Recipes

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Icelanders eat lamb at an impressive annual rate, as Jason Epstein noted in his 2002 Times magazine article. While there, he and his friends prepared a few pounds of lamb loin, browning them in butter and finishing them in the oven. “It was an evening I shall never forget,” he wrote, “and one that I have since recreated many times, omitting the sugary potatoes and adding a dab of rosemary-infused demi-glace in a red-wine reduction to the lamb.” He shares that recipe here, and while he recommends the delicate Icelandic variety, domestic lamb will also suffice.

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

These take only 12 or 15 minutes to prepare and can be held in a 50-degree oven for an hour or so. Therefore it is most convenient to grill them two at a time.

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Chicken scarpariello, also known as shoemaker's chicken, is a classic Italian-American dish of chicken, sausage, vinegar, onions and peppers that has all the flavors and textures: Tangy and rich, spicy and sweet, tender and crunchy. Our version is adapted from one found on the menu at Rao's, the reservations-impossible Southern Italian restaurant and celebrity hangout in Harlem. It starts with pan-frying chicken pieces and Italian sausage in a little olive oil until golden brown. Bell peppers, jalapeños, onion and garlic go into the pan and are sautéed until soft. All of that – plus hot peppers, potatoes, vinegar and wine – goes into a roasting pan and into a hot oven until the sauce thickens and the chicken is cooked through. (The potatoes are totally optional, by the way, but they are a nice, pillowy counterpoint to the prickly heat of the peppers.) Serve with a hunk of good bread to mop up the sauce.

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Do not be alarmed by this list of ingredients. This dish is much simpler to prepare than it may seem.

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jalapeño adds a welcome kick to this otherwise simple clam pasta. Ready in less than 30 minutes, it's a perfect weeknight meal for the height of summer, paired with a crisp, dry white.

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

This dish is, in effect, a deconstructed New England codfish cake but made with fresh, not salt, cod and with parsnip purée rather than mashed potato. The flavorings, however, are the same.

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

You will need two heavy oven-safe skillets or sauté pans. Jason Epstein

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

The great Joël Robuchon had interesting things to say about lobsters, some of which may be taken with a grain of sel, for example his preference for Brittany lobsters, especially those from Finistère, over the American variety. But his tender description of their lovemaking when the female has molted while the male is still in his armor is touching, as is his account of the lobster's suicidal affection for the conger eel. This recipe for lobster in Sauternes is divine. Jason Epstein

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking

Jason Epstein · NYT Cooking