Recipes

Brett Anderson · NYT Cooking

Jordan Ruiz cooks a version of the seafood gumbo his mother and grandmother made when he was growing up in New Orleans’ Gentilly neighborhood. It contains fin fish, which is rarely seen in restaurants in New Orleans, where seafood gumbos tend to contain shrimp and crab. Gumbo filé, made of dried and ground sassafras leaves, is used both as a thickening agent and for its flavor. Mr. Ruiz’s gumbo can be found at the Munch Factory, the New Orleans restaurant he owns with his wife, Alexis. Brett Anderson

Brett Anderson · NYT Cooking

The chefs Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski serve this gumbo regularly at Cochon, their Cajun-Southern restaurant in New Orleans. Its ingredients depart significantly from traditional New Orleans restaurant gumbos, which almost never feature pork, legumes or greens, although those norms have changed in recent years, in part due to Cochon’s influence. As a rule, when seasoning gumbo, Mr. Link uses just 75 percent of the suggested spice portions at first, then adds the rest as desired according to taste. Since this recipe can produce varying results, depending on whether you’re using smoked pork butt from a local barbecue joint or a store-bought variety, home-cooked black-eyed peas or canned, braised collards or mustard greens, Mr. Link’s seasoning approach is particularly useful. Brett Anderson

Brett Anderson · NYT Cooking

This toum recipe comes from Marjayoun, Lebanon, where Sameer Eid grew up eating it with shawarma. Samy, Sameer’s son, learned how to make it after he started working at Phoenicia, the family’s restaurant in Birmingham, Mich. “It took me more attempts than any recipe in my life to get it right,” he said. The key is to be patient during Step 1, to be sure the garlic breaks down enough to later become a creamy, fluffy condiment. Toum is called “garlic whip” on Phoenicia’s menu. It’s served with roasted chicken and kebabs; some customers even request it with babyback ribs. It’s versatile, and also great drizzled over roasted vegetables and avocado toast. Brett Anderson

Brett Anderson · NYT Cooking

Haitian-American chef Gregory Gourdet developed this dish for Kann Winter Village, the pop-up restaurant he ran in Portland, Ore., in 2021. The temporary restaurant served as a preview of Kann, the Haitian restaurant he opened in August 2022, which landed on The New York Times’ list of America’s Best Restaurants. Beef is not nearly as prevalent in Haitian cuisine as chicken, pork and seafood, said Mr. Gourdet, whose family is Haitian, but the flavors in the dish — including the Haitian epis seasoning — are “very Haitian. It tastes like my family’s food.” Brett Anderson

Brett Anderson · NYT Cooking

Epis is a foundational ingredient used to flavor a wide array of Haitian dishes. Gregory Gourdet, a Haitian-American chef, uses it to marinate everything from fish to chicken thighs to beef short ribs. He encourages home cooks to make extra to use as a marinade or to flavor stews, soups, vinaigrettes, sautéed vegetables or even meatloaf. The chunky, spicy purée keeps in the refrigerator for one week, and in the freezer for two months. Brett Anderson

Brett Anderson · NYT Cooking

At Burnt Bean Co. in Seguin, Texas, you’ll find what you’d expect to find at a traditional Texas barbecue restaurant, including smoked brisket, sausage and potato salad. You’ll also find dishes inspired by co-owner Ernest Servantes’ childhood in Uvalde, west of San Antonio, like menudo, barbacoa tacos and this elotes-flavored corn pudding, one of the restaurant’s most popular side dishes. “It’s like Mexican street corn and cornbread had a baby,” Mr. Servantes said. Don’t worry if the finished pudding has a few cracks in the top — it will still be moist and light within. Brett Anderson and Genevieve Ko

Brett Anderson · NYT Cooking

This one-pan dinner, like the tomato-based seafood dishes puttanesca, cioppino and Louisiana-style court-bouillon, eats like a stew, with a sauce substantial enough to qualify as its own side. In fact, there’s enough sauce for you to add another ½ pound of fish without changing the amount of the other ingredients. Serve with crusty bread or thick-cut toast to sop up the sauce, or over grits or polenta.

Brett Anderson · NYT Cooking

Marc-Olivier Frappier developed this coleslaw recipe for Rôtisserie La Lune, in Montreal, hoping to capture the best qualities of two slaws — one vinaigrette-based, the other creamy — served at St-Hubert, the rôtisserie chicken chain omnipresent in Quebec. It’s an unlikely source of inspiration for a chef whose other restaurant, Mon Lapin, is perhaps the most highly regarded restaurant in Canada. But La Lune is an homage to the humble restaurants Quebecois call rôtisseries or barbecues, and coleslaw is an essential rôtisserie dish. Adding the egg yolk means you’re essentially making your own mayonnaise while you’re whisking the dressing. It’s an ingenious trick Mr. Frappier said is common in Quebec.

