I first made these honey soy chicken wings a few years ago when I was working long hours in San Francisco. I wanted a nice comforting dish that didn't involve standing in front of the stove for too long. And preferably something that could be reheated easily the next day. The result was these chicken wings, which take only 10 minutes of marinating time and 30 minutes in the oven. They are as delicious as they are easy, packed with flavor from the honey, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Try them out and let me know what you think!
I want to share a recipe that has always been dependable, through good days and bad. Whenever I get home late from work, and don't feel like doing much on the stove, I would marinate wings in a honey, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil mixture, then stick them in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Really, it can't be easier, and the flavor combination is tried-and-true. Sometimes I would add cayenne for a spicy kick.
Read MoreI first made these baked eggs with cumin and saffron when I lived in Shanghai a few years ago. I had recently become obsessed with cumin, after eating at many Muslim Chinese restaurants in Shanghai and Beijing that specialized in cumin lamb dishes. Of course, at home, I wanted to use cumin as much as possible, and worked the spice into this breakfast dish.
So here's a short, revised recipe, since I recently made this again and it was every bit as good as I remembered. The process is a piece of cake. You just sauté some shallots or onions in a pan, add the tomatoes, cumin, salt, and pepper, then transfer the mixture to ramekins. Then you crack an egg into each ramekin and sprinkle a bit of saffron on top. It looks really nice coming out of the oven with specks of bright red from the saffron and the egg still bubbling on top.
Read MoreYou can feel it in the air. Summer's almost over. Don't get me wrong — I'm going to miss the laid-back summer vibe of the city more than the weather itself. And I'd take a cool, crisp fall day over a sticky, 90-degree summer day anytime. I just hate to think about what comes after fall.
I've been trying to keep summer going by making as many light, refreshing meals as possible. Last week I got a serious craving for Vietnamese summer rolls but didn't want to head out to a restaurant just for 2 or 3 appetizer-sized orders (or endure the funny looks I'd receive.) So I decided to make them at home instead, using some recently-purchased mangoes and fresh mint from the market.
To make the filling for mango summer rolls, you'll need mangoes, mint, and fresh vegetables that can be cut into strips such as carrots and cucumbers. (Lettuce works too.) You'll also need rice paper wrappers and some rice vermicelli, both available in any large Asian market. The rice vermicelli noodles get soaked in boiled water to soften, then are laid on top of the soaked rice wrapper along with the fresh ingredients.
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A good teriyaki dish, whether it's steak, chicken, or salmon, relies on just a few ingredients to create the deep, complex flavor.
Read MoreIs it just me, or has August been a little hectic for you too? Sure, this is supposed to be the month when most of Western civilization takes long vacations and work a little bit less, if they work at all. But I've found myself thrown into weeks of teaching classes, more recipe testing, dealing with website issues, and working on potential business partnerships. All of this is very exciting (well, except for the web issues, which are a pain in the ___), but frankly, I'm exhausted!
Which is why cold summery noodles have been a life saver this month. I make a big batch just before the days I know I'll be swamped with work, store it in the fridge, and for the next 2 to 3 days just eat it cold come meal time. My standbys lately have been cold sesame noodles, kale and sesame soba, and zucchini noodles, but this week I made a big batch of peanut and lime soba noodles.
Read MoreAlong with butter, ketchup, and chili sauce, one of the key items I have in my fridge at all times is a jar of kimchi. This addiction started a few years ago. I had been a casual fan for a while, eating it periodically in Korean restaurants. But after a one-week trip to Seoul in 2008, where kimchi and an assortment of other banchan (side dishes) are given to you with every restaurant entree, I became hooked.
Since then, other than during periods of moving and lengthy traveling, a jar of kimchi has been a kitchen staple. I top off noodle dishes with it. Serve it on the side with Korean braised short ribs and other beef dishes. Top off fried eggs with it. Or just eat it straight from the jar as a (very healthy!) snack.
