Innehållsförteckning för May 2021 från Bon Appetit

WHEN I THINK OF THE ADVENT OF SPRING, I usually think of color, a riot of yellow daffodils and purple crocuses, the bright male goldfinch returning to New York. But this spring, what comes to mind is motion, perhaps because my own movement has been restricted due to the pandemic. There is the energy (and the audacity) of a tulip defying gravity to shoot up out of the earth. Then there’s downward motion too, the power unleashed in a terrific rain or pollen storm. The energy required to gather and feed friends comes to mind as well. The menu planning, the shopping, the mad dash to declutter the apartment before friends arrive. As of press time it’s not yet safe to entertain, but I’m already daydreaming about it. When friends…

WE’RE CUT TING BACK ON red meat and asking where those out-of-season tomatoes were grown. But how often do we consider how the whiskey in our Manhattan was made? Distilling spirits is a water-and-energy-intensive process, and often the crops used to make them are industrially farmed. But some distillers are committing to the climate: partnering with local farmers, using alternative sources of energy, and reusing heat from their stills. These are a few brands, big and small, that are taking steps to make booze better. MONTANYA Colorado’s Montanya rum eliminated all plastic from its packaging and tasting room and teamed up with an organization that funds plastics recycling programs around the world. NOVO FOGO Many of Brazil’s tree species—including some that have traditionally been used for cachaça barrels—have been decimated…

“THERE ARE SOLUTIONS that will save everybody.” The message, painted a robin’s-egg blue and outlined in red, is scrawled across the wall of the makers lab of a school I’m touring with my son. I don’t hear another word the guide says. I’m too mesmerized by hope, the idea that the various messes in which we find ourselves are not the endgame. For an afternoon, a week, a month, I’m an island of optimism. Of course, it doesn’t last. Bad news pierces the bubble. The most recent decade saw more greenhouse gas emissions than the one before; the curve is going in the wrong direction. But I return again and again to this notion: There are solutions that will save everybody. James Rogers, founder of the produce preservation company Apeel,…

RECIPE DEVELOPER Ali Slagle was a self-proclaimed “never-breaster” who only tolerated chicken breasts when they were breaded and fried schnitzel style. Then she developed a method for crackly-skinned, juicy roast breasts that has quickly earned a spot in her regular rotation. Preheating the skillet before adding the chicken jump-starts the browning process; the bones provide a buffer that protects the meat from drying out as the skin gets golden. Use the leftover drippings to make any kind of side, from sautéed greens to warm salad dressing to the herby peas and croutons shown here. Lemony Tortellini Soup With Spinach Similar to Greek avgolemono, this soup gets its silkiness from a mixture of eggs and lemon juice, making this dish comforting yet light RECIPE BY SARAH JAMPEL 4 SERVINGS 1 Tbsp.…

1. The Dates “Dates signify a blessing from God,” Ahmed says. “Breaking your fast with one gives you energy for the evening prayers and subsequent feast,” Farhan adds. Prepared for iftar, the post-fast meal, this box comes with Medjool dates—which Farhan loves for their rich taste and high sugar and vitamin content—plus seasonal fruit. 2. The Kheer “Kheer is just quintessential to Ramadan for us,” Farhan shares. This cardamom-y rice pudding is made for dessert at least a few times during Ramadan in the Momins’ Indian American household. 3. The Samosa Samosas are a must at iftar parties Farhan has attended. One big samosa, filled with potatoes and peas and served with cilantro and tamarind chutneys, is nestled in the box. 4. The Nihari Sandwich Of course, the Momins’ bestselling…

ARS PRUNERS “I keep these shears ($37; fieldandflorist.com) right next to my door so I can easily grab them to trim herbs, zucchini, and even small branches for tablescaping. This pair is a little pricier, but that buys lightness, functionality, and durability. They feel good in your hand, just like a great chef’s knife.” Abra Berens, chef, Granor Farm, Three Oaks, MI HORI HORI GARDEN TOOL “We use this Japanese gardening knife ($30; food52.com) extensively on the farm, which is on historic Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo land, especially for transplanting seedlings into the ground. The blade is long enough to create a deep hole, and its width is the ideal size for the seedling, so we can be more efficient than if we used our hands. The serrated edge is…

For thousands of years the Eastern Mediterranean has been a place that bridges cultures and continents through empire, trade, and migration. To think of Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus is to picture cobalt blue skies and shimmering seas, sun-drenched islands filled with olive groves and citrus trees, and mezze-laden tables with crisp rings of calamari and vibrant chopped salads. It’s a place where family is central, tradition is honored, and meals are meant to be savored slowly and always with good company. It is also a place that is rapidly changing. Since 2015 an estimated 5 million political refugees have come through the region, the largest movement of people Europe has seen since World War II. This is a huge number by any standard but perhaps just the tip of the…

“We’re not trying to push our agenda,” says Justin Lee, chef of Lower East Side newcomer Fat Choy, of the work he and his team are doing. “We’re just trying to make delicious food that you crave—you shouldn’t have to worry about it being vegan or not.” The menu is a love letter to Chinese American takeout, with a desire to lessen the environmental impact of the restaurant industry. “This is our platform to try to change the world for the better.”—AS TOLD TO CHALA TYSON TSHITUNDU Smashed Cucumber Salad 4 SERVINGS Growing up, Lee enjoyed smashing cucumbers for this salad in a plastic bag. “It was like a Chinese American kid’s version of Shake ‘n Bake,” he says. This is a refreshing saucy dish that’ll cool you down all through…

