Something I’ve learned adapting recipes for New York Times Cooking is that, in the process of fine-tuning chefs’ recipes for home cooks, you have to make the recipe a lot, eating the dish on repeat for several days straight. I had the great pleasure of making this mie goreng with the chef Zulfikar Fahd, the owner of Java Bali Kitchen in Toronto, a couple of times in my own home. After he left, I made it a few more times to get the details right.
And then I made it a couple of times after that, because the dish is so delicious and I didn’t want to stop eating it.
The key to these noodles, which I learned by watching Zulfikar, is to really and truly let the sauced noodles cook to the point when the sweet soy sauce — which is indeed very sweet — thoroughly caramelizes and takes on the slightest of bitter edges. (Think of barely burnt caramel, or the deep brown edges of a Basque cheesecake. That’s the flavor we’re going for here.)
As with many stir-fried noodle dishes, this is a great way to clean out those odds and ends in the fridge and freezer. A carrot here, a leek there, a handful of bok choy and a third of a bag of frozen shrimp; all would be delicious in this quick and vibrant stir-fry.
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Mie Goreng
Zulfikar also shared his recipes for sambal oelek and nasi lemak, the fragrant coconut rice that’s sometimes served with tiny fried dried anchovies and peanuts. I love ikan bilis — and Zulfikar sprinkles his with lime zest and sugar for a perfect salty-sweet balance — but you can just as well serve the nasi lemak with a complementary main. I think it’d be really wonderful paired with Yewande Komolafe’s whole roast fish with lemongrass and ginger or Sam Sifton’s fried chicken, the latter begging to be swiped through that sambal.
Keeping on the bright ‘n’ bold flavor train, Sarah Copeland’s sheet-pan roast chicken with tangy greens gets its tanginess from a good dose of pickle brine or apple cider vinegar. (Come to think of it, you could very well omit the optional olives and stick with apple cider or even cane vinegar and pair this dish with the nasi lemak.)
The assertive sharpness of goat cheese also feels especially welcome this time of year, and I would love a big batch of Melissa Clark’s lemony farro pasta salad with goat cheese and mint to keep in the fridge for easy lunches and “put an egg on it” dinners. True, pasta salad might be more of a summer thing, but I’d argue that convenience wins over categorization any day.
But maybe you’d like something snuggly and soothing, something to eat out of a deep bowl while you’re wrapped in a blanket (it’s snowing as I write this). You could hardly do better than Kay Chun’s new recipe for hobakjuk, a Korean squash porridge. Butternut or kabocha squash is simmered with sweet rice before being puréed into a velvety porridge, and Kay garnishes her bowls of golden nourishment with a crunchy nut-and-date topping.
And because baking season is in high gear: Here are Samantha Seneviratne’s apple cinnamon muffins, a superbly seasonal breakfast or 3 p.m. coffee partner. Samantha brushes the tops of these muffins with melted butter and cinnamon sugar for cider doughnut vibes; as someone with Homer Simpsonesque reactions to the word “doughnut,” I am very here for these muffins.
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