Brooklyn Supper’s Marinated Beet Salad is a bright way to enjoy the summer’s surplus of tender beets. A refreshing and truly unbeatable side, this simple salad is bursting with flavor from sweet, juicy beets seasoned with fresh rosemary and dressed in a tangy apple cider vinaigrette.
The Hungry Australian pairs sweet with savory in a Fig, Prosciutto, and Pear Salad that’s drizzled with a tangy balsamic vinaigrette. Enjoy this seasonal salad as the perfect side dish, or skip the entrée and make it your whole meal!
Blue Kitchen’s Curried Mussels with Cilantro is a rich medley of steamed mussels, curry powder, garlic, shallots, lemongrass, wine, cilantro, and coconut milk. This seafood standout is both delicate and delicious, high in protein and low in fat, and rarely requires extra salt, as the fresh mussels create a briny broth that’s perfect for dousing crispy crostini.
Yummy Mummy’s Red, White, and Blueberry Ice Cream Pie is a patriotic sweet that surpasses all other desserts with flying colors this Fourth of July. The lightened up treat is made with frozen yogurt, fresh raspberries and blueberries, and its firework finale: a sweet and crunchy crust made of natural granola (glutten-free if you choose), chopped walnuts, melted coconut oil, and agave syrup.
Catie Baumer Schwalb of PitchforkDiaries.com has created the ultimate seasonal sandwich making the most of Cornmeal Crusted Soft Shell Crabs. She tops off the crunchy crab with a buttermilk, apple, and chive coleslaw, and then loads it all up on a golden brown bun.
Baker’s Royal provides a new approach to baking beloved strawberry shortcake by transforming it from a cake into finger-friendly bars. This innovative recipe features a classic fresh fruit filling topped with crumbly streusel and sugar glaze for a fun twist on a sweet favorite.
It’s hard to beat the wafting aromas of chocolatey cookies straight from the oven, and 52 Kitchen Adventures kicks the cocoa up a notch with Chocolate Macarons with Nutella Mousse. Delicate chocolate wafers are the perfect pairing of sweet taste and chewy, crisp texture. The only way to make them even better is by sandwiching them together with fluffy Nutella mousse.
Pork belly is like the dessert of all meats. It’s rich, fattening, and utterly decadent. Hiding beneath a thick layer of fat is a belt of tender-sweet pork, so soft and melt-in-your-mouth you’ll want to make sure any marinade that dare touches it is only an afterthought. The Hungry Giant keeps the sauce simple and secondary with a balanced salty-sour marinade of white cane and apple cider vinegars, peppercorns, and a splash of fish sauce.
Some foods are just simply comforting. Take, for example, Buttered Up’s Double Blueberry Cake bursting with lush, textured blueberries and topped with a deep violet blueberry sauce that turns to a soft magenta at the edges. This cake, baked in a loaf pan, is more like a sweet, dense quick-bread, while the drizzle of sauce has the concentrated blueberry flavor of pie filling. It’s enough to evoke nostalgia for Grandmother’s old cookbooks or rainy days in spring that will give way to luscious fruits.
No matter how good the sauce, I can always distinguish soft and tender handmade pasta from the dried and boxed variety. For me, fresh pasta is the marker of a great Italian meal. Swiss-based food blog House to Haus teaches you a simple technique for crafting orecchiette at home using just a serrated knife and a little elbow grease. With a drizzle of high-quality olive oil and freshly torn basil, these “little ears” make for a comforting meal. Shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano is a must, too.
Avocado’s buttery texture and neutral, albeit slightly earthy, flavor makes it a fitting ingredient for dressing up crostini, the fancy monicker for a simple slice of topped and toasted bread. Cookie + Kate utilizes bright, peppery vegetables, like shaved radishes, asparagus, and arugula, plus a sprinkle of sea salt and a squeeze of lime, for a no fuss way to nosh on spring’s delicate bounty of produce. Be sure to leave the toast dry, since avocado’s crowning attribute is it’s high fat content that can replicate the mouthfeel of oil and butter.
Sticky Toffee Pudding is one dessert that must be served steaming hot, otherwise you’re missing the full potential of what this British classic has to offer. The delicate, cake-like pudding is traditionally steamed and then glazed with a deep, caramel-colored toffee sauce. My Cooking Hut uses large Medjool dates with lots of soft, tender “meat” providing moisture and subtle prune-like sweetness. Top it off with warm custard or a scoop of your favorite ice cream.
Photo: Denise Woodward
The meatball, like the taco and the hotdog, has fallen into a trap of trendy reinterpretations. But with its simple substitution of ground pork for beef and panko for Italian-style breadcrumbs, Eat Boutique’s Asian-Inspired Meatballs and Spaghetti gets it right by maintaining the ball’s integral plump tenderness. Caramelized in a syrupy glaze and served atop a mess of chewy soba, it’s like eating a sweet and spicy deconstructed dumpling!
Easter: a Sunday synonymous with cornucopias of Cadbury, bunnies (one in particular), and your childhood self wrestling with dozens of candy-stuffed plastic eggs. In the spirit of the fast-approaching holiday, Please Note transforms the iconic into the edible by pickling her hard-boiled version in beet juice. To make two strikingly colorful halves twice as fun, devil the yolk.
The Oyster Po’ Bo may not be as easily created as a burger or sub, but it far surpasses the necessary criteria for a good, hearty sandwich (think crispy, tender protein, fresh vegetables, mayo-based sauce and a sweet condiment). The Endless Meal updates the classic by layering deep-fried oysters and crunchy sesame slaw with tangy onion relish and spicy chipotle aioli for a messy sammy worthy of the most durable of buns.
The elusive black garlic, most commonly found in Asian cuisine, gets its look and flavor from a month-long fermentation process. The head is cooked low and slow until the cloves change from white to deep ink. Like roasted garlic, the texture remains smooth and spreadable, but the flavor intensifies: think syrupy and sweet with balsamic undertones.
To work exotic black garlic into a more familiar dish, try Yum and Yummer’s Meyer-Lemon Infused Fettuccine with Spinach, Pistachio, and Black Garlic Pesto, which catches this allium flirting with Italian for a unique take on the traditional.
