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New York Times
a day ago
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
I Didn't Think French Toast Could Get Any Better, but Here We Are
A nice thing I do for myself is, whenever it's available, I pick up a loaf of shokupan from my local bakery. Everything about shokupan is pleasing — its plushiness, neat cubic shape, buttery aroma and fawn color. It's my favorite landing pad for all sorts of sandwiches, sandos and toasts, though I'm perfectly happy munching on a soft square, plain and unadorned, with a milky afternoon tea. You don't need shokupan to make Cybelle Tondu's Hong Kong-style French toast (any white sandwich or brioche-style loaf will do) but it's a great excuse to seek it out. Likewise, you don't need peanut butter for the filling, and could swipe your slices instead with marmalade, chocolate-hazelnut spread, a different nut butter or (ohh) kaya. The formula here — custard-dunked, shallow-fried bread holding an oozing filling and topped with a sigh of butter and sweetened condensed milk — sets you up for delicious success. It's a very nice thing for a weekend morning. Featured Recipe View Recipe → Cilantro-mint chicken lettuce wraps: How stunning are these vivid green wraps from Zainab Shah? Versatile, too: If you're not liking lettuce, you could tuck the tangy, herby chicken salad into sandwiches; if you're chickened out, the green chutney would be wonderful on kebabs and fritters. Shorbat adas bil hamod (lentil soup with greens): I once rented an Airbnb that came with the instructions to 'please water and eat the chard.' We ate a (literal) bunch of it every day. I wish I'd had this easy, healthy recipe from Noor Murad, which turns one pound of those tender, leafy greens into a sustaining, lemony soup. Crispy tofu tacos: Alexa Weibel doesn't exclusively develop vegetarian and vegan recipes, but her vegetarian and vegan recipes are so, so good. (You've met the Beans, yes?) These assertively seasoned, umami-full tofu tacos already have five stars. 'It was so delicious I ate one pan all by myself' writes Julia, a reader. Our Cookie Week king Vaughn Vreeland has written — wait for it — 'Cookies,' a cookbook full of brilliant recipes for anytime treats. You can preorder your copy here, and make a batch of his five-star chewy brownie cookies as a preview of all the goodness coming your way.
New York Times
24-04-2025
- General
- New York Times
A Very Peppery Stir-Fry (That's Not Too Spicy)
There are two key pepper elements in Zainab Shah's new peppery beef and shishito stir-fry: shishito peppers and black pepper. You might think, given their prevalence in this dish, that I will focus the next bit on the shishitos, those approachable, mild, delightfully grassy peppers. Instead, I would like to take this opportunity to declare my love and appreciation for black pepper. For too long, black pepper was kind of an afterthought in my cooking, the thing I reached for on autopilot after adding salt. But I accidentally left it out of a dish once and, after the first bite, realized I missed its zip, that distinct piney sharpness. If salt lifts all flavors, black pepper grounds them, giving them a subtle warmth and earthiness. Umami-rich foods, I find, really love black pepper: kimchi, cheese, miso and, yes, steak. Especially steak that's had a quick marinade in soy sauce and sesame oil, and is then seared and tossed with charred shishito peppers, garlic and ginger. You could make Zainab's dish without the shishitos, or with another mild pepper (bell pepper or sliced long hots) in their place. But you certainly wouldn't want to skip the black pepper. Featured Recipe View Recipe → One-pot za'atar chicken and rice: I cannot resist the soothing siren song of chicken and rice, any chicken and rice, and Andy Baraghani's new recipe sounds like just the thing for an overcast April evening. Cheesy baked gnocchi with spicy tomato sauce: I brought home some oily, fire-engine-red Calabrian chile paste from an Italian grocery store the other weekend, and I've been using it to anoint fried eggs and midnight pastas. Next it'll go into this saucy baked gnocchi from Yossy Arefi in place of the chile flakes, a substitution she suggests. Green goddess pasta salad: Plump cheese tortellini, crisp fennel, scallions, sugar snap peas and an herby yogurt (or sour cream) dressing — Melissa Clark never misses. Sheet-pan roasted salmon niçoise salad: Yes, niçoise salad is much more of a summer thing. But you will not catch me spinning my oven dial to 400 come August, which is why I'm making this Lidey Heuck recipe now. Cream puffs: If you don't have a pastry bag, don't worry. You can use an ice cream scoop or even good ol' spoons to portion your dough onto the baking sheet; the resulting puffs won't be perfectly uniform, but they will be delicious. This recipe is from Samantha Seneviratne, the friendly genius behind so many of our top baking recipes, so you know it's both really good and really doable.
