Yaki-soba is one of those essentially simple, endlessly flexible dishes, perfect for times when the cupboard is relatively bare and you have some odds and ends to use up. Today I made it as an unusual destination for Thanksgiving leftovers, using chunks of turkey. It would be great for those days when you’re sick of…
Sichuan Hot-and-Numbing (Ma La) Cucumber Salad
Following my great success with Fuschia Dunlop’s second cookbook, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province, I decided to go back to her first book, Land of Plenty, on Sichuan food. I love cucumber salads and am always on the lookout for a new one. (The old salt-sugar-chile-vinegar one pales after a few hundred variations.)…
Potato and Sunchoke Gratin with Leeks
This light, elegant gratin is perfect for spring. The oven-baked gratin form acknowledges still-chilly spring evenings; the delicate flavor of leeks and sunchokes evokes visions of the first green shoots of spring. Sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes, are the tubers of a flower that looks like a small sunflower. They are dug in the…
Butter-Braised Radishes
Early spring can be a frustrating time in the kitchen. There’s a warm breeze and the world seems to be exploding with new life, but the produce aisle is full of the same old root and cruciferous vegetables you’ve been eating all winter. What’s a cook to do? Last week, I turned to radishes. A…
Haluski (Polish Egg Noodles with Cabbage)
So, what do you do when the cupboard is bare? When, for instance, your fresh vegetable drawer is down to one lonely head of cabbage and an onion? I look for a pasta dish. I always have pounds and pounds of pasta in the house, and it is amazing the meals you can turn out…
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burritos
Over the past year, I have noticed myself cooking more and more meat. I don’t know why, I just seem to have moved into a “meat at the center of the plate” mindset. And I don’t like it. Not that I aspire to be a vegetarian; I’m too interested in trying anything and everything to…
Brussels Sprouts with Beurre Noisette
Here is a complex-sounding, really delicious side dish that comes together in less than 10 minutes (once you get the water boiling). “Beurre Noisette” is French for “brown butter,” and it provides a delicate nuttiness that really makes the Brussels sprouts pop. Halve about 10 small Brussels sprouts per person (they needn’t be tiny, but…