Simple Cooking

This easy-to-make cocktail was one of the earlier drinks I created for the bar menu at our Brentwood restaurant, Tavern. It is made with a honey syrup infused with fresh ginger and chiles de árbol, so you get those flavors and that heat in the cocktail. I added grapefruit to make it tangy.

Chanterelle mushrooms and a crunchy, sweet, and salty walnut-bacon topping make this holiday side dish a stand-out.

Cooking cabbage wedges until very tender is one of the easiest, most delicious things we can think of. If the spiced tomato broth has reduced to the point where the pan starts getting dry and dark before the cabbage is ready, just add a splash of water to loosen it and keep going.

In this recipe, every single grain of rice gets coated in egg yolk and fries up perfectly distinct and chewy. Think of this method as a canvas for mixing in different ingredients and flavors—just don't skip the furikake.

This super-flexible, all-purpose salad turns cabbage into luscious tangles of crisp leaves generously coated in a rich and bright dressing.

These beans cook with a combination of herbs, alliums, and chiles—and salt is added right from the start. No pre-soaking means this just might be the easiest pot of beans you'll ever make.

Precooked, compact, and way more flavorful than store-bought frozen spinach, these portioned greens are ready to be thrown into soups and stews straight from the freezer or thawed in the fridge and tossed into omelets and pastas. Even simple side dishes of garlicky greens become infinitely faster when virtually all the prep work is done ahead of time.

Traditionally these banana fritters are sweetened with a syrup made from gur or jaggery, which gives them a musky aroma and a dark brown color. This version uses maple syrup, which hits many of the same notes as those sweeteners. These fritters are fluffy and tender on the inside, crispy and craggy on the outside.

This dough is optimized for getting portioned, frozen, and baked right from the freezer, so you are never more than 25 minutes away from a warm, gooey cookie.

You’ll find Korean rice cakes in all kinds of shapes and sizes—from long cylinders to thin, oblong rounds. While their flavor does not change according to shape, textures do. Thin rice cakes work well for this stir-fry, as they quickly absorb flavors and soften into crispy, chewy coins.

This aromatic rice pudding is flavored with cinnamon and cardamom, and gets a topping of pistachios and edible flowers.

This creamy, frozen Indian dessert gets its flavor from finely ground pistachios and a pinch of floral, earthy saffron.

This recipe has one of the most un-pie pie fillings you’ll ever come across. There’s nothing moist or juicy about it, and the name itself could very well scare you off, but somehow it all comes together. If you can imagine something like a coarse graham cracker–coconut cake, that would begin to describe it. You have to try this one to appreciate it. It begs for ice cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce.

These pistachio- and almond-studded sweets are made with semolina and ghee. Eat the halva hot and soft out of the frying pan, or press it into a cake tin and cut it into squares.

A popular Southern dessert said to originate in England, chess pie consists of staple ingredients: eggs, butter, and sugar, bound with cornmeal, flour, or both. While some recipes rely on tangy buttermilk to offset the rich custard, this version uses lemon juice and barely cooked cranberries instead.

Apple butter is a brilliant shortcut to a robustly flavored fall cocktail. Spiced with cinnamon and sometimes ginger, nutmeg, or clove, it brings in every essential autumn note in a teaspoon or two.

Crumb crusts are even easier than press-in cookie crusts. You don’t even have to bake them—see the variation at right. The crumbs can be made out of cookies, crackers, cereal, pretzels, even potato chips! Sometimes sugar or other flavorings are added to the crumbs (here the sugar is optional), and then fat (usually melted butter) is added to bind the mixture to form a crust. The crumbs can be coarse, for a crunchier texture, or finer, for a smoother texture. Different base ingredients will behave differently, so the first time I test a crumb crust with a new ingredient, I always have a little extra on hand in case I need more crumbs, or a little extra melted butter, should it be needed.    Crumb crusts don’t generally require chilling before baking, but you can refrigerate for up to 1 hour or freeze for 15 minutes, if desired, to firm them up before baking. 

The earthy, floral flavor of chamomile soothes the spice of reposado tequila in this easy, cozy spin on the hot toddy.

This luscious combination of hot cider and Averna is our favorite way to spike cider these days. Sweetened with citrusy Grand Marnier and enriched with salted butter, it’s the perfect hot drink to enjoy outdoors.