No need to wait till year end to gather your favorites! Maybe starting sooner will enable some of us to work ideas in for the various holiday gatherings and meals coming up.
The qualifier to include recipes on such lists used to be that you had made them 3+ times, a high bar, but certainly left no doubt that a recipe has become a favorite!
I suggest instead that to include a recipe here, you should already have made it, liked it enough to copy over into your permanent store, and plan to make it again soon. (That is, no “bookmarking” or idea holds.)
I find that I tend to add both actual recipes and techniques, so feel free to include things that have quickly become a part of your repertoire even it’s with some riffing.
I did need to tweak this to kick it over into the “favorite” category - borrowing from the soy braised mushroom noodles from Woks of Life, I make the broth for these udon noodles by first soaking dried shiitake mushrooms in water. Use two cups of that liquid, a dab of BTB reduced sodium vegetable base, 1 T. dark mushroom soy, 2 T. light soy sauce, and 2 t. mirin for the broth. Continue to simmer the shiitakes in the broth while you prep everything else. Soy sauce, black pepper, butter, and egg yolk. Perfection.
Indian / Kerala style – potato base plus aromatics and spices, any fish works, especially good vehicle for leftover or canned fish.
SALMON ROASTED IN BUTTER – NYT – Great technique, riffable flavors, I made it three times in one week, so easy, so fast, so delicious!
GREEN RICE / ARROZ VERDE – COTM Pati Jinich – I increase the aromatics and use frozen spinach, sauteed first. Very flavorful on its own and a great accompaniment for any protein (I ate it with simply roasted salmon, chicken, and even eggs.)
TARTS / GALETTES FROM DOTQ:
CAULIFLOWER TART – Started with the Smitten Kitchen recipe & riffed based on what was available. I made this a few times in different kitchens and it was lovely every time. Richer than it seems.
ZUCCHINI GALETTE – Another SK recipe which I adjusted to squeeze in more zucchini by roasting. Lovely, and not too much effort with a mandoline.
TORTILLA PIZZA – What a silly thing to cite as a favorite recipe, but I was on a roll with this at the beginning of the year. Here is the SE base recipe. I like TJs handmade flour tortillas + a light coat of vodka sauce + pizza toscano cheese. I use a carbon steel crepe pan, crisp both sides of the tortilla first, then put on a bit of sauce and sprinkle cheese, and under the broiler to melt. MATZOH PIZZA was not too far behind while I had a couple of boxes of matzoh to use up.
I usually make them a little bigger and turn them into sandwiches. I love these so much!
I love that I’ve gotten BF more into enjoying noodle soups! Sometimes I add shrimp paste to the curry paste in this recipe (a good tablespoon or so).
Lately, I like to make the sauce for this (leave out the beef), cook it down for 90-120 minutes (keep an eye on it and stir frequently), and then add salmon or arctic char chunks in the last 10 minutes. So good!
When South Indian was Cuisine of the Quarter, I added a few new recipes to my repertoire and my favorites.
LEMON RICE – I had only ever eaten this from a temple in Queens, so I found a recipe to learn to make it myself. Just lovely on its own (with some yogurt and crunchy papad or potato chips), or as an accompaniment (so good with salmon).
BLACK-EYED PEA CREPE / DOSA aka ALASANDALA / BOBARLU ATTU – I’ve got this batter in the fridge right now, it’s so easy because it requires no fermentation, and very flavorful because of the black-eyed peas.
VEN PONGAL aka Khichdi aka lentil & rice risotto – Delicious and comforting. Different flavor profile and technique than the khichdi I grew up with. Lovely on its own or as an accompaniment.
Plus the Kerala fish cakes I already mentioned above.
Have I mentioned my love of bubbling, hot dips?! I love bubbling, hot dips!!!
I’ve made both of these a ton and think that everyone else should too:
This one is going to be dinner tonight
And, while not dip, I have also made Asma Khan’s Saag Paneer a frequent flyer in our house (and variations thereof - I’ve left out the paneer and used it as a base for sole. I’ve also swapped the paneer for potatoes. Because, potatoes.)
I absolutely love these threads each year! Thanks for all the links - keep 'em coming everyone. Will try to add some of my own once things calm down here.
Two things come to mind. First is yakisoba. YS is Mrs. ricepad’s go-to whenever she spies it on a menu, and I never thought about how easy it would be to make. Slice up some onions and a pepper, julienne a carrot, and mince some ginger. Turn on a burner to medium-high, and at the same time start boiling some water to cook a ramen brick. Toss the ginger and carrots into a pan on the medium-high burner with a tablespoon or so of oil. As the ginger gets fragrant and the carrots start to soften, add the onions and peppers. While you’re cooking the veg, start cooking your ramen brick (one per serving). If you time everything right, the ramen will be done at the same time the veg is ready, so drain the ramen and add it to the pan with all the veg. Add okonomi sauce to taste. If you want protein, frozen shrimp or chunks of boneless chicken are a snap to add. Garnish with some beni shoga.
The second is chiles rellenos, lazy-style. I love me some rellenos, but it’s such a hassle to make the batter and set up a deep frying rig, so I rarely made them. This year, though, I tried shallow-frying them after just dredging the peppers in flour, no battering required. Proceed as usual: blister the peppers to skin, stuff with whatever (I usually just use jack cheese, but pulled pork and jack cheese is heavenly!), dredge in flour, and pan fry in a couple tablespoons of oil. It could hardly be easier.
When I was a kid, a family friend used to make a kind of chile relleno casserole. He’d use the canned whole chiles (like Ortega), and wrap each one around a piece of Jack cheese, and then pour a sour-cream based custard over them and bake it until everything was set and browned. It was quite rich, but delicious.
Thanks for this, Amandarama! I have 9 recipes in my Eat Your Books account that combine squid with red wine. Adding yours now. I will have to do some experimenting if things here ever calm down (echoing Kari there).
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ChristinaM
(Hungry in Asheville, NC (still plenty to offer tourists post Hurricane))
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