Honest Cooking and Travel

Tom kha gai is Thai coconut chicken soup, and it is one of the best things you can do with a can of coconut milk (in my not so humble opinion). The broth is rich, sour and fragrant all at once, and the whole pot takes 25 minutes, five of them prep. It is also the soup to make when a cold is coming on: hot broth, chiles and lime clear the head, or at least feel like they do. H...

Chuck beef in a slow cooker is one of the best arguments for low-and-slow cooking. Chuck is a tough cut, and 8 to 9 hours on LOW is what gets it fork-tender and deeply flavored. The Yukon Gold potatoes hold their shape without turning to mush. The carrots and celery cook right in the tomato-and-wine broth. Sear the beef cubes properly before they go into the slow cooker. I wo...

Silky, slippery and full of flavor, okra soup is a Nigerian favorite, thickened by the okra itself and usually eaten with pounded yam or eba. This version is cooked in palm oil with beef, smoked fish and a blend of red peppers and scotch bonnet, and it is ready in about two hours.

If you have not had a slippery soup before, give it a chance. Cook the okra briefly and k...

A good pie dough recipe is something every home cook should have in their back pocket. Store-bought crusts will do in a pinch (I will not tell anyone), but I would still take the flakiness and buttery flavor of homemade. The process is more forgiving than people think, as long as you keep everything cold and don’t overwork the dough.

This version is all butter, no shor...

Rigatoni with hot Italian sausage and broccoli rabe is Southern Italian cooking at its simplest, and I would take it over most restaurant pasta. The slight bitterness of the greens plays off the rich, spiced pork sausage in a way that no other vegetable quite manages. Garlic, red pepper flakes, Pecorino Romano, and a cup or so of starchy pasta water finish it, and the whole t...