For a holiday gift this year, our friend Avideh gave us ingredients to create one of her most favorite dishes from childhood: Ash Reshteh, an herby Persian stew, packed with noodles and beans. The gift felt so right for this moment, when we’re all squirreling away again by ourselves, unsure of how to proceed with dinner guests or nights out. Even though Avideh wasn’t with us, we felt connected to her, and that’s the name of the game these days, right?

You will obviously have your own special meal and special ingredients in mind if you decide to steal this idea, but I for one am glad that Avideh chose Ash Reshteh because we’d never made it before, and that kind of thing passes for fun on a Saturday night in this house. The dish is traditionally a spring Norouz/New Year dish, but Avideh described it as winter vegetarian comfort food (“like winter chili is to Americans”) which, as you know, is my holy grail these days. “My love for this dish originates from my grandmother’s kitchen,” Avideh texted. When her family left Iran she’d ask her mom to make it but it never happened, and it wasn’t until Avideh was married that she tackled cooking it herself. (She said it took several tries to get it right before landing on a modified version from this cookbook.) Here’s the thing, though: The meal itself, topped with crispy onions, and drizzled with mint oil and a yogurt-y kashk sauce, was only a small part of the happiness — Avideh’s gift also forced us to venture out on an otherwise boring winter Saturday to track down a missing ingredient (that kashk, a salty, sour Middle Eastern whey), which led us to discover an amazing Persian marketthat is only five miles from the town we’ve lived in for 18 years, and that we never knew existed!! (Of course, even if we didn’t have access to that, we could’ve ordered everything online.) We used Samin Nosrat’s recipe in the Times (paywall) but Avideh says this recipe is very close to hers.

In summation: When you’re struggling to think of a gift idea for someone, or even just a way to say “I’m thinking of you,” food is usually the exactly right answer.

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We were in Vermont for a round-trip college drop-off, and didn’t have time for a lot, but because it’s Vermont, where you can buy local craft beers at the corner gas station, it felt wrong not to hit the markets and load up on the many regional specialties. That means maple syrup and dairy of course — often the combination of both: I’ve discovered I really love maple Skyr — but also microgreens, cabbage, and some good-quality locally farmed meat, specifically sweet Italian sausages. Once home in New York, I just had to fry up the sausage, add the cabbage, onions, apples, a little vinegar, and dollop the whole thing with mustard. (And all in one skillet to boot.) So easy, so nourishing.

Sausage-Apple-Cabbage Skillet Dinner

3 small links (or a small “Sicilian-style” coil) sweet Italian sausage
1 yellow onion, sliced
2 small apples, peeled and diced
shake red pepper flakes
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 head cabbage (preferably Napa), shredded finely with a sharp knife (about 6 cups)
olive oil, as needed
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (or white wine or red wine)
whole grain mustard for serving
microgreens for serving (optional)

In a large skillet, brown sausage over medium-high heat. When sausage is brown on all sides (about 5 minutes total), remove from the pan, slice into “coins,” then add back to the skillet to finish cooking, another 3 to 5 minutes, before, again removing to a plate with a slotted spoon.

If there is a lot of pork fat in the pan, wipe out a little with a paper towel. Turn heat to medium. Add onion, apples, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and cook until everything is softened, about 5 minutes. Add cabbage and cook until it wilts and sweetens, another 5 minutes, drizzling in a little olive oil if you think it needs some help. Toss sausage back into the pan along with chicken broth and cook until warmed through. Remove from heat, stir in vinegar and serve in bowls with a dollop of mustard and greens if using.

Whenever I find myself within a mile radius of Daily Provisions, the Danny Meyer-owned Manhattan cafes in NY, I do whatever it takes to get there, even if it’s just to pick up a cup of coffee. I love the neighborhoody vibe and the simple, comforting menu — breakfast sandwiches, rotisserie chicken, soups, everything fresh, everything executed exactly right. Last summer, when I was visiting my friend Lia nearby (ok about 20 blocks away from a DP Upper West Side location), I stopped in for lunch and ended up ordering a broccoli melt — crispy roasted, garlicky broccoli under a blanket of melted manchego, sandwiched between two slices of fresh focaccia. That was June and I’ve been dreaming about the thing ever since, I’m not kidding. My opportunity to replicate it finally arrived over vacation when I found myself in decidedly lucky circumstances: I had about half an Ali Stafford viral focaccia in my kitchen.

