The Kitchn Archive: 2011

Good cooks understand the importance of acid in cooking, how it adds brightness and balance and can make flavors ‘pop.’ Sometimes all it takes is a simple squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar to move a dish from pretty good to spectacular, so having a few great vinegars on hand is an essential pantry item.

This light creamy pasta comes together in fewer than 15 minutes and you’ll be amazed at its flavor. Bright lemon combines with deep garlic and a hint of heat to transform spinach, peas, and, of course, pasta. The key in this dish lies in simmering cream with garlic and red pepper flakes. It infuses the cream with deep flavor which cooks into the spinach as well. And what could be easier than throwing in a few frozen peas to add a little something extra?

Homemade macaroni and cheese is almost always a Good Thing, but is Martha Stewart’s recipe perhaps the best of all? Food52 has declared it a “genius recipe” One of the key elements is the mornay sauce that surrounds and permeates the pasta as it bakes. Flour, butter and milk are cooked into a béchamel to which grated sharp cheddar and Gruyere are added, resulting in a rich, creamy sauce that won’t break down during baking.

I am a big fan of Vij’s, an elegant and innovative Indian restaurant in Vancouver, BC. (We even gave you a peek inside Vikram Vij’s home kitchen!) The cookbooks by the owners of this restaurant are some of my favorite resources for Indian home cooking, and there was one recipe from their first book I had had bookmarked for a long time: A simple one of cabbage in yogurt curry. I finally made this, a few weeks ago, and I was blown away by its color! Hello, turmeric!

I love sweet potato casserole, but not the overly sweet brown sugar and marshmallow versions found on many Thanksgiving tables in the United States. The sweet potato dish I’m interested in is closer to a gratin, with a big push towards the savory to play off of the natural sweetness of the potatoes. To do this I use herbs, garlic, parmesan cheese and smoked paprika (or chipotle if I’m in the mood to add heat.) Read on for my recipe!

I say, “Rutabaga!” Quick — what happens? If you have nothing to say, if the word “rutabaga” leaves you blinking at the screen with some measure of confusion or apprehension, then please trust me. You need to know this vegetable. Rutabaga has an intimidating exterior, but look what happens when you whip up the innards with olive oil, milk, and a pinch of something smoky — this is creamy, smoky heaven in a dish right here. What is a rutabaga anyway?

While blessed with many attributes, a roasted chicken has its drawbacks. One biggie is that it usually limits your guest list to about four people tops. But chickens are adaptable creatures and open to being flexible. One way to stretch a chicken, quite literally, is to spatchcock it (a fun way of saying butterfly), stuff its gills and other tender parts, literally expanding the bird to feed more people.

This, if you can’t tell, is an enormous zucchini. It’s the the type that shows up this time of year, somehow having hid beneath leaves all summer long until reaching proportions too gargantuan to ignore. There’s only one thing to do with a zucchini of this size: stuff it. This particular zucchini was bequeathed to me (as such things usually are) by a friend’s mother.

Last week we shared a recipe for Carrot-Ginger Dressing, which we use on everything from salad to sandwiches. One of our favorite ways to serve this sauce is over tofu-hijiki patties. The patties happen to be vegan but most importantly, they’re packed with umami flavor. Hijiki is a mild, earthy flavored seaweed high in iron, calcium, and other minerals; look for it at health food stores and Japanese and Korean markets.

Last week, Nealey talked us through making Pork Buns (Baozi). Today, I bring you the vegetarian version. Have you ever bit into a fluffy, savory steamed bun at your local dim sum restaurant and thought, How on earth are these made? I marveled over this question for years before my sweetheart decided to take on this DIY cooking project at home. Thank goodness he did because veggie steamed buns are one of my favorite restaurant treats.

When my boyfriend and I first started dating, he invited me over for a home cooked meal. However, living in New York City, my expectations for home cooking on a date were limited. Would he make macaroni or spaghetti? But when he told me the menu involved a dish he learned from his mom in Turkey, I prepared for some seriously delicious food.After reading my blog posts over the past year, my boyfriend wanted to contribute one of his specialties.

Nothing is simpler or more classic than opening up a can of cream of tomato soup for lunch. So if you’re going to make a homemade version, it had better be worth the extra bother. This recipe most decidedly is, although it’s really not that much more work. Just chop up an onion, maybe a rib of celery, and open up a few cans of tomatoes. Splash in some milk and buzz it with a blender until smooth. That’s it!