Recipes

Gochujang Burger with Spicy Slaw

Source: New York Times Cooking This may be the perfect all-purpose sauce — BBQ, marinade, dressing — for your summer cookouts. Tangy and sweet rice vinegar cuts through the spicy richness of gochujang, and toasted sesame seed oil amps up the smokiness you get from the grill. The sauce does double duty in this recipe: It’s used to flavor the pork bulgogi-inspired patties, and it’s used as a dressing for the cucumber, sprout, and carrot slaw. These burgers can also be made indoors in a large cast-iron or heavy skillet over medium-high heat.

Green Goddess Pasta Salad

Source: New York Times Cooking Cheese-filled tortellini serve as a soft, plush base for this comforting pasta salad, which is studded with sweet sugar-snap peas and sliced fennel. The herb-flecked green goddess dressing is creamy and rich, with a tartly pungent edge from garlic and lemon juice. Like all pasta salads, this benefits from being made a few hours ahead, so the pasta can absorb most flavor from the dressing. But don’t add the vegetables until just before serving so they maintain their crunch.

Peanut Butter, Banana Breakfast Cookie

Easy, and convenient breakfast options are popular in our house, and this one is at the top of our list. Easy to mix up, and bake, we also discovered that the cookie dough freezes well, and you can take it right out of the freezer into the oven for a super convenient option, in about the time it takes to make your morning coffee.

Morrocan Roasted Cauliflower with Butterbean Puree, and Chermoula

We've been inspired recently by a series of Cauliflower recipes, and by Morrocan spices and flavors. Several of those recipes led us to develop this roasted Cauliflower dish, topped with Chermoula, a Morrocan chimichurri-like sauce - see our recipe here. We've had it both as a vegetarian main course and as a side with a protein (e.g., halibut, shrimp, chicken, etc.) And according to the Mayo Clinic - when it comes to nutrition, cauliflower is a superstar. It's **high in vitamins C and K, and is also a good source of folate, which supports cell growth and is essential during pregnancy**. Cauliflower is fat-free and cholesterol-free. And it's low in sodium.

Cacio e Pepe

We were inspired by an episode of The Kitchen on The Food Network to try this simple pasta dish. It is a classic Roman dish, appearing on nearly every menu in the city. Why? Because when made right, it is incredible. The secret, as it turns out, is to stir the mostly cooked pasta quite vigorously so that its starch emulsifies with the seasonings and added water.

Moroccan Cauliflower and Couscous Salad

This Moroccan Cauliflower and Couscous Salad is bursting with flavors from the spices - coriander, turmeric, and paprika, and the combination of cauliflower, couscous, almonds, raisins, parsley, and mint. A fantastic accompaniment, or great on its own as a vegetarian option for dinner.

Olive Oil Cake

This is quickly becoming the new favorite cake in our house, which is quite an accomplishment given the popularity of our Almond Cake. It's simple, flavorful, and not too sweet, with just a hint of lemon.

Chantilly Potatoes

Mashed potatoes have always been a staple accompaniment in our kitchen, due to their versatility and ease of production. This recipe is effectively "fancy" mashed potatoes, but I gotta warn you they are more than a bit addictive. This recipe is based on one from Food & Wine with a few modifications.

Gougères

A gougère, in French cuisine, is a baked savory pastry made of choux dough mixed with cheese. There are many variants. The cheese is commonly grated Gruyère, Comté, or Emmentaler, but there are many recipes using other cheeses or other ingredients - you will see below that we prefer a blend of Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano. Of the dozens of recipes available online, we consulted and pulled from several, to arrive at this one that works for us.

Beef Bourguignon

Like coq au vin, its sister dish from the Burgundy region of France, beef Bourguignon is a stew of meat slowly simmered in hearty red wine along with pearl onions, mushrooms and crisp, cubed bacon. Use a good wine here, something simple but drinkable. It makes all the difference in the finished dish. As with all beef stews, this one is best made a day or two ahead; don’t sauté the mushrooms and onions until just before serving. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master. Recipe credit: NYTimes Cooking.

Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake

Chocolate French Macarons