(The focaccia takes 24 hours, but it’s my kind of kitchen project, requiring about 2 minutes of stress-free hands-on time. It goes without saying that you can use store-bought for this as well.) If the goal of going plant-based is not only to eat less meat, but to eat more vegetables, well, this is Exhibit A in how you get that done. It would be just as good for an easy dinner as a quick weekend lunch. Especially since it’s one of those things that doesn’t really require a recipe. Here’s how you do it:

Heat oven to 425°F and prep broccoli: This above is enough broccoli for one sandwich so double or triple or quadruple accordingly. (I’d say two medium broccoli bunches for four sandwiches.) Toss with olive oil so every floret is coated, but not glistening. Season with salt, pepper, and a dash of red pepper flakes.

Add a lemon half to the baking sheet and bake until broccoli gets nice and crispy, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, warm halved foccacia (cut side down) in a lightly buttered skillet set over medium heat.

Remove from oven, squeeze roasted lemon juice on top (it’s hot, use tongs or an oven mitt), then cover with this much cheese. (This is cheddar because I didn’t have manchego and was, obviously, delicious. But if you’re going out shopping, pick up the manchego.) Broil for another 2-3 minutes, until cheese has melted.

Rub a halved garlic clove over the warmed bread, then heap the broccoli mess (which will be held together somewhat by the cheese) in between. Repeat with remaining sandwiches.

P.S. An ode to the broccoli lovers in my house which includes this more-veg-than-chicken chicken salad.

I love a roasted salmon, but even after all these years of cheffing up salmon salad seemingly every week, I still get anxious about doneness. Lately, though, I’ve been into pan-frying my fillets, something I started while I was cooking for Andy’s mom in the days my father-in-law was in hospice. I was usually only cooking enough for her, so a simple pan-fry felt easiest — I didn’t have to wait for an oven to heat to 400°F and all I really needed was a little butter in the pan, some salt, pepper, and a sprinkle of fresh chives or tarragon at the end to make it taste good. 

Best of all, the butter-fry technique reliably yields that gorgeous lacquered top and just lets me have so much more control over the doneness factor. You can look at the side of the fish to see the line of cooked flesh creeping up the side, you can touch the top of the fillet with your finger to determine doneness. (You want it to be firm to the touch but not rock hard, no squishiness whatsover.) I don’t want to write the instructions in recipe format because I feel like that will make it seem like a capital-R Recipe, so here’s the gist of it:

Butter-Fried Salmon Technique: Add 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter to a heavy-bottomed skillet (I like cast iron) set over medium-high heat. Add skin-on salmon fillet (this one in pic was 3/4 pounds) flesh-side down and fry until the line of cooked flesh comes about a third of the way up the side of the fillet. Flip the filet and cook another 2-3 minutes (it will splatter a lot because the skin is fatty), until the top of the flesh feels firm to the touch but not rock hard. Remove to a cutting board. At this point you can sprinkle with fresh tarragon or chives or…

Do what I did last week: I flaked my butter-fried salmon into a version of our favorite Brussels Bowl. (I skipped the teriyaki drizzle and just roasted the Brussels sprouts with a tablespoon of miso paste mixed with 2 tablespoons of olive oil) then served with a spicy mayo on the side (3 tablespoons mayo mixed with 2 teaspoons sriracha.) WINNER.

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I feel like every year there is heated discussion on whether or not chocolate has a place in the holiday cookie box. (My stance: There is no place where chocolate isn’t welcome and also, who exactly is grading us on this?) This lovely red velvet crinkle cookie from pan-banging cookie icon Sarah Kieffer solves that problem handily and deliciously. Best of all: They require no culinary acrobatics yet yield a satisfactorily festive result. They’re from her new book Baking for the Holidays, which is packed with ideas beyond the cookie box.

Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies
From Baking for the Holidays, by Sarah Kieffer

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks at room temperature
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon red food coloring (or Red Velvet Bakery Emulsion)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line three sheet pans with parchment paper. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. In a large bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup of the granulated sugar, the brown sugar, egg, egg yolks, canola oil, red coloring (or emulsion), vanilla, and salt. Place the butter and chocolate in a small, heavy bottom saucepan over low heat and melt together, stirring to prevent the chocolate from scorching.

Continue cooking until the mixture is smooth. Off the heat, add the cocoa powder to the chocolate and whisk until completely combined, about 45 seconds (the mixture will be thick). Add the warm chocolate-butter mixture to the egg mixture and whisk together until combined. Add the flour mixture and use a rubber spatula to mix gently until combined. Cover the dough and chill the mixture for at least 6 hours and up to overnight.

