James Kenji Lopez-Alt

Bonus Recipe: Pasta Paglia e Fieno

I'm working on a recipe for a dish I'm calling "Macaroni and Peas," which is sort of a hybrid of a few different dishes, including stovetop macaroni and cheese, fettucine alfredo, and Roman-style carbonara.

It reminded me a great deal of a more obscure (in the US at least) dish called paglia e fiena (straw and hay), so named for its combination of plain pasta and green-colored pasta. It's made with peas and pancetta. It's generally a spring dish made with fresh peas, but frozen peas are...

My Let's Eat! Guide to Seattle is Live!

Folks always ask me where they can find my Seattle recommendations. I have an answer now!

I’ve put together a Let’s Eat guide for Apple maps which will consist of an always-growing list of my favorite spots across the city. You can check back each month for updates (link in my bio). Find the map here: https://guides.apple.com/?lsp=9902&pg=11545950984326364487

On my inau...

My Favorite Gyoza (Japanese Dumplings)

This was supposed to be published days before the one on youtube went up, but Patreon currently kinda sucks at video and the upload refused to go through repeatedly. I apologize!

This recipe comes from my book, The Wok. It also appears for free on Serious Eat with a lot more discussion, here: http://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-japanese-pork-and-cabbage-dum...

What should I ask Deb Perelman?

Hey folks - I’m doing a live event with Deb Perelman tonight at Seattle Town Hall as part of my guest speaker series with Seattle Arts and Lectures. If you have any questions for Deb, let me know and I’ll ask her tonight and video her responses to share with you.

I’ll also generally prioritize ones I receive here over other platforms.

The show tonight is sold out but you can still pick up virtual tickets, tickets to my upcoming shows with Eric Kim and P...

Sage Caramelized Cream and Squash Pasta

This recipe idea came after reading some ideas from Aki and Alex at Ideas in Food and Lizzie Stark, author of Egg: A Dozen Ovatures, both of whom love to fry eggs in heavy cream until the heavy cream breaks and browns like browned butter.

It's a delici...

I had an idea. What do you think?

I am currently in the process of writing a new book. Would anyone here be interested in seeing some stages of the progress and giving reactions as to what bits really excite you and what bits are “meh”?

I figure folks here are probably s decent barometer of what would be useful and appealing in a new cool book. (All this with the understanding that when I write a book “what the customer wants” is only a tiny part of the equation.)

No. 9 Park's Gnocchi with Peas and Mushrooms

This recipe is one that I cooked hundreds of times while I was on the pasta station at No.9 Park in Boston in the early 2000's . At the time this was a menu staple that never changed. There we made the gnocchi by hand, but at home I typically make it with store-bought gnocchi. It also works well with tubular pasta types like rigatoni or penne. The mushrooms and cream sauce can be made in advance and stored separately until ready to serve. Once you've got those in your fridge, the dish comes t...

Reverse-Sear Prime Rib

Check out my Definitive Guide to Prime Rib here: http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/12/food-lab-guide-to-prime-rib.html

Is there anything more truly beautiful than a perfect prime rib? A deep brown crust crackling with salt and fat, sliced open to reveal a juicy pink center that extends from edge to edge. When you see such a roast in front of you, everything else—the argument you h...

House Special Fried Rice

The basics of this recipe are from Serious Eats. You can find that recipe here: https://www.seriouseats.com/easy-vegetable-fried-rice-recipe

The main difference is that in this version, I fry the egg and slide it out of the pan before frying the remaining aromatics and finally the rice, adding everything back together at the end.

Katsudon

1/2 cup (60ml) dashi (powdered stuff is fine)
1 tablespoon (15ml) soy sauce
1 tablespoon (15ml) sake
2 teaspoons (8g) sugar
1 tablespoon (15ml) mirin
3-4 scallions, thinly sliced, whites and greens reserved separately
1 leftover Japanese fried chicken or pork cutlet, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch strips
1 to 2 large eggs
Steamed white o...

How to Make Tonkatsu

https://www.seriouseats.com/tonkatsu-chicken-pork-katsu-japanese-breaded-cutlets-recipe

Perfect Roast Chicken

Serves about a roast chicken's worth of people

Active time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour

Total time: up to two days

Notes: Use baking powder for extra-crispy skin. Or omit it if you want to. It's a pretty marginal difference. I like cooking this in a cast iron pan, but you can use any oven-safe pan.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken (3 1/2 to 4 1/2 pounds; 1.5 to 2kg)

9g salt (about 1 tablespoon Diamon Crystal kosher salt, 2 teaspoons Morton's kosher sal...

A great way to serve leftover steak

This video is based on this old recipe of mine, which is one of my favorite. The dressing can also be used to dress any kind of peppery salad green, like arugula or mizuna, or even spinach.

https://www.seriouseats.com/cold-steak-salad-cucumber-ponzu-mustard-vinaigrette-recipe

A New Carnitas Video!

I have some older existing videos for carnitas on my Youtube channel already, but here is another I shot while making some last week. I made these into tacos with cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving, as the flavors I use in my cranberry sauce and carnitas are very similar (orange and cinnamon).

Here is my recipe from Serious Eats: https://www.seriouseats.com/no-waste-tacos-de...

LIGHT AND FLUFFY MASHED POTATOES RECIPE

Serves 2-3 (the recipe can easily be scaled up)

In the video I use about a cup of milk and 4 tablespoons of butter, which is more milk and more butter than the actual recipe printed in my book or on Serious Eats calls for in proportion to the amount of potatoes I use, but it’s all a matter of taste, and you can adjust accordingly.

1 1/2 pounds (700g) russet potatoes, peeled ...

Thanksgiving video links!

Folks said they had trouble finding the links to some of the recipes and techniques mentioned in my thanksgiving AMA, so here they are!

