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Roxana Jullapat’s buckwheat banana bread | Rebecca Flint Marx

Crispy chicken thighs, Samin Nosrat’s kuku sabzi, a buckwheat banana bread, and more

It’s week trazillion-and-twelve of pandemic cooking, and you’ve hit a rut. Nay, a trench. You’ve done all the things one can do to a bean, and while the digital cook-o-sphere is loaded with ideas, there are just too many of them. You scroll a few blogs, flip through some cookbooks, and give up. Beany Thursday strikes again.

We’ve been there. We are there. But help is here. To sort through the noise of TikTok tortilla wraps and feta pastas, Eater has compiled a handful of the recipes — from blogs, magazines, publications, and cookbooks — that put the pep back in our pans this week and that we hope will do the same for you. These are the dishes that Eater editors from across the country actually made recently, and we’re passing along any firsthand tips, hacks, or dietary substitutions that, hey, worked for us. Here, then, are this week’s must-try recipes from Eater’s very-much-average but highly enthusiastic home cooks.

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April 9, 2021

Kuku Sabzi

Samin Nosrat, NYT Cooking

A while back I bought a bulk pack of dried barberries, and this week I noticed I was nearing the end of my supply. I decided to use them up with Samin Nosrat’s recipe for kuku sabzi (herb-packed Persian frittata), which the New York Times reposted for Nowruz in March. I started in the afternoon, knowing all the washing, chopping, and drying of herbs would take some time. The recipe also proved a bit logistically challenging toward the end, when you have to tip oil out of the skillet from beneath the kuku, flip the kuku onto a platter, add the reserved oil back to the pan, and slide the kuku back in. Several times during this process I found myself thinking, There must be an easier way to do this. But the end result was delicious. The exterior was nicely crispy, and the interior was a vibrant green from a triple threat of cilantro, parsley, and dill. While it was a bit of a heavy lift for a lone cook (without a salad spinner, decent platter, or flipping assistant), it was an excellent project for a weekend afternoon. — Nick Mancall-Bitel, Eater editorial associate

Air Fryer Cracklin’ Chicken

Nom Nom Paleo

When I periodically find myself in “healthier” eating mode, I most often end up craving protein, so it’s good for me to have plenty on hand to avoid cases of extreme hangriness. For the past couple of Sundays, I’ve been preparing batches of these crispy chicken thighs to have throughout the week. It’s a very basic recipe, with the maybe-not-minor caveat that I have to debone the thighs myself, as I can’t really find boneless chicken thighs with skin around Northern Virginia (that said, once you get handy with a pair of kitchen shears, this is quick work). I season them on the skin side with kosher salt and on the meat side with a homemade batch of Nom Nom Paleo author Michelle Tam’s Magic Mushroom Powder (for those less inclined to make their own condiments, it’s for sale in some Whole Foods, and places like Trader Joe’s have similar seasoning mixes). But I expect any seasoning of your choice would work — just avoid seasoning the skin side with anything that might burn.

I used to cook these thighs on the stove, but I’ve found that the air fryer makes the process even easier, less messy, and completely hands-off once they’re ready to cook. (Make sure not to crowd the basket; my small air fryer attachment can only handle three thighs at a time.) Once prepared, you can use them as the base for quick meals, but I usually end up reheating one in the air fryer for four minutes and then pairing it with a bit of fruit for 3 p.m. Snack Hour — for me, the hangriest of hours. — Missy Frederick, Eater cities director

Hillary Dixler Canavan

Spiced coconut chicken rice

Spiced Coconut Chicken Rice

Bon Appétit

On the advice of my coworker Milly, I made sure to get some basmati rice and coconut milk in my grocery delivery so I could make Shayma Owaise Saadat’s spiced coconut rice recipe from Bon App. This is still a pandemic, though, so of course by the time I got it together to actually cook this, I didn’t have shallots or fresh garlic. No problem. Even with garlic powder subbed in and cayenne skipped so I could be sure my baby would eat it too, this one-pot dinner sang. While I played fast and loose with the aromatics, I do recommend following the specific process the recipe calls for: Use the kitchen towel method, and don’t peek as the rice cooks to ensure what you end up with is soft but not mushy. — Hillary Dixler Canavan, restaurant editor

Buckwheat Banana Bread

Roxana Jullapat, Mother Grains

As a fan of Roxana Jullapat’s Los Angeles bakery Friends & Family, I was thrilled to hear about her new cookbook, Mother Grains. Its arrival in my home happily coincided with the onset of what I refer to as the Great Purge, which is the month or so leading up to a move that I dedicate to using up as many of the ingredients in my kitchen as humanly possible. Jullapat’s banana buckwheat bread recipe gave me a perfect opportunity to dispatch not only four rotten bananas that had been living in my freezer, but also the better part of a bag of buckwheat flour that had been hiding in my pantry for the last year or so. Yes, I know that some now consider banana bread to be a relic of Pandemic Spring, but whatever; banana bread is obviously eternal, in part because of recipes such as this one. In addition to being very simple — add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients, stir, and pour into a loaf pan — it’s got a tender crumb, just enough sweetness, and that buckwheat tang. Adding buckwheat to a pastry is like that scene in Working Girl where Melanie Griffith puts on Sigourney Weaver’s glasses: It makes it a little more serious, a little more unexpected. It complicates things, and if there’s one thing I love in life, it’s banana bread that contains multitudes. — Rebecca Flint Marx, senior editor

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April 2, 2021

Missy Frederick

8-Inch Flour Tortillas

Cooks Country

Maeun Dwaeji Galbijjim (Slow Cooker Pork Ribs)

Hyosun, Korean Bapsang

Cheddar-Walnut Gougères

Dorie Greenspan, NYT Cooking

Llubav’s Green Spaghetti

Julia Turshen, Simply Julia

Roast Chicken with Apricots and Olives

Susan Spungen, NYT Cooking

Orange-Cardamom Olive Oil Cake

Carolina Gelen, Food 52

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March 26, 2021

Nick Mancall-Bitel

Fresh Pineapple Syrup

• Stella Parks, Serious Eats

Ande Ki Kari (Eggs in Spicy Tomato Sauce)

• Julie Sahni, NYT Cooking

Mexican Stewed Beans With Salsa Fresca

• Diane Unger, Milk Street

Broccoli Pesto Pasta

• Dawn Perry, Bon Appétit

Instant Pot Italian Beef Sandwiches

• Lindsay Ostrom, Pinch of Yum

Soft Dinner Rolls

• Sally McKenney, Sally’s Baking Addiction

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March 19, 2021

Brooke Jackson-Glidden

• Orecchiette With Sausage and Chicory

Michael White/Food & Wine

• Lemony Salmon With Fennel and Orange Salad

Adeena Sussman/Adeenasussman.com

• Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock’s Shrimp Grits

Food52

• Breakfast Dumplings

Lori Yates/Foxes Love Lemons

• Vegan Coconut-Ginger Black Beans

Ali Slagle/NYT Cooking

• Bouchon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Thomas Keller/Bouchon Bakery Cookbook

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For the complete list of everything Eater editors have enjoyed cooking so far this year (pizza babka! air-fryer ube cheesecake! spiced coconut chicken and rice!), head to the archive.

Source : food