date night in
plus: an interview with kiera wright-ruiz
Monday, February 10, 2025
Good afternoon!
Mouthing off in the NYT about boiling eggs [NYT, unlocked]
A great party trick [The Kitchn]
Milk is headed for its strangest year yet [NYT, unlocked]
My husband and I are currently bickering over where we should go out for Valentine’s Day — a new, well-reviewed French restaurant in the West Village (his choice) or a cocktail bar with Taiwanese-inspired fried chicken sandwiches in the Lower East Side (my choice) — but it’s all in good fun because what we will actually be doing on Friday 2/14, and what we almost always do on 2/14, is eating at home. Because there is nothing better than making your own favorite foods (yes, mine includes fries, like you have to ask) exactly the way you like them and eating them shoeless and leisurely with no rose petals scattered awkwardly around the table (unless that’s your thing!) or server dropping your check on the table before you said you were done. Below, some of my all-time favorite recipes for date nights at home. I hope you’re inspired. Plus, we’ve got an interview this week with the wonderful Kiera Wright-Ruiz, whose new cookbook, My (Half) Latinx Kitchen is out tomorrow. I know you’re going to love it as much as I do.
Cheers,
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. Wondering what you might cook from Smitten Kitchen Keepers in the depths of winter? I thought you’d never ask! Try the ginger garlic chicken noodle soup, charred salt and vinegar cabbage, creamy coconut rice with chili-lime vegetables, and oven-braised beef with harissa. To finish, I recommend the oatmeal date shortbread, the chocolate dulce puddle cakes, and/or the white Russian slush punch. Were you looking for a list of all the recipes in each of my cookbooks? I’ve added these in a separate page and hope it makes it easier for you to find everything you want to cook.
“One of the winning elements of ‘The Recipe’ is that it’s not prescriptive — rather than settling on one universal ‘perfect’ recipe, the chefs explain their personal preferences, then give listeners the information they need to make their own adjustments. By breaking their recipes down ingredient-by-ingredient, digging into what each one is doing, they make the science of cooking approachable and fun.” — New York Times, 7 Podcasts to Inspire a New Hobby
“J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Deb Perelman’s new podcast gets to not only the heart of how they make their recipes—but also the why behind each decision, too.” — Esquire, The 26 Best Podcasts of 2024
The latest full episode of my podcast with J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, The Recipe with Kenji and Deb, is all about Nachos! You can listen to it anywhere you get your podcasts, such as Apple, Spotify, and more.
essential french onion soup
Onion soup is one of my favorite foods on earth; it's inexpensive, easy to shop for, and requires no cheffy tricks to make an impossibly good, cozy bowl. Julia Child's books taught me how to make it; real life took it from there.
balthazar's cream of mushroom soup
I've been making this soup since before Smitten Kitchen even existed (the dark ages, of course) and it remains a forever favorite. Don't be put off by the beige; it has so much more flavor and heartiness than the humble-looking bowl suggests.
kale salad with pecorino and walnuts
This is the kale salad that converted me, once a skeptic, to the dark green leafy side, and shortly thereafter, both of my kids. Cut into thin threads and tossed with vinegar-soaked golden raisins, sharp cheese, toasted walnuts and crispy breadcrumbs, we could eat a mile of this -- the perfect contrast to a decadent meal of fries, steak, and chocolate puddle cakes.
rigatoni alla vodka
Penne alla vodka was the first meal I ever cooked for my husband, but I make it so differently these days -- more flavorful, quicker, and because kids make you totally square (sure, Deb), less vodka. This updated recipe uses my favorite pasta shape and is a cinch; we should definitely make it for dinner tonight.
mushroom bourguignon
A hearty vegetarian bourguignon with 100% of the comfort and luxury in about 25% of the time, this is the only thing I want to eat on a cold winter day.
roast chicken with dijon sauce
Every time we make this roast chicken, we are surprised anew by how quick it is to make and how delicious the dijon-wine-shallot-splash-of-cream pan sauce is. It's absurdly good with roasted potatoes and a green salad. It's even a little elegant, or at least, more elegant than my weekday nights usually are. Have you tried it? I hope you do.
easiest french fries
The best french fries I make at home are also the easiest, thanks to this method which requires no peeling, soaking, twice-frying, deep-fry thermometer or even temperature monitoring. It also uses a fraction of the oil of the classic kind. It really wants us to have a delicious weekend. [Video below!]
salted caramel brownies
Intensely rich, almost gooey but still bittersweet one-bowl brownies with pockets of salted caramel throughout are exactly what we need right now, like you even needed to ask.
luxe butterscotch pudding
A caramelized, rich, and luxurious upgrade to butterscotch pudding, delightful in small portions, with or without a puddle of salted caramel on top.
cosmopolitan
Ready for its comeback (jk; it never left), a couple minor adjustments to the classic Cosmo cocktail make it better and more balanced than ever. What is not up for debate: That our date nights will be better with one of these in it.
AN INTERVIEW WITH KIERA WRIGHT-RUIZ
My shelves are full of wonderful cookbooks I don’t get to talk about enough, so I’ve added this section so you can get to know the cool people behind them. Today we're chatting with Kiera Wright-Ruiz. Her new cookbook, My (Half) Latinx Kitchen: Half Recipes, Half Stories, All Latin American, comes out tomorrow, 2/11.
1. What inspired your cookbook?
I am half Ecuadorian and half Korean, or half Latinx and half Asian. I wanted to write this book because I often didn’t see myself in the food world/greater world in general. People have sometimes assumed that because of my background it means I have all this access to those respective cultures, but I didn’t. My (Half) Latinx Kitchen celebrates non-linear paths to embracing culture and champions those of us who have felt underrepresented through an intimate (and very tasty!!!) journey.
2. What recipe are you the most proud of in the book, or felt the most triumphant when you got it right?
The cookbook spans across different countries' cuisines, like Ecuador, Peru, Cuba, Mexico, and more. But the recipe I’m most proud of is probably the Tamale Soup from my grandma. Born out of heartache and resilience, this is my family’s most beloved dish. It’s basically Mexican tamale in soup form, complete with crispy chunks of pork, and topped with lime-pickled red onions and fresh cilantro.
3. What recipe is so low-effort, high-reward that it's worth cooking for dinner tonight, even if we're tired and don't want to cook?
Breakfast tostadas with lazyyy beans. When I enter a truly lazyyy (not lazy, but lazyyy) state, that’s what I make. It fully relies on canned black beans, but it’s jazzed up with sofrito and toasted spices. The freshly fried tortilla and healthy splash of Cholula doesn’t hurt either.
4. What's something you wish more people knew about your book?
From the illustrations to the essays (including the one that’s an ode to Medieval Times), I wanted to show that being Latinx doesn’t just mean one thing. It can be cute, heart wrenching, funny, includes too many corn dogs, joyous, proud, beautiful, and delicious. Everyone’s path is unique. My (Half) Latinx Kitchen only reflects my experience. But through reading it, I hope it can inspire you to want to get in touch with your culture—and maybe hug someone you love in the process.
Thank you, Kiera! You can preorder My (Half) Latinx Kitchen right here.
easiest french fries
shop my favorites
Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more than you see when I cook? I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most — yes, including the the Smitten Kitchen x Staub Braiser (currently out of stock but we’ll have more in soon!). For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
See you next week!
