When my nieces and nephews were toddlers, they loved this oven-roasted pork, tinged with char. They requested it whenever they visited grandma’s house, and she would cut it into tiny pieces and serve it atop sticky rice. I share their enthusiasm but savor the pork in many other ways, too: with regular rice, as a filling in steamed bao (page 265), stuffed into baguette sandwiches (page 34), added to wonton noodle soup (page 222), and as part of moon cake filling (page 300). A mainstay of Chinese barbecue shops and a Viet favorite, xa xiu is the Vietnamese transliteration of the Cantonese char siu (thit means meat.) To make the pork look appetizing, it is often prepared with food coloring, sold by the bottle at most Viet markets. But chemical coloring isn’t needed here. The marinade imparts an appealing reddish brown.
This is what I call a fridge-eater recipe. The key here is getting a nice sear on the sausage and cooking the tomato down until it coats the sausage and vegetables well.
A savory-hot salsa made with mixed nuts (like the kind dubbed cocktail nuts meant for snacking) gives roast salmon a kaleidoscope of textures and flavors.
Caramelized onions, melty Gruyère, and a deeply savory broth deliver the kind of comfort that doesn’t need improving.
A dash of cocoa powder adds depth and richness to the broth of this easy turkey chili.
This one-pot dinner cooks chicken thighs directly on top of a bed of flavorful cilantro rice studded with black beans for a complete dinner.
Round out these autumn greens with tart pomegranate seeds, crunchy pepitas, and a shower of Parmesan.
Make this versatile caramel at home with our slow-simmered method using milk and sugar—or take one of two sweetened condensed milk shortcuts.
This is the type of soup that, at first glance, might seem a little…unexciting. But you’re underestimating the power of mushrooms, which do the heavy lifting.