the best things to cook in the new staub x smitten kitchen braiser
plus: new york crumb cake and an interview with alyse whitney
Monday, April 8, 2024
Good afternoon!
Friends, I have fun news to share, but first, a little backstory: Late one evening in 2014, I ordered myself a matte black 4-quart braiser from Staub. I had a hunch that a lot of the foods I cooked in my deeper 5.5-quart Dutch oven were mostly taking up the bottom half of the pan. I wondered if a shallower cast iron pot, one that looked like a deep sauté pan and soup pot at once, would feel less unwieldy to use and also be better at browning the top of dishes baked in it. I had no idea how right I'd be.
It quickly became the pot I cook almost everything in, from soups to roasts to pasta, bean, and grain bakes. In the almost decade since, it’s barely left my stove and shows up in dozens of site and cookbook recipes because I rarely want to cook in anything else. But a few years ago, I noticed that when someone asked where they could buy it, it was getting harder and harder to find. In late 2022, I asked Staub if they'd ever consider bringing it back selfishly for me (I wanted a second) and okay, fine — you too! Which brings us to today.
The Staub x Smitten Kitchen Limited Edition Cast-Iron Braiser goes on sale today. It's black matte (sleek! fashionable!) just like mine. It's $299, which I know is hardly a budget item, and I'm not here to tell you how to spend your money or that you might not be able to find pans that look like it for less. What I can tell you is that the quality is unparalleled; my braiser is in perfect condition 10 years later, and so are my even older Staub dutch ovens, and that it’s one of the best kitchen purchases I've ever made. I'd never ask them to make more on my behalf or let me help sell these pots otherwise.
Each pot will include cards with three new recipes I’ve developed to show off what the braiser does best, and you can preview these recipes online too [Baked Ziti with Meatballs and Ricotta, Braised Chickpeas with Kale and Burrata, and an Apple Butterscotch Crisp] Below, a dozen of the site recipes I always make in my braiser. In the next days, I’ll share a bit about the time I went to the Staub factory in France and watched these very pots get made from molten iron, definitely one of the coolest experiences ever.
But that's not all! This newsletter also has an interview with the wonderful Alyse Whitney about her first, really fun cookbook, Big Dip Energy, which comes out next week. Alyse interviewed me on book tour in Los Angeles last year, and if you were there, you already know how wonderful she is. Plus, a new recipe for a very classic New York Crumb Cake.
Cheers!
Deb
My new podcast with J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, The Recipe with Kenji and Deb, launched over a month ago and our fourth episode, out today, is all about Tomato Soup! You can listen to it anywhere you get your podcasts and I’ve set up a new podcast tab/page where you can keep up on it here, too. We will have new episodes every two Mondays. We’ve been working on this behind the scenes for the last year — I hope you enjoy listening along.
new york crumb cake
New: Hasn’t it always been too long since your last slice of profoundly perfect crumb cake? You know, the kind that’s a hefty square with at least as much height from big brown sugar and cinnamon crumbs as from a golden, buttery, sour cream-enriched and vanilla-scented cake? Yes, me too and I’ve got just the fix for us.
chicken rice with buttered onions
The most cozy, comforting fall dish that's gone into heavy rotation at dinnertime because the ingredient list is short, the chicken tender, the rice flavorful, the leftovers reheat phenomenally, and it's budget-friendly. You cannot imagine a better aroma to come home to.
french onion baked lentils and farro
French onion baked lentils and farro are my dream winter hibernation dish: Loose like risotto, hearty enough to be utterly filling, and tasting so precisely like french onion soup, blistered broiled gruyere on top and all, that we find it impossible to tire of.
chickpea and kale shakshuka
Eggs baked in spicy tomato sauce with kale and chickpeas, too, so perfect and filling for a cozy spring weeknight dinner.
baked farro with summer vegetables
A pinnacle-of-summer baked grain dish that has all of the decadence of a pasta bake -- tomatoes, gooey cheese, and a crisp, burnished top. Farro, small, nutty and slightly chewy, provides heft while letting the vegetables star. We love this.