STEP - BY STEPS TIPS & TRICKS Like rainy days and sad songs, onions will make you cry. And yet what would life—and by life we mean scallion pancakes, French onion soup, pierogies, Greek salad, chicken yassa, potato chips!—be without them? Here’s how to pick, store, slice, and use these all-purpose alliums. Breath mints suggested. 1 MEET THE FAMILY Onions are members of the Allium genus, a group of pungent plants that also includes garlic, leeks, chives, ramps, and hundreds of other species. Since we can’t possibly cover all alliums (or even all onions), here are some we reach for often: STORAGE ONIONS Because they’re cured (laid out to dry) after harvest, they stay good for months. THE SOFTIES More delicate than storage onions, these should be stowed in the…

The 101 What Even Is Honey? Gloopy, sweet honey is made by the tireless work of thousands of female bees who suck up nectar into a special stomach called the honey sac. They create an assembly line and regurgitate that nectar into each other’s sacs (sorry) until it thickens into honey. The bee nearest the honeycomb then spits it into one of those tiny perfect hexagons. BUYING Your best bet is to find local or regional honey at your market. Mass-produced stuff is usually a cooked-down (pasteurized) blend of hundreds of different honeys and not nearly as delicious. STORING Keep honey in a cool dark place and you’ve got about two years before it might start to taste off—but it will never spoil if kept free of moisture. If it…

SUSTAINABILITY WAS ALWAYS the focus of Oyster Oyster, chef Rob Rubba’s veg-forward tasting menu restaurant in Washington, D.C. “Climate change is pretty darn real,” he says. “So I was thinking about what a plate of food will need to be 10 years from now.” At Oyster Oyster that means no citrus or olive oil (due to the carbon footprint of transporting them), no meat (just shellfish), and ingredients sourced from nearby farms. “We’re a restaurant that’s about restraint,” Rubba says. “It was an exercise that prepared us for takeout.” COVID-19 not only delayed the restaurant from opening last March but also forced the team to reimagine their fine-dining setup as packaged meals to go when it did finally open last summer. And that same sustainability-minded ethos drove the way Rubba…

1986, JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA: At the family reunion, I’m supposed to be playing with my gaggle of cousins, but I’m much more interested in peeping the grown folks. Mama plucks a Bartles & Jaymes out of a cooler and sways to Stevie Wonder; Daddy mixes a screwdriver at the card table before the next hand of spades. How delicious those pinks and oranges look, like the colors in a scoop of rainbow sherbet! But even plain brown liquor fascinates me. My G-Mama—my father’s mother and the most elegant woman in the world, with her silvery updos and perfume bottles—keeps bourbon next to her bed. The vessel is always the same: a dainty juice glass painted with golden wheat stalks. I never see her take a sip, but the afternoon light makes…

Humans throw away about 1.3 billion tons of food a year, or—at the very least—one third of all food in the world. If you loaded that refuse into trucks, they’d wrap bumper-to-bumper around the world seven times. All that waste is detrimental to our planet. In terms of carbon emissions, we toss tomatoes, let the bread go stale, age out our cilantro, and ignore our mustards until we are doing as much damage as every single car and truck on the planet. If food waste were a country, it would be the third-biggest emitter worldwide. It is more than simply scraps in your fridge going unused that contributes to the problem. It is the whole series of systems, from wasteful habits in the kitchen—Britain generates 3,885 tons of CO2 every…

BEING AN INDIGENOUS CHEF, I think of myself as a land steward. It’s not just knowing my edible landscape but staying connected to the ecology of the food, knowing when to harvest and how much to harvest. The women in my life taught me this. My mom and auntie foraged for wild potatoes, lamb’s-quarters, and a lot of sumac on Navajo Nation in the Southwest, where I grew up. My grandma introduced traditional Navajo foodways to me, showing me how to use all parts of the animal and treat plants as medicine. Sustainability has been the natural way of life for Indigenous people, long before the term became popular. I learned to see food as art, the plate an empty canvas and the food my paint. Eventually, I started Intertribal…

SHOPPING LIST THE POUR pp. 20–21 P. 20 MONTANYA RUM ORO, $30; montanyarum.com P. 20 NOVO FOGO TANAGER CACHAÇA, $39; novofogo.co P. 21 BRUICHLADDICH THE CLASSIC LADDIE, $65; bruichladdich.com P. 21 GOOD LIQUORWORKS GOOD VODKA, $35; goodvodka.com P. 21 MAKER’S MARK BOURBON WHISKY, $35; makersmark.com P. 21 MATCHBOOK DISTILLING COMPANY Late Embers, $60; mdcdropshop.com GREEN THUMB GEAR pp. 28–31 P. 28 ARS PRUNERS, $37; fieldandflorist.com P. 30 HORI HORI GARDEN TOOL, $50; food52.com P. 30 INDIGO-DYED GARDENING GLOVES, $15; prospectpine.com P. 31 CHICKEN WIRE CLOCHE, $24; gardeners.com P. 31 TRUE LOVE SEEDS, From $4; trueloveseeds.com THE EQUIPMENT pp. 36–37 P. 36 MIELE G7000 SERIES SMART DISHWASHER, from $1,600; ajmadison.com P. 36 SAMSUNG SMART SLIDE-IN INDUCTION RANGE WITH FLEX DUO & AIR FRY, $3,300; samsung.com P. 37 BREVILLE SMART OVEN AIR,…