Recipes

Julia Moskin · NYT Cooking

A perfectly quick spring or summer dinner, this recipe draws on Meghan’s kitchen garden in Montecito, Calif., and her fondness for meals filled with vegetables. “Use a healthy dose of garlic, mint and whatever fresh green vegetables you have on hand,” she said. Julia Moskin

Julia Moskin · NYT Cooking

This dessert, named for Meghan’s daughter, Princess Lilibet, is based on a banana pudding recipe of Meghan’s grandmother. In the Southern classic, vanilla pudding is layered with cookies and sliced banana; Meghan’s version adds the sweet-tart sting of strawberries macerated with lemon. She happens to have a passion fruit vine in her garden, and its yellow seeds make a nice, juicy garnish. This layered pudding can be made in individual glasses for a party, or a big bowl for a family night in. Julia Moskin

Julia Moskin · NYT Cooking

For a truly classic egg cream, the chocolate syrup should be Fox’s U-Bet, and the fizz should be very strong, like the bubbles in seltzer from a siphon. But however you prepare it — and feel free to adjust the proportions to your liking — it makes for a sweet, quick refresher or even dessert on a summer day.

Julia Moskin · NYT Cooking

This easy, buttery pistachio cake, topped with crunchy caramelized almonds, was a staple at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., when the pastry chef and cookbook author David Lebovitz cooked there in the 1990s. It is not a mild-mannered tea cake, but packs a punch of flavor, texture and perfume, especially from the cardamom seeds that permeate the batter (see Tip). Its robust character makes the cake a great pedestal for an intense, fruity topping such as citrus, rhubarb or apricot compote (see Tip), but it is also great served solo. Julia Moskin

Julia Moskin · NYT Cooking

These golden little muffins, despite being adapted from my daughter’s elementary-school cafeteria, are perfect for kids and parents alike. Most muffins you can buy are sugary cupcakes in disguise, not the best way to start the day. These are not too sweet, not too spiced, but fragrant and tender. Store them in an airtight container and the yogurt and pumpkin purée will keep them moist for at least two days after they’re baked. Julia Moskin

Julia Moskin · NYT Cooking

This is Padma Lakshmi’s favorite sambar, a soupy lentil-vegetable stew that is a staple of the South Indian table and one of the recipes in her cookbook, “Padma’s All American” (Knopf, 2025). Each spoonful is full of contrasts: sourness from tamarind, richness from coconut, bitterness from daikon, sweetness from curry leaves and heat from both fresh green chiles and dried red ones. As Ms. Lakshmi writes, “There are certainly simpler ways to make sambar … but frying and grinding your own spices with fresh coconut imparts an unparalleled depth of flavor. You’ll see the difference is worth it.” Julia Moskin

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

During the late 1920s or early 1930s, the Cuban socialite Elena Ruz Valdés-Fauli asked for a sandwich with turkey, strawberry preserves and cream cheese in a soft medianoche roll at El Carmelo restaurant in Havana. The sandwich was an original request — it didn’t yet exist on menus in Cuba — but it eventually became something of a beloved national dish. Like other popular Cuban dishes, it combines the sweet and the salty. Some Cuban chefs say that it lends itself to adaptation and experimentation with other jams and sandwich meats. It’s best enjoyed with plantain chips and a Cuban soda, such as Materva or Ironbeer.

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

Alligators can be legally hunted from the last week of August to the end of October in Louisiana, but can also be farm-raised and purchased whole or in parts throughout the year. Here, tiny nuggets of alligator tenderloin become tender and juicy in this cozy recipe adapted from “After the Hunt: Louisiana’s Authoritative Collection of Wild Game and Game Fish Cookery,” a cookbook by the chef John Folse. If you can’t find alligator, other ground meat, such as lean pork, chicken or turkey also work. Serve this chili over spaghetti if you want to mimic a hunting camp meal or eat it with cornbread, as Mr. Folse suggests. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

These buñuelos, which are made by deep-frying dough shaped like a disk, are typically eaten year-round as a street food in Mexico. But buñuelos are most popular around the Christmas season when many people make them on Nochebuena, or Christmas Eve. The ingredients in buñuelos vary depending on the region, but this version is adapted from Mely Martínez, a food blogger and the author of “The Mexican Home Kitchen: Traditional Home-Style Recipes That Capture the Flavors and Memories of Mexico.” The dough is rolled out flat, and though it’s not called for here, can be laid on an inverted bowl covered with a pastry cloth or parchment to stretch it even thinner (similar to when women flattened the dough on their knees) to make a crispy, paper-thin buñuelo. The finished buñuelos are topped with granulated sugar and spiced syrup made with cinnamon, anise, orange zest and piloncillo, a raw form of cane sugar. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

