Recipes

Ligaya Mishan · NYT Cooking

In the Philippines, ginger is both spice and medicine, often administered as salabat, a simple tea of fresh ginger root. Here, tea is transformed into tea cake. Arlyn Osborne, in a recipe from “Sugarcane: Sweet Recipes From My Half-Filipino Kitchen,” begins by brewing a much stronger tea than you would ever drink. The goal is to distill enough ginger to perfume and possess the cake’s every crumb. When straining the tea, press forcefully and patiently, to extract as much of the ginger’s life force as you can. (If you don’t get half a cup’s worth, add water.) More ginger follows, in powdered form, whisked into flour, and crystallized, to stud the top of the cake, after the glaze has run down the sides. Other ingredients play important roles — lemon with its streak of sun, honey mellow and deep, sour cream delivering reliable richness — but the soul of the cake is ginger. Ligaya Mishan

Ligaya Mishan · NYT Cooking

These scones are surprisingly decadent for a recipe devised in wartime Britain as a way to stretch rations of flour and butter. As adapted by the historian Eleanor Barnett from a 1940s pamphlet produced and published by the Ministry of Food, it uses up leftover mashed potatoes and lets you get by with about half the amounts of flour and butter that a typical scone recipe might require. There’s less of a rise, since potatoes lack gluten and thus can’t create the long, elastic strands of protein that trap air and bring buoyancy. But the extra starch gives the scones softness and a delightfully tender crumb. Out of a limited batch of ingredients, you 12 scones, enough to create 6 scone sandwiches with your choice of filling: a sweet slather of cocoa powder, sugar, butter and a dash of milk, evoking cake frosting, or a quick savory slaw of shredded cabbage and carrots, livened up by onion chutney. Ligaya Mishan

Ligaya Mishan · NYT Cooking

‘Ulu, breadfruit in Hawaiian, is hefty as a melon, starchy and vitamin-rich. It has been touted as the answer to world hunger — but it is also simply delicious and wonderfully easy to work with in the kitchen. In this warm, vital dish from the chef Robynne Maii of Fête in Honolulu, ‘ulu is steamed and mashed until smoother, fluffier and more buttery than even the best mashed potatoes. Taking inspiration from South India, where breadfruit is also a staple, Ms. Maii crushes ‘ulu with a spiced oil of cumin, mustard seeds and turmeric. Then she brings a local touch: lilikoi (passion fruit) in a tart, musky chutney. A heap of cilantro and mint, for brightness, and fried shallots finish it off. If you’re not so lucky as to live in the islands, you may find breadfruit in Caribbean or Southeast Asian groceries, or order it frozen from the Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Cooperative. Ligaya Mishan

Ligaya Mishan · NYT Cooking

Pain perdu, which Americans know as French toast, traditionally calls for crusty French bread. Heimata Hall, who runs food tours on his native Mo‘orea in French Polynesia, uses ipo, a Tahitian bread rich with grated coconut and coconut milk. The dough should be as sticky as possible — so sticky, you think it must surely need more flour or liquid, but no. Some recipes call for baking or boiling, but Mr. Hall prefers steaming because it holds in moisture and gives the bread a smooth, clean finish. For pain perdu, he cuts the ipo into thick slabs and dunks them in coconut milk, just enough so they’re coated but not sopping, then in egg. The pan gets a brushing of butter (not too much), to crisp the outside of the bread and caramelize the coconut. The finish: fresh mint, nuts, whatever fruit is in season, and, for extra luxury, a spoonful of coconut cream complete the dish. Ligaya Mishan

Ligaya Mishan · NYT Cooking

In Japanese, “yamitsuki” means addictive — a precise description of this seemingly humble side dish of cabbage, gently torn and simply anointed with sesame oil and seeds, garlic, black pepper and a fingerprint’s worth of salt. So few ingredients, so little time required, and you can’t stop eating it. Often served at izakayas, the Japanese equivalent of pubs, the cabbage is especially good for refreshing the palate and easing the stomach between bites of richer, fattier foods. Aiko Cascio, an instructor for the New York-based League of Kitchens cooking school, prefers tearing the leaves by hand rather than using a knife because the rougher edges absorb more of the sesame oil. This recipe, from “The League of Kitchens Cookbook” (Harvest, 2024) by Lisa Kyung Gross, Rachel Wharton and the women of the League of Kitchens cooking school, calls for flathead cabbage, also known as Taiwanese cabbage, which is soft and tender, with space between the ribs. If you can find only green, Ms. Cascio a

