Recipes

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

During the Christmas season, Venezuelans typically gather with their families and team up to make one of the most labor-intensive dishes of the entire year: hallacas, which are similar to Mexican tamales or Puerto Rican pasteles. This multigenerational recipe from Isbelis Diaz and her son, Ivo Diaz, is served at Casa Ora, their fine-dining Venezuelan restaurant in Brooklyn. Ms. Diaz’s great-grandmother learned this recipe from her neighbor nearly a century ago; it has passed down to each matriarch of the family. It starts with a deep red oil made from annatto seeds that is used to flavor the pork filling and masa for the hallacas. Before opening Casa Ora, Ms. Diaz would bring the hallacas — which are double-wrapped in banana leaves and tied with cotton twine — to businesses and events all throughout New York City, hoping to create a clientele. Today, they’re on the menu as an appetizer throughout the year, with a pork or vegan filling. The dish is typically served with other sides, lik

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

For many Mexicans and Mexican Americans celebrating Epiphany on January 6, Three Kings Day begins by picking up a rosca de reyes from a local bakery and enjoying the sweet, ring-shaped bread with family members. This traditional recipe comes from La Monarca Bakery in Los Angeles, which sells at least 5,000 of these festive desserts every year. The bread’s design is symbolic: The circular form represents eternal love from God, and the colorful decorations resemble the jewels on the crowns of the Magi. Many bakeries in the United States and Mexico use red and green strips of acitrón — a candy made from cactus — but because the cactus is endangered, the candy can be difficult to find. Home cooks often substitute quince paste, guava paste or dried fruits like those in fruitcake. Similar to king cake, the bread often has a figurine (or fava bean or walnut) tucked inside from the bottom after it is done baking; the person who finds it is often tasked with hosting a Candlemas feast on Februar

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

Crisp at the edges and creamy in the center, this dense, cheesy cornbread from I Love Paraguay, a Paraguayan restaurant in Queens, New York City, has a texture similar to bread pudding. Paraguayans serve it for many meals in the country, but especially alongside asado (grilled meats). Though the bread is extremely popular, its true origins are murky. Many people will tell a similar story: In the mid-1800s, when Carlos Antonio López was the president of Paraguay, he liked to eat corn soup. But his chef made a mistake and added too much cornmeal, and instead served the president a corn bread. The president reportedly loved it so much that he named it sopa Paraguaya. But others say that the bread has deeper roots from the Cario-Guaraní, a group of Indigenous people in Paraguay, who made a similar type of cornbread. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

Suspiro a la limeña, sometimes called suspiro de limeña, is one of Peru’s most popular desserts. The dessert may have originated in Lima, Peru, more than 100 years ago. According to lore, the wife of José Gálvez Barrenechea, a Peruvian poet, made him a custard dessert topped with fresh meringue that was spiked with port. The story goes that he loved the dessert so much that he decided to name it “suspiro a la limeña,” which translates loosely to the sigh of a lady from Lima. This recipe, adapted from “Peru: The Cookbook” (Phaidon, 2015) by Gastón Acurio, a renowned Peruvian chef who opened restaurants like La Mar and Tanta, uses evaporated and condensed milks to make a sweet base that’s reminiscent of dulce de leche. The dessert takes some patience, but the results are sublime. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

Jocón — whose name comes from jok’, meaning to grind or mash in Mayan K’iche’ — is a fresh chicken and tomatillo stew that is popular throughout Guatemala. The stew stems from Maya culture but some of its ingredients today, like sesame seeds and chicken, were likely introduced by Spanish colonizers. Some Maya groups also made theirs more spicy, or with red tomatoes rather than tomatillos, depending on in which part of the country they lived. This bright recipe is from Jorge Cárdenas, an owner of Ix Restaurant in Brooklyn, who was taught by his Maya grandmother to make it. This soup base is blended until creamy, but there can be some variety in texture, depending on how someone grinds the seed mixture and purées the soup itself. Though the tomatillos, peppers, onions and jalapeño are typically scorched on a comal or pan, this recipe makes the process easier by broiling them in a sheet pan. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

For many families growing up in North Carolina, chew bread was commonly served as dessert or a snack, especially after a Sunday church service. This recipe is from Doretha Mitchell, the mother of Ed Mitchell and grandmother of Ryan Mitchell, longtime pitmasters in Wilson, N.C., who now help run True Made Foods, a food company making barbecue sauce and other condiments. She sold the chew bread, along with other desserts, in the 1980s at a supermarket she owned with her husband. Adapted from “Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque” by Ed Mitchell and Ryan Mitchell (Ecco, 2023), this recipe is significantly chewier, denser and less sweet than a blondie. The snack likely originated from sharecroppers who made it with leftovers they received from white families. It also has different names throughout the South, like cornbread cake, or chewies in South Carolina. Christina Morales

