Weeknight dishes come together with ease
I am not one for spring cleaning, but I am one for spring cooking, throwing open the windows and airing out those stewy winter cooking habits. Whether I’m loading a skillet with everything green or cranking up the grill on the first 60-degree day, I’m breezily banishing all thoughts of winter.
Add these recipes to your spring cooking bucket list, or even make one for dinner tonight.
ONE-POT MUSHROOM AND GINGER RICE
Inspired by Cantonese one-bowl rice dishes such as bozai fan and sticky rice, this mushroom and ginger rice has clean yet robust flavors. The Chinese cooking technique of velveting – dusting protein in cornstarch to keep it tender and silky during cooking – is usually reserved for meat or seafood, but here the same method is used for the mushrooms, allowing them to stay juicy and plump as they cook in the rice. Crisping the rice at the bottom of the pot is optional, but if you choose to do it, stay close, listen to the sound of the sizzle, smell the aroma; if you detect any burning scents, take it off the heat immediately. At first, the rice will seem stuck to the pot, but it will release more easily once it has cooled. A dish like this would traditionally be cooked in a clay pot, so use that if you have one, but if not, a cast-iron Dutch oven will do the job. Yield: 4 servings. Total time: 40 minutes.
1 1/2 cups medium-grain white rice
2 cups vegetable stock, store-bought or homemade
10 ounces mushrooms, such as shiitake, cremini, button or blue oysters (or a mix), halved or quartered
2 teaspoons cornstarch 6 to 7 teaspoons tamari soy sauce
2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine (optional)
3 teaspoons sesame oil Salt and white or black pepper
1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
Toasted white sesame seeds (optional)
Place the rice into a Dutch oven and rinse it 3 times until the water runs almost clear. Pour the stock over the rice and leave to soak for 10 minutes while you prepare the mushrooms.
Place the mushrooms into a bowl and add the cornstarch and toss to coat. Add 4 teaspoons of soy sauce, the 2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine (if using), 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and a pinch of white or black pepper; toss to coat.
Place the pot with the rice over medium-high heat, add the ginger slices and bring to a boil. When bubbling, cover, reduce to low and cook for 5 minutes.
Uncover, add the mushrooms and, using chopsticks or a large spoon, stir the mushrooms through the rice. Cover again and cook on low until the mushrooms are cooked and rice is tender, 10 to 12 minutes.
Remove the lid, increase heat to medium-high and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until you can hear it sizzling aggressively, which indicates that the bottom of the rice is becoming crispy. (Skip this step if you don’t care for the crispy rice.)
Turn off heat and drizzle with 2 to 3 teaspoons of soy sauce, the remaining 2 teaspoons of sesame oil and top with scallions and sesame seeds (if using). By Hetty Lui McKinnon.
SKILLET BROCCOLI SPAGHETTI
This pasta, adapted from “I Dream of Dinner (So You Don’t Have To),” by Ali Slagle (Clarkson Potter, 2022), might seem unorthodox at first. The pasta is cooked in the sauce instead of in a separate pot of boiling water? The broccoli is cooked until it’s mushy enough to become sauce? Yes and yes, and for very good reasons. The sauce, sweet from simmered-until-tender broccoli and savory with loads of garlic and anchovy, tastes lovingly coddled, like you cooked that broccoli forever. But you know the truth: It came together in minutes. You don’t have to wait for a big pot of water to come to a boil, but more important, the pasta and sauce have a symbiotic relationship. The pasta soaks up the sauce flavors from the start, and the pasta releases starch to help turn the water into a creamy sauce. Yield: 4 servings. Total time: 25 minutes
6 garlic cloves
1 1/2 pounds broccoli
1/4 cup unsalted butter
4 anchovy fillets
12 ounces spaghetti (or another pasta that cooks in 10 minutes)
Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
Grated Parmesan, for serving (optional)
Thinly slice the garlic and transfer to a large (12-inch) skillet with high sides. Cut the florets off the broccoli, keeping as much of the branch connected to the trunk as possible. Peel the trunk and cut the trunk and branches into 1/2-inch pieces. Transfer to the skillet. Roughly chop the florets so even the biggest pieces fit on a soup spoon. Leave the florets on the cutting board.
