which makes up the spread’s foundation. Cheddar and mayonnaise were later additions. This frittata is a hodgepodge of creamy and spicy, celebrating the flavors and textures of pimento cheese. The fresh herbs add vibrance, and the sharp Cheddar can stand up to the spiciness of the various peppers. The chunks of cream cheese add velvety bits to each bite.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

Succotash embodies the proverb “If it grows together, it goes together.” This dish is a celebration of summer: fresh corn, ripe tomatoes and shelled butter beans (also known as lima beans.) Succotash has earned its place of pride in regions across the U.S. — the Midwest, the Eastern Seaboard, and perhaps most notably, the South. This succotash is Cajun-style and a worthy entree, thanks to spicy andouille sausage and seasoned shrimp. But feel free to leave them out for a satisfying meatless option. The andouille sausage adds kick, so if you use regular sausage or eliminate it altogether, you can add some heat with ground cayenne and hot sauce.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

This layer cake is affectionately referred to as “Grandma’s Cake” by many Southerners. Using jelly as the filling and the frosting is a wonderful way to add fruity flavor to a cake year-round. The jelly seeps into the cake, so there’s no need to brush on a simple syrup to keep it moist. This recipe uses cake flour, which has less protein than all-purpose flour and yields a more tender crumb. But it can be prone to clumping. Sift it into the mixing bowl, or use a whisk to aerate it and break up any lumps. “Frost” the sides of the cake with jelly or buttercream, or just let it drip down the sides. When making this cake in the summer, you can top it with sliced fresh strawberries.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

These corn fritters use fresh, whole kernels, mixed with spices, scallions and a simple batter. Corn fritters come in many types, from the cornmeal-based, deep-fried hush puppies, to the more patty-shaped, pan-fried fritters. Pan-seared in hot oil until crisp, these patty-like fritters contain Cheddar, which adds creaminess while still allowing the crunchy corn kernels to provide a pop of sweet flavor and texture with each bite. Fritters make an excellent side for a cookout, as they stand up to smoky barbecue flavors and can be enjoyed warm or at room temperature. Leftovers make an excellent breakfast, with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt on top.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

Sweet beets meet zingy horseradish and crunchy pumpkin seeds in this dish that will enchant beet lovers and skeptics alike. Roasting the beets concentrates their flavor and makes them easier to peel, while pairing red beets with their yellow counterparts makes for a striking visual contrast. Feel free to use all red beets, or all golden beets, if that’s what’s available to you, and to substitute plain yogurt for the sour cream. If you can’t find fresh, refrigerated prepared horseradish, horseradish cream also works beautifully. Make the most of the beet greens: Sauté them in olive oil and finish with a splash of balsamic vinegar for an excellent accompaniment to this dish.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

This dessert delivers all the warm spices of pumpkin pie along with the tangy creaminess of cheesecake. To help the filling come together easily, make sure your ingredients are at room temperature, and refrain from mixing on high, which will incorporate too much air, causing the cheesecake to rise, then fall. The cake is finished in the oven with the heat turned off; that gentle reduction in heat eliminates the need for a water bath and reduces the likelihood of cracks or a grainy texture.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

These fuss-free (no electric mixer needed!) pumpkin doughnuts are flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg, classic spices we associate with fall. But they’re also loaded with pumpkin pureé, which makes them moist and flavorful and gives them their orangey hue. They’re finished with a simple — and forgiving — vanilla glaze that sets beautifully. If your glaze is too thick to dip, just add a little more milk. If your glaze is too thin and runs off the doughnut, add a little more confectioners’ sugar.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

Found in both Creole and Cajun cuisines, étouffée is most commonly made with crawfish tails, which have a distinct flavor, but crawfish have a short season and aren’t readily available in most places. This version, with shrimp, is more than a worthy substitute, and an excellent dish all its own. The dish takes its name from the French word "étouffée,” which nods to its protein being smothered with sauce. This recipe uses a shortcut version of a roux: The flour is added after the onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic have already been sautéed in the butter. If you omit the hot sauce, add apple cider vinegar in its place.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

