Four bartenders from Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens recommend seasonal cocktails for ringing in the new year. Try recipes for homemade eggnog and the New Brunswick.

Food writers and editors Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs talk about discovering and celebrating the best home cooks in the country. Each week for 52 weeks, they ran recipe contests on their website, Food52.com, and the 140 winning recipes make up their book The Food52 Cookbook: 140 Winning Recipes from Exceptional Home Cooks.

By Minimally Invasive / Serves 8 to 10

WHO: Minimally Invasive, a graphic designer and freelance writer living in Ringwood, New Jersey, is always up for trying something new. Her latest projects are perfecting her smoker technique, as well as turning out the perfect focaccia. She blogs at www.chimeraobscura.com/mi.

WHAT: A hearty, earthy ragu best made a day in advance. We’re confident this would be just as satisfying over pasta as it is over polenta.

HOW: Mushrooms, which are pureed with the rest of the sauce once the short ribs are fall-apart tender, make the liquid cloaking the shredded short ribs nice and meaty, and the wine, anchovy, tomato paste, and mustard make it sing.

WHY WE LOVE IT : Minimally Invasive wrote, “Let’s be honest, short ribs are great in any incarnation, but I wanted to use them in a ragu that had a little more oomph than the typical braise, so I went into umami overdrive with porcini.” The gremolata is a nice bright touch at the end. On a frosty winter evening, this would be perfect with a big green salad and the other half of that bottle of red wine.

Allen Katz, from the New York Distilling Company, gives tips and shares recipes for mixing festive holiday cocktails for New Year’s Eve.

Caraway Kringles "Christmas Cookies and Candies"
Submitted by Barbara Myers

Cream: 1/4 lb butter and 1 cup sugar.
Add 1 egg, 2 tsp caraway seeds

Sift 2 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt

Alternate adding flour mix and 3 tbs brandy to above butter mix.

Chill 2+ hours.

Roll 1/8 inch.

Cut, dust with confectioner’s sugar, bake at 375 degrees about 10 minutes – until lightly browned.

Notes: Important to use fresh caraway seed (homegrown is nice) or at least not old seed. Brandy can be good cognac, Drambuie (my favorite), or Irish Mist, or your choice.

Time: about 45 minutes, plus cooling

 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white rice flour

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted, cold butter, cut into 1-inch chunks

1 tablespoon chestnut, or other dark, full-flavored honey

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Pulse together the flours, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and honey and pulse to fine crumbs. Pulse a few more times until some of the crumbs start to come together, but don’t overprocess. The dough should not be smooth.

3. Press the dough into an even layer in an ungreased 8- or 9-inch square baking pan or 9-inch pie pan. Prick the dough all over with a fork. Bake until golden brown, about 35 to 40 minutes for the 9-inch pan, 45 to 50 minutes for the 8-inch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Cut into squares, bars, or wedges while still warm. 

Makes one 8- or 9-inch shortbread.

Melissa Clark on what to bake for your friends and family. Share your favorite holiday cookie recipe!

Avocado Goat Cheese Spread
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

2 Medium Ripe Avocados
1 Tomato
1/3 Cup Goat Cheese
2 Tbsp Chopped Coriander
1/3 Tsp Chili Powder
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper To Taste

Directions:

Cut the avocados in half, removing the pit and peel off the skin.  In a small bowl mash the avocados with a fork until fairly smooth. Dice the tomato and add to the avocados. Gently crumble the goat cheese and add to the mixture. Add spices and combine. Drizzle in two tablespoons of olive oil and using a spatula make the mixture smooth. Set aside.

Personalize it: make the spread your own by adding flavors your family enjoys. Delicious additions to this recipe include items such as; spinach, basil or raw onions

 

Sautéed Shrimp
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

1/2 lb Fresh Shrimp
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Mustard Seeds
12 Curry Leaves
1/2 Tsp Chili Powder
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Heat a nonstick frying pan or skillet.  Add olive oil and heat for a few minutes.  Add the mustard seeds and cook until the seeds begin to pop like popcorn kernels, then immediately add in the shrimp, curry leaves, chili powder, salt and pepper.  Cook just until shrimp is light pink throughout.

