Monday, July 7, 2025
Good morning!
There’s No Right Way to Say ‘Taco’ [Gastro Obscura]
Meet Toshi Kasahara, The Man Who Invented Chicken Teriyaki as we Know it [Kenji Lopez-Alt’s Patreon, free to register/read]
I hope you had a great holiday weekend. I hope there were fireworks, hot dogs, lemonade, and fat slices of watermelon, still cold and crisp from the fridge. I hope you got lots of what I consider a Top 5 shower, the one you take after a long, sweaty, sticky beach day so you can go to bed fresh and grime-free, ready to sleep like a log. I hope you woke up on Sunday, panicked it was Monday, and rejoiced that you had another day off. And if you walked outside this morning and felt the humidity glue to your skin, or peered at the weather outlook for the next 10 days and said “absolutely not” while looking at your kitchen, welcome: You’ve come to the right place. Below, no-cook and low-cook recipes for when it’s too hot to even think about turning on the oven, including a new favorite summer party snack with burrata. Plus, the best homemade hot fudge sauce in the world, something I crave endlessly over vanilla ice cream. Send this to a friend who also *can’t even* weather right now; maybe they’ll thank you with a coconut limeade.
Cheers,
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and one audiobook and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. My most recent cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers, is a collection of new classics specifically written with making them forever in mind, and it has a special audio edition that I hope feels exactly like you’ve pulled up a chair and I’m hanging out in the kitchen with you. My first, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, is my love letter to approachable, uncompromised home cooking. And my second, Smitten Kitchen Every Day, is a celebration of triumphant and unfussy home cooking. Not sure which one to check out first? Take a look at the recipe index and see which collection jumps out at you most.
burrata with crushed cherries and pistachios
New! Show up empty-handed? Not with this no-cook (I’ve even done it without a knife and cutting board) appetizer you can bring and easily assemble anywhere you go this weekend. It vanishes quickly. Thanks to my friend Ang for always inspiring me!
cucumber yogurt raita salad
Like a great big bowl of cucumber raita with the balance inverted — a lot of cucumber, a smaller amount of cool spiced yogurt dressing. This is so refreshing.
my favorite lentil salad
My favorite lentil salad is really, truly inhalable: one part salsa, one part lentils, plus tomatoes, avocado, hot sauce, and a dream of a lunch scooped up with tortilla chips.
nancy's chopped salad
A chopped salad with all of the fixings of a great Italian sub, but tweakable too -- use what you like; skip what you don't. If you make no other part of this, don't miss that vinaigrette; it wakes up everything.
mama canales-garcia's avocado-shrimp salsa
When the heatwave demands nothing but chips and salsa for dinner, who are we to argue?
zucchini carpaccio salad
A ribbony, lemony, salad that's flecked with parmesan, punctuated with arugula, and exactly as refreshing as it looks.
nolita-style avocado toast
For the first time in my avocado-buying life, I've been able to not miss the approximately 5-minute window in which they're neither rock hard nor mush. This is how we're celebrating. I realize the idea of a recipe (a recipe!) for avocado toast is bonkers but this one is truly the best classic version I've ever had.
peanut sesame noodles
Comfort food? The cold peanut sesame noodles I’ve been making since college will always be in my top 10. The sauce is perfect every time and I like to doctor them up with matchsticks of everything from carrots to cucumber, peppers, and tofu so it feels even more like a full meal. [Video below!]
garlic lime steak and noodle salad
A salty-tangy-sweet-spicy steak salad with an emphasis on fresh colorful ingredients has become a summer staple around here. We serve it assemble-your-own style, so everyone can fix their plates with as much or as little of each element as they wish. I think our weeks will be better with this in it.
swirled berry yogurt popsicles
Lightly sweetened Greek yogurt + half-blended fresh berries = popsicles for breakfast are sheer heat wave brilliance.
frozen coconut limeade
This drink solves everything. It makes the stickiest weather seem bearable, it makes you feel like you’re on vacation even if you’re not, and it makes you wish sandal season were longer, if it means you get one of these daily. I think we know what needs to be done.
best hot fudge sauce
This hot fudge sauce takes fewer than 10 minutes to make, keeps seemingly indefinitely in the fridge, is forgiving of almost all human error, and makes all days that include it better than those that do not.
peanut sesame noodles
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 (which is back in stock!). For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
What’s the Smitten Kitchen x Staub Braiser? It’s an 11-inch, 4-quart braiser — essentially a lower profile enameled cast-iron Dutch oven that works as as well as a deep sauté pan as it does a soup pot, roasting pan, or even casserole dish that perfectly fits a pasta bake. Not a week has gone by in the decade I’ve had mine when I don’t use it at least three times. And we just got in a limited run of a stunning blue color for spring!
Your braiser purchase contains three new recipes (two savory, one sweet) by me that work perfectly in your new pot. If you’re looking for even more ideas, I created a category on the site to highlight some of my favorite dishes I make in mine.
See you next week!