Ligaya Mishan · NYT Cooking

This voluptuous dip “couldn’t be simpler,” wrote Ravinder Bhogal, the chef of Jikoni in London, in her cookbook “Comfort and Joy” (Bloomsbury, 2023). Tumble avocado in a food processor with ginger, for a subtle sweetness and restorative sting; soy sauce, standing in for salt but rounder and deeper; toasted sesame oil, earthy and plush, making everything it touches more intensely itself; and edamame, for body (and protein). Then stir in yuzu, a citrus that’s sweeter and gentler than lemon, lending a sherbety tang, and light where avocado is luscious. (If you don’t have any on hand, try squeezing together lemon and clementine.) A dose of sambal brings a throb of heat, if you like, while a dusting of furikake adds crunch. Ms. Bhogal serves the dip on toast at her restaurant, but you can dispense with the formality of framing it as a meal and eat it straight, dunking the likes of carrots, radishes, tortilla chips and Thai prawn crackers. Ligaya Mishan

Ligaya Mishan · NYT Cooking

As a child living in Tuscany, Ixta Belfrage fell for a pasta rich with dried porcini mushrooms, served at the lone restaurant in the tiny mountain village of Acone. In her cookbook, “Mezcla” (Ten Speed Press, 2022), she pays homage to the power of porcini mushrooms, which are typically gathered from the wild and taste of it, luscious and nutty. They offer a shortcut to glory in this ragù that almost defies the name, because it doesn’t demand hours on the stove and attains a velvety intensity in practically no time at all. Leave the porcini to soak and swell back to life; chop; gently fry with tomato paste, garlic, chile and parsley; rain down black pepper; melt in some Parmesan; swirl with pasta water and porcini broth and let it bubble. A dab of cream, then a slicking and coating of the pasta, and it’s on the table. Ligaya Mishan

Ligaya Mishan · NYT Cooking

This creamy yet delicate half-custard, half-flan is an elegant start to a meal. Zaiyu Hasegawa, the chef of Den in Tokyo, beats the eggs — just half an egg per person — with dashi, a stock of kombu (kelp) and katsuobushi (bonito flakes) that brings a mellow brine and a tinge of smoke. The eggs and dashi, now one, are run through a sieve for smoothness, and seasoned with usukuchi, a lighter-bodied and slightly saltier soy sauce with a tart finish. Pour the mixture into teacups or ramekins and let it steam on the stovetop. While some recipes call for a higher ratio of liquid to egg, here the egg, the richest ingredient, comes to the fore. As a grace note, Mr. Hasegawa suggests a purée of celery root melted down with butter, earthy-sweet. Spoon it on top once the custard has set. With the first bite, the faint chewiness of the celery root gives way to silk and surrender. Ligaya Mishan

Ligaya Mishan · NYT Cooking

This lush, rich Ecuadorian stew belies its name, “seco,” which in Spanish means “dry.” In this recipe from the cookbook “My (Half) Latinx Kitchen: Half Recipes, Half Stories, All Latin American,” Kiera Wright-Ruiz boosts the flavor by first browning the chicken in a pot to a golden veneer, then gently sizzling a pulverized sofrito of onion, garlic and bell pepper in its rendered fat, scraping up the lovely dark bits. Traditionally, the chicken was simmered in chicha, a fermented alcoholic beverage often made with corn, yuca or quinoa, but a simple lager will do here, bringing a mellow, malty depth. The beer’s trace bitterness is offset by tomatoes and naranjilla, also known as lulo, a small indigenous fruit that’s lime-sour and oozily tart like a pineapple. (You may substitute freshly squeezed orange juice.) Submerged in broken-down tomatoes, naranjilla and beer, the chicken lounges, loosens, relents. At the very end, there’s a splash of vinegar to snap everything into focus, and cilan

Ligaya Mishan · NYT Cooking

You could call tinola a chicken soup, but that is just a literal description for a dish that, in the Philippines, is more like a form of medicine. The writer Jill Damatac remembers her lola (grandmother) putting a whole chicken in the pot; in her own version, she bronzes thighs and drumsticks then submerges them in chicken stock and sets to a simmer. The broth’s depth comes from ginger, peppery malunggay (moringa) leaves and patis (fish sauce), standing in for salt. Chayote, kin to squash but as bracing as an apple, yields a clean, juicy bite. Be patient: The soup’s subtle flavor “does not bloom, soft and gentle on the tongue, until the second mouthful,” Ms. Damatac writes in her memoir, “Dirty Kitchen” (Atria, 2025). As a luxurious topping, she buys extra chicken skin from the butcher, crisps it and adds it to the soup at the last moment, for a satisfying shatter. Ligaya Mishan

Ligaya Mishan · NYT Cooking

The principle behind this summer salad is “take what is great from what is right around you and do very little to it,” Hannah Shizgal-Paris, the chef of Roman’s, in Brooklyn, says. The recipe showcases cantaloupe and nectarines, but any firm-fleshed melon and vivid stone fruit will do. Everything depends on the quality of the produce at hand and the stage it’s in: If the melon is crunchy, you cut it thin; if starting to soften, cut it thick. Contrast comes from capers, pecorino, chile (less for heat than punctuation), and a pucker of lemon to finish. Be sure to season each ingredient separately and build the salad in layers, rather than dumping everything in all at once. Taste as you go, and keep it all nice and cool. It’s a dish only for this sun-drunk time. Eat it while you can. Ligaya Mishan

David Tanis · NYT Cooking

Taking cues from Vietnamese flavors, this colorful salad can be served on its own or be a fine accompaniment to roast chicken, grilled meat or fish. The dressing, a zippy mixture of garlic, ginger, sesame oil, fish sauce, lime juice and jalapeño, makes sure the vegetables shine. Ordinary cabbage will work fine, but if you can find napa cabbage, so much the better.