In a small bowl, combine the confectioner’s sugar and the remaining 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar. Scoop the dough into 1 1/2 tablespoon portions (see note**) and roll the dough in the sugar mixture. Place eight cookies on each sheet pan and bake one pan at a time, rotating halfway through baking. Bake until the edges are set and the cookies are puffed but still soft in the center, 12 to 14 minutes. Move the sheet pans to a wire rack and let the cookies cool to room temperature. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

**Note: The dough is very sticky, so using a cookie scoop works best here; I like to drop the dough balls into the powdered sugar and then gently roll them. Once they’re covered, they’re easy to pick up. If you don’t have a cookie scoop, you can refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes or so to help it scoop more easily.

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As I’ve probably mentioned a few hundred times in this space, my oldest daughter, Phoebe is a college runner and when I asked her this past weekend what she wanted for dinner, her eyes got all dreamy talking about one of her last races of the season, notable not just for how good she felt, but for what she ate afterwards: “A burrito as big as a child.” In other words, that’s what she wanted for dinner. And to be honest, it sounded unbelievably appealing to me, too. You know that particular voraciousness you have after a good workout? That’s what I was picturing. I’d go out for a long run, get that post-race, wintry-tingly feeling in my cheeks, have a fire, then make a good cozy dinner. And that’s how it mostly went. (Except I might’ve skipped the long run part.)

We happened to be at the farmer’s market when we were having this conversation, so I picked up some chorizo and a head of cabbage for some slaw on the side. I was thinking I’d mix a link or two of the sausage with some beans — I’d just ordered a few bags from Rancho Gordo, I just couldn’t remember which ones — and go from there. Turns out, all I had a giant stash of limas (of course) and some mayocoba heirlooms, which I’d never tried before, but as my husband would say, it’s not like they’re gonna be bad, so that’s what we did. And they were, of course, great.

I ended up using only a single link of sausage for these burritos — there was enough going on with the spiced creamy beans, the pickled onions — and you know how I love a “meat as condiment” moment, but feel free to up the ante there if you’re feeling that. Or omit the chorizo entirely.

Chorizo-Bean Burritos with Pickled Onions
To make vegetarian: Omit the chorizo — just use an extra tablespoon of vegetable oil. I served with slaw. To make this dairy-free: Omit the cheese. To make this gluten-free: Replace the flour tortillas with corn tortillas. (Just warm them up in a microwave or, foil-wrapped in a 300°F oven so they are pliable.) This makes 4 burritos, with a little bit of extra filling leftover.

1/4 cup vinegar (white wine, red wine, or white)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 small red onion
1 link chorizo sausage (about 1/4 pound), casings removed (optional)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for searing burritos
4 scallions (white and light green parts), chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon canned green chiles
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 cups (2 15-ounce cans) cooked black or pinto beans (I used mayocoba here because that’s what I had)
4 8-inch flour tortillas (these are Mission brand, but I do whatever I can to find Vista Hermosa)
2 cups cooked white or brown rice (I used Trader Joes frozen to save time/effort)
a large handful sharp cheddar cheese, shredded or sliced thin
cilantro
optional toppings: sour cream

Make pickled onions: Bring vinegar, sugar, 2 cups of water, and salt to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the onion and simmer, uncovered about 3 minutes. Drain.

If using chorizo, add meat and 1 tablespoon oil to a large, deep skillet set over medium heat. Cook the meat, breaking up the pieces with a fork, until mostly cooked and fat has rendered. Add remaining tablespoon oil, scallions, cumin, and chiles, salt and pepper, and cook until spices smell toasty. Add beans with a 1/4 cup water, tossing until warmed through. Smash with a fork or a spatula so the beans mush together.

They should look like this.

Assemble tortillas: Lay out four tortillas. Sprinkle a little cheese in the middle of each one, then spread a few spoonfuls of bean filling across the middle along with some rice, pickled onions, and a few sprigs of cilantro, leaving some space at both ends, as shown. Fold the ends of the tortillas over the filling enclosing tightly. Heat a thin layer of oil in the skillet over medium-high heat. Add burritos, seam-side down and fry until lightly brown on the underside, about 2 minutes. Turn over and fry until golden, another 2 minutes. Repeat with remaining burritos and serve with desired toppings.

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Greetings! I’m so pleased to present The 11th Annual Dinner: A Love Story Holiday Gift Guide, complete with ideas for all the readers and eaters in your life, PLUS a few DALS-exclusive codes to give you a discount or two. Happy holidays everyone!

