Innehållsförteckning för September 2021 från Bon Appetit

WHAT KIND OF COOK ARE YOU? Do you sit down on Sunday and plan your meals for the rest of the week, or do you flip through the pages of BA at 4 p.m. to figure out what’s for dinner at 8? In the summer I lean toward the latter. With near endless daylight and ubiquitous farmstands, I can almost get away with it. But with the end of summer and the return of tight schedules, it’s time to get more organized. Our pantry story (page 62) comes to the rescue with wonderful weeknight recipes and plenty of intel to make dinner faster, easier, and tastier. We’ve also got a braising feature (page 38) that’s perfect for autumn. There’s Braised Short Ribs With Onions and Curry Leaves, an update on…

Culture Editor HILARY CADIGAN Whenever I visit my in-laws in Charleston, Graft Wine Shop & Wine Bar is my first stop. There I’ll ask owner-somms Femi Oyediran and Miles White for bottles as funky as whatever’s playing on the speakers (Rick James? Amel Larrieux?). Now national shipping (where it’s legal) means I can recreate the Graft experience almost anywhere with Oyediran’s Spotify playlists (graftchs.com/playlist) and a staff-curated six-pack delivered to my door. Restaurants Editor ELYSE INAMINE on The Patties She’s Pining For I WASN’T HUNGRY when I picked up my bag of Bajan patties from Bridgetown Roti, chef Rashida Holmes’s Caribbean pop-up in L.A. But after one minute in the car, overwhelmed by the meaty aroma of braised oxtails, I was. My husband and I shared a single patty, letting…

THE CHOICE OF RESTAURANT was important. It needed to be not too large, not too small. Not too noisy but not oppressively quiet either. Not formal but definitely not casual. And no hovering waiters. We needed to be free of interruption. The cuisine? There had been some discussion over email: Greek? French? Italian? We chose easy, cozy Italian. The geographical parameters were also specific. My lunch date would be staying in New Jersey for a few days, just a two-hour drive from my home in Connecticut. I obsessed over every detail. How would I greet him? Shake his hand? Give him a hug? Who should pick up the check at the end of the meal? The lunch loomed in my calendar for months, eclipsing all else. The possible faux pas…

Black Food has early roots in my desire to uplift Black women. When I was growing up, I saw the women in my family as they were: majestic, graceful, and generous. Respected and cherished by loved ones and our Memphis community, they gathered us in welcoming spaces full of chatter and laughter. They fed us delicious meals of tender okra and purple hull peas, low-and-slow-cooked collard greens, creamy potato salad, meltingly tender cabbage sautéed in bacon fat, velvety braised Great Northern beans, and hand-churned ice cream. It didn’t occur to me then that my mother, aunties, and grandmothers also had to endure racist contempt and sexism, compartmentalizing indignities as they worked in the wider world. I decided early that my life’s work was to take on poverty, malnutrition, and structural…

I couldn’t resist the bread and sunflower butter, a vegan butter topped off with a glaze chef Daniel Humm and his team make from miso and sunflower seeds. A beautiful glass bottle from Sarah Crowner holds the most refreshing apricot vermouth with botanicals, caramelized sugar, and aromatics. The carrot tartare features marinated and smoked carrots laid atop ground carrots flavored with ingredients including apple and horseradish.…

A COLD NOODLE SALAD is only as good as its dressing, and chef Simone Tong uses a technique popular in Chinese cooking to pack big flavor into the Sichuan peppercorn dressing on p.22. She starts with quality spices and aromatics, like Sichuan peppercorns, garlic, and scallions, and carefully drizzles hot oil over them to create an aromatic base that comes together quickly. To ensure success, heat the oil in a heavy saucepan until the first sight of smoke—oil that is too hot will burn the spices and make them bitter. With an added touch of balsamic vinegar for both acidity and sweetness, this versatile vinaigrette can be saved for marinating smashed cucumbers and dipping dumplings. Lamb Keema Tacos Ground lamb mingles with tomatoes, onions, garlic, and spices to create a…

BLACK FOOD Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora Most of the recipes and all of the excerpted essays and art in this story come from Bryant Terry’s groundbreaking collection, available wherever books are sold on October 19. MEALS, MUSIC, AND MUSES Recipes From My African American Kitchen “Both Southern music and Southern food are rooted in a knotty lineage that connects West Africa and Western Europe,” writes opera singer turned restaurateur Alexander Smalls in his third book, a blend of his two great passions: food and music. WE ARE EACH OTHER’S HARVEST Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy In this beautiful compendium of essays, photography, and even poetry, Natalie Baszile, author of Queen Sugar, probes the connection between Black Americans and farmland. BRESS’N’ NYAM Gullah Geechee…

