This aromatic bread is made with a combination of bread flour and masa harina, which gives it a wonderful corn-y flavor. The thin, crispy crust yields to a moist, tender crumb, and, as the name suggests, it’s especially good toasted. While we find it easiest to make this dough in a stand mixer, it can also be made by hand; just be mindful of the amount of flour added during kneading so that the nice tender crumb you’re going for doesn’t become too dense.
Classic Cuban picadillo—ground meat flavored with sweet raisins, savory tomatoes, salty olives, and fragrant cinnamon—is the ultimate comfort food. Here, I’ve turned those same flavors into an easy-to-make warm dip that uses black beans in place of the meat (with a hint of soy sauce to add some umami). The result can be eaten warm or cold with tortilla chips.
These cookies most resemble Italian baci di dama (recipe, page 120) in appearance, and their diminutive size is part of the appeal. You can, of course, fill them with dulce de leche, chocolate-hazelnut spread, or any other fruit jam, but the softness and florality of the classic guava paste works wonderfully to contrast with the crunchy, buttery cookies.
Gujaratis love a good handheld snack. Muddy buddies, or puppy chow, is the kind of snack you can grab a fistful of and throw into your mouth while on the move! Traditionally muddy buddies use peanut butter, but I substitute it with pistachio butter and add a healthy dose of cardamom to really make it sing. They are insanely addictive with their salty, sweet combo, making them the perfect party snack!
For my cookbook "Better Baking," I took inspiration from my American Chinese upbringing for sweets like almond cookies and coconut mochi, but I can eat only so many desserts and rely on this savory recipe almost daily. I learned it from an auntie in my church community on the far east side of Los Angeles, where many families made some version of this dish. It evolved from Taiwanese dan bing, where egg is cooked and rolled into a thin, chewy dough. Flour tortillas, readily available in Southern California during my childhood and now everywhere, are an approximation -- not necessarily a close one but an ideal one for busy cooks. This is the simplest version, the one that comes together under 5 minutes for a satisfying meal when there's no time to cook. The egg can be cooked with stir-fried scallions and the wrap stuffed with crispy wontons, shredded lettuce and more seasonings, such as hoisin, sesame seeds and sesame oil.
Even though transplants and visitors to Atlanta complain constantly about the Southern humidity and heat, my favorite memories as a kid are still from summertime in Georgia—from climbing rocks in backyard creeks and swimming in Lake Allatoona to walking through the dancing fountains in Centennial Olympic Park and, yes, sipping sweet iced tea on the porch. After camping out in Seward, Alaska, with a dear friend and colleague, I learned firsthand about sustainable fisheries—and got a taste of wild Alaskan salmon. I was hooked.
This recipe was inspired by my love of salmon and the hot weather of a Southern summer that calls out for cool comfort food. The smoked salmon is chilled, with refreshingly cold basil, mint, cucumber, and green onion added to the roll along with the noodles.
I adore àkàrà. These sumptuous, deep-fried fritters are enjoyed across West Africa and the diaspora. A true triumph for the humble black-eyed pea, they are known as koose in Northern regions and acarajé by custodians of West African culture in Brazil. I remember joyous mornings feasting on the classic duo of steaming hot àkàrà and Nigerian “pap”—a creamy custard made with fermented corn. In my version, ginger and spring onions add a little warmth and bite to the fritters. Àkàrà is wonderful served plain, stuffed in a baguette (as you’ll find them in Dakar, Senegal), or stuffed with chunks of spiced prawns and peppers, as enjoyed in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.
Lupini beans are most widely known in the Mediterranean Basin and often eaten brined as a snack. I’ve only ever bought processed lupini beans because I read about how one needs to meticulously rinse them to remove the toxic alkaloids that give them a distinct bitterness not dissimilar to uncured olives, which got me to thinking about how I love olives and dark cherries together. Which, naturally, made me think about brining cherries to cure a bit like an olive. And now, here we are.
I think I prefer this English version of pesto even to the classic Italian basil one. It’s lighter and more versatile. It’s good with pasta, on pizza, or just as flavoring for salad dressing, or indeed to serve with grilled chicken or lamb chops. Just about anything really!
This is the most popular snack in my house. It used to be my favourite snack growing up and now it’s my kids’ favourite, too. My mum would always keep a box of papdi in the cupboard and refill it as soon as it was empty. I make them often but not as often as she did, as I find they disappear faster than I can make them. No one can ever have just one.