A short ingredient list is the not-so-secret secret to the absolute easiest desserts. When you start with just a handful of pantry ingredients, you’re guaranteed a sweet treat in next to no time at all. The following desserts — ranging from brownies to Rice Krispies treats to ice cream — require just five ingredients or fewer, making them great contenders for any night of the week.
With all the snow, rain, and blustery weather we’ve had the last week, this winter is feeling especially long. To overcome my fear that winter may never truly end, my family is digging into a week of cozy comfort food around here.
This week’s meal plan is balanced with both classics like lasagna soup and heartier vegetable-packed dinners like grain bowls to keep us fueled for school holidays and snow days alike.
Around the World in 30 Soups: This month we’re collaborating with chefs, cookbook authors, and our own Kitchn crew to share a globetrotting adventure in soups from countries and cuisines around the world. Today’s stop: Taiwan.
Taiwanese beef noodle soup, or niu rou mian, is a must-have for anyone visiting Taiwan — and a source of homesickness if you’re Taiwanese and abroad. Fortunately, it’s very easy to make at home. With its long-simmered slices of tender beef and hearty broth with hints of chile and star anise, it’s a comfort food of mine as well.
My mom, who was born and raised in Taiwan to parents from China’s Hunan Province, would often make hongshao (meaning “red-cooked,” or soy sauce-based) stews on the weekend, often with beef and some hard-boiled eggs that dyed brown in the broth. (The eggs would then be saved for snacking with or without the rest of the stew.) She always used star anise and a bit of chile sauce, so her formula was pretty similar to the typical Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup broth.
It’s widely believed that this hallmark of Taiwanese cuisine was created within the military villages set up to accommodate the influx of mainlanders at the middle of the 20th century. There is nowhere else a noodle soup quite like it, although the dish has conspicuous influences from Sichuan province: chili bean sauce and Sichuan peppercorns. Some call it Taiwan’s “national dish,” while others argue that Danzai Noodle Soup is more representative of older, more traditional Taiwanese cuisine. Regardless, its deeply savory, delicious broth has made it a popular favorite on the island, and amongst visitors, too.
—Cathy Erway, author of The Food of Taiwan: Recipes from the Beautiful Island
Even if you’re not sick (yet?), cold season is a time for extra self-care. I’m talking about getting plenty of sleep, sipping on mugs of tea, and, of course, digging into piping-hot, soothing bowls of soup as often as you can. From classics like chicken noodle to broths infused with ginger and garlic, here are 10 nourishing favorites to get you through the season.
Presidents’ Day is one of those holidays that manages to pass by without much fanfare. It’s not a day that you’re necessarily going to have off from work or school, so it might even be a source of mild resentment. But there is something to be glad about, even if you are working: It’s our last major shopping holiday until Memorial Day, when retailers again drop their prices in honor of the long weekend. And since they’re all online, you can take advantage of them from your desk or from your bed. Here are our favorite deals for your kitchen and home for every budget.
We feel pretty strongly about vacuums here at Kitchn, and definitely aren’t immune to the allure of the Dyson. There’s something almost magical about them: They’re high-quality, design-forward, and very expensive. Hence, we always keep an eye out for ways to get these status-symbol products for less. While sites like Amazon and Bed Bath & Beyond have frequent sales and tout lower prices, there’s another one that you might not be thinking of: eBay.
It’s true that eBay can bring to mind obscure collectibles and absurdly wild listings, but it’s also a goldmine for seriously discounted luxury goods. (Case in point: I purchased my prom dress, a gorgeous lilac BCBG gown, for over 50 percent off. But I digress.) Of course, this inventory includes plenty of Dyson products beyond vacuums, including fans and hair dryers. From now until Saturday these prices are even sweeter: You can get an extra 20 percent off already discounted Dyson products with the code JUST4DYSON.
Remember when the young folks were trolling their mothers (or, in José Andrés’ case, their fathers) by texting them on Thanksgiving for instructions on how to microwave a turkey? It was good fun. Parents wondered where they had gone wrong, and if their child would soon die of stupidity and foodborne illness. No one wanted the fathers to get left out of that, so now Buzzfeed reports that there’s a dad version, too: texting a photo of a can of olive oil and asking why the car didn’t work when you refilled the oil.
Welcome to Snapshot Cooking, the home of Kitchn’s easiest recipes. These mini recipes are so simple you can practically cook from the before-and-after snapshot itself.
Every year on Valentine’s Day, my husband and I splurge on a nice cut of steak. We season it with plenty of salt and freshly ground black pepper, and either cook it hot and fast in our cast iron skillet on the stovetop or head outside to the grill. To finish it off, we top it with a sauce — my secret to easily elevating any steak dinner at home.
I’m a firm believer that if you start with a high-quality piece of meat and it’s cooked properly, steak really doesn’t need much to make it taste great. But trust me — once you add a sauce to the equation, you may never go out to a steakhouse again. These simple sauce recipes call for just three ingredients, come together in minutes, and make your steak applause-worthy. All you need now is a green salad and a glass of red wine on the side.
In the wake of a disappointing “pastry” iteration of Chef’s Table (which critics called out for its lack of diversity), the popular Netflix mini-documentary series is making up for its past mistakes. Season five showed a diverse group of voices, and judging from the newly released trailer for season six, this new narrative has stuck.
This upcoming season will feature four chefs: beloved Charleston chef Sean Brock, Georgia-based Mashama Bailey, India’s Asma Khan, and Italian butcher Dario Cecchin. Brock, who once appeared on an episode of Parts Unknown alongside Anthony Bourdain, has been open about his struggles with alcohol addiction, and it now looks as though he will delve further into those issues on his episode.
From their big debut in the 1990s from chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten to their ever-presence on dessert menus since, chocolate molten lava cakes are easily one of the most trodden tropes of the restaurant world. There are enough riffs on it out there to fill two internets; does anyone need another? The Smitten Kitchen has been lava cake-free since its 2006 inception mostly because I’m not terribly into warm, oozy desserts (I KNOW). But it’s not just about me anymore, is it? Last Valentines I had a moment of glowy domestic benevolence and decided to make them for the family and blew each and every one of their minds, most especially my husband, who demanded to know if I had known how to make them all along, why had I waited so long? Fair enough.
So here goes nothing. If tiny sunglasses, overalls (much to my delight), combat boots (ditto), flannels, slip dresses, small backpacks, choker necklaces, crop tops, and other 1990s treasures can have their moment again, why not these? At least, perhaps, for the duration of a single date night. Or, even better, an I-don’t-need-a-date-to-make-awesome-cake night.