This meatless gumbo has a distinct Louisiana flavor, thanks to the roux, Creole seasoning and the “holy trinity” of Creole cooking (onion, celery, bell pepper). Gumbo is traditionally made with a variety of smoked meats and seafood, but this version gets an added bit of smokiness from an optional splash of liquid smoke. Here, the okra is roasted in the oven before being added to the pot, which eliminates the gooeyness. There is also no skimping on vegetables in this gumbo, and the red lentils thicken it while adding protein. Serving this gumbo over white rice helps make it a complete meal.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

This super-simple tropical cake contains a hefty amount of mashed bananas and crushed pineapple. Often associated with the American South, where it is believed to have adopted a cream cheese frosting, it most likely originated in Jamaica, where it was called a Doctor Bird Cake. (“Doctor bird” is the nickname of Jamaica’s national bird, the red-billed streamertail hummingbird.) Some say this cake is sweet enough to attract even hummingbirds, while others say the name derives from how bananas, a key ingredient in the cake, resemble the bird’s beak. The end result tastes similar to banana bread, but with the moistness and flavor of a spice-filled carrot cake.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

Whipping up this dessert may be the wisest decision you’ll make in the summer: It comes together quickly and uses only five ingredients. Mashed juicy berries folded into lightly whipped cream results in a simple dish that manages to feel both decadent and light. Macerating ripe in-season blackberries in sugar extracts their natural sweetness and goodness. Serve this dish with shortbread cookies for a buttery crumble to contrast the creamy blend.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

This sweet tea toes the line between just right and puckery sweet. The formula reflects the way my grandmother Leona Johnson made sweet tea: strong tea, lots of lemon juice and even more sugar. Start by adding half a cup of sugar to the batch, then add up to 4 more tablespoons to your preference. By making it extra potent, tart and sweet, this brew still tastes good even after the ice starts to melt. Vallery Lomas

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

Sweetened with peaches, freshly puréed or from store-bought juice, this beverage tastes extra refreshing in warm weather. The fruit complements strongly brewed tea, and a little lemon juice further accentuates the peach flavor and helps balance the natural sweetness, which you can bolster with sugar if you’d like.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

Blackening is a cooking technique that uses high heat and lots of seasoning to develop distinctive flavor by nearly charring the food in a cast-iron skillet. It’s particularly good for firm, lean white fish, such as catfish, snapper, trout or redfish. The fish is traditionally dipped in melted butter, then cooked in a dry skillet, but that can create billows of smoke. This smokeless method cooks seasoned fillets in oil to create a lovely texture. The cheese grits cook in just under 5 minutes, but are extra flavorful from cooking in chicken stock and still creamy as a result of added milk and butter.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

Cranberries meet cornbread in this one-bowl fall mashup. A crunchy golden edge forms around the cornbread thanks to the hot skillet the batter is poured into. The mixture crisps in the oven-melted butter that coats the pan, resulting in browning and caramelization that delivers maximum flavor. While baking, the fresh cranberries soften, ensuring a burst of juicy tartness with each bite. Use either fine- or medium-grind cornmeal, as coarse varieties make for an overly gritty bite.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

This style of crab dip, often referred to as Maryland crab dip because of its Chesapeake Bay origins, makes for a festive appetizer. Here, it’s served hot out of the oven and is extra creamy thanks to the combination of cream cheese and a little mayonnaise. Though crabs are plentiful this time of year — and you can certainly make this with freshly steamed and picked meat if you’d like — canned lump crabmeat makes this dish simple to assemble. Just be careful to leave the clumps of meat as intact as possible when mixing. A sprinkle of cayenne pepper and a generous douse of hot sauce add heat to this flavorful dish.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

