Vegetable
Spicy Pickled Green Beans and Fennel
These hot and sour pickles are great alongside the spread and frittata , and make a perfect garnish for the Bloody Beers .
Shaved Broccoli Stalk Salad with Lime & Cotija
While waiting for a main course to finish cooking, you can make this simple salad with the remnants of a bunch of broccoli. Or, you can integrate the shaved broccoli, which is sweet, mild, and tender, into other lettuce-based salads, or julienne the strips for cabbage slaws.
Greens with Bacon, Mushrooms, and Blue Cheese
You can dress this salad about half an hour in advance to no ill effect—the hearty greens can handle it.
Duck Confit With Spicy Pickled Raisins
The best part of making duck confit? All the rich fat you're left with. Use it to roast potatoes—it's an easy way to upgrade a classic. What ever you do, don't throw it away (it freezes great).
Kohlrabi and Apple Salad with Caraway
If you've never bought kohlrabi before, here's a great reason to try it.
Collard and Pecan Pesto
A dip that proves collards don't have to be stewed for hours to be delicious.
Roast Salmon and Broccoli with Chile-Caper Vinaigrette
Giving the broccoli a head start on the salmon in this one-pan dish lets it get nicely browned, coaxing out its natural sweetness.
Portuguese Baked Eggs
Baked eggs are great for brunch, and this version is no exception. But with a salad of leafy greens, it's also hearty and satisfying enough to double as dinner.
Tamarind-Braised Short Ribs with Truffle Sunchoke Purée, Watercress Purée, and Glazed Chanterelle Mushrooms
This is a winning-contestant recipe from Season Four of Fox's MasterChef.
Sautéed Sea Scallops with Apple-Sesame Couscous and Purple and Yellow Cauliflower Purées
This is a winning-contestant recipe from Season Four of Fox's MasterChef.
Yvonne's Unstuffed Poblano Casserole
When you think about peppers, comfort food usually isn't the first thing that comes to minds. But to us, it means home, and for different reasons. Crystal's mawmaw always made great stuffed peppers, and we put that recipe in our first cookbook. And when Sandy tastes a poblano pepper, she's instantly reminded of this recipe, since Sandy's oldest sister, Yvonne, makes these for her every time she comes home for a visit!
Poblano peppers are smaller and spicier than their bell pepper cousins, but they're not too hot. Fairly mild overall, they pack a ton of flavor. Best of all, they've perfect for stuffing with a variety of ingredients.
Rustic Polenta Casserole
This dish comes together fast for a simple weeknight meal, and it's also elegant enough to serve to any important guest.
Zucchini Lasagna
Citizens of Casseroleville, bow in the presence of the king of all baked dishes! This recipe gets two thumbs-up not only for being gluten-free, but also for allowing you to keep your blood sugar in check. By replacing lasagna noodles with thin layers of sliced zucchini, the carbs stay low, but the flavor is still full and zesty. We suggest using a mandoline for even slices and quick prep. Just be careful—those things are sharp!
Poached Lobster Tails, and Fried Oyster with Mango and Avocado Purée
This is a winning-contestant recipe from Season Four of Fox's MasterChef.
Avocado Salad with Bell Pepper and Tomatoes
Avocado shells make handy vessels for a bright salad made with the scooped-out flesh. Lime juice, garlic, and a pinch of cayenne flavor the dressing. The salad can also be served as a topping for quesadillas or as a fresh filling for tacos.
Arroz con Pollo
My wife, Jazmin, is of Honduran descent. When you walk into her mother's house, everything is Latin-inspired, especially the cooking. This dish is a Latin staple, and because Jazmin likes it so much, arroz con pollo has become a staple for us. You can throw in half a bag of frozen peas toward the end to up the nutritional content. We serve it with a bottle of hot sauce on the table and a bowl of yogurt.
Peach or Nectarine Chutney
When you're making preserves, fully 50 percent of your success is in the shopping—good fruit makes good jam. Technique matters also, and a sound recipe makes a difference. But the crucial remaining factor is organization. Especially when dealing with a large quantity of perishable fruits or vegetables, you have to think through your strategy and plot out your work. If you can't get everything put up immediately, you have to take into account how the produce will ripen—and soon fade—as it waits for you.
My strategy for how to use a bushel of peaches would look something like this:
First day/underripe fruit: Pectin levels peak just before ripening, so I'd start with peach jelly. If you don't want to make jelly, give the peaches another day to ripen.
First day/just-ripe fruit: Peaches that are fragrant and slightly yielding but still firm enough to handle are ideal for canning in syrup, as either halves or slices in syrup.
Second day/fully ripe fruit: As the peaches become tender and fragrant, make jam.
Third day/dead-ripe fruit: By now, the peaches will likely have a few brown spots that will need to be cut away, so I'd work up a batch of chutney, which requires long, slow cooking that breaks down the fruit anyway.
Fourth day/tired fruit: Whatever peaches haven't been used by now will likely look a little sad, but even really soft, spotty ones can be trimmed for a batch of spiced peach butter.
Southern peach chutney evolved from an Indian relish called chatni that British colonials brought home during the days when the sun never set on the Empire. According to The Oxford Companion to Food, chatni is made fresh before a meal by grinding spices and adding them to a paste of tamarind, garlic, and limes or coconut. Pieces of fruit or vegetable may be incorporated, but the chief flavor characteristic is sour. The British turned that into a fruit preserve, explains the Oxford Companion: British chutneys are usually spiced, sweet, fruit pickles, having something of the consistency of jam. Highest esteem is accorded to mango chutney… .
Chutney later spread across the Atlantic to the West Indies and the American South, where the esteemed mango was replaced by the honorable peach.
Chickpea Curry with Roasted Cauliflower and Tomatoes
Toasting the curry powder with other aromatic ingredients before adding the liquid intensifies the flavor of this quick take on chana masala. You can roast the cauliflower and tomatoes a couple days ahead; cool, cover, and refrigerate until ready to use.