For many Cubans, the Christmas season means that frying buñuelos for dessert is almost as important as serving roast pork for dinner. Buñuelos have roots in Spain, particularly a Spain once under Muslim rule, but the Cuban version, spiced with anise and shaped into figure eights, highlights the island’s abundance of root vegetables like yuca, boniato, malanga, ñame and calabaza. They can be found in many Latino grocery stores, and they give the buñuelos a pillowy, doughnutlike texture inside and crisp up when deep-fried. This recipe is adapted from “The Cuban Table: A Celebration of Food, Flavors and History” by Ana Sofía Peláez. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

This recipe for an air-fryer cheesecake shows the potential of the appliance and the creativity of people, who seem willing to try making anything in the machine. Four months after Rebecca Abbott bought her first air fryer, she was stunned when she made a perfect cheesecake in it — no cracks or dips. She created this recipe, along with Jennifer West, for their blog, Air Frying Foodie. (The two included a cookies and cream version in their cookbook, “Air Fryer Beginner Recipes.”) This cheesecake is done in a fraction of the time it would take to bake one and looks beautiful, especially with cherry pie filling on top. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

An air fryer can form a crispy shell on chicken Parmesan while keeping the meat inside juicy. Rebecca Abbott and Jennifer West, the authors of “Air Fryer Beginner Recipes” who run the blog Air Frying Foodie, created this recipe using a crust that combines coarse panko and fine bread crumbs with Parmesan for the most flavorful crunch. It’s delicious served with pasta and tomato sauce for dinner, or sandwiched in a roll for lunch. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

Crisp ham croquetas, gooey on the inside, are as synonymous with Miami as the Cubano. Deep-fried and shaped like cigars, these ham snacks are a classic Cuban dish. Though many new Cuban bakeries and restaurants play around with the ingredients, ham remains the most popular croqueta base. This version, from Islas Canarias Restaurant in Miami, is considered by many to be gold-star croquetas that hit the ideal sweet and salty notes. Squeeze some fresh lime on top, drizzle with hot sauce and serve with saltine crackers. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

For some Brazilians in the United States, yuca purée takes the place of mashed potatoes on the Thanksgiving table. In Brazil, where yuca is indigenous and abundant, the root vegetable is often peeled, boiled and mashed. Milk and butter make the purée rich and creamy. This recipe was provided by Thailine Kolb, who learned the dish from her mother, Liomar dos Santos Paula Araujo. In Brazil, her mother serves the dish at Christmas, but Mrs. Kolb, who lives in New Haven, Conn., has embraced it as a Thanksgiving tradition. You can use fresh or frozen yuca, with similar results. If using fresh, be careful when cutting the firm vegetable and removing the outer bark. When using fresh or frozen yuca, be sure to remove and discard the starchy core before eating. Christina Morales, Alexa Weibel

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

Straight out of the tin, anchovies can be assertive, but their umami flavor can be judiciously harnessed, adding depth to Caesar salad dressing, pasta puttanesca and other recipes. Affordable and accessible, jarred or canned anchovies can be a great introduction to tinned fish. This butter, from Anna Hezel’s cookbook, “Tin to Table: Fancy, Snacky Recipes for the Tin-thusiasts and A-fish-ionados” (Chronicle Books, 2023), makes good use of anchovy’s salty notes, taming it with fresh herbs and lemon to create a bright green spread that has many uses: Baste it over a seared steak, toss it with pasta or roasted vegetables, melt it and toss with fresh popcorn, or cook an egg in it. Anchovies can provide a salty, funky undercurrent or a whack of flavor; they may be diminutive but their presence is substantial. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

In 2016, Sandra A. Gutierrez began to narrow down a list of 9,000 recipes to about 500 for her encyclopedic Latin American cookbook called “Latinísimo: Home Recipes from the 21 Countries of Latin America” (Knopf, 2023). She wanted to focus on the dishes people made at home for a readership of novice cooks. This easy, weeknight recipe from Chile emulates that spirit with the use of Hass avocados –– the main variety produced in the country –– to make a rich and silky sauce that comes together in a blender as the pasta cooks. For best results, sauce and eat the dish immediately to enjoy its velvety texture. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

Sandra A. Gutierrez, the author of “Latinísimo: Home Recipes from the 21 Countries of Latin America” (Knopf, 2023), was born in Philadelphia and raised by her Guatemalan parents in their home country. This recipe, a classic from Guatemala City where she lived, has been made since the 1950s, when mayonnaise started gaining popularity in Latin America as it became available in grocery stores. Ms. Gutierrez says the dish is typically enjoyed alongside buffet dinners with roast chicken or beef tenderloin. A satisfyingly easy side dish that is rich, cheesy and tangy, this casserole can be prepared and assembled in advance, or easily halved for a smaller crowd. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