mushrooms and greens with toast
Dinner tonight? A cross between a rustic casserole and a skillet of torn-up grilled cheese and butter-seared vegetables, this deliciousness from Tara O’Brady takes very little planning, cooking time, and it's all made in a single pan, which is also its serving dish.
candy pork
An unforgettable braise with a more salty-than-sweet sauce that’s glossy and dark, a short ingredient list that’s still wildly complex with flavor, and a shorter cooking time than a full pork shoulder. Plus, the leftovers are phenomenal. Who's in?
tangy braised chickpeas
"Brisket"-braised chickpeas -- that is, with all of the flavors of my favorite meaty braise -- with not a speck of brisket involved. This vegan dish is a perfect cozy and hearty holiday main, or apparently for eating straight from the fridge, as we can never seem to stop doing with leftovers.
chicken curry
A shout-from-the-rooftops, last-recipe-you'll-ever-need-for chicken curry adapted from Chetna Makan. Not to oversell it or anything, we just love it that much -- and you can finish it under an hour.
oven-braised beef with tomatoes and garlic
This three-ingredient cult classic from Gourmet is worth all the hype. Less than 15 minutes prep time yields a meltingly tender braise and days of gorgeous leftovers.
simple, essential bolognese
This is our SK house bolognese, nuanced but uncomplicated, the ideal kind of long-simmered cozy cooking project perfect for a rainy weekend. It's going to make your kitchen smell like heaven.
braised ginger meatballs in coconut broth
Deeply flavorful meatballs cooked in a coconut broth are a favorite for family, friends, or just us because it's so flexible -- you can add rice or skip it, add heat or limit it, or load it with every single herb and garnish you see here and be very glad that you did. I add a little spinach, but I think it would be delicious with segments of green beans. Don't miss this one!
cauliflower and tomato masala with peas
A craving for cauliflower in a spicy tomato sauce led me to gobi matar masala, where the peas (trust this pea-ambivalent cook) add the perfect complementary dots of sweetness. Vegan and cozy but unheavy, it feels perfect for this almost-feels-like-spring day.
garlic wine and butter steamed clams
Small, sweet clams steamed open in wine, butter and garlic with a tumbler of cold wine and a side of grilled bread. It feels like you're in a restaurant overlooking a beach sunset, even if this isn't your current reality.
simple chicken tortilla soup
This simple chicken tortilla soup is a weeknight favorite and a cinch to pull off even after a long day, while not skimping at all on flavor or texture. I hope it makes its way into your repertoires, too.
split pea soup
Split pea soup may never win the soup Olympics. It generally does not cause young children to stand up in their high chairs and cheer its arrival at the table. But I love this cozy, homey soup, especially when I make it my way: heavy on leeks, vegetarian, with a mix of punchy finishes and, before you even ask, InstantPot directions too.
squash and chickpea moroccan stew
Don't be intimidated by the ingredient list length -- this vegetarian, vegetable-full, complexly flavored stew comes together quickly and is fantastic over couscous, with or without a dollop of yogurt to finish it. Leftovers reheat well, so it's a meal prep dream too.
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 now that spring is finally here? I thought you’d never ask! Try the sesame asparagus and carrot chop, double shallot egg salad, leek and brie galette, toasted ricotta gnocchi with pistachio pesto, and fettuccine with white ragu. To finish, I recommend the bee sting bars, mango curd tart, and/or the carrot cake with brown butter and no clutter. 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.
AN INTERVIEW WITH ALYSE WHITNEY
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 Alyse Whitney. Her cookbook Big Dip Energy: 88 Parties in a Bowl for Snacking, Dinner, Dessert, and Beyond! comes out next Tuesday, 4/16.
