Peking Duck
This delicious roast duck dish popularized in Beijing is known for crispy, intensely golden brown skin and tender meat. It traditionally takes days to prepare, but our version is ready in just over a day, with most of the time spent refrigerating the duck. The recipe gets plenty of flavor from a combination of soy sauce, honey, Chinese five spice, and hoisin sauce, resulting in a duck that's umami-rich and satisfying. While the duck roasts, the skin puffs up and traps some of the rendered fat, causing it to almost self-baste as it cooks. After it has been carved, it's served with Chinese buns or pancakes, cucumber and carrot matchsticks, thinly sliced scallions, and more hoisin sauce.
Rowdy Rooster Fried Chicken Sandwiches
These delightfully crispy, unforgettably delicious fried chicken sandwiches come from 2022 F&W Gamechanger Chintan Pandya — the chef behind popular New York City Indian restaurants Dhamaka, Adda, Semma, and Rowdy Rooster. Rowdy Rooster, where you'll find these spicy sandwiches, celebrates different styles of fried chicken across the Indian subcontinent, as well as other street food like pakora and vada pao. For the sandwiches, boneless, skinless chicken thigh pieces go through two stages of marination and are fried twice to deep brown perfection, locking in flavor and moisture with a crunchy exterior. After a quick dip in spiced melted butter, they're ready for the sandwiches. Pandya opted for a bright Mint Chutney, Amchur Onions, and Scallion Yogurt to round them out — and when you take a bite, you'll see how everything melds together perfectly. The chaat masala helps balance the heat from the Kashmiri chili powder in the butter. If you find yourself with leftovers, try reheating the chicken in an air fryer instead of a microwave so you can preserve that crispy coating.
Philadelphia Roast Pork Sandwiches
The Philadelphia roast pork sandwich combines roasted pork with melty provolone cheese and broccoli rabe (or sometimes spinach) for a seriously satisfying bite. For this version, we sautéed broccoli rabe with plenty of garlic and some crushed red pepper flakes, and finished it with fresh lemon juice. Its bitterness and brightness balances the fattiness of the pork, which is incredibly tender and buttery with a flavorful crust. Letting the pork sit at room temperature for an hour while the oven preheats helps ensure it cooks evenly. Roasting it initially at 450°F and then lowering the oven temperature crisps and renders the fat on top, and then slowly cooks the meat. The provolone brings sharpness and helps keep the bottom of the roll from getting too soggy, and the mayo — which has a punch of acidity from pickled pepperoncini and its brine — is the finishing touch.
Shortcut Café Brûlot
Scholar and cookbook author Jessica B. Harris has been a part-time resident of New Orleans for many years. She shared her shortcut recipe for a Cafe Brûlot, which she likes to serve after a meal at her summer home on Martha's Vineyard. Café Brûlot is a signature cocktail of New Orleans, where it's prepared tableside at restaurants in an elaborate process that culminates in pouring flaming, citrus- and cinnamon-infused brandy down a clove-studded orange peel into a special silver-lined punch bowl, then dousing the flames with chicory-flavored coffee. Instead, Harris eschews the fireworks and special equipment, opting for a greatly streamlined drink that's much easier to prepare at home. In her version, warmed orange liqueur and cognac, fresh lemon and lime juice, cinnamon, cloves, and hot coffee come together in a simple but satisfying warming, boozy after-dinner cocktail that can be quickly prepared, served, and savored. You can serve the drink directly from the heatproof bowl it's prepared in, or do as Harris does: "I mix it all and pour it out of an antique Victorian tea pot." Note this is a very potent drink. "The booze doesn't burn off," Harris cautions. "Serve in demitasse cups. No seconds."
Leg of Lamb Cooked Over New Potatoes with Spicy Mint-Rum Sauce
Cookbook author and scholar Jessica B. Harris serves this roast leg of lamb cooked over a bed of new potatoes as the centerpiece of her Bastille Day dinner party, which she has traditionally hosted to open up her summers on Martha's Vineyard. Dried lavender and fresh thyme lend floral, woodsy flavor to fresh garlic cloves in a simple paste created on the cutting board. The paste seasons the lamb before cooking and helps the dried spice crust stick to the meat. The mint sauce — what Harris calls a "jazzed-up mint jelly" made by cooking mint jelly in a skillet with a splash of rum and jalapeño — will appear very thin when hot but thickens to a glaze as it cools. If you like, serve the leg of lamb and potatoes as Harris does, alongside string beans and a salad of fresh island lettuces mixed with avocado chunks and blueberries, followed by lemon chess pie for dessert.
Thalheimer's Lemon Chess Pie
Scholar and cookbook author Jessica B. Harris's good friend Karen Finley shares her family recipe for buttery, silky, and lusciously tart lemon chess pie. The recipe is modeled on one that Finley remembers from her childhood in Richmond, Virginia, where a lemon chess pie from Thalheimer's — a local department store — was on the cafeteria menu. For years, her family would buy and ship Thalheimer's lemon chess pie across the country every Thanksgiving. Eventually, Thalheimer's went out of business, and the family spent years trying to recreate the beloved dessert. Finally, Finley says, "My sister-in-law, Regina, joyously sent out the proclamation that she had finally found the winner — and she had! She sent this recipe to all of us and we've been enjoying it ever since. We save it for holidays or special occasions. It's always a big hit." Harris is among the many lucky friends of Finley's who have enjoyed this Lemon Chess Pie — she loves to include it on her dinner party menus at her summer home on Martha's Vineyard. It's easy to see why the pie is such a hit: The flavor of the filling is similar to a lemon bar, but a touch sweeter and with some pleasant texture from floral lemon zest.
