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Cazuela de Vacuno

Cazuela de Vacuno

The Chilean Sunday-lunch one-pot, the soup-stew that turns up on every kitchen table from Santiago to Patagonia. You brown bone-in beef shin to colour, then drop it into a simple broth of onion, garlic, oregano and cumin and simmer slowly for ninety minutes until the meat is tender and the broth has built depth. The vegetables go in for the last twenty-five minutes - a thick chunk of pumpkin, a section of corn-on-the-cob, a whole potato, a handful of green beans - each piece kept whole because the cazuela is meant to arrive in the bowl looking like a still life. Rice or vermicelli cooks separately in a ladle of the broth and joins at the very end. Served in deep bowls with chopped coriander and a wedge of lime, the steam rising while you eat. Comfort food at its plainest and deepest.

Chilean 2 hours 15 minutes Serves4
Chalow

Chalow

Chalow is Afghanistan's foundational rice method, and once you have it down you can build any Afghan rice dish on top of it (kabuli pulao starts from a chalow base, for example). The technique is parboil-then-steam. Long-grain basmati rinses thoroughly until the water runs almost clear, soaks for half an hour, then boils hard in plenty of salted water for five or six minutes (the grains should be 70% cooked: soft outside, just a touch firm in the middle). Drain, return to a dry pot, drizzle a little oil over the top, clamp the lid on with the heat at its absolute lowest for twenty minutes (this is the dum). What comes out is rice with separate, fluffy grains and a thin gold crust on the bottom of the pot. The crust is the cook's reward; scrape it up and eat it first.

Sides 1 hour 10 minutes Serves4
Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

The everyday Cajun household gumbo, without the seafood and ceremony of its bigger cousin: just chicken and andouille in a deep mahogany roux, simmered three hours until everything has melted into the broth. Where the full Cajun gumbo demands a 30-minute dark-chocolate roux, this one wants 15-20 minutes at medium, the roux still goes dark, just not as obsessively so, and the duck fat or bacon fat (the traditional choice) gives it a richer base than vegetable oil would. Tomato paste and a splash of tomato puree push this slightly Creole (Cajun purists would call this version "off-the-bayou Creole"; the Cajun-vs-Creole distinction is real but blurry, and most Louisiana families have one foot in each tradition). Filé powder is the canonical thickener, added in two stages, half during the simmer to dissolve and thicken, half at the end for the characteristic sassafras flavour. Smell is dark roux and smoked sausage, with thyme and bay drifting through. Genuinely a once-a-week or once-a-Sunday family meal across south Louisiana, where the rotisserie-chicken shortcut is now the practical way home cooks build this without spending a full day at the stove. Eats over white rice with hot sauce and the gumbo deepens spectacularly overnight.

Cajun 3 hours 20 minutes Serves10-12
Chicken Piccata Meatballs

Chicken Piccata Meatballs

Chicken piccata, the Italian-American mid-century classic of pounded chicken cutlets in a lemon-butter-caper pan sauce, reshaped into meatball form, which trades the precise look of cutlets for a juicier, more forgiving texture. The flavour is unmistakably piccata: butter as the body of the sauce, lemon as the brightness, capers as the salty-vinegary punctuation. Underneath sits a chicken meatball lightened by ricotta (it keeps the lean ground chicken from going dry and dense) and parmesan, with parsley, garlic, smoked paprika and a pinch of red pepper flakes lifting the seasoning. The meatballs themselves stay tender because the mix isn't overworked and because they finish cooking in the sauce rather than the pan. Smell is melted butter, lemon and capers, the same smell every Italian-American restaurant kitchen has on a Tuesday lunch service. Easy enough for a weeknight, restrained enough not to feel like a stand-in dish; the technique is essentially "make meatballs, build pan sauce, return meatballs". Serves over pasta, rice or crusty bread to mop the sauce.

American 45 minutes Serves4
Coconut Rice

Coconut Rice

Coconut rice represents the intersection of technique and flavor in Indian cooking. The tempering of mustard and cumin seeds in hot oil releases their volatile aromatics, which then permeate the rice as it cooks. Curry leaves contribute herbaceous depth without overwhelming the dish. Coconut cream adds richness and subtle sweetness, creating a rice that's inherently interesting yet supportive of spiced dishes. The final resting period is crucial, steam completes the cooking while the flavors meld. This rice should taste aromatic with individual grains remaining separate.

Sides 5 minutes Serves600
Crawfish Étouffée

Crawfish Étouffée

A Louisiana classic, the dish whose name means "smothered" in French, and that's exactly what's happening at the table: tender crawfish tails smothered in a rich gravy spooned over white rice. You start with a blond roux (butter and flour cooked just to the colour of peanut butter, lighter than gumbo's nearly-burnt mahogany), then soften the Cajun trinity of onion, celery and bell pepper in it until everything goes glossy. Tomato paste, Cajun spice and stock loosen the mixture, and the lot simmers down to a thick velvety gravy. Crawfish tails (or prawns if you can't find them) go in near the end and cook just briefly so they stay tender rather than turning rubbery. Spring onion and parsley scatter over at the finish. Ladled over white rice in a bowl, with crusty bread and a glass of cold beer alongside.

Cajun 1 hour Serves4
Creamy Clam Soup

Creamy Clam Soup

A creamy clam soup that takes the New England chowder format and smooths it out into something closer to a French bisque. You steam fresh clams open in a covered pot, strain the briny liquor (which is half the dish's flavour), then soften onion, leek, carrot and swede in butter before pouring the stock back in with a handful of short-grain rice. The rice cooks down to nothing visible but thickens the soup naturally, which is why this version comes out velvet-smooth after a turn in the blender. Cream goes in last, off the heat so it doesn't split, and the reserved clam meat drops back into the pan along with chopped parsley. You finish each bowl with a few clams left in their shells balanced on the surface for the look of it. Crusty bread on the side, a sharp white wine in the glass, and a small bowl of black pepper to grind over.

American 1 hour Serves4
Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken

Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken

An Asian-American takeout standard reimagined for the home kitchen, with one specific upgrade: 10 cloves of garlic, chopped rather than minced, so the pieces stay visible and bite back. The flavour is the canonical sweet-salty-spicy balance of American Chinese cookery, honey for sweetness, soy for salt and umami, sweet chilli sauce (Mae Ploy or similar Thai bottled brand) for vinegared chilli warmth, garlic for sharpness across the back. Crisp comes from a cornstarch dust on the chicken, which gives a more even, lacier crust than flour does and stays crisp longer once the sauce hits it. The chicken thighs themselves stay juicy because they're cubed, not pounded; the small pieces cook fast and the seasoning penetrates. Smell when the chicken hits the sauce is honey-and-soy hitting hot oil, which is one of the more universally appealing kitchen smells. Easy and fast, active cooking under 20 minutes once the marinade has rested. The dish has no claim to traditional Chinese cookery; it's the product of decades of evolution in American Chinese restaurants and the home-cook adaptations that followed.

American 1 hour 30 minutes Serves4
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