Recipes

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

At one point, the only way people cooked greens was to boil them with a hamhock or a piece of slab bacon for hours until the house smelled so sour that it was indeed almost uninhabitable. But in this recipe, they aren't boiled to death, but braised for just 15 minutes or so in degreased ham stock. Not only is there no stench, but you get the great pork flavor that is such a compliment to greens without the fat.

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

This is Julia Reed’s favorite tuna salad, the one she subsisted on for years as a child, eaten with a fork straight out of a container in her mother’s refrigerator. It’s an unfussy thing that is exactly suited to be layered between two pieces of white bread — toasted, if you must — and then eaten at the kitchen table, or, after summer ends, at the lunchroom table. The ingredients are simple and easily acquired, and be sure to use real mayonnaise.

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

This update on a workaday sandwich takes time and work, it’s true. But the result, Julia Reed says, is the best old-fashioned tuna salad sandwich you’ve ever had in your life. You’ll need one pound of yellowfin tuna, which you’ll poach with aromatics, cool and then mix with a few chopped peppers, fennel seed, onion and herbs. If you plan ahead, you can make the tuna salad without the herbs, refrigerate it overnight, and add them in before assembling your sandwiches. Layer it on toasted bread with a lemon-pepper aioli, slab bacon and arugula. This is picnic food for the gods.

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

In the Burgundy region of France, home of Dijon, pork chops are traditionally served in a sauce made with mustard, cream and white wine, and there are very few pairings that are better. Richard Olney, a prominent food writer and authority on French cooking, sautéed sliced apples and chops and then baked them all together with cream and mustard dribbled on top. I prefer the method here, but you could always fry up some apples and serve them on the side. (For a dish with roots closer to Normandy than Burgundy, make the same recipe but omit the mustard, deglaze the pan with Calvados instead of wine and stir sliced sautéed Granny Smiths into the sauce itself.)

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

These heavenly little bars, adapted from the Southern cookbook author Julia Reed, are a modern-day, perfect-for-a-picnic version of a traditional custard pie made from flour, cornmeal, sugar, eggs, butter and buttermilk. They are like lemon bars without the lip-puckering citrus: a blanket of egg-rich custard generously laced with vanilla atop a lightly salted, crumbly shortbread crust. (If you don't have buttermilk, you can make an easy substitute by combining one tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice with a cup of milk. Let stand for 5 minutes, then measure out ¾ cup.) Margaux Laskey

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

This simple recipe, which is adapted from “Mediterranean Cooking” by Paula Wolfert, was brought to the Times by Julia Reed in a 2004 article about easy Italian cooking. Ms. Reed said it was her favorite summer steak recipe, and for good reason: It requires very little effort and just a handful of ingredients to yield spectacular results. Julia Reed

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

This is classic 1950s cocktail fare that, unlike the savory gelées and boiled ham canapés that are best forgotten, we still want to eat today. Just wrap cocktail olives in a simple Cheddar dough and bake until golden. Martini optional.

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

“Why don’t you just cook something that tastes really good?” Julia Reed’s mother said that, chiding her daughter, a writer of uncommon style and wit who used to contribute food essays and recipes to The New York Times Magazine. Her mother thought Ms. Reed spent too much time thinking about complicated, over-the-top recipes at the expense of simple, honest American cooking that draws compliments not because it looks amazing, but because it’s delicious. Like, for example, this recipe, for what Julia called in a 2002 article, “the best squash casserole on the planet Earth.” The ingredients are by no means fancy — summer squash, jalapeño, white bread, Ritz crackers, eggs and Cheddar — but they combine in mysterious and marvelous ways to deliver a perfect accompaniment to grilled chicken or a weekend roast.

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

This recipe was brought to the Times by Julia Reed in a 2001 magazine article in which she talked about her favorite (and not so favorite) holiday culinary traditions: “I will not serve eggnog, the one holiday culinary tradition I have never been able to get behind, but I will make milk punch. With its frothy top and not-so-jaundiced color, a milk punch is prettier to look at than eggnog and is not nearly as rich and cloying saved from that state by an effective combination of bourbon and brandy. They are especially good before a holiday lunch with, naturally, cheese straws and pecans. By evening, everyone will want a Santa hat.”

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

This deeply Southern and unapologetically sweet candy recipe came to the Times by way of Julia Reed in an article about making edible holiday gifts. Her friend, Mary Cooper “can do anything: she canes chairs, she's an excellent gardener, she even makes her own cheese. And at Christmas she always makes me the best pecan pralines I have ever tasted.” Ms. Cooper was kind enough to share her recipe with Ms. Reed who, in turn, shared it with us. As you spoon the warm praline mixture onto the parchment paper, work quickly. It dries in a snap. Some have been known to sprinkle the tops of the wet pralines with flaky sea salt before they harden.