Recipe development may be an art, but it takes a whole lot of science to get there — especially if you’re looking for convenience, too. One-pan recipes are engineering conundrums: How do you use a single vessel to get a mix of ingredients with unlike cooking times on the table simultaneously and delectably? The math, the chemistry and the thermodynamics all have to come together. For the cook, a one-pan recipe should be adaptable, instinctive and consistent. To create one takes brain work, creativity and a dollop of moxie.
Making full use of her background in food science, Yasmin Fahr crunches the numbers and nails the taste, as you can see for yourself in her ingenious one-pot miso-turmeric salmon with coconut rice. She builds the dish from the bottom of the pot up, starting by cooking the coconut rice, and next layering on spinach leaves, which act as a steamer basket to gently cook the fish. Finally, just before serving, a squeeze of lime brightens the whole thing. Once you’ve mastered the recipe’s structure you can retool it however you want, swapping in chard, kale or lettuce for the spinach and other fish or tofu for the salmon. It’s a marvel of engineering, one you can enjoy for dinner this very night.
Featured Recipe
One-Pot Miso-Turmeric Salmon With Coconut Rice
More food for thought:
Vegetable yakisoba: More one-pot brilliance can be found in Kay Chun’s vegetable-packed Japanese noodle stir-fry, which has a glossy Worcestershire-ketchup-oyster sauce that’s tangy-sweet and deeply complex.
Easy chicken tacos: Boldly seasoned with hot sauce, onion powder and lime, boneless, skinless chicken thighs cook quickly and succulently in this 30-minute recipe by Kristina Felix. Piled into warm tortillas along with minced onion, cilantro and guacamole, this chicken makes for a weeknight recipe with panache for miles.
Pork, asparagus and snap pea stir-fry: Asparagus and snap peas add texture and freshness to the caramelized notes of Lidey Heuck’s gingery pork stir-fry, based on the classic Sichuan dish of fried green beans and pork. Serve it over rice with some sliced avocado to soften the pungent, garlic-chile bite.
Atole de grano: Although atole often refers to a thick corn drink as sweet as a dessert, in parts of Mexico it can also be a savory porridge made from masa harina and hominy. The savory porridge was Rick Martínez’s inspiration for his easy new recipe, which he tops with shredded rotisserie chicken, caramelized poblanos and a handful of crunchy crushed chicharrones.
Apple-blueberry crisp: By folding panko breadcrumbs and chopped pistachios into a crumbly, cardamom-scented topping, Andy Baraghani makes this homey, fruit-filled dessert extra crunchy. Frozen blueberries work well here, bubbling into a syrupy sauce that suffuses the soft apples — just be sure to add 10 minutes or so to the baking time, and note that you can cover the dish with foil if the topping gets too brown before the apples soften.
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That’s all for now. I’ll see you on Monday.
Melissa Clark has been writing her column, A Good Appetite, for The Times’s Food section since 2007. She creates recipes for New York Times Cooking, makes videos and reports on food trends. She is the author of 45 cookbooks, and counting.
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