Fresh Catskills (Delivery or Gift Card, $50 minimum) I love going to the farmer’s market to run into people and talk to the vendors and all that, but sometimes it’s also nice to just order the same special, local meat, cheese, produce, and provisions online from your couch and have it delivered to your door. My brother and sister gave me a gift card to Fresh Catskills, but I keep thinking how fun it would be to send a cooking enthusiast a box filled with all you need to make a beautiful homemade dinner. (Think: Chaseholm Farm Nimbus Triple Cream, Autumn’s Harvest short ribs, polenta, Neversink greens, honeynut squash, Beach Lake Bakery cherry pie) P.S. Delivery is New York area only, but the idea is universal — wrap up a box with all of your favorite local specialties, even if it’s simply a dozen beautifully fresh eggs.

Cacio e Pepe Sweatshirt (Novel Mart, about $60) I bought this for Abby for her birthday (you might recall she loves the dish so much she started using “cacio” as a verb). The only problem (sort of?) is that everyone stops her to ask where it’s from — especially at a farmer’s market.

Coffee Subscription (Yonder, starting at $35/month, 25% off first month with code DALS) Yonder partners with roasters around the world, and sends you a different, very special bag of fresh, whole, single origin beans every month. The packaging is sometimes as exciting as the actual coffee, like this Norwegian beauty we’ve been very into lately.

Chef-Quality Knives (Nakano, 20% discount with code DINNER) You know by now that I partner with Nakano, makers of high-quality Japanese knives. And I do it for a reason: These are great knives at accessible prices. At the risk of repeating myself, I can’t get through a day without using my Nakiri or Santoku and the Classic Chef’s Set (above) is probably one of the best deals going right now. I encourage you to hunt around their site, there are some great bundle offers as well and the discount code applies to every last one of them.

Beer Can Glass ($4 each, Crate & Barrel) Anyone who’s been paying attention to me this past year knows that there is no job this glass is not right for: Ice Coffee? Check. Mid-day lemonade? Check. Beer or cocktail? Yep! I bought a six-pack for my sister last year and now I’m wishing I bundled them with a box of one of Death & Co’s new canned cocktails.

Pasta (Missy Robbins with Talia Baiocchi, $25) Giving this gorgeous cookbook by the James Beard-Award winning chef behind New York’s Lilia and Misi is not so much handing someone a present as it is handing someone an experience. Robbins gives loving, detailed instructions on Italian American and regional Italian pasta dishes that you can see would either ignite or fuel a passion in the right recipient. I’ll bet you know who that is. (Mine is wearing a Cacio e Pepe sweatshirt.)

Molino Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Williams-Sonoma, $20) Andalusian extra virgin olive oil packaged in the most beautiful bottle. Tie some gelt around its neck and you’ve got just the right vibes for a Hanukkah gift.

Gin (Thomas Dakin, about $32-$40) You know we are purists when it comes to the gin and tonic in our house, but this bottle of juniper-forward gin, given to us this past fall by our friend Sloan, might have changed that for us. It’s made with orange, licorice, and coriander (with a faint and festive red tint) and we were instructed to drink our Thomas Dakin G&T with an orange garnish and a sprig of cilantro. We weren’t sorry. (Probably easiest ordered through your local wine and liquor shop.)

Dewy Skin Cream (Tatcha, $68) Who put beauty products in my DALS gift guide? I did! I have no justification other than I’ve never been a skincare person until I tried Tatcha, and now I’m an obsessive. My latest crush is their Dewy moisturizer, infused with Japanese purple rice, which feels as rich and indulgent as ice cream. (There’s your nod to food.) P.S. They have so many beautiful gift sets, take a walk around.

The Weekday Vegetarians + Rancho Gordo Heirloom Lima Beans ($32 + $6) I know you know someone whose New Year’s resolution was “I’d like to cut back on meat.” Why not make it as easy and delicious as possible for them? Gift them The Weekday Vegetarians bundled with a pack of those cover-girl-worthy limas to get them started. (Also worth considering: A Rancho Gordo gift card.)

Dinner: A Love Story, The Newsletter ($5/month or $50/year) Speaking of which: If you’ve enjoyed The Weekday Vegetarians, you’ve probably enjoyed my newsletter, which means, maybe you know someone else who might also? Consider a gift subscription for that friend you’re always forwarding recipes to! For $5 a month or $50 a year, they will get my weekly dispatch of Three Things I’m excited about reading and eating, plus tons of easy dinner ideas and access to hotlines with food and lifestyle experts (this week you can talk holiday baking with legend Dorie Greenspan!), weekly shopping lists, personalized books, bonus posts, and even the occasional podcast). Thank you as always for your support.