1. What inspired your cookbook?
Dips have been my love language for decades, and it was my first favorite food. My mom used to host Bunco, what I think was a dice game for suburban moms, and she would make a seven-layer dip that everyone gathered around. I would serve Heluva Good dips for friends for OC watch parties in high school, then leveled-up to Lipton French Onion Dip, and then graduated to making my own homemade dips from there. I had an arsenal of go-to dips (my MVDs: most valuable dips) but nowhere to compile them...until I dipcided to write Big Dip Energy! Most of my original dips came from tinkering for my annual all-dips holiday party Dipmas (or Dipmukkah) that I've hosted since 2017, with the theme song of "dip the halls with bowls of hot cheese, falalalalalalalala." From day one of my dip journey, I've loved that dips can bring people together and turn strangers into friends—friendchip!—as they dip in together—like a water cooler, but cooler. Over time, by hosting gatherings where people could dip in and dip out easily and graze the roof, I became known as the Dip Queen. And the rest is...dipstory!
2. What recipe are you the most proud of in the book, or felt the most triumphant when you got it right?
This is twofold for me. The recipe I'm most proud of in the book is my Caesar Salad Dip, because it was such a diplightful surprise. I wanted to get the flavors of Caesar salad into a dip, but it couldn't just be a thicc dressing—that's too aggressive. So to brighten and lighten (not in a diet culture way, but in an easy-breezy-on-the-palate way) it up, it starts with a whole head of romaine lettuce, inspired by aji verde, a Peruvian green sauce that also has a base of lettuce. The natural water content in the lettuce thins the dip to the right dipscocity so you can drag more romaine—or Little Gem if you're fancy, which I am—with rotisserie chicken and a giant garlic bread crouton tucked inside. I make it at least a few times a month just as an easy meal prep, and dippin' salads are now my favorite way to eat my veggies.
I felt most triumphant when I got my Black & White Sesame Cookie Dip right, and it ended up inspiring a new method for making dipsserts. Black & White cookies are naturally cakey, so I dipscovered the best way to get a cakey dip is...by using cake. Store-bought grocery store cake, frosting and all, soaked in heavy cream that is then whipped. The cake disintegrates (no gritty texture) into the fluffy whipped cream and infuses the flavor of a frosted cakey cookie into the dip, combined with black and white sesame pastes in a yin-yang swirl. I use this for Strawberry Shortcake Dip (angel food cake), This Dip Is Bananas! (banana bread, plus banana pudding and bananas Foster flavors and techniques), Fat Mint Dip (mint Oreos), and many more. And all my dipsserts aren't too sweet, with very little added sugar other than the sweet treat infusing the whipped cream.
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?
The entire first chapter of my book is 5-Minute Dips, and one of them is actually 2-minute: In Queso Emergency! This quick queso is for when you need to work on your night cheese and need an anytime indulgence. It's made in the microwave, as are a handful of dips in the book—including Corn Cheesy Like Sunday Morning Dip and Elote to Love Dip, a duo of corn dips—and is so satisfying. It can also be scaled up for more people and made on the stovetop or in a slow cooker to keep warm throughout a party.
4. What's something you wish more people knew about your book?
Big Dip Energy isn't just a cheeky, punny name for my cookbook—it's a lifestyle. If you have Big Dip Energy, you possess a natural magnetism that draws people to you like chips to a bowl of dip. You're magnetic, people always come back for more, you're a guaranteed good time, and you bring the party wherever you go. This cookbook will help you dipscover and embrace your BDE, with not just recipes. There are dip tips for taking the best #DipPics, full dip-ertaining menus, and tips from Chippy, my mascot who has Chippy's Tippys throughout the book like Clippy from the Microsoft 2000 days. I creative and art directed this shoot with all of my own props from collecting, thrifting, antiquing, and searching for pieces that matched the vibe (and BDE) of each recipe, so even if you don't think you know how to cook, you can enjoy it as a game of I Spy, a coffee table book, or hopefully a source of instant joy and fun when you need a pick-me-up (or a dip-me-up, as I'd say). But as they said in Ratataouille, anyone can cook! And anyone can dip. This book is for any skill level, any level of dip obsession, and any age. Anyone can make dip happen, and I can't wait for you to dip in deep.
Thank you, Alyse! You can preorder Big Dip Energy right here.
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 new braiser! 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!
