Mouthing Off

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I adore curing, pickling and fermenting foods. However, most cured fish recipes like gravlax are tricky because they require weighting down the fish to expel moisture. For me, that ruins the texture. My stellar version uses salt and sugar to draw out the liquid from the fish, so the texture and flavor is superb. This gravlax works equally well on bagels or toasted and buttered brioche; as a sliced, plated appetizer; cubed and toothpicked as hors d’oeuvres, or however you like to use herb-cured fish. With all the fresh wild salmon coming into the market this month, there’s no better time to make this dish. SEE RECIPE »

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Family meal night across America just got easier, and so did entertaining on a budget. Don’t wait for August to make ratatouille; paired with roast chicken pieces, it’s a classic combination that even your kids will devour. If you care to, this dish works equally well with turkey quarters on the grill: Use the same marinade, but roast using indirect heat over wood coal for about 80 to 90 minutes for dark quarters, and 70 minutes for turkey breast. SEE RECIPE »

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Congrats to F&W contributing editor Andrew Zimmern, who just won the 2013 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding TV Host!

Boiling Water 101 was a class I taught for 10 years at a local school in Minnesota. This recipe was one I designed to teach a basic skill but also deliver complex flavors and serve as a touchstone for family meals or entertaining. You really need to practice braising/poaching/blanching as often as you can because wet-heat cooking is much more subtle than dry-heat cooking but so much easier. Recipes like this will change your outlook on cooking for sure. Get wet! SEE RECIPE »

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OK, so I was with Hot and Hot Fish Club’s amazing chef Chris Hastings, standing in his Birmingham, Alabama, restaurant kitchen and eating my way through his mise en place about an hour before service. He hated me. But before I left, he fed me some shrimp and grits, and the shrimp were some of the most miraculous I have ever had. So I started quizzing him. He freely told me that while fresh Gulf shrimp, just hours out of water, help immensely, it’s the cooking technique that results in their perfect flavor and sinful texture. I can’t even begin to tell you how good these are. Anyway, I adapted his trick and, inspired by some local cress I had eaten in a salad dish earlier that day with him, I created this riff on his dish. That man is a genius, truly. SEE RECIPE »

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This was all I ever wanted to eat growing up, and I still crave it more than I care to admit. This Eastern European cabbage soup is really more of a schi than a borscht, but why quibble over names? In America in the ’60s, unless you were Russian, this was borscht. Funny how that works. It’s a meal in a bowl to be sure, but small portions are a great starter. I have been making this for decades; it’s a battle-tested classic. SEE RECIPE »

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Every cook wants to know how to make this superb soup, and the reason is its simplicity. As in all Italian food, simplicity trumps all. A mixture of greens is great in the recipe, but if you just use escarole, so be it. I first had soup like this in Cervinia in northern Italy, on a spring ski trip. Small huts dotted the lower slopes of the ski resort so you could schuss up, eat a bowl of soup and ski off quickly. This is farmhouse cooking at its best. I think the bread makes the soup what it is. You tell me, but I can assure you that this will become a staple of your repertoire right away. SEE RECIPE »

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When I was growing up in NYC in the ’60s, my dad would take me out every week for roast duck at any of the half dozen amazing Czech and other Eastern European restaurants that helped define the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan for generations. Those days are gone: The German, Czech and Polish restaurants that served some of the best traditional comfort food in the city are no more. It took me years and many trips overseas to figure out how to replicate the spiced orange duck that was so popular when I was a kid. It was fancy food back then, for sure. This recipe is easier than it looks, and the results are stellar every time. It’s foolproof. SEE RECIPE »

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This recipe is not an April Fools’ prank. Why would you think it was? Because Miss Myra never shares it... but she did with me. And when I tell you, without equivocation, that it’s the most famous, most amazing, best tasting banana pudding recipe in the world, trust me, it is. Four generations have carefully guarded this recipe as the perfect finish to the barbecued chicken with white sauce dinner for which Miss Myra’s Pit Bar B-Q, near Birmingham, Alabama, has been famous for, running on three decades now. Enjoy. It’s dessert heaven. SEE RECIPE »

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Homemade tortillas are on a whole different level from their store-bought siblings, especially when mixed with bacon fat and the green bite of fresh scallion. Don’t be intimidated—they’re fun to make and fairly simple. Rene Ortiz, from La Condesa, inspired this recipe, which has a roll-your-own element that echos the fun of family fajita night. And parents, please make these tortillas with your little kids, who will go bonkers for the meal if they get to help make it. SEE RECIPE »

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This dish has all the complex flavors of traditional North African cuisine, yet it’s surprisingly simple. If sardines aren’t available, try using any fresh fish. I prefer small fish: anything from 5 ounces to 2 pounds is perfect. I also make this recipe once a year with a whole wild salmon—I just triple the rub/sauce elements and cut deep slashes in the fish for holding the seasonings and to help it cook evenly. Look, the world would be a better place if we all ate small fish with the heads on once a month, so go buy some mackerel, sardines, mullet, rouget, small pompano, porgies, skate, you name it... and get your fish groove on. Last thought, this makes a great fish dish for Passover. From my lips to God’s ears. SEE RECIPE »

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