Christina Morales · NYT Cooking

Sizzling and gooey, queso fundido topped with chorizo is a staple on Mexican restaurant menus across the country. But the dish likely stems from home cooks along North Mexico and South Texas. Depending on where you go, different cheeses like Monterey Jack, Chihuahua or Oaxaca cheeses are used. Bricia Lopez, an author of “Asada: The Art of Mexican-Style Grilling (Abrams, 2023)” and “Oaxaca: Home Cooking From the Heart of Mexico” (Abrams Books, 2019), and an owner at Guelaguetza, in Los Angeles, was inspired by the salsa de queso and quesillo she grew up eating at her family’s restaurant to create her version of queso fundido, which uses the Oaxaca cheese to create a great cheese pull. She also tops it with mushrooms and epazote (see Tip), a fresh herb she grew up eating with cheese. Christina Morales

Alexa Weibel · NYT Cooking

This stunning vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish belongs at the center of any table. Beneath a crispy, wispy golden crust of store-bought phyllo lies a gratin with layers of creamy autumnal vegetables in a colorful ombré pattern. Slice the vegetables very thinly using a mandoline for safety and ease (see Tip), and they’ll bake up tender and creamy. Because each vegetable has varying densities and sugar levels, they benefit from individual attention: Salt each layer zealously, as the vegetables need a significant amount to offset their natural sweetness, and they really soak up the sauce. The sweet potatoes and squash may be sliced before you start cooking, but the potatoes should be done later, to prevent them from oxidizing, and the beets, to prevent them from falling apart. This creamy root vegetable gratin is exacting, and requires some effort, but its wow factor justifies the labor.

Alexa Weibel · NYT Cooking

While most winter squash recipes call for roasting the firm vegetable until nutty and caramelized, this recipe highlights the vegetable’s creamy texture and sweet notes by simmering it in ginger beer until supple. Like many glazed recipes, this one showcases the beauty of great timing: When the squash is done cooking, the liquid will have reduced to a glossy sauce (provided you’ve cut the squash into 1-inch pieces). Topping the mixture with a confetti-like gremolata of chopped ginger, garlic, parsley and orange zest turns this into a cold-weather side that sparkles.

Kevin McKenna · NYT Cooking

These chicken-filled, Sonora-style enchiladas have been offered at El Cholo in Los Angeles since it began as the Sonora Café in 1923. They are based on the recipe of Rosa Borquez, who started the restaurant with her husband, Alejandro. Both were born in the Mexican state of Sonora. This dish, with stacked tortillas rather than rolled, is known in Sonora as “enchiladas chatas,” flat enchiladas. Adapted from “A Taste of History: With Authentic El Cholo Recipes” by Ron Salisbury (2020), this recipe includes a chicken stew base with tomatoes, poblano and white pepper, plus a classic red enchilada sauce with smoky dried chiles and a green enchilada sauce with verdant notes from tomatillos, fresh chiles and spinach. A fried egg crowns the top. Kevin McKenna, Alexa Weibel

Kevin McKenna · NYT Cooking

Cooks at El Cholo in Los Angeles spend four hours, three times a week, to make each 35-gallon batch of sauce for their enchiladas. “Without the enchilada, we wouldn’t have survived,” said Ron Salisbury, the third-generation owner. Adapted from “A Taste of History: With Authentic El Cholo Recipes” by Ron Salisbury (2020), this sauce was created for El Cholo’s Sonora-Style Enchiladas but can be used for any enchilada recipe. The mild California chiles, despite their name, come from Mexico, where they are dried in kilns. (Years ago they were sun-dried in fields, giving them a richer flavor, but exposure to birds ended that practice.) Kevin McKenna, Alexa Weibel

Kevin McKenna · NYT Cooking

Chile sauces at El Cholo in Los Angeles have changed over its century of operation, as American palates have become more used to “spicier, more flavorful” foods, said Ron Salisbury, the owner, whose grandparents started the restaurant. “So without endangering too much, we added a little more chile." He added, “I felt I was tampering with something sacred.” One of his kitchen jobs as a teenager included seeding chiles, a step that keeps the sauce from becoming too hot and bitter. This sauce, adapted from “A Taste of History: With Authentic El Cholo Recipes” by Ron Salisbury (2020), was created for El Cholo’s Sonora-Style Enchiladas, but can be used for any enchilada recipe. Kevin McKenna, Alexa Weibel