P.S. I happen to know someone who works at Random House, which means I happen to know that next week’s dispatch of their monthly newsletter is devoted to some of our favorite writers’ holiday rituals and gifts (like the best pannetone) and it is so so good! Subscribe here to find out what writers like Ruth Reichl, Imbolo Mbue, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, George Saunders, and Hanif Abdurraqib are giving and how they’re celebrating. Trust me when I say it is Reader and Eater Heaven. (And also this from National Book Award nominee Abdurraqip: “Every Christmas, I get myself something old that is new to me. Increasingly, I don’t want new things, I want things that have already lived a life, already been loved a bit.” Don’t you want to know what that is?) The newsletter is great all year long, btw, not just for the holidays.

P.S. Attention Brooklyn friends! The week before Thanksgiving I sat down at Books Are Magic and signed stacks and stacks of copies. Head over there to grab one…and all the other books on your list.

P.P.S DIY Recycled Newspaper Gift Toppings (in top photo) by the one and only Supermakeit. You can learn how to make them here.

Gift Guides through the years (Wow I’ve been doing this a long time):

Gift Guide 2020
Gift Guide 2019
Gift Guide 2018
Gift Guide 2017
Gift Guide 2016
Gift Guide 2015
Gift Guide 2014
Gift Guide 2013
Gift Guide 2012
Gift Guide 2011

Have a great holiday!
Jenny

There are all kinds of ways people prefer their latkes: thin and lacy, meaty and crispy, kicked up with horseradish or shredded vegetables, spun from leftover Thanksgiving mashed potatoes (!!!)…and I know you’re probably expecting me to give you some diehard purist take here, but the truth is, I love them all equally. They are fried potatoes after all. Below is the recipe I use the most often — I realize using onion powder instead of shredded fresh onions might be controversial, but I find it helps reduce the liquid content and liquid = enemy of crispy. I’ve made them for holiday parties (you can fry ahead of time and warm up, covered, in a 350°F oven for 20 minutes), serving them alongside a selection of toppings like smoked salmon and fresh shredded horseradish. We will definitely do this for a complete dinner, too, once Hanukkah starts on Sunday.

Latkes with Fixins

(Click here to watch an old video of them.)

3 large russet potatoes
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
vegetable oil (a lot, or at least enough to maintain about 1/4 inch in the pan)
Assorted toppings: smoked salmon, sour cream, chopped fresh dill, capers, freshly grated horseradish, chunky applesauce, minced red onion, caviar

Grate the potatoes in a food processor using the shredding disk. Add to a colander and rinse with cold water. Press down to remove as much liquid as possible, then transfer the potatoes to a dish towel and wrap, squeezing so every last drop of moisture is extracted. Add to a large mixing bowl with the onion powder, egg, flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large skillet in about 1/4 inch of vegetable oil over medium-high heat, fry 1/4-cup dollops of the potato mixture, flattening with a spoon, for about 4 minutes a side. remove to a paper-towel-lined platter, then place in a baking dish, covered with foil, to keep warm. Serve with various toppings.

P.S. If You Are a Writer…

….or if you think you might want to be a writer, or if you want to feel part of a community of writers, or if you don’t want to be a capital-W Writer but believe that the act of journaling might make you feel connected to something bigger or hold some mysterious therapeutic power…please subscribe to The Isolation Journals. The project was started by Between Two Kingdoms author Suleika Jaouad, and every week, she sends out a prompt from your favorite writers and artists and thought leaders, like: What does home mean to you? Or: Think of a moment when you made a difficult decision and imagine what might have happened if you had made a different one. This week, I was honored to contribute a prompt to the project about three of my favorite topics: food, love, and gratitude. Please consider subscribing or following them on instagram.

Latke photo: Chelsea Cavanaugh

Fun fact: This recipe appears in two of my books. A version of it first appeared in How to Celebrate Everything, but I make it so frequently, it felt wrong not to include it again in my last book, devoted to my easiest, go-to-iest weeknight vegetarian dinners. It’s the kind of homey comfort-food meal I make when I’m cooking for myself, and I enjoy it the most when eaten standing up, leaning against the counter, and reading the news. It’s so ridiculously simple, I worry that calling it “cooking” is overstating things. Yes, you fry the chickpeas, but that’s as hard as it gets. The key is to make sure you have the right things to dollop and drizzle on top: a good tamarind sauce (Indian-ish cookbook author Priya Krishna changed my life when she steered me in the direction of Maggi brand) and a yogurt with at least 2% fat content.

