Spicy Summer Dishes

Fried eggplants and roasted poblanos are the base of this sandwich stuffed with chipotle-molasses refried beans, lettuce, pickled red onions, and avocado. For the ultimate indulgence, coat the whole thing in enchilada sauce and griddle it.

This hearty white bean soup with spinach flavored with garlic and rosemary is a great winter warmer, perfect for those evenings when you've just come home from a day on the slopes or from romping with the dogs in the park or taking photos of majestic snowy owls, or whatever it is that active winter folks do in this day and age. The real magic of the recipe is the way the starch released from the beans helps the extra-virgin olive oil (and do use your best extra virgin for this) to emulsify with the liquid, creating a rich, spoon-coating texture in no time at all.

To Finish : Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add noodles and cook according to package directions. Drain. While noodles are cooking, heat oil in a wok or a small skillet over high heat until smoking. Add pork and preserved vegetable and cook, stirring and shaking constantly, using a spatula or a spoon to break up pork until cooked through, about 1 minute. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.

The problem with so many steam-table iterations of this dish lies in the broccoli: It's too often mushy and bland. To keep it crisp and flavorful here, and get a good sear on the strips of beef without overcooking them, we stir-fry the ingredients over very high heat, using a wok or a wok insert over a grill.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook noodles, stirring regularly with tongs or long chopsticks, until al dente and separated, about 1 minute. Drain and transfer to a large bowl. Toss with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and set aside.

Once you've mastered our technique for a crispety, crunchety coating on takeout-style fried chicken, you can easily replicate a number of favorites on the buffet line. To turn our General Tso's recipe into sesame chicken, we simply change the sauce, adding extra sugar and sesame oil and omitting the chilies. Be sure to toast those sesame seeds before adding them, and sprinkle them both throughout the sauce and over the finished dish.

The next step is frying the cabbage. Even with the aid of a tool like the Wok Mon, your home burner still has a severely limited heat output, which means the best strategy for getting nice charring and smoky wok hei at home is by cooking in batches.

You have to do ribs on the grill at least once in the summer, and if you're looking for something beyond your basic bottled barbecue sauce, you've come to the right place. Here, apricot preserves give the sauce a sweet, fruity flavor, and chipotle chiles add a contrasting earthy, spicy flavor to the sauce that tastes just as good when licked off your fingers as it does on the ribs.

The second great thing about making dan dan noodles—it's an exceedingly simple dish to make. Once you've put together your roasted chile vinaigrette (which holds for months in the fridge, by the way), it's just a matter of cooking your noodles, frying your chopped pork, and throwing everything together.
Noodles at take-out restaurants are often swimming in gloppy sauce. I like my noodles very moderately sauced—just enough to lightly coat each strand, but not so much that it pools at the bottom of the bowl. This is just a mixture of light and dark soy sauces (you can use straight up shoyu if you don't have both varieties of Chinese soy sauce), along with some Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, and white pepper.

Vicky Wasik

Turkish hot pepper paste, found in Turkish markets or online, adds heat to an emulsified sauce made with tomato, anchovy filets, egg, capers, tuna, Dijon, and oil. Pour it over the freshest in-season tomatoes you can get your hands on and garnish with basil leaves for a cool. spicy, summery salad.
Heat reserved 1 tablespoon of mushroom oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat until shimmering. Add chopped Sichuan vegetables, fried mushrooms, and garlic. Cook, stirring and tossing constantly until fragrant, about 45 seconds. Add Shaoxing wine and stir to combine. Transfer mixture to bowl with sauce.

The prototypical street noodle food blog tips|https://noodleinsight.com/, dan dan noodles are an ultra-simple dish of cold or warm noodles placed in a bowl with a ladleful of highly seasoned sauce poured on top. Flavored with minced pork, preserved pickled mustard, black vinegar, fermented broad beans, garlic, and plenty of chili oil, the dish is eaten by swirling the slick noodles through the oily sauce, picking up bits of meat and pickles as they go.

Fish sauce adds saltiness and umami depth, and dried red chiles add spice to these garlicky, crowd-pleasing grilled chicken wings. Plan ahead—they need to marinate for 12 hours before hitting the hot grill.

Preserved mustard root like this (often labeled "Sichuan Preserved Vegetable") can be found in cans or jars in your Chinese market. Once opened, they'll last for months in a sealed container in the fridge. You don't need much to add big flavor to dishes.