Recipes

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

This recipe, originally featured in a 1991 column by Barbara Kafka, was rehashed in a piece by Amanda Hesser in 2009. The idea is simple: Aromatic spices are toasted in a small saucepan, paired with tomatoes, and served chilled. The end result is a refreshing soup, full of flavor. Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

You will need two pint-size wide-mouth Ball or Kerr jars with bands and new lids, available at many hardware stores or at freundcontainer.com. Avoid table-ripe fruit. Ripe or very ripe fruit may produce a mushy result. Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

This recipe, by Sarah Magid, a Brooklyn baker, is a new take on an old recipe, the Huguenot torte. This elegant cookie calls for apples and pecans, but you could also use pears, hazelnuts or even black walnuts. It’s very sweet, so consider folding ¼ cup crème fraîche into the whipped cream for added tang. Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

This recipe from “The First Ladies Cook Book” appeared in The Times in an article by Craig Claiborne. The original recipe said that the torte could be served warm or chilled.I like it best warm and cut into squares. The torte has so much sticky sugar in it that when it’s cold you have to do battle to cut it. Either way, I suggest adding little or no sugar to the accompanying whipped cream.In fact, I’d fold in some crème fraîche.

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

This recipe appeared in an article in The Times by Craig Claiborne. The sauce is timeless, but you may want to update the selection of vegetables.

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

The chef Sean Brock came up with this first course after making Craig Claiborne’s Bagna Cauda. Instead of bathing the garlic and anchovy in the oil, Mr. Brock has you bathe a whole head of cauliflower in it. You use a ring mold to hold up the cauliflower in a sauté pan, then brown it by spooning over bubbling oil and butter — a process that’s fun and a little hairy — and finish it in the oven. In place of garlic, you use fermented black garlic (which is soft and woodsy in flavor) and milk powder to make a “crumble.” You slice the cauliflower into large slabs, like cross-sections of a tree, and top them with an anchovy butter and the crumble. Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

This recipe appeared in The Times in an article by Joanna Pruess. The recipe came from Bridge Creek Restaurant in Berkeley, Calif. A few tips: Don’t cook the pancakes all the way through. You want the center to be a pocket of cream. The pancakes are so fragile that it may take a few tries to flip them. I used the thinnest, most flexible spatula I own, wedged it halfway under the pancake, letting the other half hang, then turned my wrist and gently laid it down on the other side. I recommend this over more aggressive flipping, which will tear the pancakes.

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

This appeared in a Times article called “Bouillabaisse and Chowders: An Eel-Soup Digression — Who Now Get the Best Vegetables and Fruits — A Dear Fish Market.” The author is unknown. You may halve the amount of oil if you find it alarming.

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

If you can get your hands on ras el hanout, you can use it instead of making the spice mixture. And no worries if you don’t have a tagine — a covered Dutch oven will work just fine. Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Much like a quiche without a crust, this dish is equally good as an appetizer, or as the late main course for brunch, lunch or a late dinner. Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

These corncakes are tasty little gems — crisp and pebbly with bits of corn and lacy around the edges. The crème fraîche and caviar are charming if you have them, but don’t let a lack of caviar prevent you from making the cakes. You’ll be just as happy eating them plain or with dollops of crème fraîche and chives. The cakes’ success hinges on their crispness. Keep your pan hot and steady; don’t let the cakes steam or they’ll turn floppy. Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

In “America Cooks,” by the 1940s food writers Cora, Rose and Bob Brown, the trio declared: “A century ago, when Saratoga Springs was in its heyday as a fashionable resort, specialties from there swept the country, and one of them, Saratoga Chips, will endure as long as there are spuds left to slice.” They were partly right. The recipe has endured, all right, but Saratoga vanished from the name. We now call them potato chips.

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Lotti Morris from Bennington, Vt., wrote: “I’m still using the original copy from the paper, now deep yellow with age, fragile, held together with Scotch tape. We were married 13 years when I first found it and tried it. It has been 50 years now, and this favorite dinner, I think, has contributed to the longevity of our marriage. It’s so easy, so quick. I couldn’t do without it.” Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

This recipe first came to The Times in 1941, published under the rather humdrum title “Grapefruit Dessert,” only to be revived in 2010, as part of Amanda Hesser’s Recipe Redux column. Adapted from Maurice Gonneau, the executive chef at the Park Lane and the Chatham in New York City, this recipe is whipped up with just a few items you may already have on hand: egg whites, sugar, grapefruits, and a bit of brandy. The end result is, Hesser wrote, “the love child of broiled grapefruit and baked Alaska,” a dish “as joyful as it is unexpected.” A photo accompanying the column bears an enticement, and a mild warning: “This dessert is best served to good friends with an appreciation for weird and delicious treats.” Find those friends, and you have a dish worth sharing. Amanda Hesser

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Amanda Hesser