Recipes

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

This cool-weather panzanella trades tomatoes for caramelized roasted squash. It is a great salad for a buffet, but you can also make a meal of it. Martha Rose Shulman

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

I like to serve this with baby potatoes or fingerlings, which I cook in salted boiling water before I begin the fish, then drain and keep warm in the covered pot.

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

For a full meal in a bowl, serve this deeply flavorful soup with warm brown rice or noodles.

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

This is adapted from a recipe by the food writer Clifford A. Wright. If you forget to soak the dried favas, or if you don't have the time, simply cover them with boiling water and soak 1 hour, then drain and proceed.

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

I call these seared ruby red grapefruit rounds “pancakes,” not because there is any batter involved, but because I serve them warm, with maple syrup that I spike with fresh ginger juice.

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

Like slow-cooked onions, slow-cooked cabbage takes on color, becoming meltingly tender and sweet. Because of the bulk of the potatoes, this gratin makes a satisfying vegetarian main dish, though it certainly works just as well as a side.

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

Skirt steak is the traditional cut used for fajitas. It used to be inexpensive, but now it's not so cheap; oftentimes flank steak costs less. Either will be a good choice.

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

Shrimp fajitas are quickly thrown together. The shrimp are tossed in a mix of lime juice and zest, adobo sauce from a can of chipotles, olive oil, cumin and garlic, and don’t need to be marinated for longer than 30 minutes. I use just enough adobo sauce in the marinade to obtain its spicy and slightly sweet essence without overpowering the shrimp.

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

This quick fresh tomato salsa will always be best when tomatoes are in season. But you can pump up the flavor with a little lime juice if the flavor of your tomatoes is a little dull. Juicy tomatoes will yield a more watery salsa than pulpy roma tomatoes.

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

The ingredient that makes this marinade both spicy and sweet is adobo sauce from canned chiles in adobo, a useful sauce that I had not thought to use in marinades until I was introduced to the idea by the cookbook author and television host Pati Jinich. The sauce has enough heat, so I don’t use the canned chipotles, though you could add one if you wanted. I hold back a couple of tablespoons of the marinade and use it to finish the vegetables and deglaze the pan.

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

I make this tangy, versatile tomatillo salsa to accompany a range of Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes. It’s always great with shrimp and fish, and it’s my go-to salsa for tacos with chicken in the filling, and with vegetables like potatoes and greens, summer squash and corn. I roast the tomatillos under the broiler before blending them to get a deep, toasty flavor. You can also roast the chiles if you want a deeper roasted-spicy flavor, as opposed to grassy-spicy flavor. If you wish to roast the chiles alongside the tomatillos, place the whole chiles on the baking sheet, too; they will be done faster than the tomatillos, only a minute or two on each side. Once they're cool enough to handle, peel and stem them, and coarsely chop, then proceed with the recipe.

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

The key to success with angel food cake is not overbeating the egg whites, which means you should never go above medium speed, and the peaks should fold over when you lift them with a spatula or beaters. If the meringue is too stiff, the cake will not maintain its height once baked. You should be able to pour the batter into the pan. Make sure that the egg whites are at room temperature before you begin. Use an ungreased 10-inch tube pan, preferably one with a removable bottom (even better if it has feet, for air circulation when you cool it upside down). Once baked, let it cool completely in the reversed pan.

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

The photogenic tart will make you look like a pastry chef, though it's no more difficult than baking a pie. A sweet tart crust is layered with almond cream, fig jam (homemade is nice, but store-bought works well, too) and fresh figs. The key to success is superb figs. They can’t be so jammy that they collapse when you cut them into quarters or sixths. But they should be sweet and ripe. The dough recipe below makes two crusts, one for now and one for later (store extra dough, well-wrapped, in the freezer).

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

Fig jam is a perfect way to preserve a surfeit of this seductive fruit. The added touch here, beyond the fruit, sugar and lemon juice, is the small amount of balsamic vinegar, which intensifies the sometimes elusive flavor of the figs. This jam is wonderful stirred into plain yogurt.

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

In France this simple, nutritious soup is made with wild greens that you might forage on an afternoon’s walk, such as nettles, watercress and dandelion greens. If you must use one green, make it Swiss chard. The soup can be prepared through step 1 several hours before serving.

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

Pears and walnuts complement dark black and pale brown rice in this sweet and savory mixture. Make sure you don’t overcook the pears; they need only a quick sear in the pan. The cooked grains will keep for 3 days in the refrigerator and can be frozen. The stuffing benefits from being made a day ahead. The optional red lentils or cranberries add some color to the mix.

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

The green beans should remain crunchy in this dish, which is adapted from Grace Young’s recipe in “Stir-Fry to the Sky’s Edge.”

Martha Rose Shulman · NYT Cooking

This savory side takes the classic French grated carrot salad and adds depth of flavor, with capers, red onions, curry powder and cumin. It keeps well, so make a large batch and keep it in the refrigerator for several not-sad desk lunches.

Mark Bittman · NYT Cooking

This beef stew is loaded with the warmth of soy, ginger, sweetness (best provided by mirin, the sweet Japanese cooking wine, but sugar or honey will do, too), winter squash and the peel and juice of a lemon. These simple and delicious counterpoints make a great stew.

Mark Bittman · NYT Cooking

What’s ara yaki? The best scraps of fish left after it has been filleted for sashimi, quickly broiled and roasted, with nothing but salt. You can get it at Seki, an unassuming izakaya in Washington, or you can make it yourself; the key is in the shopping. The beauty of the dish lies in its simplicity: These golden bits of fish are exceptionally delicious, and fun to eat with chopsticks or fingers.

Mark Bittman · NYT Cooking

Morels are expensive, but a few go a long way and there is nothing quite like them for flavor and texture -- chewy, meaty and that aroma, earthy and exotic. Even at $30 a pound, $7 or $8 seems well worth the price.

Mark Bittman · NYT Cooking

When you raise the lid on a pot of good biriyani, the smell should beguile you: chicken, butter and spices should dominate, followed by the subtle aroma of basmati rice. You might even smell the salt.

Mark Bittman · NYT Cooking

Crisp braised duck legs with vegetables is a simple, luxurious dish. You brown the duck until the skin is crackly and golden. You cook the vegetables in some of the rendered fat until they start to soften, then you add chicken stock and cook everything together in the oven until the duck is tender and super-crisp and the vegetables are melting and unctuous. Do not feel bound to the carrots, celery and onion called for in the recipe. Any number of root vegetables – infused with the rendered fat – would be incredible here.

Mark Bittman · NYT Cooking

Chop suey may sound like something your grandmother ate in the 1950s, but this version from China Café in L.A.'s Grand Central Market — a chicken stir-fry enlivened with plenty of bright bok choy — is honest, simple and plainly delicious. Mark Bittman