Recipes

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

If you are a coconut lover, you’ll want to make these moist, chewy macaroons all the time. Crisp on the outside and pillowy within, they take only a few minutes to put together and keep extremely well. Their perfect texture comes from fluffy sweetened coconut for softness and crunchier unsweetened coconut for more chewiness. Coconut flour, ubiquitous now because of gluten-free baking, is very absorbent and works beautifully to absorb the extra liquid that would otherwise run out of the macaroon, but matzo cake meal can be used during Passover and all-purpose flour any other time of year. Just double check that whatever you use is kosher for Passover.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Traditional tsimmes is a stew of sorts that includes sweet potatoes, carrots, one or two kinds of dried fruits, and spices. It’s usually served as a side dish at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, but it also makes frequent appearances on the Passover Seder table. The word “tsimmes” sometimes means a fuss or commotion, or even a muddle. This version is anything but fussy and definitely not muddled. Here, halved sweet potatoes are simply roasted and served with a scrumptious glaze that includes prunes, orange juice, fresh ginger and a hit of lemon.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

This savory matzo brei, loaded with caramelized onions and mushrooms, is made like a frittata that you cut into wedges. While commonly eaten for breakfast during Passover, this one serves as a substantial side dish. Leftovers make a nice brunch or lunch, especially with a green salad. The key to a good matzo brei is soaking the matzo just enough to retain a little bit of chew, but not so much that it becomes soggy. Here, the matzo is submerged in boiling water for one minute to soften. If keeping kosher and making this for a dairy meal, use a tablespoon of butter instead of oil for extra flavor.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Inspired by Chinese char siu pork, this weeknight recipe uses an easy cooking method that yields a tasty sauce with a subtle sweetness. The tangy hoisin marinade for the pork can do its job in just 24 seconds or 24 hours. It coats the tenderloin as it cooks, leaving behind caramelized bits in the bottom of pan, which then get deglazed to create a dressing that flavors the rice. As for the garnishes, use as many crisp-tender vegetables as you like, and change them up as you please. Sugar snap peas would be good here, as would shredded napa cabbage, or just about anything fresh and crunchy.

Susan Herrmann Loomis · NYT Cooking

Susan Herrmann Loomis · NYT Cooking

Susan Herrmann Loomis · NYT Cooking

Susan Herrmann Loomis · NYT Cooking

What looks like a carpenter's thumb, feels like a rubber hose and is sweeter and more tender than spiny lobster? Why, gooseneck barnacles. They were long a delicacy to the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest who used to scrape them off rocks at great risk and reserve them for tribal elders. When this recipe appeared in The New York Times in 1987, a seafood company in Nanaimo, British Columbia, had started exporting the barnacles to Spain and Portugal to keep up with demand.

Susan Herrmann Loomis · NYT Cooking

Susan Herrmann Loomis · NYT Cooking

Susan Herrmann Loomis · NYT Cooking

Susan Herrmann Loomis · NYT Cooking

Susan Herrmann Loomis · NYT Cooking

Susan Herrmann Loomis · NYT Cooking

Susan Herrmann Loomis · NYT Cooking

Susan Herrmann Loomis · NYT Cooking

Susan Herrmann Loomis · NYT Cooking

Sue Li · NYT Cooking

This spiced fried chicken is a staple in the night markets of Taiwan. You can order the chicken in cutlet form or small bites like these, which are served in paper bags with wooden skewers. This recipe uses a few spices that cannot be skipped: five-spice powder and white pepper. The Sichuan peppercorns are a bonus, adding a little numbing tingle. If you can’t find Sichuan peppercorns, use black peppercorns instead. You won’t get the same tingly feeling, but the chicken will be just as good. This fried chicken recipe happens to be gluten-free thanks to the tapioca flour, which imparts the dish’s signature crunch.

Sue Li · NYT Cooking

Carrots work beautifully in this simple tart, but onions, parsnips, beets, zucchini or pumpkin work just as well. The key is to cook the vegetables before putting them on the tart, since the moisture released by baking raw vegetables would make the puff pastry soggy and prevent it from rising. Once you remove the tart from the oven, let it cool for 10 minutes before cutting to allow the cheese to firm up slightly. The tart can be served warm, or cooled to room temperature, and would make a great addition to a picnic.

Sue Li · NYT Cooking

This buttery shortbread showcases the classic combination of candied orange and dark chocolate. The cookie ages very nicely and is even better in the days after it is baked. The cookie dough will feel crumbly when it’s removed from the mixing bowl but pressing the dough into the baking pan and allowing the dough to hydrate over the course of a few hours will help it come together.

Sue Li · NYT Cooking

This rich, autumnal galette takes its inspiration from the flavors of French onion soup. Seasoned with Gruyère and lots of cracked black pepper, the galette dough takes the place of the crostini, and the caramelized onion filling is fortified with beef broth and sherry. The dish is great for entertaining — it can be prepared in advance — but requires a little bit of patience: You’ll need to let the dough rest for at least four hours, which allows the flour to hydrate and will make the dough less crumbly to work with. Let the tart rest for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving. Eat it while it’s hot or serve at room temperature alongside a salad or steak.

Sue Li · NYT Cooking

This sesame candy is a traditional Chinese candy that is available year-round but also eaten during the Lunar New Year celebrations. This recipe produces a slightly chewy candy, with some crunch on the sides. It’s a relatively easy candy to make, but you’ll want to follow the directions closely when preparing the syrup. The addition of water helps to evenly dissolve the sugar as the syrup cooks. Do not stir the sugar as it cooks or it will crystallize, forming small clumps instead of a smooth syrup. It can be hard to see a visual cue when toasting black sesame seeds. A subtle indication that they are toasted is that they feel a bit hollow compared to before they are toasted — or you can simply trust their scent: They’ll smell fragrant and toasted.

Sue Li · NYT Cooking

Quick and easy, this five-ingredient weeknight recipe yields flavorful, flaky fish with minimal effort. If gochujang (spicy Korean fermented soybean paste) or doenjang (a milder bean paste) are not available, feel free to substitute with harissa paste or miso. Because salmon is already an oily fish, it doesn’t need extra fat to protect it from overcooking in the oven. Once cooked, the salmon fillets can hold up to 4 days, refrigerated, and are equally great eaten at room temperature. Enjoy warm with rice, torn into salads, or tucked into a sandwich.

Sue Li · NYT Cooking

This sweet and spicy snack mix is inspired by furikake snack mix, a Japanese Hawaiian dish that uses a soy-butter blend to coat a cereal mixture and then seasons it with furikake, a traditional Japanese seasoning mix that traditionally combines dried fish, seaweed and sesame seeds, creating deep umami. Taking the original as inspiration, this recipe introduces the use of a pack of store-bought ramen. The ramen seasoning is used to flavor the cereal mix, while its crunchy noodles add texture and flair. The foundation of this snack mix calls for a wide variety of crunchy ingredients, but feel free to streamline your shopping list by skipping one of the snack items listed and doubling up on another.