Recipes

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

This quick and nourishing soup captures the concentrated umami, acidic-sweet brightness and floral aroma of fresh tomatoes. If you can buy the ones on the vine, you’ll end up with an even more intense scent. Fragrant jasmine rice lends body and thickens the broth just enough. The perfect lunch or light dinner, this comforting meal reheats beautifully, too, to a texture not dissimilar to congee or juk, and tastes like peak summer in soup form. A note on cooking with tomato vines: They lend a surprising tomatoey flavor to brothy curries and soups like this, accentuating the aroma of the fruit in a beautiful way, but they do contain plant defenses called glycoalkaloids, so don’t eat them.

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

People forget that rice isn’t just a blank canvas; it has a unique flavor all its own, whether it’s jasmine, basmati or sushi rice, or any other kind you and your family love. Scorching it helps you taste its nuance. Also known as socarrat in Spanish cuisine (when it crisps on the bottom of a paella pan) or tahdig (in Persian households), among many other names, scorched rice is a natural byproduct of cooking rice in a pot over fire. This simple recipe extends the life of leftover rice to achieve that crisp, tender rice, a lovely treat that doesn’t require the time it takes to tenderize uncooked grains.

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

In this chewy, tender cookie, from the Brooklyn-based baker Autumn Moultrie, the raspberry flavor is neon-bright, thanks to the smart use of freeze-dried raspberries to balance the creamy, often overly sweet white chocolate. A higher ratio of raspberry to white chocolate (which is to say, not too much white chocolate) provides just the right seesawing of tartness to sweetness, fruitiness to creaminess, the joyful interplay that makes these two ingredients play so nicely together. At her bakery Dolly’s Coffee Shop, which Ms. Moultrie runs with her business partner, Brian Villanueva, Ms. Moultrie makes the cookies as big as your face. Home bakers can adjust the size according to their preferences; the bake time will stay the same. Eric Kim

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

A perfectly seared scallop needs little more to taste complete. A squeeze of lemon is sufficient, but if you want a stellar partner to balance the sweet saline bite of caramelized sea scallops, make this tomato salad of tomato salads dressed with an acidic, savory vinaigrette inspired by mignonette, the classic accompaniment to raw oysters. It’s dotted with minced shallot to carry tomatoes and earthy spring mix — and scallops, of course — to umami heights.

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

It takes years to become a master burger flipper, and it’s worth the practice for incredible smash burgers at home. This special recipe and technique, from 7th Street Burger in New York City, teaches you that the best burgers are griddled hot and fast on a flat surface. A large skillet works well for two burgers. A stainless steel pan gives you the best browned crust, but cast iron is good too. Restaurant chefs have meat presses to flatten the patty, but at home you can use any heavy pot or saucepan with a handle and flat bottom. The richness of the thin, flat and crispy patty is cut by fresh jalapeño slices that turn bright green from the heat of the burger. Use your favorite mayonnaise or secret sauce, or make your own. At 7th Street Burger, they add a ghost pepper hot sauce that pairs well with the fresh chiles. Eric Kim

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

The California roll at Yanagi Sushi in Honolulu has individual grains of soft rice; a fresh, fat hunk of perfectly ripe avocado; just a sliver of cucumber for aroma and freshness; and cooked snow crab, a sweet flurry of tender filaments bound by mayonnaise. This recipe, with its pristine proportions, comes from one of Yanagi’s founding sushi chefs, Tsutomu Nakayama, whose brother, Haruo, opened the restaurant in 1978, the same decade the California roll was invented. Eric Kim

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

Chicken Pasta Bake

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

Classically a dull-green side dish for fish and chips, mushy peas are the unsung hero of British “comfort sludge,” as the food writer Ruby Tandoh calls it. The original “mushy peas” come from dried marrowfat peas, which are peas that mature and even dry out on the plant; they’re hard to come by outside of the U.K., which is why this modern iteration calls for supermarket frozen peas. Ms. Tandoh’s proportions here mimic the delicious green gunk that tops many a crusty bread in Australia, California and beyond, as she writes in “Cook As You Are” (Knopf, 2022): “Think avocado toast, but peas.” This verdant melange of protein and carb is an excellent base recipe for all your hopes and dreams: Stir in garlic, Parmesan and crème fraîche (like Nigella Lawson); a knob of butter couldn’t hurt (as Jamie Oliver does); and if you really want to taste the peas as they are, just use a pinch of salt. Whatever you do, don’t skip the fresh mint — its cooling sweetness brings out the peas’ most elementa

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

At last, here is a version of this Thanksgiving casserole that’s not too sweet, thanks to a few smart, simple tricks. First, the potatoes are baked whole to concentrate their flavor and reduce their moisture for a fluffy mash. Woodsy bay leaves and fruity black pepper perfume the potatoes with undeniable savoriness. There are no extra spices here, just plenty of salt, so the natural earthy sweetness of the spuds can shine. The marshmallows are necessary, not a retro quirk: Halved and toasted under the broiler, they create a crackly thin, turtle-shelled top that complements the potatoes and provides most of the dish’s sweetness.

