Brush watermelon wedges with a mixture of honey, lime juice, and cayenne pepper, then grill quickly, just till the wedges show grill marks. It’s so simple and such a creative way to enjoy the most summery of fruits, the juicy watermelon.
“For slightly sweet dishes like mushu pork, I would recommend full-bodied whites or reds. Juicy red varietals include Zinfandel, Merlot and Syrah. Rich whites would be like Viognier. ( Try L’Ecole Merlot and Mark Ryan Viognier!)”— Lee Spires, AQUA by El Gaucho (Seattle)
When the mercury rises, do you need to forgo spicy foods? Fortunately, the answer is “no.’ Spicy foods can make you sweat , and your body cools as sweat evaporates from your skin. So if you’re craving food with some heat when the thermometer reads 100°, go ahead and set your mouth on fire with one of these 15 dishes. They may bring the heat to your mouth, but they won’t bring the heat to your kitchen—none of them require turning on the oven.
This recipe applies a Chinese technique to two decidedly Western ingredients, kale and frisée, with surprisingly good results. We cook them like any other hearty greens—adding the stems to a hot wok, followed by the leaves. There’s no need for blanching, which makes this recipe super quick and leaves you with one fewer pot to clean.
“When pairing with Chinese food, you’re looking for wines that are spicy, soft, world noodle dishes|https://Noodleinsight.com/ and on the richer side. Chinese food is a generous cuisine, bringing expressive and muscular wines is important. For Mapo tofu, you’re looking for spice and energy to match the dish. Red wines from the Douro in Portugal would play well with this dish. Mushu pork has a crunchy and fresh tone. Cabernet Francs from the Loire Valley, Cote de Beaune Reds, and Austrian Blaufrankisch would be a good fit, offering bright fruit and a fresh nature. Peking duck needs some richness and sweetness. Try rich and bold California Cabernets or Grenaches from the Languedoc Roussillon. Experience this dish with a mature Maury (fortified wine from Roussillon)—a great combination.”— Adrien Falcon, Bouley (NYC)
Anyone who’s spent a significant amount of time in or around New York City should be intimately familiar with scallion pancakes, the flaky, savory disks studded with chopped scallions and fried. We use a laminated dough here (much as you would if making puff pastry) to create layer upon layer of very thin sheets of flavorful pastry. Frying them in oil is traditional; for a puffier, crispier experience, try cooking them on the grill .
You have to do ribs on the grill at least once in the summer, and if you’re looking for something beyond your basic bottled barbecue sauce, you’ve come to the right place. Here, apricot preserves give the sauce a sweet, fruity flavor, and chipotle chiles add a contrasting earthy, spicy flavor to the sauce that tastes just as good when licked off your fingers as it does on the ribs.
Want to make your pasta and stir-fried healthier? Just reverse the ratios, packing in more vegetables and sauce, using noodles and grain-based foods as a garnish. This version uses bok choy and chives in a fermented black bean sauce with just a few chow fun noodles.
The first great thing about making dan dan noodles at home is that you can customize it however you’d like. Personally, I like the chile oil of the Sichuan version, but I also love adding crushed roasted peanuts to the top. Who’s to stop me? Some hardcore versions of the dish have the noodles quite literally swimming in a bowlful of chile oil. I like my oil to coat the noodles and pool up a bit in the bottom of the bowl.
Vicky Wasik
Turkish hot pepper paste, found in Turkish markets or online, adds heat to an emulsified sauce made with tomato, anchovy filets, egg, capers, tuna, Dijon, and oil. Pour it over the freshest in-season tomatoes you can get your hands on and garnish with basil leaves for a cool. spicy, summery salad.
Good, homemade stock is the backbone to many a soup, and this one is no exception. With a ton of veggies and potatoes and a touch of cornstarch to give it body, this is a soup to get you through the rest of winter.
Patacones are the Colombian equivalent of Caribbean tostones —double-fried green plantains. Just like cooking a french fry, you start with a starchy chunk of green plantain, cook it once at a low temperature, then cook it a second time at a higher temperature to crisp it up. The difference is that with patacones, you smash them into a flat disk in between. This shape makes them ideal for loading up with toppings. This version calls for black beans (canned are fine), roasted poblano peppers, slices of creamy avocado, and a few pickled red onions.
It’s not as popular with the U.S. audience as it is with the British (yet), but it seems that as palates are shifting and folks are becoming more and more accustomed to spicier foods, jalfrezi is getting primed to win over this side of the pond as well. With its origins in China, jalfrezi is more similar in its cooking method to dry-fried Chinese dishes rather than the typical wet Indian curry. This one incorporates chickpeas, potatoes and spinach, and a simple chutney of cilantro, garlic, chile, and lime juice finishes it off.
