Welcome to Cookbook of the Month (which is now actually Cookbook and Website of the Quarter, but we’re sticking with this name) for Jan-March of 2025. One of our picks for this quarter is Smitten Kitchen, recipes from both her books and her website https://smittenkitchen.com/ You may find it helpful to read through a past COTM for when her third book, Keepers, was COTM: April 2023 COTM - SMITTEN KITCHEN KEEPERS The other pick is Sabrina Ghayour, and you can find that thread here: Jan-March 2025 COTM Sabrina Ghayour (website and cookbooks)
Please use this thread to report on any recipes you make by Smitten Kitchen. To report on a recipe, please list the title in ALL CAPS. If someone else reported on the recipe before you, please REPLY to that post rather than start a new one (so all posts for a given recipe are linked together and can be followed easily via the helpful linking arrows the site software enables).
Feel free to list ingredients and summarize method in your own words, but please do not copy a recipe verbatim in your post to respect copyright. Add a link if you have one. Pictures are very welcome.
Cutting and pasting what others have said are their favs so far:
Chilaquiles casserole (for a few years this was Lulu’s favorite dish)
quick sausage, kale and crouton saute (I use chicken sausage, and usually spinach instead of kale)
sizzling beef bulgogi tacos
golden vanilla cake
cannellini aglio e olio with artichokes - sometimes over a piece of good bread, sometimes over pasta. So easy and absolutely delicious. One of my favorite solo meals
skillet ravioli with spinach
chicken wonton soup
skirt steak salad with blue cheese - I use flank steak instead favorite of LLD’s
perfect blueberry muffins
mushroom lasagna
deep dish quiche
I just made her LUXE BUTTERSCOTCH PUDDING - if you make this, my sugar was burnt by 6 min! I kept going, omitted the salted caramel on top, and used half a batch of the whipped cream and salted in between the layers with Maldon sea salt. It was very well-received and very tasty. I’d just pull the sugar earlier - but if you read the comments someone who worked at Mozza called Deb’s version “anemic” so I suspect that my version is closer to the original intent
Oh yeah, I love the merguez with herby yogurt. I make mine with ground turkey.
4 Likes
ChristinaM
(Hungry in Asheville, NC (still plenty to offer tourists post Hurricane))
7
“To start the butterscotch pudding, Narvaez begins by making caramel. She explains that she actually “burns” dark brown sugar as she heats it with water and salt. Her goal is to create a caramel that’s “dark” and has “smoky flavor.” She knows when the caramel is done because her “eyes start to water because there’s so much smoke.” She then adds cool dairy; both whole cream and whole milk.”
@ChristinaM - yes! Mine was very very smoky - even with a very powerful hood, it set off smoke alarms. I would have preferred it a little less burnt but people loved it
I’m not sure I would call them perfect, because the step of cooking the milk and cornmeal is extra fiddly, but it does give them a nice smooth texture. I live with sweet cornbread devotees and made these tonight with 1/3 C sugar (I’ve tried 1/4 before and it’s not quite enough) - this was the right amount for the normal people in the house but not sweet enough for Mr. “I wish these were Jiffy mix”.
Side note for my gluten-free friends, this worked with KAF Measure for Measure.
I made the brown butter RK TREATS yesterday. I bake a ton, but those are literally the only sweet thing I make that is equally of interest to my husband and daughters. I always make it with bigger marshmallows because I love the gooey pockets of marshmallow. Used 3oz of butter (not 4) with zero issues. I also always use a 13 x 9 Pyrexx as opposed to a smaller pan
CRUSHED OLIVES WITH ALMONDS, CELERY, AND PARMESAN
( from Smitten Kitchen Everyday page 303)
One terrific combination of flavors! The dressing is oil, wine vinegar, tiny bit of thin sliced garlic, S & P. Very very good ! It’s chunky though, using a spoon instead of a fork recommended.
DREAMY CREAM SCONES from SK website - I’ve been making these for 8 years and they are outstanding.
My modifications: I pat into a rectangle and cut into squares. Whisk egg with 1T of water and brush over scones and sprinkle w sugar. Bake for 13-14 min.
I made this once years ago and remember people liking it so I decided to make it again yesterday. Deb says that it could feed 32 and she’s not exaggerating. The finished cake weighs a TON. I brought it into work today and left it in the faculty room for my coworkers to enjoy. I myself didn’t try it (and didn’t the first time either) because I’m not big into chocolate or sweets in general. I live alone and am always trying to improve my baking skills so it isn’t unusual for me to bake something, not try it, and then bring it to work for feedback. It was a huge hit but there still is at least half of it left. It is that rich.
It was really easy to make it. Nothing was hard. It just took some time. I didn’t use a water bath. Yes there were a couple of cracks but they wound up being hidden by that top ganache layer.
I made SK/Ina’s mushroom lasagna for the first time. I’m not sure why I waited so long to make it - it’s got everything we love, and without the heaviness of a super-cheesy pasta bake. My modifications included adding sauteed onion to the shrooms, and sauteed spinach to the bechamel. I made a half recipe in an 8x8" baker, using 7 1/2 old-school lasagna noodles to get there.