When perfumer Linda Sivrican found the sunny little storefront on N. Hill Street in L.A.’s Chinatown, she imagined it as a temporary site from which to launch a fragrance collaboration with a local chef. But then she expanded her vision. “I thought, Let me do something fun that the community could really embrace,” Sivrican says. “That’s why I turned it into a market.” Now Sesame LA is a neighborhood superette that doesn’t simply feed the community; it engages it as well. The rotating roster of dishes, such as pickled eggplant and vegan duck noodle soup, is prepared by Asian elders in a kitchen run by Sivrican’s mother, Judy Mai Nguyen. Some dishes are made by Buddhist monks and the proceeds are donated to their temples. A curated selection of Vietnamese…

Remember Packing Lunch? This Takenaka x Poketo bento box is the real reason I’m excited to be back in the office; it perks up my leftovers and it’s a magnet for compliments. It’s roomy enough for whatever I pack for lunch, and a grippy lid for the top compartment keeps saucy things from leaking all over my canvas bag. Plus, it’s microwave and dishwasher-safe. Now I just gotta brush up on my office small talk. Bento box, $32; chopsticks, $12; poketo.com…

DESIGNER Pamela Shamshiri of Studio Shamshiri HOME BASE Los Angeles BEST DESIGN TIP “Things look better with age.” GO-TO MEAL “Persian breakfast spread, with lots of things to nibble on.” Knock Wood “We’re moving more and more toward wood,” says Shamshiri, who finds the naturally occurring grain of bleached walnut or oiled oak to be timeless. In this La Jolla, CA, home, Shamshiri complements wood cabinets with green slate countertops and metals like copper Waterworks faucets and a stainless steel Wolf Dual Fuel range. Form and Function Top-quality equipment doesn’t have to sacrifice style. For the Ojai, CA, home of Anne Hathaway, Shamshiri went with a handcrafted La Cornue Château 120 range with a pale gray finish and mixed-metal trim. But she’ll often go even bolder, choosing bright appliances by…

A DECADE AGO I noticed a pattern in my congregation: people being hospitalized for diet-related issues. I wanted to do something about it beyond the spiritual support common for a pastor. So we took a portion of the church’s front yard and started growing our own produce. FIVE YEARS LATER came the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of the Baltimore police. In the midst of the uprising, we saw city government back up off the Black community. Public transportation stopped running for a few days. The school system closed, and 80,000 Black students who depended on its cafeterias couldn’t get meals. So, using the existing assets of Black churches—kitchens, vans, people, space—we began connecting with Black farmers so we could feed ourselves. Today the Black Church Food Security…

The Sauce on a Deadline Weeknight Ragù p.44● Meat ragùs often feature larger cuts that require hours of simmering. Ground meat gives you a head start on tenderness, and when paired with double-concentrated tomato paste and heavy cream, it makes for a sauce that’s just as satisfying as one that cooked all day. The Foolproof Fish Spiced-Tomato-Braised Fish p.44● Since fish cooks relatively quickly, the challenge is packing it with lots of flavor without overcooking it. Here we slip fillets into a tomato bath infused with spices such as cumin and garam masala. The result: sublimely flaky fish that’s anything but bland. The Very Best Greens Garlic-and-Parmesan-Braised Greens p.45● Quickly sautéed hardy greens are a staple side dish for busy nights. But when you have 20 more minutes to spare,…

Needs More Capers I think of brined capers as vegetarian anchovies. (Get Roland, consistent quality and a good price.) Their unique acidity balances out heavy flavors, as in this eggplant dish. —Jessie YuChen, assistant food editor 5 MORE WAYS TO USE BRINED CAPERS Fry capers for crunchy garnishes. Chop and whisk into dressing. Sprinkle on pizza and salad. Eat right from the jar like a pickle. Stir brine into a dirty martini. Got Coconut Milk? When I was growing up in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, our coconut milk was made from scratch. We added it to our culinary creations, stirring it into drinks or curry vegetables. Coconut milk lends freshness and flavor without salt and balances out sharp, intense, pungent dishes. These days I rely on the canned stuff…

1 THE VAST SALTSCAPE Humans have been making and using salt for millennia (as far back as 6000 B.C. in China!), which means that the methods and sources are vast and varied. Below, a few of the types you’re most likely to encounter in the wild. TABLE SALT Cubic, granular, and very fine, this is your typical saltshaker stuff. In the U.S., it’s often enhanced with iodine (a.k.a. iodized salt), a vestige of a widespread deficiency in early-20th-century diets. Many people (read: us) think iodized salt has a metallic aftertaste and don’t prefer it for cooking. KOSHER SALT This (usually) highly processed type gets its name from its use in the process of “koshering” meat. Diamond Crystal and Morton are our go-to-brands because they’re cheap, consistent, and easy to pinch…