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

These easy, fun-to-make cookies taste and feel like you’re eating mint chip ice cream, thanks to the peppermint extract and its icy cooling effect. A crisp-tender sugar cookie base — made without a mixer — is topped with a layer of minty white chocolate that’s thinned out with olive oil. Dark chocolate shavings lend bitterness to balance the sweetness.

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

In 2007, the human rights investigator Michael Shaikh first tasted this dreamy, golden chickpea stew, saland-e nakhod (also called qurma-e nakhod), at his friend Tamim Samee’s dinner table in Kabul, Afghanistan. “It’s a dish some Afghan families have forgotten,” Mr. Samee told Mr. Shaikh. This recipe comes to us from Mr. Shaikh’s book, “The Last Sweet Bite: Stories and Recipes of Culinary Heritage Lost and Found” (Crown, 2025). Many cultures have a richly spiced chickpea stew thickened with tangy yogurt. This one, with its soft, comforting flavors, belongs in that glorious pantheon. Canned chickpeas taste lovely here, but if you have some extra time, starting from dried results in a deeper, more layered savoriness that puts the starchy legume front and center. Eric Kim

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

This bouncy, tender spiced cake celebrates winter persimmons in all their glory. Baking wedged Fuyu persimmons — the squat, tomatolike ones — until their flavor concentrates and their moisture dissipates leaves you with syrupy fruit that doesn’t sog up the cake later. A little coconut extract, a whisper of the tropical, props up the gentle sweet aroma of the orange fruit, with cardamom playing a major role in bringing out its floral, pumpkiny qualities. Whipped cream folded into the batter at the end, a trick from the baker Heather Dekker-Hurlbert, results in a light, even crumb. Thanks to a sprinkling of cardamon sugar on top before baking, the cake gains a glorious caramelized crust with cinnamon toast vibes (but cardamom).

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

Lovers of the sweet, earthy flavor of leafy greens can rejoice in these fluffy egg bites, which are mostly spinach and scallions bound by a little egg. Many great dishes of the world start like this: Spanikopita, the savory Greek spinach and feta pie, comes to mind, as does kuku sabzi, the herby, frittata-like Persian dish. These egg bites are a great make-ahead breakfast or high-protein snack on their own, and they’re also a lovely lunch or light dinner alongside a green salad. They’re adaptable, too: You can swap out the scallions for dill or parsley, and the Parmesan for Cheddar or feta. Make them your own.

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

Wang mandu, which translates to “king dumplings,” is just a reference to the dumplings’ size, rather than any royal status. A fluffy sweet bun is the perfect parcel for the savory beef, mushroom and onion filling, which is not traditionally Korean but tastes familiar, like a good burger. You could also fill these buns with pork, garlic chives and dangmyeon, tender glass noodles made with sweet potato starch; or tofu and finely chopped vegetables, plump with vegetal umami. A quick, salty-sweet soy-sauce pickle of red onion and jalapeño is a vibrant dipping sauce for these rich and satisfying dumplings.

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

It’s incredible the amount of satisfaction one can get from transforming a single potato into gamja jeon, Korea’s answer to the potato pancake. Not quite a hashbrown, nor a latke, jeon has no exact English translation: In Korean cuisine, it’s a rich category of pan-fried fritters, including vegetables, seafood and meat often dipped in flour, egg, then hot oil. This nontraditional version of gamja jeon is crispy on the outside and tender-chewy on the inside. Mostly made with egg, starch and potato and paired with choganjang (vinegar soy sauce), it highlights the spud’s flavor, earthy and full of French-fried goodness.

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

Haemul pajeon, perfumed with savory seafood and scallion flavor, have shatteringly crisp exteriors with soft, often chewy, interiors. Arguably the homiest of jeon — the vast category of Korean pan-fried fritters — haemul, or seafood, pajeon are surprisingly chill to make on a weeknight. Stuffed with zucchini, squid and shrimp, these particular ones from the chef Mingoo Kang “are easy to customize,” he writes in his book “Jang: The Soul of Korean Cooking” (Artisan, 2024). You can swap in other seafood or vegetables or add kimchi. This recipe makes enough batter for two pancakes, which can be eaten as a complete meal but are more commonly enjoyed as a party snack with alcohol or small plate among other dishes. The instructions below call for plenty of oil for frying; that’s the real secret to a great homemade pajeon (scallion pancake). —Eric Kim

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

In this lovely, warming curry, canned beans give you protein and a soft, starchy bite. Japanese curry is essentially a stew, so add to it what you like: Here, eggplant and spinach melt into the sauce, giving you roughage, then canned beans are stirred through for appearances and chew. Served over rice or noodles, this dish is a veritable weeknight meal with restaurant appeal, and freezes beautifully (see Tips).

