Sheryl Julian’s Favorite Globe Recipes in 2024

In a particularly hectic year, we headed to the place where things are calm and generally predictable: the kitchen. It felt like only the most familiar dishes were welcome on the table some nights. So we would put a pot of chicken noodle stew (a thicker, heartier version of chicken noodle soup) on the stove to simmer and fill the house with its pleasant aroma. When we wanted something spicy, we served Lablabi, the Tunisian chickpea soup, ladled over pieces of stale bread or toast with a big dollop of bright red harissa.

The recipe team in the Food section tries to offer you ideas of dishes that you would like to prepare on evenings when cooking may seem like too much effort, or on occasions when there is a party, or a date at the house, or a car full of weekends. guests about to descend on you. And while the team is in their home kitchen preparing dinner dishes – roasting, sautéing, braising, steaming, pan-frying – we’re just like everyone else. We take the consensus of what other family members want to eat, then we shop, then we get to work.

But there are also days when no one has the right to vote. We prepare something we found at the market and couldn’t pass up: a huge bunch of kale that the vendor just took out of a box, or a pile of very ripe avocados just waiting to be eaten. be slipped into our cart, or a large display of shrimp on sale. These become the star players in the Kale Parmesan Chips, Avocado BLT Salad, and Spaghetti with Shrimp and Scampi.

We’re as interested in trends as you are, and while we don’t sprinkle seasoning on everything, well, everything (there’s so much!), or add gochujang to whatever’s on it. has in the pan, almost whatever happens, we keep an eye out for hot recipes. Because among all the food that no one would ever make, no matter how popular it becomes on social media — looking at you, a watermelon sandwich — there are some great ideas.

Tortilla Quiche is one that made the rounds this year. Put a very large flour tortilla in a heavy skillet, fill it with beaten eggs, and bake it into a firm round. It’s lower in carbs and fat than a traditional quiche with its pie crust, and infinitely easier.

A more elaborate egg dish, perhaps for brunch, is zucchini and parmesan torta. Still no crust, just layers of thinly sliced ​​zucchini, an egg batter mixed with mascarpone, parmesan and a little flour, and slow cooking in a springform pan.

We live so close to the sea and we are always looking for ways to manipulate fish. When the late chef Jasper White passed away in May, we remembered his exceptional fresh and smoked fish chowder – made with haddock and Finnan haddie – which was simmered with meaty salt pork, the way fish chowders once did. the old one of New England.

Speaking of real and tried, crispy crumb cod is a modern take on a dish that might have been served in these parts on many Friday tables when fish was the order of the day. This one is elegantly revisited with sourdough breadcrumbs sautéed in olive oil and smoked paprika.

One of our top picks this year was a Waldorf beet salad tossed with earthy golden rounds, tart green apple, celery, walnuts, and orange vinaigrette. It’s a riff on the famous salad served at the Waldorf Astoria in New York in the late 19th century.

The answer to the eternal question of what to fry for Hanukkah – oil is the important ingredient of the Festival of Lights – is crushed crispy Hanukkah potatoes, in which golden potatoes are boiled, squeezed with the palm into thick rounds, covered with oil, and baked until golden brown. They check all the boxes and you don’t get splattered with oil when you go to serve them.

Your recipe team loves cooking so much we could open up shop and cook happily ever after.

Mixing bowls and whisks were ready for action, whether it was chocolate nut and fruit breakfast bars (dairy-free, sugar-free, gluten-free), chocolate cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (rich cakes with a tangy swirl), Banana Muffins with Sticky Bread Topping (overripe bananas with a first-class upgrade), Blueberry Vanilla Cake (a cake is- he better than a cake made with silver blue?), author of the cookbook Zoë Les Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies by François, which are indeed perfect, and the Angel Biscuits by culinary diva Martha Stewart (three leavening agents so that even a novice can make them rise).

All this time spent in our kitchens had the effect of making us more serene, more creative, more efficient, and very appreciated by the team who were served the triumph of our hard work.

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Sheryl Julian can be contacted at [email protected].