To serve:

Open and lay flat one washed and dried leaf of Boston Bibb Lettuce. Spread a table spoon of Avocado Goat Cheese Spread in the center and place one or two shrimp on top, then roll the leaf closed.

This dish is perfect for entertaining—you can serve it hot or at room temperature.

TIME 20 minutes

MAKES 6 to 8 servings

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 salmon fillet (2 to 3 pounds), skin on if you like
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish

1. Heat the oven to 475°F. When the oven is hot, put the butter on a rimmed baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put the pan in the oven for the butter to melt, about 1 minute. Watch it the whole time: As soon as the foaming stops, remove the pan.

2. Put the salmon in the seasoned butter, skin side down, and sprinkle the top with more salt and pepper. Return the pan to the oven.

3. Roast until the salmon is just cooked through, 8 to 12 minutes. To see whether the fish is done, stick a paring knife between the layers of flesh; the center should be bright pink and still a little translucent. Garnish with the parsley and serve.

TIPS

Salmon is one of the most popular types of fish in the United States, and deservedly so. It’s got beautiful, tender flesh (as long as you don’t overcook it) and amazing flavor. Wild salmon, which at this point comes pretty much exclusively from the Pacific Northwest (mostly Alaska), is the best choice for the environment and is leaner, darker, and better tasting than farm-raised salmon.

 

VARIATIONS

Herb-Roasted Salmon: Skip the parsley for garnish. In Step 1, use 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter. In Step 2, add 2 tablespoons minced shallot and ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley or basil leaves or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon, thyme, or dill leaves to the pan along with the salmon. Continue with the recipe.

 Salmon Roasted with Olives and Thyme: Skip the parsley for garnish. Before Step 1, pit and chop 1 cup kalamata olives. In Step 1, sprinkle the salmon with pepper, but skip the salt (olives have plenty). In Step 2, add the olives and 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves to the pan along with the salmon.  Continue with the recipe.

She hasn’t said so in so many words, but I have a hunch that my editor thinks I should explain why it took me no fewer than seven muffin recipes to stop fussing and find the perfect one to tell you about. Are muffin recipes that hard to come up with? No, not really. Do we perhaps just enjoy eating muffins so much that I looked for excuses to make more? Unfortunately, not that either. Am I really so terribly indecisive? Apparently, yes, but only in what I believed to be the quest for the greater muffin good. Okay, fine, and when I’m choosing earrings.

What finally led me here was, innocently enough, a basket of boring- looking lemon– poppy seed muffins at a bakery one morning; they got me wondering when poppy seeds would come untethered from lemon’s grasp. Poppy seeds are delightful on their own— faintly nutty bordering on fruity— but they also play well with fruit that is richer in flavor and texture than lemon. Inspired, I went home and, a short while later, finally pulled a muffin out of the oven I’d change nothing about. Poppy seeds, plums, browned butter, brown sugar, and sour cream form a muffin that’s rich with flavor, dense with fruit, and yet restrained enough to still feel like breakfast food. Seven rounds and six months in, I bet somewhere my editor is breathing a sigh of relief.

yield: serves 8

1 cup (180 grams) long- grain white rice
¾ teaspoon table salt
1 large egg
One 12-ounce can (1½ cups or 355 ml) evaporated milk
One 13.5-ounce can (17/8 cups or 415 ml) unsweetened coconut milk
One 14-ounce can (1¼ cups or 390 grams) sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (240 ml) heavy or whipping cream, chilled
1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
Ground cinnamon, to finish

My list of rice pudding loves is long. There’s the Danish risalamande, with chopped almonds, whipped cream, and a sour cherry sauce, usually served at Christmas with a prize inside— one that I never win, not that I’ve been trying for thirteen years at my best

friend’s house or anything. There’s kheer, with cardamom, cashews or pistachios, and saffron. There’s rice pudding the way our grandmothers made it, baked for what feels like an eternity, with milk, eggs, and sugar. And there’s arroz con leche, which is kind of like your Kozy Shack went down to Costa Rica for a lazy weekend and came back enviously tan, sultry, and smelling of sandy shores. As you can tell, I really like arroz con leche.

