At last! I’m finally starting to feel the days getting longer, albeit not much warmer, at least not where I am. You either? Don’t stress, because these icy evenings are perfect for slow-simmered soups, stews and one-pot meals, or really anything that envelops the kitchen with the savory aroma of a warming meal. We’re entering peak cozy.
Genevieve Ko knows. Her method for making ginger scallion chicken and rice streamlines the traditional recipe for Hainanese chicken rice and turns it into a weeknight-friendly one-pot meal. Instead of poaching a whole chicken and then cooking the rice in the broth, she cooks chicken and the rice at the same time in the same pot, then serves them with a pungent mix of ginger and scallions enlivened by a drizzle of sizzling oil. The silky chicken, fragrant rice and punchy, bright green sauce make for a vibrant, satisfying dinner.
Featured Recipe
Ginger Scallion Chicken and Rice
Also: It’s Dumpling Week, a celebration of Lunar New Year!
Eric Kim starts us off with his wonderfully simple, deeply flavorful kimchi napjak mandu. Filled with kimchi, dangmyeon (sweet potato noodles) and scallions, these flat, Korean-style dumplings are easy to make with purchased wonton wrappers. Eric has a great tip for cooking them that works with other homemade dumplings as well. After boiling, he microwaves them for a few seconds, which turns residual water into steam and helps the dumplings crisp when you fry them. (There are more tips in his very helpful video.) And if you want to make these in advance, the uncooked dumplings freeze well for at least a couple of months.
Bright hues and zesty flavors are another fantastic way to ignore the muted, leaden skies. With its combination of scarlet beets, green chiles and earthy cilantro, Zainab Shah’s chukandar chicken — tangy chicken curry with beets — is exactly what I need to make my January table sing. And since she uses canned beets (rather than fresh), you won’t end up with red fingers. Serve it with rice or, if you have the bandwidth, Tejal Rao’s lovely recipe for homemade roti.
Just as flavorful, if less colorful, Christian Reynoso’s lemony hummus pasta turns store-bought hummus into a creamy vegan sauce for pasta. Feel free to add some vegetables here if you like. I’d probably throw in some broccoli florets, frozen peas or spinach during the last minute or so of cooking, to round things out and eliminate the need for a salad on the side. This is the kind of riffable recipe that I love to play around with.
For dessert, let’s stay vegan and whip up a batch of Yossy Arefi’s chewy, nubby peanut-butter chocolate-chip cookies. Made with a speckly ripe banana instead of eggs and butter, they’re fruity, chocolaty and good-for-you-ish, too.
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That’s all for now. I’ll see you on Wednesday.