Crispy Chickpeas with Yogurt and Tamarind Sauce
You should feel free to toss in any greens at the end — shown above baby spinach. Serve with naan or basmati rice. Recipe from The Weekday Vegetarians

Optional spice mixture: 1⁄4 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1⁄4 teaspoon garlic powder, 1⁄8 teaspoon

1⁄3 cup vegetable oil or extra-virgin olive oil

3 cups cooked chickpeas, or 2 (15-ounce) cans, rinsed and drained

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

3⁄4 cup plain yogurt (whole-milk or 2%)

Tamarind sauce, preferably Maggi, to taste

1⁄2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, leaves and stems

Make the spice mixture, if using: combine the paprika, garlic powder, and cayenne in a small bowl.

Add the oil to a large skillet or Dutch oven set over medium-high heat. (You want the pan or pot to be large enough to hold the chickpeas in a single layer; otherwise use two skillets or cook in batches if you have time.) When the oil is hot but not smoking, add the chickpeas. Fry for 12 to 15 minutes, until slightly shriveled and crispy looking, tossing with a slotted spoon every 5 minutes. (Resist the urge to stir; let them sit and get crispy.) Using the slotted spoon, transfer the chickpeas to a paper-towel- lined platter to briefly drain; then, while still hot, place them in a medium bowl and toss with the salt, black pepper, and spice mixture (if using). Top with yogurt, tamarind sauce, and cilantro.

To get the latest posts delivered right to your inbox, subscribe to my newsletter. Top photo credit: Chelsea Cavanaugh for How to Celebrate Everything.

Even though I’m no longer cooking for young kids on the clock every day, I can’t seem to shake the habit of scanning new cookbooks for potential weeknight recipes while wearing my Efficiency Goggles. How long will that take? How many pots? How forgiving is it? (Like, will I be arrested if I use 2% vs. whole milk?) How many ingredients? I think cookbook author Dawn Perry (who has worked in many a test kitchen including Real Simple) owns those same goggles, because I couldn’t stop dog-earing as I was flipping through her new Ready, Set, Cook. This recipe below in particular caught my eye. A savory galette that wraps up long-cooked greens in pastry dough (she calls for homemade, I think store-bought is fine) or if you don’t have greens, you can sub in whatever veg you’ve got — it is so easy you could probably figure it out without a recipe. But just in case, here you go:

Greens Galette
Recipe from Ready, Set, Cook by Dawn Perry.

All- purpose flour, for rolling
1 disk Go-To Pie Dough (from Dawn’s book) or store-bought pie dough
1 cup grated cheddar, Parmesan, torn mozzarella, or crumbled feta
2 cups Long-Cooked Greens (below)
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 350°F. On a lightly floured surface, roll pie dough to about a 12- inch circle (don’t worry about it being perfect; ovals and oblongs welcome here). Transfer dough to a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Scatter half the cheese over the bottom of the dough, leaving a 2- inch border. Top with the greens then the rest of the cheese. Fold the edge of the dough over the filling, overlapping as necessary. Brush the edges of the dough with the beaten egg. Bake until golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.

Long Cooked Greens

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and season with a good handful of kosher salt. Add hearty greens such as kale, collards, or chard, trimmed and cut crosswise into 2-inch strips. Stir to wilt, about 20 seconds. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, transfer to a colander to drain. 

Heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add a few smashed and peeled garlic coves and a pinch or two crushed red pepper flakes if you want these spicy. Cook, stirring often, until fragrant and garlic is golden, a minute or two.

Add the drained greens, season with kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper. and stir to coat in the oil. Cover the pot, reduce heat to low, and cook, uncovering to stir a few times, until very tender, about 20 minutes. Uncover the pot and continue to cook until any liquid in the bottom of the pot evaporates, 2 to 5 minutes.

VARIATIONS

Tomato & Cheddar

Toss 2 cups halved cherry or grape tomatoes with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1⁄4 teaspoon dried thyme), 3⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt, and several grinds black pepper. Use in place of the greens with grated cheddar.

Squash & Mozzarella

Toss 2 cups thinly sliced butternut squash with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 3⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt, several grinds black pepper, and about 10 fresh sage leaves (if you have some). Use in place of the greens with shredded mozzarella.

Potato & Feta

Toss 2 cups thinly sliced Yukon Gold potatoes (about 2 medium) with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary leaves, 3⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt, and several grinds black pepper. Use in place of greens with crumbled feta.