TURKEY/POULTRY:

My definitive guide to buying, preparing, and cooking a turkey: https://www.seriouseats.com/buying-prepping-cooking-carving-Thanksgiving-turkey-complete-guide-f...

JKLA's Thanksgiving AMA

Here are my answers to many of the questions folks submitted over on YouTube about thanksgiving. From here on out, I'll be prioritizing questions posed over Patreon rather than YouTube, and I'll also try to answer questions in the comments here.

Before posting questions, please make sure that they haven't already been answered either in this video, or through a google search of my previously published material, thanks!

I've started a dining channel!

Hey folks! if you haven't been following along on Youtube, I recently started a channel where I post all of my eating content so that I can keep my main channel focused on my cooking content. You can find it at J. Kenji López-Main on Youtube, or with the link here. I appreciate a follow and like if you're into that stuff!

And stay tuned, I have a GIGANTIC Thanksgiving Q&A video coming up which I plan on posting both here and on Youtube. Folks here will have the opportunity to ask m...

Stir-Fry Day-Old Pasta Like Fried Rice

Me friend Molly Baz's nas a recipe in her new book More is More (https://booklarder.com/products/more-is-more-get-loose-in-the-kitchen) for crispt oreccheitte. In her version, you cook pasta like normal then fry it in a skillet until crisp. I wondered what would happen if instead, you let the pasta sit in the fridge overnight, just like you would with fried rice, then fried it the ne...

The Easiest Roast Sweet Potatoes

This recipe is a simplified version of my roast sweet potato from Serious Eats: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-roasted-sweet-potatoes-thanksgiving-sides-the-food-lab-recipe

In that recipe, you soak the sweet potatoes in warm water for an hour to activate enzymes that transform starches into simple sugars. In this version, I skip that...

Perfect Poached Eggs

This technique is one that I shared in my first book, The Food Lab. The idea is that by straining eggs in a fine mesh strainer before poaching them, you eliminate the problems caused by those excess loose whites - the whispy cloudlike things that muck up the water and make the poached eggs look kinda like wet tissue instead of a nice clean, tight torpedo shape.

The method is not 100% foolproof (there will always be a random egg here and there that has whites that are already broken when...

Pickle and Garlic Cream Pizza

This is the first time I’ve ever put cucumber pickles on pizza (pickled peppers of various sorts is a staple topping for me - especially jalapeõs or banana peppers), and it’s also the first time I’ve put what’s basically ranch dressing on pizza (I.E. a mix of mayo and sour cream).

To be honest, the idea of ranch on was something completely foreign to me until I moved to the West Coast, and the idea still kinda grosses me out.

That said, it was delicious so now I’ve got ...

Same Day New York Pizza

I apologize for uploading this a little late. I was traveling and did not realize Patreon doesn't let you upload video from the mobile app!

This dough recipe is designed to be easy to handle and deliver tasty results all within a day. If you let the dough rest in the fridge overnight or up to three days, it'll taste and bake even better. (Do not let it go much longer than that or it will be too loose to stretch easily).

This recipe makes two 16-inch pizzas that are rela...

New New York Pizza recipe coming soon!

Hey folks - you’ll see a new NY pizza video go up on my YouTube channel today. I’m traveling now and had connectivity issues uploading it to Patreon but rest assured it’ll be here ad-free soon, along with a fully written recipe so stay tuned!

Moo Shu Pork

The classic chinese version of this dish is served as a simple stir fry, but the Chinese-American dish that I make at home originates in 1958 from Joyce Chen's restaurant in Cambridge, MA. The main difference is that the Chinese-American version is served with thin Mandarin pancakes and hoisin sauce. (Some versions of the dish at even more Americanized chain restaurants may include ingredients like cabbage or carrots in place of the day lily and woodear).

I like to add a lot of fresh mu...

Meatball Parm Subs

If you made the meatball recipe I posted last week and happen to have leftovers (fat chance!), this is a good thing to do with them. Meatballs reheat really well and they're great inside a lightly scooped roll brushed with garlic butter and broiled with plenty of mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Yield: 1 large sandwich, serving as many people as can reasonably eat one large sandwich

Active time: a few minutes

Total time: a few minutes plus as long as it takes for s...

Six Ingredient Eggplant Parmesan

This version of eggplant parm is quite different from the Italian-American version you'll find in my book or on Serious Eats. While the Italian-American version uses breadcrumbs and ends up as more of a sort of juicy but sliceable casserole, the Italian original is a much simpler affair that really highlights two summer vegetables: eggplants and tomatoes.

Some recipes call for a bit of an egg wash, or perhaps a quick dip in flour before you cook the eggplant, but I usually keep it as si...

Patreon Videos are now Ad-Free!

Hello! Thank you all so much for supporting me here. To make your experience better and a little more worthwhile, new videos appearing on YouTube will now appear ad-free right here on Patreon, along with full written recipes for each one.

Thanks!

Simple Italian-American Meatballs

These simple meatballs come together quickly with minimal ingredients. The key is making a moist, flavorful parade with bread crumbs, eggs, buttermilk, and aromatics, along with a bit of gelatin to add some of the velvety richness that veal typically brings to the meatball party.

You can cook the meatballs in a skillet as directed, or you can roast them in a convection oven or air fryer. If using an oven, I’d suggest making larger balls in order to give them plenty of time to brown be...

Frijoles Charros

These beans are best made with dried pinto beans which will give you the creamiest texture and best flavor. You can use canned beans as well - I do it frequently - the dish just won't be quite as cohesive.

Many versions of charro beans add more meat, such as slices of sausages, chorizo, ham, or pork (similar to the way I made pork and beans in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0Kn2_0OdT4). 2023-09-20 08:00:22 +0000 UTC View Post