We first had this in Sydney in a funny little tapas bar we used to go to called Capitan Torres. When we were in Spain we discovered that it was a staple of most traditional tapas bars. We liked the fact that you could use a plain cultivated mushroom and turn it into something with so much flavor.
When I’m home late from a long day’s cooking but still craving something flavour-packed and comforting to round off the day, this is what I make. These are ingredients I tend always to have in my kitchen, but you could easily mix it up with whatever veggies are in your fridge.
One day at the restaurant, we got in a shipment of particularly perfect cauliflower from a farm in upstate New York. These cruciferous beauties were so grand that I was compelled to cut them into slabs, coat them in Japanese breadcrumbs, herbs, and cheese and pan-fry them until crisp on the outside and tender inside, and that’s how this dish was born.
You can’t deny yourself a good potato – fact! Especially if it is a potato salad that has the added goodness of nuts, lentils and greens. You simply can’t go wrong.
This Basque mixture of peppers, onions, and tomatoes flavored with piment d’Espelette is the basis for the chicken dish known as Poulet Basque as well as for Eggs Piperade. But it’s also great as a relish served alongside pork, lamb, or any mild fish. It’s even good just scooped up on a cracker.
Gujarati Corn on the Cob Curry | Gujarati makai subji
The reason this salad holds up so well at room temperature is because you dress it twice. It absorbs the first round of dressing completely, the second addition keeps it glossy, and a fistful of walnuts and breadcrumbs means there’s always something to bite into.
If you’ve never had a bánh mì, it is a Vietnamese sandwich, typically made with salty-sweet marinated pork. It’s tangy, too, from the pickled radishes and carrots, and spicy from the jalapeños. It’s all of my favorite flavors housed between a crusty baguette. I’ve turned this classic sandwich into a lighter, plant-forward salad, fusing in a Tex-Mex avocado crema as the dressing. The honey–soy sauce roasted chickpeas, used in place of the pork, are good on their own as a snack. This salad takes a bit of work when done in a single breadth, but most of it can be made ahead, like the Quick-Pickled Radishes and Carrots, the croutons, and even the Avocado Crema. When prepped in advance, dinner takes no time at all to throw together and tastes this good.
It might seem a hassle to roast the fennel and tomatoes separately, but it does make things easier when you come to assemble this, as each element stays intact and keeps its shape.
Smashed cucumbers, or pai huang gua, is a Sichuan dish that is typically served with rich, spicy food. We started with English cucumbers, which are nearly seedless and have thin, crisp skins. Placing them in a zipper-lock bag and smashing them into large, irregular pieces sped up a salting step that helped expel excess water. The craggy pieces also did a better job of holding on to the dressing. Using black vinegar, an aged rice-based vinegar, added a mellow complexity to the soy and sesame dressing.