To the skillet, add the butter and anchovies, and set over medium-high. Cook, smashing the anchovies and stirring the butter, until the garlic and broccoli are softened, 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the spaghetti, the florets and any broccoli bits on the board, 2 teaspoons salt and the redpepper flakes. Pour over 5 cups water. Bring to a boil over high, then cook, tossing often with tongs, until the spaghetti is al dente, 8 to 12 minutes. If the pasta is looking dry, add more water. Eat with grated Parmesan, if using. By Ali Slagle.
CRISPY COCONUT SHRIMP AND SHALLOTS
Crispy coconut, caramelized shallots and tender shrimp are cloaked in a spicy-sweet orange chili sauce in this recipe, which is slightly reminiscent of coconut shrimp, the beloved beachside snack. However, the vibe here is more dinner main and perhaps even more laid-back because no battering and frying is needed. Instead, shrimp are simply sautéed in coconut oil to build coconut flavor, then bathed in sauce, before being crowned with the crunchy flakes of coconut and shallot. To soak up the sauce and round out this meal, steamed rice sits at the base, but wilted spinach or roasted green beans would be delightful. Yield: 4 servings. Total time: 30 minutes.
5 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil or olive oil or a mixture of both
1 large shallot, sliced into thin rings (about a heaping 1/2 cup)
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
Salt and black pepper
1 pound large raw shrimp (20 to 25 count), peeled and deveined, patted dry
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro Freshly steamed rice, for serving
Heat 3 tablespoons of coconut oil in a large, 10to 12-inch skillet (preferably nonstick) over medium. Once fully melted, stir in the shallots and once they are rapidly sizzling, about 2 minutes, stir in the coconut flakes so they get coated in oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper and sauté, stirring frequently until both the shallots and coconut are golden brown and crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Take off heat, transfer coconut and shallot to a paper towellined plate, set aside and wipe the pan clean.
In the same pan, add the remaining 2 tablespoons coconut oil and heat on high. Once hot add the shrimp in a single layer, if possible, and cook, turning them over occasionally (or stirring if the pan is more crowded) until cooked through and thoroughly pink, 4 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a plate. Wipe the pan clean and turn heat down to low.
Whisk the cornstarch into 2 tablespoons water to make a slurry. Add the orange juice and lime juice to the pan, then the cornstarch slurry, sugar, fish sauce and red-pepper flakes and stir to combine and cook over a low simmer until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Season as needed with salt and black pepper. Turn off heat.
Serve immediately by first spooning the rice into bowls, then place the shrimp atop with the sauce generously spooned over. Toss the cilantro with the coconut and shallots and sprinkle on top of the shrimp.
Tip: To help keep the coconut crunchy, top the shrimp right before serving. By Christian Reynoso.
FLANK STEAK
This lean, readily available cut of beef takes particularly well to flavorful marinades and is best grilled over high heat to develop a nice char. In this recipe, the marinade takes a cue from bottled salad dressing, with plenty of punchiness from garlic, red wine vinegar and Dijon mustard. The honey helps the flank steak caramelize beautifully on the grill, and Worcestershire adds a savory, salty note that balances the sweetness. The trick to serving lean cuts of beef like flank is to slice them against the grain, so look for the natural lines in the steak’s muscle fibers, and slice perpendicular to them. For directions on how to cook a flank steak on the stovetop, see Tip. Yield: 4 to 6 servings. Total time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.
1 flank steak (1 1/2 to 2 pounds)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons minced garlic (about 4 large cloves)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for serving
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Pat the steak dry with paper towels and place it in a large baking dish or in a resealable plastic bag.
In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, honey, garlic, vinegar, Worcestershire, mustard, salt and pepper. Pour the marinade over the steak and turn to coat. Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap or seal the bag and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 24 hours.
Before grilling, let the steak sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, set a grill to medium-high heat.
Brush any excess marinade off the steak and grill, keeping the lid closed to retain heat, until it reaches medium-rare, 4 to 6 minutes per side. Transfer the steak to a plate, sprinkle with salt, rest for 10 minutes, then thinly slice against the grain.
Tip: To cook flank steak on the stove, heat a very large (at least 12-inch) skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, then add the steak and cook for 4 to 5 minutes on each side for medium-rare. Transfer to a plate and rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving. If you don’t have a skillet large enough to fit the steak, cut it in half crosswise and cook the pieces one at a time. By Lidey Heuck.