Recipes

Jim Meehan · NYT Cooking

Jim Meehan · NYT Cooking

Jim Meehan · NYT Cooking

Maria Newman · NYT Cooking

Jim Meehan of PDT in Manhattan uses an extractor to get cucumber juice for this punch. You can buy cucumber juice from your local juice store too. Maria Newman

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

Spicy, spritzy and refreshing, this cocktail is essentially grown-up root beer. A classic rickey is just liquor, lime juice and carbonated water, but reach for rye whiskey and trade the soda water for root beer, and you get the root beer rickey, a drink bartender Jim Meehan created for Cicoria, a pizzeria in Portland, Ore. Root beer and rye are natural partners, as each is woodsy, minty and caramelly; the soda also lends sweetness without having to add sugar. At Cicoria, the drink is served up in a short glass and garnished with a pineapple wedge, but this easygoing rendition opts for ice in a tall glass with more root beer. Add a lime wedge, if you like. Ali Slagle

Jill Santopietro · NYT Cooking

Everyone knows that the best chicken wings have crisp skin and tender meat, but achieving that perfect balance can be a challenge. In this recipe, which is adapted from Taku, a Japanese restaurant in Brooklyn, the uncooked wings are brined overnight in a combination of yuzu juice and salt, then fried for a good 15 minutes. The result? Surprisingly crisp skin and juicy, flavorful meat. Once fried, they're tossed with a spicy sambal-Sriracha sauce, then served with a cooling cucumber-sour cream dip alongside. Jill Santopietro

Jill Santopietro · NYT Cooking

Jill Santopietro

Jill Santopietro · NYT Cooking

A pile of this chicken salad plopped on top of a bed of greens or tucked between two slices of good bread would make a most excellent lunch or light supper. It starts with a quick dressing made of mayonnaise, chopped chives, parsley and tarragon and the juice and zest of a lemon. Combine the dressing with chopped, cooked chicken (for ease, use supermarket rotisserie chicken or Thanksgiving turkey leftovers), red grapes, red onion, celery and walnuts. It's a delightful and deeply satisfying combination of flavors (sweet, salty, tangy) and textures (cold, crunchy, juicy) that's almost impossible to stop eating.

Jill Santopietro · NYT Cooking

Grapes rarely get their moment in the culinary limelight, and it’s too bad, because they are perfectly designed for cooking: small and juicy with hints of both acid and sweetness. In this roasted-pork dish, loosely adapted from Suzanne Goin's book "Sunday Suppers at Lucques," their fruitiness complements the meat’s salty drippings. Jill Santopietro

Jill Santopietro · NYT Cooking

Jill Santopietro · NYT Cooking

Jill Santopietro · NYT Cooking

Jill Santopietro · NYT Cooking

Jill Santopietro

Jill Santopietro · NYT Cooking

Jill Santopietro

Jill Santopietro · NYT Cooking

Jill Santopietro

Jill Santopietro · NYT Cooking

Jill Santopietro

Jill Santopietro · NYT Cooking

Jill Santopietro

Jesse Szewczyk · NYT Cooking

This simple, one-bowl loaf cake is a sweet way to make the most of zucchini season. Chocolate cake batter is flecked with shreds of raw zucchini and studded with bittersweet chocolate chips for a summertime cake that’s fit for either breakfast or dessert. While some recipes call for squeezing the excess water out of the shredded zucchini, this loaf cake takes full advantage of the summer vegetable: The zucchini is taken directly from the grater to the bowl for additional moisture. The resulting cake strikes the perfect balance; it's rich and fudgy, but still maintains a tender crumb. The cake will keep on the counter for 4 to 5 days, loosely covered, and only gets better with age.

Jesse Szewczyk · NYT Cooking

While most pumpkin cookies skew cakey, these bars are as rich and chewy as the center of a chocolate chip cookie. To counteract the added moisture from the pumpkin purée, this recipe has a few tricks up its sleeve: For starters, it completely ditches the eggs. Browning the butter does double duty, removing water while also giving the dough a deeper flavor with nutty notes. Baking the bars at a low temperature keeps the edges soft, resulting in an impossibly chewy cookie texture with a warm pumpkin spice flavor and pockets of molten chocolate.

Jesse Szewczyk · NYT Cooking

Think of these pink grapefruit bars as the ritzier, more alluring version of classic lemon bars. By swapping out the lemon for grapefruit juice, the bars take on a floral quality and bittersweet complexity. For the boldest flavor, avoid using store-bought grapefruit juice, which often contains added sugar to tame its tartness, and opt for juicing your own. To further enliven the bars, zest the grapefruits and massage the zest into the sugar for the filling. The oils in the zest will perfume the sugar and embolden the grapefruit flavor. For an eye-catching presentation, shower the bars in a blend of freeze-dried strawberries and confectioners’ sugar before serving. The dusting provides a subtle sweetness and a vibrant rosy hue that alludes to the flavor within.

Jesse Szewczyk · NYT Cooking

These simple, fuss-free cupcakes cram all of the beloved flavors of classic carrot cake into nostalgic, portable treats. The batter is made with melted butter, allowing you to quickly mix it in one bowl. It’s flavored with a generous amount of ground cinnamon and shredded carrots to add an earthy flavor and unbeatable moistness. An optional add-in of chopped nuts or raisins lets you customize the batter to produce your ideal version of carrot cake. Finishing the cupcakes with a swoosh of fluffy, just-sweet-enough cream cheese frosting makes them fit for any celebration.

Jesse Szewczyk · NYT Cooking

This playful recipe borrows the flavors of sour cream and onion dip and reimagines them into a bright, punchy salad with a creamy dressing. Onion powder is used without restraint here, highlighting the virtues of the reliable pantry staple. Tossing the dressing with a mountain of crisp lettuce leaves tames its intensity and creates a well-balanced salad that makes the perfect accompaniment to any meal. If you like, garnish it with crushed potato chips right before serving for an additional pop of texture and a nod to its inspiration.

Jesse Szewczyk · NYT Cooking

This recipe transforms Basque cheesecake into portable, handheld treats. Unlike typical cheesecake bars that bake at a low temperature, these are baked at 500 degrees to achieve a burnished top while maintaining a creamy interior. This layer makes for a striking presentation and imparts the flavor of burnt caramel, which offsets the sweetness of the filling. A sturdy graham cracker crust imitates classic cheesecake bars and adds a pop of texture to this creamy dessert. While Basque cheesecake is often served at room temperature, you can refrigerate the bars if you prefer a firmer texture.

Jerrelle Guy · NYT Cooking

Sweet roasted beets and extra-virgin olive oil add earthiness to this delicate Bundt cake, a baking project that promises stunning results. Roasting the beets beforehand concentrates their sweetness, and stacking thick layers of batter — one flavored with olive oil, the other with beets — creates bold swoops of red within the baked cake. Allow the cake to cool completely before slicing to avoid blurring the lines. Because of its lightly sweet notes, this cake is equally at home at breakfast or brunch, as a snack or dessert. To dress it up further, serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream or crème fraîche.