Alexa Weibel · NYT Cooking

A cornerstone of Japanese cuisine, this basic kombu and bonito dashi from “Donabe: Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking” by Naoko Takei Moore and Kyle Connaughton (Ten Speed Press, 2015) is full of umami but made from just two ingredients: kombu (dry kelp) and katsuobushi (smoked, dried bonito flakes). It has smoky, salty, savory notes and tastes restorative on its own, but more often contributes depth to many traditional Japanese recipes, used as one might use any other broth to build flavor. After infusing the water with the kombu and katsuobushi, avoid the temptation to press the katsuobushi to extract as much liquid as possible — doing so would alter the equilibrium of this delicate dashi, which tastes oceanic but not overtly fishy. Alexa Weibel

Alexa Weibel · NYT Cooking

Inspired by Spanish ajo blanco soup — at its essence a creamy, dairy-free blend of almonds, bread, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and water or stock that is also known as white gazpacho — this recipe from Nina Compton, the chef of Compère Lapin in New Orleans, glorifies garlic. Rather than creating a chilled soup, she replaces the traditional almonds with cashews and boosts the flavor profile of ajo blanco with a hefty pile of blanched garlic cloves, for a surprisingly sweet, nutty sauce that softens the smoky, bitter notes of the charred broccoli rabe. This vegetarian side pairs with just about any protein, but it’s got enough complexity to work as a main alongside some toasted bread and perhaps some beans. Its garlic flavor will linger, but you won’t mind. Alexa Weibel

Alexa Weibel · NYT Cooking

A stunning one-pot meal that cooks in just 15 minutes, this salmon dish creates a silky miso sauce that tastes lavish. The recipe comes from Naoko Takei Moore, who co-authored “Donabe: Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking” with Kyle Connaughton (Ten Speed Press, 2015) and created Toiro, a Los Angeles shop that specializes in donabe and Japanese cookware. It’s intended to be cooked in a donabe, a Japanese clay pot prized for its ability to retain heat and cook evenly, but also works well in a Dutch oven or other pot. Once you’ve stirred together your miso sauce, seasoned your salmon and prepped your vegetables, the meal comes together with little effort, as you layer the vegetables, dashi, salmon and sauce in your pot then simmer until tender. Organize your prepped ingredients and the practice of cooking this dish feels as soul-soothing as the results. Alexa Weibel

Alexa Weibel · NYT Cooking

Ask 10 people for a recipe for a particular dish, and you’ll probably get 10 different recipes. Mexican sopa de albóndigas is no exception. Most variations are likely to involve vegetables, rice, a tomato-based broth and, inevitably, meatballs. Wesley Avila, the chef of Guerrilla Tacos in Los Angeles, learned this recipe from his mother, who learned it from her grandmother. His meatballs are hefty in size but light in density, and follow his family’s tradition of adding uncooked white rice to the pork-beef mixture before shaping it into balls and cooking: “My mom always told me that when the rice is done, the soup is ready,” Mr. Avila said. “She used it almost as a timer.” The toppings — piled on as you would atop chili — skew cheffy, but they are entirely optional. Alexa Weibel

Alexa Weibel · NYT Cooking

The majority of shortcut chicken soup recipes use rotisserie chicken. It’s a convenient hack, but cooked chicken doesn’t absorb flavors very well. On the other hand, sautéing ground chicken in olive oil with garlic, coriander and celery seeds (or fennel seeds and rosemary, or herbes de Provence) creates a deeply complex base. Add the vegetables, then the stock and the noodles for a complete meal that cooks in 30 minutes. You can use egg noodles, cavatelli or alphabet noodles, but you may want to adjust the amount of stock to taste, since they’ll each absorb a different amount of liquid.