Every day is like Christmas when it comes to the mail lately. I’ve gotten review copies of some pretty exciting cookbooks, which isn’t surprising considering we are heading into the holidays, traditionally when all the Big Ones come out. A few to put on your gift-giving radar: Black Food, a collection of recipes and stories from the African diaspora (and the first book to be published by Bryant Terry’s new imprint 4c), wrapped in possibly the most gorgeous cover I’ve seen this year; Also in the department of The Highly Anticipated is Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking: A category-killer packed with sunny, happy vibes and recipes for things like Hummingbird Cake, Lane Cake (a whisky-laced custard frosted cake that made a cameo in To Kill a Mockingbird), Chocolate Church Cake and, perhaps most relevant right now, all things pies: Slab pies, Pecan Pie, Sweet Potato Pie; Mina Stone’s Lemon, Love, & Olive Oil, as much an objet as a cookbook devoted to simple, elegant Greek home cooking; Pasta, a deep, authentic dive into every possible angle on the topic from the Lilia and Misi chef Missy Robbins (co-authored by Talia Baiocchi) and coffee-table-worthy to boot; Cooking at Home, by Momofuku founder David Chang (with an assist from co-author Priya Krishna) has the ambitious goal of creating “something as delicious as possible, in the least amount of time possible, while making as little mess as possible.” There are NO recipes, just a lot of “about this much” and mix in a “glug” of this or a “squirt” of that. Along the same lines, famously fussy Ottolenghi gives us Shelf Love, a collection of recipes inspired by his pantry and quick-and-easy cooking he mastered during the pandemic. 

Reminder! The supply chain disruption is affecting products far and wide, including books. If you plan to order any book for a holiday gift — including The Weekday Vegetarians! — do it sooner rather than later.

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This is a true story: When I wrote up the Easiest White Bean Soup for The Weekday Vegetarians (page 78), I actually asked myself: Is it too easy? As in, will anyone learn anything from making this recipe? Turns out, when the clock strikes 7:00, dinner-makers care less about learning something new and more about feeding the hungry charges at their table; it remains one of the most popular of the book. And for those of you who don’t own TWV, you’re in luck: The lovely Sarah Copeland, cookbook author at the helm of Edible Living (and my sometimes-vegetarian-sister-in-arms) has excerpted the soup recipe over on her page. I’m pretty sure that could be your dinner tonight.

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I wanted to post a Friday note with some personal news. My father-in-law, Stephen Ward, died last week; he was 81. Though many of you have only recently “met” me through my newsletter and books, I’ve been writing for over a decade about my family here on this blog, and I just wanted to touch on loss, something that affects, and will affect, all of us eventually.

Steve was a warm, big-hearted, loving husband, brother, father and grandfather and I’ll never forget one of the first times I met him, at Andy’s college graduation, when he broke out a toast in iambic pentameter that was as good as anything I had just studied in my American Poetry class. (I remember thinking, “Now this is a family I’d like to be a part of.”) Steve was so funny and smart and humble. As Andy wrote in this obituary: “He was a man of deep intellectual gifts, and a profound inability to take himself too seriously. The things he achieved in life, and the breadth of the knowledge he accrued, were not in service of some need to be important; they were simply the manifestation of his bottomless curiosity and the high standards to which he held himself.”

Longtime readers of Dinner: A Love Story might recall Steve’s cameo on the blog, sharing memories from his days working as a “soda jerk” on the Jersey Shore; or Andy’s Father’s Day ode to the only dinner Steve would ever cook for his family — the famously secret “Dadoo Special.” And hopefully you remember those poems. He wrote them for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, Valentines Day (his wife of 59 years could publish a book of them) and in the process taught me the special importance of marking an occasion with words. I wrote about his poetry ritual in my last book, and you can read it here. 

We will miss him so much and I am overwhelmed by the urge to have as many people know about him as possible. Thank you for reading.

One More Thing

Andy, his brother, Tony, Tony’s wife Trish, and I have been with Andy’s mom, Emily, for the past few weeks, helping her get through all of this, and of course, cooking for her. On one of those occasions, Andy was charged with making her something using only what was in her pantry, without a whole lot of fresh stuff to work with. In short order, he discovered a bag of frozen vegetable-rice mixture (procured at Whole Foods), and, in the absence of fresh aromatics, hunted around in the somewhat dusty spice drawer see how he might kick it up. Turns out, even dried minced onions and ground ginger (however old those bottles are) aren’t so bad when you’re in a pinch. He added an egg and some soy sauce and I found myself walking past the skillet again and again to sneak a bite of the crispy rice clusters mixed with salty egg. Comfort food at its best. It was so good, we asked him to make it for the caretaking crew a few nights later.

