If you’ve ever felt bored by tilapia, or any other white fish, this recipe will totally change your mind. The sauce, the mushrooms, the crispy prosciutto! None of those are necessarily served with such a delicate piece of seafood traditionally, but that doesn’t mean we can’t give it a go. Trust me—tilapia smothered in cream sauce is delicious! I recommend crusty bread for scooping it all up, of course. And the crispy prosciutto makes this dish shine and feel a little more special.
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.
My mom, Karen, tells me that this recipe was inspired by watching the ladies in her hometown cook at the Pierz Fun House, a social club used for weddings and other public functions. They would make these potatoes by the hundreds: halved russet potatoes, sandwiched with butter and onions and bay leaves, smashed back together, and baked in foil. When you unwrapped your potato, the onion would lie pallid in the middle, and the butter would pool in the foil.
Smartly, my mom pivoted to baking each potato half open-face, so that the onions crisped into dark toupees on top. She also scored the potato flesh deeply before baking, so that the butter knew where it was supposed to go: down the cracks to the bottom skin. After an hour or so in the oven, the skin bakes to a dark brown callus. When I was a kid, I’d capsize my potato boat so that the soft cubes of potato fell out and I could fold the shatteringly crisp bottom around a piece of meat, like a taco.
This recipe is a summer favorite from Chef Chris Wiliams of Lucille’s Houston. Chris marinates a whole side of fish, (on the half shell means skin-on, scales-on) for 10 minutes and then quickly grills it skin-side down. His marinade is where the magic comes in. It’s elemental with freshly-squeezed lemon juice, thyme, garlic and the earthiness of smoked paprika. He serves it with coconut rice and a slightly wilted collard green salad. It’s summer eating at its best.
Its November and I’m gearing up for my holiday turkey. I love a brined turkey and cooking with beer, so I combined these elements to create a juicy beer-brined turkey with a Dankful IPA gravy. Dankful IPA has piney hop aromas, so I paired that with juniper berries in the brine to accentuate those flavors.
Serve hot, warm, or cold. You can double this recipe and make it in a medium (10-inch) skillet. Don’t be alarmed by the quantity of oil and salt; most of it will be drained away. Save the strained oil in the fridge for future tortillas or low-temperature cooking, like sweating vegetables. Have a quick tapas party by serving the tortilla alongside canned fish, salad, crusty bread, and lots of wine.
It’s all right there for you in the title. Sweet shrimp is sautéed until just cooked through, and fregola (a tiny toasted pasta from Sardinia) is added to the pot to toast in the melted anchovy butter and spices with some cherry tomatoes. I love Calabrian chiles packed in oil and use them here for some punchy heat, but if red pepper flakes are within closer reach feel free to use them instead. Once the fregola finishes cooking, return the shrimp to the pot to warm them through and serve straight from the pan. Serve with many bottles of chilled red wine.
As an anthropologist, I travel a lot both for fieldwork and conferences, and everywhere I go, I keep my antennae up for new recipes. I had this dish while I was visiting Lake Prespa, at the shared border of Greece, Albania, and North Macedonia. It was served in the village of Psarades, which sits right on the lake. The lake teems with life—from fish , turtles, and birds to water chestnuts, which can be harvested easily by just wading in the shallows. When I asked for the recipe, I was told that there wasn’t one: you just put everything together in the oven. After I returned in New York , I tried to replicate the dish. This version is just like the one I had in Greece. It’s best to make this dish in an earthenware pan. Otherwise, use a baking pan about 9 by 12 inches that will hold the mushrooms snugly.
When you caramelize food, the browning effect can enhance umami by as much as seven or eight times! Here, mushrooms get extra sweet and sticky in the pan, and then they’re tossed in some smoked paprika and soy for an extra umami boost. Black-eyed peas and garlicky sautéed greens make this a super-charged, protein- and nutrient-packed plant-based powerhouse.