Alexa Weibel · NYT Cooking

A popular fast-food dish in Japan, gyudon is a quick-simmered mixture of thinly sliced beef and crisp-tender onions cooked in a sweet soy broth that’s seasoned with fresh ginger. It’s perfectly suited to weeknight cooking because it requires minimal prep, a short ingredient list and less than 30 minutes of active cooking. Gyudon owes its popularity to Yoshinoya, Japan’s first fast-food chain, which was founded in Tokyo in 1899 and became wildly successful in the 1960s serving just this dish. Variations abound — this recipe borrows heavily from the chef Ivan Orkin’s recipe, as well as one featured in “Simply Bento” by Yuko — and while some skip the use of dashi, a Japanese stock using bonito flakes and seaweed, the ingredient gives the dish a slight funk that offsets the sweetness of the mirin, sake and ginger. The flavor is subtle, but it’s missed when absent. Alexa Weibel

Alexa Weibel · NYT Cooking

With a flavor profile inspired by pasta e fagioli, this weeknight pasta recipe coaxes rich flavor out of simple ingredients while enlisting the oven to create a luscious sauce from roasted tomatoes and white beans. Essentially, the dish requires just three steps: Boil pasta, roast your sauce ingredients, then stir together until the pasta is glossy. When roasted in the oven, the beans become crispy, like croutons, and break down in a way that helps thicken the sauce. Though a flurry of freshly grated cheese would be welcome on top, this otherwise-vegan dish doesn’t need it: The roasted tomato sauce is rich and luscious, fortified by starchy pasta water, roasted beans and a good glug of extra-virgin olive oil.

Alexa Weibel · NYT Cooking

Simple yet surprising, this pantry risotto is a study in contrasts: Luscious, creamy risotto is topped with caramelized carrots that are roasted with spicy chile crisp while you make the rice. The risotto base — a classic approach using shallots, garlic and white wine — is the foundation for a cheap though lush meal that can be cobbled together with pantry ingredients. This one is subtly sweetened with freshly grated carrots, then topped with a pile of smoky roasted carrots. Don’t underestimate the versatility of chile crisp: This tingly, crunchy condiment can animate any number of rich dishes like risotto, pizza and macaroni and cheese with a robust dose of heat. In recipes, as in life, opposites attract.

Alexa Weibel · NYT Cooking

This satisfying weeknight meal involves three simple components — fish, kale and rice — and builds flavor from just one versatile element requiring a little labor: leek-infused cream. Sauté leeks, garlic and thyme in butter until softened, then simmer with heavy cream until thickened. Strain the mixture, saving the leeks to add flavor to cooked rice, polenta or pearl couscous, then combine the fragrant cream with blanched kale and a little mustard. Season the skin of your fillets early to help them develop a particularly crisp, crackly crust. If you can’t find fresh char, any mild fish fillets will work well in their place.

Alexa Weibel · NYT Cooking

Lotus root has a subtle flavor — mildly sweet, and vaguely reminiscent of fresh corn — but its striking appearance and singular texture distinguish it, with a crunch that is snappier than an undercooked potato but not quite as assertive as jicama. This speedy stir-fry adapted from M Shanghai, a Shanghainese restaurant in Brooklyn, celebrates the root vegetable and its unique texture. May Liu, the restaurant’s owner, wanted lotus root on the menu because it’s a traditional Shanghainese dish. “It’s light, it’s tasty, it’s delicious, it’s unusual. It’s not a dish you can find at every Chinese restaurant,” she said. Simply seasoned with salt, mushroom seasoning and just enough sugar to render its components glossy, the flavor of this dish is subdued, allowing the quiet lotus root to dominate. The ingredients, like mildly spicy bullhorn peppers (sometimes labeled as green long hot peppers), can be found in Asian markets. Alexa Weibel

Alexa Weibel · NYT Cooking

This traditional Turkish egg dish of garlicky yogurt with poached eggs and a drizzle of spicy butter is rich, luscious and faintly smoky. Typically served as a meze among a spread of other dishes, it makes a light lunch or brunch that comes together in the time it takes to poach eggs. For your base, opt for Greek yogurt to mimic the thicker yogurt common in Turkey. Next, bloom Aleppo pepper in butter or olive oil. Also known as pul biber, it delivers about as much heat as chipotle, with smoky notes and a fruity flavor. This version of çilbir is adapted from Özlem Warren, a cookbook author and blogger. Though the dish is traditionally served without herbs, she recommends dill or parsley for a modern flourish. Alexa Weibel

Alexa Weibel · NYT Cooking

Chicken Milanese is a simple dish that makes chicken breasts seem positively lavish. Similar to Italian veal Milanese, this classic dish pairs hot and crispy breaded chicken with a cool and lemony salad. The recipe takes a little preparation, but the execution is easy: Pound lean chicken breasts until thin, bread them, then pan-fry until the bread crumbs are golden; the crust ensures that the chicken stays moist. While not traditional, this version adds onion powder, garlic powder and grated Parmesan to the breading. Experiment by adding spices, nuts and seeds to the bread crumbs, and cooked or raw fruits and vegetables to the greens. A swipe of mayonnaise on the plate? Unnecessary but sublime.