Quickest Vegetable Fried Rice
Serves 2-3

3 tablespoons neutral oil (vegetable, canola, or olive oil if that’s what you have)
1 20-ounce bag frozen vegetable-rice mix (as shown in photo), thawed for minimum 10 minutes
2 teaspoons minced onions/onion powder (or 3 tablespoon finely diced yellow onion)
1 tablespoon ginger powder (or 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced)
3 eggs, whisked
2 tablespoons soy sauce (plus more for serving)
hot sauce (optional)

Add oil to a large nonstick skillet set over medium-high heat. Add rice in as even a layer as you can and let sit for 4-5 minutes, to allow for crispy rice clusters to form. Turn heat down to medium, add ginger and onions, then toss a bit. (If using fresh onions and ginger, let them cook about 2-3 minutes.) Clear a nice little space in the middle of the pan and add eggs, stirring as they cook, and gradually stirring them in to the surrounding rice. Once eggs are just cooked, drizzle soy sauce all over, toss and serve hot. Add hot sauce if desired.

I think hands-down the best tofu is crispy tofu, i.e. when it’s been dredged in cornstarch, then pan-fried in a generous amount of oil and tossed with some form of glaze or sauce. (Exhibit A: Hsiao-Ching Chou’s Crispy Weeknight Tofu with vegetables.) But honestly, dredging and frying can be a pain sometimes, and when my friend Robin (by way of our friend Kate, who teaches cooking classes) introduced me to this baking method, the tofu dinner doors felt suddenly flung wide open. You simply toss tofu cubes in a large mixing bowl with cornstarch, soy sauce, and oil, then spread on a parchment-paper-lined (crucial that it’s parchment paper and not foil) baking sheet to roast. They get a nice crispy edge and then become eminently tossable — into noodle dishes, into salads, into bowls. In The Weekday Vegetarians I use them in a bunch of recipes including Eggplant-Tofu Bowls with Sweet-Hot Chili Glaze (page 55); Cabbage-Kale-Tofu Salad with Citrusy-Ginger Dressing (page 65); The Wheat Berry Salad with Grapes, Arugula, and Feta (page 65). But I feel like I could fill a whole new book with recipes that deploy them deliciously, beginning with this Tofu, Pepper, Caramelized Pineapple Salad with Peanut Sauce I made last week inspired by a gorgeous looking Indonesian salad Lara Lee published in the Times.

First the Basic Baked Tofu Method:

1 (14- to-15-ounce) block extra-firm tofu, drained and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 tablespoons neutral oil, such as vegetable or grapeseed oil, or extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. In a bowl, toss the tofu with the oil, soy sauce, cornstarch, and cayenne (if using) and place on the prepared sheet pan. Bake until the tofu is golden and the corners look crispy, 15-20 minutes.

Tofu with Caramelized Pineapple, Peppers, and Spicy Peanut Dressing

Toss the following in a large bowl:

Roasted Tofu (above)
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
6-8 scallions, sliced 
1-2 cups bean sprouts (or cabbage)
1/2 long, red, medium-spicy chile (such as serrano), sliced as shown
1 cup chopped pineapples, pan-fried over medium-high heat in a little oil until caramelized, about 5 minutes total
1/2 cup chopped peanuts
large handful cilantro (about 1 cup), chopped

Drizzle with Spicy peanut sauce (page TK) from The Weekday Vegetarians (you might want to stir in a tablespoon or so of water to thin it a bit) or you can use Lara Lee’s.

I served everything with brown rice.

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Last week, I had an overwhelming craving for apple cake. Not apple crisp. Not apple pie. Not apple bread pudding. And not just any old apple cake, either. I wanted an apple-stuffed apple cake, the kind where there’s more apples than not in every bite, and where hopefully the apples are still a teeny tiny bit crispy so the cake texture is, like, squeaky? Do you know what I’m talking about? Well, as I learned in first grade when I set out to draw a Siberian tiger, execution often proves more elusive than vision. It took me a few recipes and a few rounds before I landed on this one, which is essentially Marian Burros’s famous plum torte (doesn’t everything come back to that one?) but packed with diced apples and spiked with cinnamon. I just had my last slice this morning with my coffee, so I’ll be baking another one later today — it takes, like 10 minutes hands-on time.

Apple-Stuffed Apple Cake
Again, very heavily inspired by Marian Burros’s famous plum torte.

¾ cup sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing pan
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1-2 medium apples, peeled and diced (optional: save 5-6 unpeeled thin slices for top decoration)
Sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon, for topping

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8- or 9-inch round baking pan with butter.

Cream together the sugar and butter in a bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and eggs and beat well. Fold in diced apples. The batter will be thick.

Spoon the batter into prepared pan, smoothing out the top (and making a little decorative spiral of apples in the center if you’ve saved those few slices). Sprinkle lightly with sugar and lemon juice. Sprinkle with about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Bake 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove and cool. Or cool to lukewarm and serve plain or with whipped cream or morning coffee.

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