Our Writers’ Favorite Recipes

To celebrate the food theme in this month’s issue, we asked our writers to share recipes that they enjoy making and eating. Let us know if you enjoy them.  —Ed.

 

Valentine’s Day Turkey Chili

From Becky Mandelbaum

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 medium bell pepper, chopped

1 pound extra-lean ground turkey 

4 tablespoons mild chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes 

½ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste

2 (15.5-oz) cans diced tomatoes

1 cup chicken broth (or Better than Bouillon)

2 (15.5-oz) cans dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained (can substitute one can of black beans for one can of kidney beans)

1 (15.5-oz) can sweet corn, rinsed and drained

Splash of apple cider vinegar (about 1 teaspoon)

Pinch or two of sugar to taste

Top with your choice of cheese, tortilla chips, cilantro, and sour cream.

Directions: 

Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, and bell pepper and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently. 

Add ground turkey and break up the meat, cooking until no pink shows. 

Add chili powder, cumin, red pepper flakes, and salt; stir for about 20 seconds.

Add tomatoes, chicken broth, kidney beans, and corn. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes or until chili thickens and flavors come together. Toward the end, add apple cider vinegar and sugar. Adjust seasonings and salt as necessary. 

Serve with toppings of your choice. (I like to ditch my spoon and just scoop it up with tortilla chips!) 

Read Becky’s short story “Love in All Directions” (featuring this very chili!) here.

Warm Molten Chocolate Cakes

From Mishele Maron

Note: The trick with this cake is the baking time. I have served this cake a thousand times in my life as a professional chef, and then afterwards as a mother who has no time for difficult recipes. I swear this one is easy. If you are careful with the baking time, the cake creates its own sauce, which means the cake is technically underbaked—not something one ordinarily does. Since everyone’s oven is unique, you must carefully watch the cakes to prevent overbaking. 

Ingredients: 

12 tablespoons unsalted butter 

7 ounces bittersweet Callebaut or other high-quality bittersweet chocolate

4 eggs

4 egg yolks 

1 cup white granulated sugar 

6 tablespoons flour 

Directions: 

Butter and dust with flour eight fluted molds, custard cups, or ramekins. This will allow you to dislodge the cakes from the molds. Even if you plan to serve the cakes inside the molds, smearing them with butter and dusting them with flour will make for easier cleaning.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler—a bowl which is placed atop a saucepan of simmering water—to ensure the chocolate doesn’t burn. You can do this step using a microwave on a very low setting, but be careful not to scorch the chocolate. You can also melt chocolate and butter on a very low heat in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, watching to prevent scorching. 

Once the chocolate and butter are smoothly blended, set aside to cool. Whisk eggs, egg yolks, and sugar together until foamy. Pour this into the cooled chocolate mixture. Add the flour. Chill. The batter can hold for up to twenty-four hours. When you are ready to bake, take the batter out and warm until almost room temperature. 

Spoon the batter into your forms, cups, or ramekins. Bake for 10 to16 minutes. This is inexact as everyone has a unique oven and some run high. If you put the cups on a sheet pan, you might have to add additional baking minutes. 

The trick is to bake only until the edges of the cake are set, and the top is just set, but still a little wet and jiggling. A cake like this, which is heavy with eggs, does something called “carryover cooking,” meaning after you pull them from the oven, the cakes continue to bake for a minute or two. You will probably be nervous at this point. I always make one test cake I can pull out to double-check the bake. 

Better to underbake than overbake. If you accidentally overbake your cake, the cake still tastes good, but it won’t have the self-saucing feature. (Maybe douse the cake with fudge sauce?)

After 8 to 10 minutes, you can remove the cake from the mold, but it will be hot to the touch. I have burned my fingers a thousand times unmolding this cake as I refuse to wear oven mitts because they ruin your dexterity. Or you can serve this cake in the mold, right away, with ice cream or freshly whipped cream. When I was a chef, I served this with drizzles of caramel or fresh raspberry or cherry sauce for color. 

Though the recipe calls for fancy chocolate, I have made it with Tollhouse semi-sweet chocolate chips, which are a lot cheaper. The cake will be a tad sweeter and less decadent, but my kids don’t notice and still ask to have it on every special occasion.

Read Mishele’s essay “Bad Lunch” here.

Nanny Mac’s Sunday Tapioca

From Kathleen Moore

Ingredients: 

½ cup small pearl tapioca (not instant)

3 cups whole milk 

¼ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions: 

Combine tapioca, milk, and salt over medium heat. Stir until it starts to simmer. Lower the heat and cook uncovered on low. Gradually add sugar until the tapioca pearls thicken.

It may take a long time for the tapioca pearls to plump up. Be patient. Sing or meditate to make the time pass. Make sure to keep stirring with love. 

Beat the eggs in a separate bowl. Add a little of the warm tapioca to the eggs, then slowly fold the mixture into the pot of tapioca.

Increase the heat to medium and stir for several minutes until you get a thick pudding consistency. Do not let the mixture boil!

Cool for several minutes, then stir in vanilla. Pour into individual parfait glasses. Serve either warm or chilled.

Inhale. Eat slowly. Be thankful. 

Read Kathleen’s Readers Write contribution on “Stirring the Pot” here.

Mukhopadhyay Family Payesh

From Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay

Ingredients: 

½ gallon organic, whole milk

1 to 2 pods green cardamom, cracked open

¾ cup basmati rice, rinsed

1 ½ to 2 cups cane sugar

Handful of raw, unsalted cashews (optional)

Handful of golden raisins (optional)

Directions: 

Pour the milk into a Dutch oven and bring to a gentle boil. 

As soon as the milk starts to boil, turn down the flame to medium-low and add the cardamom. 

Stir steadily, making sure to incorporate any forming layers of cream back into the bubbling milk.

After 10 to 15 minutes of stirring, add the rice. Continue to stir, but more gently now to avoid breaking the grains of rice. 

Once the grains of rice soften, add the sugar. 

Continue stirring until the original volume of the milk has been reduced to approximately half and the remaining liquid appears thicker.

Add the cashews and raisins, if using, and turn off the heat.

Let the payesh cool to room temperature before serving.

If not eating immediately, refrigerate to enjoy later!

Read Rajendrani’s Reader’s Write contribution on “Stirring the Pot” here.

Tamillayet

From Sparrow

Note: I make this all the time, and perhaps invented it. Its name is a combination of the ingredients. I once served it to my friend Eddie, proud graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, and was shocked to find that he liked it.

Ingredients: 

1 cup cooked millet

1 ounce tahini

1 tablespoon tamari

1 heaping tablespoon nutritional yeast

Salt to taste

Directions: 

Mix well. Watch a murder mystery on your laptop while eating.

Read Sparrow’s essay “The Danish” here.