But this—a riff on one of the best variants of arroz con leche I’ve made, which, in its original incarnation on my site, I adapted from Ingrid Hoffmann’s wonderful recipe—is my favorite, for two reasons: First, it knows me. (That’s the funny thing about the recipes I create!) It knows how preposterously bad I am at keeping stuff in stock in my kitchen, like milk, but that I seem always to have an unmoved collection of canned items and grains. Second, it’s so creamy that it’s like a pudding stirred into another pudding.

The rice is cooked first in water. I prefer to start my rice pudding recipes like this, because I’m convinced that cooking the rice first in milk takes twice as long and doesn’t get the pudding half as creamy. Also, it gives me a use for those cartons of white rice left over from the Chinese take- out I only occasionally (cough) succumb to. Then you basically cook another pudding on top of it, with one egg and three milks— coconut, evaporated, and sweetened condensed— and the end result will be the richest and most luxurious rice pudding imaginable. But why stop there? For the times when the word “Enough!” has escaped your vocabulary, I recommend topping it with a dollop of cinnamon- dusted whipped cream, for the icing on the proverbial cake.

 

Cook the Rice
Put the rice, 2 cups of water, and the salt in a medium saucepan with a tight- fitting lid. Bring to a boil— you should hear the pot going all a flutter under the lid and puffing steam out the seam. Reduce to a low simmer, and let the rice cook for 15 minutes, until the water is absorbed. Remove the rice pot from the heat.

Once the rice is cooked, whisk the egg in a medium bowl, and then whisk in the evaporated milk. Stir the coconut and sweetened condensed milks into the rice, then add the egg mixture. Return the saucepan to heat and cook the mixture over medium- low heat until it looks mostly, or about 90 percent, absorbed (the pudding will thicken a lot as it cools), about 20 to 25 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract, then divide the pudding among serving dishes. Keep the puddings in the fridge until fully chilled, about 1 to 2 hours.

To Serve
Whip the heavy cream with the confectioners’ sugar until soft peaks form. Dollop a spoonful of whipped cream on top of each bowl of rice pudding, dust with ground cinnamon, then enjoy.

Cooking Note
If you have 2 cups of leftover white rice, you can skip the first step, and jump in with the egg and three milks.

 

Excerpted from THE SMITTEN KITCHEN COOKBOOK by Deb Perelman. Copyright © 2012 by Deb Perelman. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

 

Over the years, we’ve had a lot of dinner parties. I’ve made mussels and fries and red pepper soup; I’ve made meatballs and spaghetti repeatedly; brisket and noodles were on repeat until I got the kinks ironed out of the recipe in this chapter, and there was this

one time when I decided to make nothing but delicate flatbreads for dinner. It was a terrible idea. Don’t do this unless you want to spend three days making doughs and mincing vegetables, only to have everyone leave hungry.

I’m pretty sure if you asked my friends what the very best thing I’ve ever served them was, they’d still go on about chicken pot pies I made from an Ina Garten recipe all those years ago. People, it turns out, go berserk for comfort food— especially comfort food with a flaky pastry lid—doubly so on a rainy night. I liked them too, but the chicken— which often ends up getting cooked twice— has always been my least favorite part. What I do like is the buttery velouté that forms the sauce, and it was from there that I decided to make a pot pie I’d choose over chicken, peas, and carrots any night of the week.

You really have to try this for a dinner party, especially if your guests were expecting something fancy. The crust and stews can be made up to 24 hours in advance, and need only to be baked to come to the table; this means that you could spend that time getting cute, or at least making pudding for dessert. And if people are expecting the same old same old beneath the lid, this will be a good surprise— the lid is so flaky, it’s closer to a croissant than a pie crust, and the pancetta, beans, and greens make a perfect stew, one you’d enjoy even without a bronzed crust. But, you know, it helps.

Amazingly, the New York Times fashion critic, Cathy Horyn, is also an accomplished cook and intrepid baker. The equivalent would be if I, a food writer, were also a sleek fashion plate with a deep bench of vintage and modern pieces. This is certainly not the case, so I find her extremely impressive. She claims that these cookies are a Swedish- American tradition in her hometown of Coshocton, Ohio, but I feel they are the cookie equivalent of Paris Fashion Week: a modern, edgy take on a classic. They are truly remarkable, with a robust and smoky undertone that sets them apart from other gingersnaps.