Another favorite dish I like to use kimchi in is a stir-fry with pork belly or thickly-cut bacon. (My version is very similar to the Korean buta kimchi but uses regular chili sauce instead of gochujang, or sweetened Korean chili sauce.) To make it, you simply stir-fry the pork until it's nice and crispy, then cook the onions, garlic, scallions, and kimchi before adding the spicy sesame-scented sauce. It's easy to prepare but will look very impressive when you set it on the dinner table. It also tastes incredible, like the pork, kimchi, and sauce were just meant to go together.
When I teach cooking classes, one of the questions students ask most frequently is what is my favorite dish to cook again and again. Talk about hard questions! I'm constantly testing so many new recipes for this blog and other projects that I don't get to go back to old favorites as often as I should.
But of course, there are recipes I frequently crave and try to work in on nights when I'm not testing out new recipes. One is buttermilk roast chicken, a delicious standby for when friends come by for dinner. Another is chicken adobo and its coconut variation, which I frequently daydream about and could make in my sleep. And yet another is anything kung pao.
Kung pao chicken is such a standby in my kitchen because of both its mouthwatering sauce and its ease of preparation. But from time to time, I also make kung pao shrimp as a variation. The prep time is roughly the same, or even faster if you buy your shrimp already cleaned and deveined.
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This quick and easy version of chicken korma is perfect for weeknights.
Read MoreI went food shopping last week fully intending to make a hearty Thai chicken or pork curry for dinner. Then I saw all these eggplants and my intentions went out the window.
I realized I didn't cook with eggplants often enough. There were only two dishes in my repertoire that utilized eggplants, ratatouille and Sichuan "Fish-Fragrant" Eggplant. It was about time to add a third, especially when sitting inches away from the eggplants was a bin of gorgeous Thai basil bunches.
This recipe is so quick and easy to throw together that it can become a weeknight standby. The eggplant takes only about 9 or 10 minutes to cook, and it acts as a sponge for the tasty sauce of red curry paste, garlic, ginger, coconut milk, fish sauce and brown sugar. You can also make the dish fully vegetarian by substituting soy sauce for the fish sauce, but I love the earthiness that the fish sauce adds. The Thai basil goes in towards the end, but lends a great deep flavor to the rest of the dish.
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It's hard to get enough of chicken wings, especially in the summer, and especially when there's some major sporting event on. For as long as I can remember I've followed the Olympics religiously. Swimming, track, gymnastics, tennis, diving, you name it. I'll follow prelims as well as finals and ooh and aah over all the heartwarming background stories of athletes I had never heard of two weeks prior.
(And being in Beijing for the 2008 games, in the center of all the action, was such a fun experience!)
This time around I'm watching everything from my couch in Brooklyn. And for watching any kind of sports action from your couch, spicy chicken wings is practically a must-have. It's an easy and filling appetizer or, depending on portion size, full on-dinner. And they're downright delicious.
Read MoreEvery once in a while I get a huge craving for General Tso's chicken but want a slightly lighter option. Recently I've also gotten a few emails from readers who were curious about how to make vegetarian versions of their favorite takeout dishes. So I got inspired to do a vegetarian General Tso's using tofu.
One of the benefits of using tofu is that it's quicker and a bit easier than preparing the chicken. Instead of shallow-frying the chicken, you just pan-fry the tofu cubes in a large skillet with a couple tablespoons of oil to get it nice and crispy on the outside. And you don't even have to worry about searing all the sides. Just use a spatula to get about 1/2 or 3/4 of the sides to a nice golden color; this way, the tofu is crisp on the outside but still soft on the inside.
For this recipe, I adjusted the quantity of the sauce that I usually use for General Tso's chicken, and a couple of ingredients in it, to compensate for the protein not being marinated. A few readers have noted in the comments of General Tso's chicken that they used ketchup instead of tomato paste with great results, so I added it as a substitute; it's great if you prefer a sweeter sauce in your General Tso's.
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Gyudon (Japanese Beef and Rice Bowl ) is pure comfort food for me. The ingredients are simple but result in the sauce that’s sublime.
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Spice up your mussels with this delicious Thai Red Curry and coconut broth.
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