I've finally started to cook a bit more, and need some good recipes. What are your gotos - either for easy wins or for big feasts?
We made this yesterday: southernfood.about.com and it was amazing!
Geoff Stearns added Ellen Grafton.
Food52! It's the new company (Also Lerer-backed) of Amanda Hesser, former food columnist for the New York Times. They do such great stuff always.
Easiest way to feed yourself for a few days is to roast some veggies. I like making potatoes, peppers, onions, whole garlic bulbs, broccoli, carrots, yams, etc.
Just add good olive oil, salt/pepper, and (if you have them) cayenne and paprika. Make a lot since it's the same effort.
I'm also a big fan of salads. Quick to prepare and very good for you :)
My go-to recipe site is simplyrecipes.com. It's all written by one lady and is really solid.
I second salads and roasted veggies. A staple in my diet.
And any big fish cooked in a crust of salt.
Not a recipe, but an excellent gateway drug to food obsession: subscribe to Cook's Illustrated, the paper version. A totally accessible-to-non-chefs mix of recipes, techniques, and ingredient/tool reviews.
For specific recipes, it's past the season for this year, but I was obsessed with this corn salad with manchego and lime this summer: bonappetit.com
Also seconded on the fish: as long as you get good fish, you basically can't lose: easy, quick, good.
And I'd have to go to the box full of actual paper cards for recipes, but get a slow cooker and your winter can be filled with incredible soups/stews.
Balthazar in New York has a great braised short rib and its the first dish that they teach their young cooks because its preparation illustrates a lot of the basics and principles of french cooking.
Hard to mess up, great for making ahead of time, and absolutely delicious. And perfect for when the leaves start to turn.
Here's the recipe from the cookbook:
One of the best and most basic ways to add flavor is with finely diced aromatic vegetables cooked in fat. Whether it's called mirepoix, sofrito, holy trinity, or something else, it's simple and the basis of flavor.
I like to chop up celery, onions, and bell peppers very finely and cook them in some olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of a pan) over medium low heat for 20 minutes or so. From there, you can add red wine and boil until it reduces and a big can of crushed tomatoes to make a veggie pasta sauce, add some herbs and a spoonful of basamic vinegar for a great topping to Italian sausage, drop a couple of eggs on top to make a frittata, add a bunch of stock and wine and braise a tough cut of meat, etc.
My favorite cookbook is Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (and I own a lot of cookbooks—those glossy pages of food pics are hard to resist). While short on glossy food porn, it explains everything in detail and produces delicious results. Try out the quick brown bread and potato leek soup with homemade stock.