This recipe makes quick work out of jambalaya by using leftover rice, and it tastes great with freshly cooked grains, too. To make this meal meatless, use vegan andouille sausage or stick with pork sausage, if you prefer. Either option, along with creole seasoning and the classic trinity of creole cooking — onion, celery and green bell pepper — result in a dish that is unmistakably Louisianan. Though many jambalaya recipes skip tomatoes, this version uses a blend of tomato paste and diced tomatoes to add bulk, and an acidity that helps lighten up the otherwise hearty one-pot meal.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

Roasting butternut squash at a high temperature helps the sugars caramelize, bringing out a sweetness that pairs perfectly with fall flavors like cinnamon and cayenne. This recipe plays on the duality of butternut squash – its savory and sweet components. The ground cinnamon complements the caramelization, and the chili powder and cayenne play on the vegetable’s more savory profile. The cayenne also adds a kick, though you can omit it if you prefer to keep this dish’s heat limited to the more subtle chili powder.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

Less sugary than traditional candied yams, these sweet potatoes rely on the natural sweetness of pineapple juice, with just a hint of brown sugar to form a syrup that’s flavored with vanilla and cinnamon. The pineapple adds some tangy acidity that further balances the sweetness of the potatoes and the syrup that coats them. By parboiling the sweet potatoes before baking them in this recipe (which can be done a day or two ahead), you’re cutting down the cook time — and ensuring that you’ll get fork-tender spuds. This dish is finished on the stovetop, which helps the syrup to thicken and come together quickly.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

Mustard greens are a delectable option for the simplest weeknight meal or the grandest holiday table. Though they’re from the same plant family as collard greens, mustard greens are more peppery and the cooked leaves are more tender. (They also cook down a lot more, so it takes a lot of mustard greens to make a decent serving amount!) This recipe is generous with the liquid, because as it cooks it becomes something just as delicious as the greens themselves: pot likker. Smoked meats are often used for their flavor, but a small amount of liquid smoke keeps this recipe meat-free. Be sure to serve your greens in a bowl, so you can slurp up the resulting pot likker afterward.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

Highly seasoned andouille sausage makes this pasta extra-zippy, while white beans and collard greens give it a rustic flair. They are not ingredients typically used in pasta, but this dish may become part of your regular rotation once you try it. This one-dish dinner is perfect for cold, cozy nights when you want something hearty to stick to your bones, but it will satisfy any time. Swirling in lemon juice and olive oil just before serving adds freshness and ties all of the flavors together.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

This recipe combines two classic Southern dishes to create something special: Pimento cheese, a spread for sandwiches, crackers and vegetables, meets mac and cheese for a peppery and spicier version of the traditional baked casserole. The core ingredients of pimento cheese — sharp yellow Cheddar, pimento peppers and cream cheese — cook into a sauce that’s creamier and tangier than the usual purely cheese base.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

Much like gumbo, this shrimp and tomato stew starts with a roux that thickens and adds a distinct flavor (though many takes on shrimp Creole skip the roux altogether). Next, the “holy trinity” of Creole cooking — onion, celery and bell pepper — is simmered in the roux. You’ll want to stir the bottom of the pot constantly to prevent the roux from sticking and burning, and make sure to keep a close eye: A burned roux can’t be saved. Creole cuisine relishes improvisation, so feel free to add other veggies or a different protein, or omit the hot sauce and add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in its place. This spicy stew is traditionally served over steamed white rice, but is also delicious served over brown rice or other whole grains, like quinoa.

Vallery Lomas · NYT Cooking

Grits go from breakfast accompaniment to dinnertime star in this dish. Enjoying grits with seafood, such as blackened fish, is nothing new. But the relatively recent popularity of shrimp and grits in restaurants certainly is. The andouille sausage in this recipe accentuates the Creole flavors while enhancing the shrimp, which is sautéed in the sausage’s rendered fat. The reduced chicken stock and swirl of sour cream complete the savory sauce that pools in the cheesy grits. The corn-forward flavor of stone-ground grits takes this dish to the next level, and the sweetness of the corn pairs nicely with the shrimp. You can make the shrimp component while the stone-ground grits are cooking.