David Tanis · NYT Cooking

These chicken breasts baked in pastry may sound impossibly fussy, but they’re quite simple to prepare. The only tedious part is making sure the chicken breasts are the same size and thickness. Small boneless chicken breasts work well, and will need only a little trimming, but if all you can find are large ones, you’ll need to cut them into four 6-ounce pieces, an easy butchering project. (Save leftover scraps for a stir-fry or freeze them to add to a future chicken stock.)

David Tanis · NYT Cooking

For dessert, a bowl of strawberries and cream is always a winner. But instead, consider this lemony spongecake topped with strawberries and cream, which may well generate applause. It’s worth seeking out smaller strawberries, which tend to be riper and sweeter than the large, white-shouldered type. The spongecake may be baked in advance, up to 2 days ahead. It’s fun to hide the strawberries under a thick layer of whipped cream, but you can serve the cream on the side if preferred.

David Tanis · NYT Cooking

Spring and lamb are synonymous, so in honor of the season, make this succulent lamb shoulder braised with white wine and aromatics. While the lamb is, of course, a showstopper, the real star is a mélange of greens (chard, kale or large spinach) and beans, punched up with rosemary, hot pepper and orange zest. Look for fresh favas, or substitute the peeled frozen variety (found at Middle Eastern grocery stores), frozen edamame, baby limas, green peas or a combination. An ideal dinner party main, every part of this dish can be prepared hours (or a day) ahead and reheated just before serving.

David Tanis · NYT Cooking

Asparagus is absolutely a symbol of spring, so what better way to celebrate the season than by centering them in a salad. A platter of green spears, bathed in a mustard-tinged vinaigrette, would be perfectly fine, but for something more celebratory, it’s nice to dress things up, with finely slivered raw beets, a shower of dill, parsley and mint leaves, and chopped (or quartered) soft-cooked egg. A few slices of prosciutto complete the colorful assembly. For the best flavor, look for the freshest firm, shiny asparagus available, whether pencil thin, medium or hefty.

David Tanis · NYT Cooking

A cucumber salad dressed with tart yogurt and lots of chopped dill and mint makes a cooling, pleasantly refreshing saucy accompaniment to grilled meat. This is a handy brightly flavored salad to make all summer long, and so simple.

David Tanis · NYT Cooking

These delicious shortbread-like cookies feature tahini, sesame seeds and a touch of coconut. Not only are they easy to transport, but they’re also easy to make and are a pleasant not-too-sweet dessert for nibbling.

David Tanis · NYT Cooking

Cherry tomatoes make a colorful zesty salad that’s good on its own or very welcome as a picnic side dish. They are halved and tossed with a garlicky vinaigrette, roughly chopped olives, cilantro and parsley and a shower of crumbled feta, an ideal accompaniment to grilled meats.

David Tanis · NYT Cooking

Made with ground chicken (or lamb), these Turkish-inspired kebabs are highly spiced with red pepper, paprika, cumin, sumac and onion. They may also be grilled or broiled. Serve with lavash flatbread or pita and some refreshing vegetable salads.

David Tanis · NYT Cooking

This chilled soup is easy to put together and most welcome on a hot day. The soft tofu garnish, dressed with sesame oil and soy sauce, is a lovely contrast to the bright green base. It is worth hunting down shiso leaves or Thai basil at an Asian grocery. Their bright flavors add interest.

David Tanis · NYT Cooking

This simple, generous sorbet comes together in a food processor and releases a blast of mint that’s evident in every spoonful. But best of all, it invites any kind of ripe summer melon, even watermelon. The texture is rougher than a true sorbet, somewhere between granita and shave ice. It’s plenty good as is, but to gild the lily, add a bit of raspberry syrup and a few festive berries.

David Tanis · NYT Cooking

These meaty crab cakes, bound with puréed scallops and enhanced with miso and ginger, can be made a day in advance, along with the dipping sauce. But arguably the most fun part is pickling the daikon. Once peeled and cut paper-thin, sprinkled with salt, sugar and rice wine vinegar, and tossed with some slivers of ginger, it’s ready to eat in an hour or so. Stored in a jar in the fridge, it’ll keep for a week.

David Tanis · NYT Cooking

Like tiramisù, this simple-to-assemble dessert uses store-bought Italian ladyfingers available at many supermarkets. Made with fresh peaches and brandy, it’s a creamy, boozy, fruity delight that’s a perfect end to a summer meal. It’s also easily made without ever turning on the oven, just waiting in the fridge until ready to serve. If desired, sprinkle with toasted chopped almonds or pistachios just before serving.