Brett Anderson · NYT Cooking

I came up with this idiosyncratic recipe during the years that Oscar, our oldest son, was a pescatarian. It’s so good that it remains a weeknight staple, even though Oscar eats meat again. Most of the prep can be completed while the oven is heating. I like to serve it with a simple coleslaw, which I often have premade in the fridge, and store-bought Mexican salsa verde.

Florence Fabricant · NYT Cooking

Florence Fabricant

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Amanda Hesser

Matt Lee · NYT Cooking

This simple yet exquisite preparation for steak was developed by Bobby Flay, the restaurateur and Food Network star, in 2003. It's the sort of steak dinner you can easily prepare on a weeknight, but also guest-worthy. Start with the best steaks you can afford without mortgaging the house, then season with a combination of ground black pepper, ancho chile powder, and salt. Sear in a blazingly hot pan slicked with a little canola oil, then slide them into the oven for about 10 minutes. Remove and brush them with a flavorful glaze of Dijon mustard, horseradish, honey and fresh mint, then return to the oven to finish. Bliss. Matt Lee And Ted Lee

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

This is a recipe that the chef Bobby Flay created for Thanksgiving in response to a request from The Times back in 2003. The sweetness of the potatoes is amplified by maple syrup, then taken in a completely different direction by the addition of fiery chipotle sauce. Sour cream knits the dish together perfectly. Amanda Hesser

Jeff Gordinier · NYT Cooking

Bobby Flay's restaurants have traditionally centered on the cuisine of the Southwest or of Spain. The menu of his new restaurant, Gato, will encompass regions around the Mediterranean — Spain, yes, but Italy, Provence, Greece, North Africa. “Lots of citrus," he said, like the Meyer lemon in this recipe for crushed potatoes. (The New York Times) Jeff Gordinier

Jeff Gordinier · NYT Cooking

This recipe came to us from Bobby Flay in advance of the opening of his restaurant Gato. The chicken gets a jolt of flavor not only from the cheese but also from a honey and sherry vinegar gastrique, basically a sauce made from caramelized sugar or another sweet ingredient like the honey, deglazed with vinegar and then reduced. Jeff Gordinier

Sam Sifton · NYT Cooking

Few adults would want this meal for breakfast, but it is an excellent recipe for parents to make the morning after a sleepover that had the children and their friends up late watching horror films and unfathomable YouTube comedy. I adapted it slightly from Bobby Flay’s “Brunch at Bobby’s” cookbook, released in 2015. Watching the effect of the sugar and chocolate on a sleepy child is its own sort of joy – and you can hustle the guests home before the inevitable crash. Serve with raspberries for reasons of taste and elegance (though strawberries or bananas would do in a pinch), and salted caramel sauce. Yes, you could insist on eating muesli and almond milk instead. But in Mr. Flay’s words, “If you’re going to cave, you might as well go all out.” Sam Sifton

Sam Sifton · NYT Cooking

Make a batch of this sauce before guests come to dinner, keep it warm in the oven while they eat, then spoon it over vanilla ice cream for dessert: That’s a win. Or make it in the morning and pair it with pancakes. Mr. Flay, the voluble chef and television star, pairs it with double-chocolate pancakes. That is a very serious business. Sam Sifton

Bill Yosses · NYT Cooking

Sam Sifton · NYT Cooking

This recipe came to The Times in 2001 in an article by the chef Bill Yosses, who would go on to become the executive pastry chef for the Obama White House. He learned it, he wrote, in France, from a pastry chef named Jacques Mahou at Au Vieux Four in Tours. "He had a special technique," Yosses wrote. "Instead of brushing the cake with a sweet syrup, Jacques immersed his in a lemon syrup bath. Then he gently squeezed the cake like a sponge. It was a tricky maneuver since the warm loaf was apt to fall apart -- you have to cradle it gently, and apply just a little bit of pressure -- but it's worth the extra care. The cake absorbs a lot more liquid, which moistens the interior and intensifies the citrus flavor." In addition, Yosses added lemon segments to the batter. "The fruit evaporates, leaving behind powerful little pockets of lemon," he wrote. "It makes a major difference. The lemon segments, combined with the syrup, also help preserve the cake. Well wrapped and stored in the refriger

Bill Yosses · NYT Cooking

Bill Yosses · NYT Cooking

Bill Yosses · NYT Cooking

The combination of chestnuts, chocolate and single-malt Scotch is powerful, so you’ll need to frost this with milk chocolate instead of the usual bittersweet. The milk chocolate ganache tempers the Scotch and mellows the chestnuts, and brings the whole dessert together harmoniously. The cake itself is almost a meringue. Use your best single-malt for this — a lesser one will make for a good but not great result.