Seafood

If any risotto could be a summer dish, it’s this one, topped with perfectly caramelized scallops and flavored with fresh basil and pineapple juice.

Juicy ripe peaches and beautiful pink salmon scream summer. A little curry paste and herbs keep this sweet- spicy curry squarely in the savory realm, and a drizzle of reduced coconut cream cools things off.

People always want bread to dip into their clam broth, so why not put the clams right on the bread from the get-go?

This brothy soup feels like coastal Oaxaca in a bowl. It has tons of herbs, buttery shrimp, a light spicy-smoky broth—and chochoyotes, dumplings made from fresh masa or masa harina.

Sinuglaw is a combination of fish ceviche—in this case, vinegar-cured tuna—plus smoky grilled pork belly. The flavorful dish gets dressed with coconut milk, ginger, red onion, chiles, and tomato.

This is a great last-minute dinner.

Smoked oysters are succulent and salty with a creamy texture that pairs beautifully with bright, acidic flavors. The egg spread provides another layer of richness. These may seem like disparate components of a menu, but each one brings something to the meal in terms of flavor, texture, aroma, and appearance to create a memorable experience.

In this recipe, the cooked collard greens get finely chopped and folded into the waffle batter for a savory surprise.

Our new favorite pot roast is just a pile of veggies. Here, carrots get a fresh wake-up from a combination of bright, lemony sumac, funky anchovies, and sweet spring onions.

Serving whole fish during Chinese New Year symbolizes the wish for prosperity throughout the year and many happy returns. When you serve whole fish, it's traditional to point the head toward the most distinguished guest.

The collar is one of my favorite parts of the fish. Baste it with naturally sweet and salty flavor from briny kombu and dark sweet prunes. The briny and sweet sauce is easy to make ahead and store in the refrigerator. The collars of a large fish, such as cod, is the part between the head and the body; it has a (healthy omega-3) fatty richness that is ultra-satisfying. 

This recipe for salted salmon is excerpted from Maori Murota’s Tokyo Cult Recipes. The method, called shioyaki, can be adapted to fish collars as well.

I love to cook with ingredients that might otherwise be discarded, like fish collars. If you’re tempted to treat them as scraps, please don’t throw them away or use them merely for a stock. They’re delicious as the main focus of a dish—think of them as the spareribs of the sea. Here, croaker collars are marinated in citrus, chipotle, ginger, and fish sauce, and served with a mango salad full of funk, spice, and crunch.