3/4 cup bacon fat (from 1 1/2 to 2 pounds bacon), at room temperature

1 cup sugar, plus 1/4 cup for rolling

1/4 cup molasses (not blackstrap) or cane syrup, such as Steen’s or Lyle’s

1 large egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor, and pulse until a smooth, stiff dough forms. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Put the 1/4 cup sugar in a shallow bowl. Breaking off 1-tablespoon lumps, roll the dough into balls, drop into the sugar, roll to coat, and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the cookies are dark brown. Let cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Makes 3 to 4 dozen cookies

This creamy soup, served in tiny cups and bright with chive oil, is easy to make and serve. Kids will like the little cups and the crazy green swirl. Adults will appreciate the healthfulness and the flavor.

2 cups dried Great Northern or other small white beans, rinsed and picked over

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 cup chopped leeks (white and pale green parts only)

1 large tomato, halved, seeded, and chopped

1/2 cup chopped carrots

1/2 cup chopped celery

8 garlic cloves, chopped

11 cups homemade chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth, or more as needed

1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

1/2 cup half-and-half

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chive Oil for drizzling (recipe follows)

Put the beans in a large pot, add enough water to cover the beans by 2 inches, and let soak overnight. Drain.

Heat the olive oil in the same pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, leeks, tomato, carrots, celery, and garlic and saute until tender, about 6 minutes.

Add the beans, chicken stock, thyme, and rosemary and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the beans are very tender, about 1 hour.

Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender until smooth. Return the soup to the pot and add the half-and-half, then add more chicken stock to thin the soup if needed, and reheat the soup if necessary. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Ladle into espresso cups and top each with a few squirts or a drizzle of chive oil.

Makes 18 small servings

New York Times writers Julia Moskin and Kim Severson discuss going head-to-head in a culinary duel that turned into a yearlong cooking battle. CookFight: 2 Cooks, 12 Challenges, 125 Recipes, an Epic Battle for Kitchen Dominance is a chronicle of their skirmishes over the course of 12 months and a look at how two very different people—best friends from wildly divergent backgrounds—approach the kitchen.

WNYC host Brian Lehrer, WQXR host Terrance McKnight, and On the Media co-host Brooke Gladstone talk about how they celebrate Thanksgiving and share some of their favorite holiday recipes.

We're wrapping up our Globavores series this week with a discussion of turkey—just in time for Thanksgiving. Chef Waldy Malouf of Beacon restaurant and food historian Andrew Smith, author of The Turkey: An American Story and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, tell us how turkeys, which were found in the New World and were transported around the world and incorporated into the cuisines in many cultures. And we'll have recipes!

Share your favorite way to make turkey! Leave a comment!

Dan Pashman shares his recipe for a Thanksgiving centerpiece that will delight (and/or horrify) vegetarians and omnivores alike. Inspired by the turducken (chicken inside duck inside turkey), the Veggieducken is yams inside leeks inside a banana squash — with stuffing between each layer.

In the interest of science, we offer some ideas for people who are hoarding Twinkies now that Hostess has announced it is going out of business. And none of them involve eating.

Bourbon and Brown Butter Pumpkin Pie

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree
3 large eggs
1/2 cup half and half
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons Bourbon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Pinch ground clove
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 9-inch fully baked pie crust

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat. Once melted and the white solids have begun to rise the top, swirl the pan every 30 seconds or so. Stay close to the pan - the butter can go from browned to burnt very quickly. The butter will begin to brown after about 4 to 5 minutes, it will smell nutty and look dark golden. Once it hits that color, and the furious bubbling dies down somewhat, it’s ready. Remove from the heat. Allow the browned butter to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together the browned butter, pumpkin puree, cream, eggs, sugar, brandy, spices, and salt. Pour mixture into the cooled pie shell.

Transfer pie to a large baking sheet. Bake until crust is golden and center jiggles just slightly when shaken, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

Yield: 8 servings.