Eating My Way Through New York City

Missy Fredrick

Sourdough English muffins, a Thai-spiced rib-eye, and an all-powerful devil’s food cake you should not save for a special occasion

It’s week trazillion-and-thirteen 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 23, 2021

Sourdough English Muffins

King Arthur Baking

Given that I’ve managed to keep my trusty sourdough starter, Carby, alive since January of 2020, I’m often on the lookout for recipes on how to creatively use up sourdough discard (though, pro tip: a perfectly acceptable place to put your discard is in the trash). These English muffins seemed like an appealing way to downsize Carby; I’ve never tried to make even traditional English muffins before, so this would double as a new cooking adventure. Turns out they’re pretty easy — I did get an assist on the dough by using my bread machine to mix it (a wooden spoon or a mixer are fine alternatives), but I found the process pretty straightforward, especially if you have a ring-style cutter for the individual muffins. Mine turned out terrific — cute, well textured, and including the requisite nooks and crannies (the sourdough flavor wasn’t terribly pronounced, but those with the patience to let their dough rest overnight might detect more tang). They’ve been a convenient breakfast item this past week and will certainly be doubling as hamburger buns in the future, courtesy of the several I decided to freeze. — Missy Fredrick, Eater cities director

Prakas’ Rib-Eye

Kris Yenbamroong, Food & Wine

To celebrate my mom, my husband, and me all getting our second vaccine shot, we treated ourselves to this simple but excellent rib-eye dish from the LA Thai restaurant Night + Market. Our local market, Shuang Hur, had almost everything we needed, including the best bunches of purple basil, but it didn’t carry the Golden Mountain Thai seasoning the recipe calls for. Luckily, the internet came through with an approximated home version. The dish comes together quickly, but the flavor is Big Time Stuff. The rib-eye soaks in tons of umami from the oyster sauce, soy, tomatoes, and Thai seasoning. Finishing it off with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano seems almost counterintuitive — I’m not used to putting cheese on my expensive steak — but let me just tell you how not sorry I was. — Joy Summers, Eater Twin Cities editor

Green Rice with Tomatoes, Eggs, and Almonds

David Tamarkin, Epicurious

The first time I saw good-looking tomatoes this spring, I knew it was time to revisit this tried-and-true rice recipe. If, like me, you’re drawn to all sauces green — chimichurri, chermoula, zhoug, chutney — this green rice with tomatoes and almonds might just become your next weekday go-to, too. Herbs are easily swappable depending on what’s available, and it pairs well with the addition of just about any protein: chicken thighs, tofu, even a grilled cheese like haloumi or paneer (this week I made it with giant Louisiana shrimp). I was reminded to always, always make extra green sauce when I caught my spouse draining the last of it from the food processor for one final taste. — Clair Lorell, Eater New Orleans editor

Overnight Chia Pudding

Solid Starts

The only new recipe I’ve made this week is actually a recipe from a baby-food website — but, like, a really really good baby-food website. I’ve been following Solid Starts on Instagram and using their food database religiously as I’ve been navigating the process of introducing table food to my baby. The Solid Starts premise (and, more broadly, the baby-led weaning premise): Not only are babies totally capable of handling appropriately prepared finger foods, but by exposing them to a wide variety of food and empowering them to feed themselves, picky eating can be avoided. I don’t know if I really believe anything can prevent picky eating, but it’s worth it to me to try. So. Chia pudding. Soft, scoopable, and packed with nutrients, the Solid Starts recipe uses unsweetened coconut milk and has mashed banana for flavor. I left it in the fridge overnight and really enjoyed having it for breakfast the next day. My baby? She wasn’t super into it at first (or at second, when I mixed it into her beloved Greek yogurt the next day), but I’m hopeful that when we try again in a week or two she’ll be more enthusiastic. — Hillary Dixler Canavan, Eater restaurants editor

Kevin J. Miyazaki

Butter Mochi

Sheldon Simeon, Cook Real Hawaiʻi

My sister’s birthday was — checks watch — two months ago, and I thought it was about time to help her celebrate with something festive and chocolaty. She was recently telling me about all the mochi she’s been impulsively buying through Instagram ads, so I decided to bake her Sheldon Simeon’s birthday cake mochi from Cook Real Hawaiʻi, which Eater featured last month. Since I’m the sort of baker who remembers to order mochiko (sweet rice flour) from Nuts.com but forgets he doesn’t have a 9-by-13 baking dish, I had to improvise a bit, splitting the batter into a quarter sheet pan and a loaf pan. The mochi cake emerged from both pans satisfyingly chewy, almost like fudge in flavor, perfectly sweet, and a touch crunchy from the icing (to which I added toasted peanuts in place of Pop Rocks) — though the squatter pieces that came out of the sheet pan had a better ratio of flavors and textures than the loaf pan’s taller pieces, which were a bit of a chore to chew. — Nick Mancall Bitel, Eater associate editor

Zoe’s Devil’s Food Cake

Zoe François, Zoe Bakes

Minneapolis-based pastry chef and cookbook author Zoë François’s Instagram feed has been my zen reprieve during the pandemic. When everything seemed chaotic and the news was at its ugliest, her informative stories made complex pastry techniques seem so attainable. Plus, my girl loves a dramatic blowtorch flourish. Even for me, someone who has Pinterest-failed her way through most baking challenges, François makes the complex seem achievable. Inside her new Zoë Bakes Cakes cookbook is the single best chocolate cake recipe I have ever attempted. It’s incredibly rich chocolate without being so overboard that you need a cup of coffee just to look at it. I can almost hear François’s calm, steadying voice walking me through all the processes while early Aretha Franklin wails in the background. I swear, the crumb even does that sproingy thing that Mary Berry would approve of. This wasn’t even a special occasion cake, just another blursday in an endless series as Minnesota subjects us to seventh winter. (Prince was right; it snows in April here.) This will be, from here on out, our chocolate cake for every cake occasion, including I’m-Bored-It’s-Thursday. — JS

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April 16, 2021

Stefania Orrù

Chocolate Thumbprints

• Martha Stewart

Farro Salad with Leeks, Chickpeas, and Currants

• Melissa Clark, NYT Cooking

Blueberry Crumb Cake

• Maida Heatter, Happiness Is Baking: Cakes, Pies, Tarts, Muffins, Brownies, Cookies: Favorite Desserts from the Queen of Cake

Lamb Chops with Red Lentils

• Nik Sharma, Sunset

Simple Quiche with Sweet Potato Crust

• Chris Morocco, Bon Appétit

Whole Roasted Gochujang Cauliflower with Smashed Roasted Butter Beans

• Hetty McKinnon, To Asia, With Love

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April 9, 2021

Rebecca Flint Marx

Buckwheat Banana Bread

• Roxana Jullapat, Mother Grains

Kuku Sabzi

• Samin Nosrat, NYT Cooking

Air Fryer Cracklin’ Chicken

• Nom Nom Paleo

Spiced Coconut Chicken Rice

• Shayma Owaise Saadat, Bon Appétit

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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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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