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

From December 2025 to January 2026, dujjonku, a portmanteau of “Dubai” and “jjondeuk” (the Korean word for chewy), spread like wildfire in Gimpo, South Korea. The pastry chef Kim Na-ra of Mond Cookie invented the confection, which is less a cookie than a truffle with the crunchy pistachio cream filling of Dubai chocolate, wrapped in marshmallow and dusted with cocoa powder. A fun project to make at home, this recipe calls for a little patience and a lot of attention. If you follow the directions carefully — taking care not to overheat the marshmallow shell so it stays chewy — you’ll be rewarded with eight perfect rounds.

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

A ginger- and gochugaru-infused butter underpins the multilayered seasonings in this savory braised chicken dish. Kimchi’s acid tenderizes the meat and provides intensity to the final gravy, an electric-red pool of umami. White rice tastes great with this, as do mashed potatoes or crusty bread, to sop up all the buttery juices. An age-old secret to juicy chicken is blanching, then shocking the meat with cold water, a technique that appears in dishes like Chinese white-cut chicken and Hainanese chicken rice. This initial step also results in a clean chicken flavor and a rich, pure-tasting sauce.

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

The main character in this quick fridge-raid bibimbap is bomdong, a tender Korean spring cabbage that might be hard to find outside of the peninsular country (though a Korean grocery store may carry it). In its place, you can use the inner leaves of a napa cabbage. You also can use a sturdy lettuce, such as Little Gem or even romaine. Any of these options will taste great here, as it’s really the spicy, salty-sweet-savory dressing that ties everything together: a glorious tangle that’s at once a salad and a comforting rice dish. This comes together in 15 minutes if you have cooked rice on hand. If you don’t, get the pot started before you make the cabbage.

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

Inspired by a roasted salmon dinner at the now-closed Upper West Side restaurant Buca, where a blazing brick oven delivered most of the flavor, this weeknight meal helps you achieve two things at once: perfectly cooked wild salmon and an effortless vegetable side dish. The fish maintains its juiciness and plump appeal thanks to a quick dry-brine, mayonnaise and the broiler. When you’re broiling, you need vegetables that will cook quickly. Here, onions, peppers and mushrooms are tossed with capers to go with the salmon. You can use any combination of the vegetables for 1 ½ pounds total. Whatever you do, don’t skip the capers: They season this lovely meal with their briny salinity. This tastes great with crusty bread or white rice.

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

These aromatic parcels of spoon-tender white fish, sweet steamed radishes and peppery greens are a delight to unwrap at the table, like Christmas presents. Baked in parchment or “en papillote,” the fish cooks gently, emanating the dynamic aromas of chile, garlic and scallions and a good smattering of salt. Meanwhile, the radishes lend their pink juices to the broth that forms naturally from the fish and vegetables. The gentle, soothing tastes here are undeniably savory and surprisingly flavorful considering the ingredients are few. Though this recipe makes enough for two, you can easily double or triple the amounts to feed a crowd, making it great for entertaining.

Eric Kim · NYT Cooking

The spiced, herbaceous flavors of phở gà, the comforting Vietnamese chicken noodle soup, find their way into this roast chicken. A splash of water in the roasting pan creates a quick burst of steam, which results in beautifully rendered chicken fat, evenly bronzed skin and the tenderest pull-apart meat. The butter melts off the chicken and into the pan with the aromatics — savory onion, sticky ginger and sweet cinnamon sticks, and you can baste the bird with that spiced fat to create a lacquer of bold flavor on the skin. Eat this chicken with the kinds of accouterments you would with a bowl of pho: Sriracha, lime and lots of fresh herbs. Rice noodles or steamed rice would taste great alongside.

Melissa Clark · NYT Cooking

Flavored with peppermint extract, these zingy shortbread rounds — a visual riff on black and white cookies — have an especially bright, buttery flavor that’s echoed in the icing. The red and white glaze recalls candy canes and Starlight mints, but feel free to play with different colors when decorating these. Or skip the glaze entirely for an easy-to-make minty cookie with a more classic appearance.