A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Salivating Over The Best Food We Made Last Year
You know, 2021 definitely wasn’t our best year in cooking (hello, burnout), but these 20 recipes won our hearts...against all odds? A food-related podcast and a taste of Secret Menu follow!
our things
Suggesting that you need neither a pressure cooker nor salmon to take advantage of this A+ recipe, which is really all about the outstanding sauce.
Roasting daikon in curry powder and instantly regretting not roasting more daikon in curry powder.
Fulfilling a decades-long dream of drinking tikka masala sauce as if it were soup.
Putting pepper and cheeeeeese in oatmeal.
Utilizing this method of roasting a whole cauliflower with much success (and a lot less fuss than some of the alts). One note: Throw the greens in the pan alongside it!
Putting together a simple and satisfying meal that requires two skills: the ability to set a timer and to boil water.
Jumping on the air-fryer bandwagon with glee (nudged by the discovery that the Instant Pot transforms into one). Second to chicken wings, brussels sprouts are where the method shines, and you can adapt pretty much any roasting recipe.
Tackling—quite successfully!—an ingredient that’s always seemed intimidating: baby artichokes.
Doing so little but achieving so much with this shrimp recipe. (You could sub out the greens for rice or really anything that’ll soak up the sauce.)
Feeling pretty damn self-satisfied after whipping up tamago.
Putting veggie scraps to extremely satisfying use.
Pleasing a crowd with a pretty asparagus presentation.
Nodding fervently at the notion that “cabbage can be a star” (and nominating this gingery concoction as a dressing for your slaws, too).
Contemplating keeping hard-boiled eggs in the fridge always just to make this sauce/dressing/condiment.
Giving Lipton a run for its money with this extremely good vegan onion dip that serves as a nice hummus alt.
Wondering why homemade ice-cream cake is not more of a thing. A (very easy) hit!
Unlocking the secret to shucking oysters with ease: grilling ‘em first. (Put this on them after—and on many other things also, probably!)
Remembering that an all-time favorite salad comes via a pasta chain in St. Louis (iceberg optional).
Becoming those people who fire up the Weber in a puffer with the newfound knowledge that grilling pizza is at least six times easier than it sounds like it’d be.
Tucking into this Instant Pot miso risotto at the end of the week and barely remembering what it’s like to have Friday-night plans.
podcast
What Healthy Comfort Food Means to Julia Turshen. And a Snack Taste Test!
If you’re not already a devotee of Julia Turshen and her cookbooks ,well, consider this your initiation into the fan club. We’re talking with her about “healthy” and “comfort”—loaded food words, for certain!—and because we’re geniuses who knew this topic would make us hungry, we’re starting things off with a snack taste test.
secret menu
Chews You can Use: Affogatos
When having people over for dinner during those pandemic valleys when it feels responsible to do so, I can’t be bothered to think about dessert. It just feels so...fussy, all of a sudden. Like, can’t we just relish the joy of being in one another’s vaccinated company without having to think about *courses*? But should the mood strike once the plates are cleared, I know I always have ingredients for an affogato, which requires the exact-right amount of effort: dumping a shot of espresso over a scoop of vanilla (HDVB ice cream, obviously, or Talenti gelato if you’d like to hew Italian) in a cute cup, and calling it a day. I’ve got those Nespresso pods raring to go, but a stovetop (Alessi?) Moka would serve you well here, as would instant espresso, possibly a decaf version so as not to eff with the sleep hygiene of your guests.
And you can always zhoosh if you so desire—doctor up the ice cream with olive oil and sea salt, add a big ol’ dollop of barely sweet whipped cream like they do at Caffè Panna, or sub the coffee for matcha as is the 29B Teahouse way. For me, the point here is something a little special with absolutely no effort: just the power of two really good ingredients combined. The only twist on the classic that I’m really compelled to DIY is Eric Kim’s take that he calls an affogato Americano, which is fast-food coffee and soft serve united for something that sounds plenty worth the highway exit. —Erica
Chews You Can Use: The Recipes that Made Whole30 Manageable
I did Whole30 in January 2021 and have a lot of mixed feelings about it, many of which I spoke to at the top of this podcast episode. I’m hesitant to endorse it, but I did find benefits: I did not discover any food sensitivities (to cop a favorite line from the Poog podcast: I tragically do not have a gluten allergy), but I was reminded that what I consume impacts my mood and energy levels immensely, something I’d lost sight of. I did find enough recipes to make it manageable, and I’m even keeping some of them in the regular rotation. My caveat here is that the world of Whole30 recipes is littered with cringey blog titles and outdated aesthetics, so suspend your judgment if you can. This tikka masala soup spoke to the part of me that questions why the ratio of sauce to chicken is not more generous when ordering Indian takeout. I made double batches of this orange hoisin sauce to freeze and found it goes just as well with shrimp as with chicken. I also used Whole30 as an excuse to finally get an air fryer—specifically the lid that transforms your Instant Pot into one—and was impressed by how nicely green beans, brussels sprouts, and potatoes played with it. I’ll never go back to cooking buffalo wings any other way. And, speaking of: I was highly suspicious of this buffalo chicken chowder but have made it multiple times now and am wondering what other dishes deserve to have blended cashews mixed into them. This coconut cauliflower soup had already been a staple and played a big role, along with other “regular life” meals that happened to be compliant, like roast chicken and frittatas. The final takeaway I’ll offer is not a recipe so much as a confession: I’d been needlessly turning up my nose at cauliflower rice for years (along with zoodles, which do deserve my scorn, it turns out), only to discover that there’s a reason it’s become such a thing. It’s quite nice, especially mixed with sauteed onions or a squeeze of lime. —Claire
There’s more where this came from in our Thursday Secret Menu emails—join the fun.