Throughout Haiti, djon-djon mushrooms grow in rotting wood during the island’s rainy seasons. They’re picked and dried to make this intensely flavorful black mushroom rice — called diri djon-djon by some — that is typically served on holidays and for special occasions. (In a pinch, some people also use mushroom-flavored bouillon cubes by Maggi to season their rice.) This recipe, from Natacha Gomez-Dupuy, the author of “Bak Fritay: Haitian Street Foods,” starts with soaking the mushrooms to create a broth, blending together a verdant, clove-scented epis seasoning, then cooking parboiled rice in both to make this dish, which is meaty and full of umami. Add seafood like blue crab, lobster or shrimp, or serve the rice with something saucy, like a Haitian chicken stew or these epis-braised short ribs. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

Many countries throughout Latin America honor their ancestors on Día de los Muertos, which is often celebrated Nov. 1 and 2, with dishes like pan de muerto or this recipe for ayote en miel. Though this dish is enjoyed in many countries, this recipe is from El Salvador by Alicia Maher, the author of “Delicious El Salvador” (Pacific Apicius Corporation, 2013). Ayote is a squash that is native to this region and is similar to cinderella pumpkin or butternut squash in the United States. The squash is braised with panela or piloncillo, water and spices, which cook down until as syrupy as honey. Serve the jammy pieces in a shallow bowl with spoonfuls of the spiced syrup on top. In some countries, the dish is served with crema, but in Ecuador, the dish is served throughout the year, often accompanied by queso fresco or quesillo, a cheese similar to fresh mozzarella. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

On Diwali, people in India light up their homes, say prayers and go door-to-door exchanging boxes of snacks and sweets. In the northern part of the country, some people fry fresh onion bhajiya, or crispy onion fritters, as an appetizer or snack for visiting guests. Palak Patel, the author of “The Chutney Life: 100 Easy-to-Make, Indian-Inspired Recipes” (Abrams, 2023), included her mother’s recipe in her cookbook, which represents Ms. Patel’s life as an Indian American. Her mother is from Raipur, where the street food is dipped in cilantro chutney, but her children and husband like to dip the fritters in ketchup. Depending on the region, bhajiya can also be called pakora or bhaji. They’re often eaten as a snack during monsoons and served with masala chai. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

During the fall, many Mexican American households and bakeries simmer winter squash with sugar and spices to make a purée then stuff it into disks of dough to make pumpkin empanadas. This recipe from Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack, a cookbook author and food blogger, is similar to her grandmother’s, but opts for convenience with canned pumpkin. When Ms. Marquez-Sharpnack was a child living in El Paso, her grandmother – from Chihuahua, Mexico – would cut up an old jack-o’-lantern and simmer it to make the filling, similar to ayote en miel. While Ms. Marquez-Sharpnack recommends making the dough from scratch, you could also use store-bought empanada disks for baking, which are less sweet and slightly firmer but incredibly easy to work with. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

Toni Tipton-Martin spent three years writing her latest cookbook, “Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs and Juice: Cocktails From Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks” (Clarkson Potter, 2023), which gives Black people credit for their contributions to the American cocktail canon. But through her research, she found that Black people were disparaged for their drinking, which led to a large gap in published recipes. Alcoholic beverages like gin and juice were referenced in rap lyrics, namely Snoop Dogg’s hit from his debut album. Though gin and juice needs only two ingredients, this one gains extra depth from the use of vermouth and bitters. Similar combinations of gin, orange juice, vermouth and bitters were traced back to several cookbooks, including some that were published more than a century ago. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

Many countries in the Caribbean celebrate the holidays with similar thick, creamy rum-based cocktails. This cremas recipe, by Charlene Absalon who owns Cremas Absalon, hails from Haiti and balances dark rum with sweet coconut and condensed milks, plus warm spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. Haitian rum like Rhum Barbancourt is especially popular for this drink; islanders are loyal to their local rums. Similarly rich and velvety to cremas (also known as kremas), Puerto Rican coquito incorporates cream of coconut, which was invented on the island, and Cubans make crema de vie, a drink that’s comparable to eggnog. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

On holidays and special occasions, the center of a Puerto Rican table usually features pernil, a juicy shredded roast pork seasoned with garlic, citrus and oregano. In 2020, Lyana Blount suddenly had more time to experiment with her vegan recipes and formed her Black Rican Vegan pop-up. She created a vegan version of the pernil she grew up eating using jackfruit. She boiled canned, brined jackfruit and seasoned it with spices and sauces like adobo, sazón and sofrito, then roasted the marinated jackfruit pieces in the oven, crisping the edges to mimic pernil. Even the most critical abuelas might not be able to tell the difference. Serve the dish with a vegan arroz con gandules or other rice. Christina Morales