Recipes and food adventures with Adam Roberts

  • Coconut Macaroon Cake

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    Coconut Macaroon Cake

    The right dessert to serve at Hanukkah, according to experts, is sufganiyot: aka, jelly donuts. Based on the same miracle that brings us latkes, the donuts are fried in lots of oil. Call me a health nut, but eating jelly donuts after eating a ton of latkes seems like an unpleasant gut bomb. For dessert,…

  • Stuffed Cabbage with Pomegranate Molasses and Mint

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    Stuffed Cabbage with Pomegranate Molasses and Mint

    When it comes to Hanukkah, I’m a latke guy but not a brisket guy. Latkes are crispy and salty and fun to make. Brisket dries out really easy and it’s an expensive thing to screw up. So this year, for the first night of Hanukkah, I decided to go with another beloved entree with Jewish-inflections:…

  • The Frozen Gnocchi Revelation

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    The Frozen Gnocchi Revelation

    Do you ever know something without really knowing something? Like the fact that you can get your parking validated at Nordstrom’s at The Grove in L.A. Until you need your parking validated, you don’t really let that thought surface. Well last night I was in my kitchen at 7:30 P.M., feeling peckish, and without a…

  • Better Than a Space Heater: Lamb and Squash Tagine for a Cold Winter’s Night

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    Better Than a Space Heater: Lamb and Squash Tagine for a Cold Winter’s Night

    Which is better: summer cooking or winter cooking? I vote winter cooking, with an emphasis on “cooking.” In the summer, you don’t need to do much: slice a peach, add some arugula, a splash of olive oil, a sprinkling of vinegar and you’ve got a salad. In the winter, that won’t cut it. You’ve really…

  • Peppermint Patty Brownies

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    Peppermint Patty Brownies

    Some recipes just scream “Christmas!” and one of those recipes is Maida Heatter’s Palm Beach Brownies with Chocolate-Covered Mints (aka: Peppermint Patty Brownies). I stumbled upon this recipe while flipping through her post-humous book, Happiness is Baking. The second I saw the ingredients — the normal brownie stuff + 2 1/2 12-ounce bags York chocolate-covered…

  • Leeks Vinaigrette with Pecans, Raisins, and Parmesan

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    Leeks Vinaigrette with Pecans, Raisins, and Parmesan

    I don’t like stringy vegetables. Chalk it up to a fear of choking, but I’m convinced that something stringy will get caught in my teeth, I’ll swallow, and then it’ll be like a fisherman with a fishing line that’s dropped deep into my throat, blocking my airways, and killing me on the spot. How’s that…

  • Sour Cream Cheddar Biscuits

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    Sour Cream Cheddar Biscuits

    One nice thing about being a food writer who works from home is that, come lunch time, I have every reason to go a bit overboard. After all, if I spend time making a good lunch, doesn’t that give me something new to write about? Plus I get a good lunch? It’s a win-win for…

  • Chicken Paprikash

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    Chicken Paprikash

    When Woody Allen got cancelled, I defaulted to Albert Brooks. Annie Hall was (and maybe still is) my favorite movie; but when people ask, I say that my favorite movie is Defending Your Life because I can happily watch it over and over again and love it every time. And then there’s When Harry Met…

  • Too Good to Be Vegan: Squash, Chard, Chickpea, and Saffron Stew

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    Too Good to Be Vegan: Squash, Chard, Chickpea, and Saffron Stew

    Vegan cooking can be thankless. Just by labeling something “vegan,” you’re instantly aware of all of the things you’re not including: chicken stock, sausage, Parmesan cheese. But sometimes you encounter a recipe that’s so good, you don’t even realize that it’s vegan until after you’ve made it. That’s how it was with this easy vegan…

  • Cranberry Magic Bars

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    Cranberry Magic Bars

    Let’s say it’s the day after Thanksgiving and you have a glut of cranberries. What’s a person to do? You could make cranberry muffins for breakfast, that’s an idea. You could make Melissa Clark’s sticky cranberry gingerbread and people would be tickled. Or you could make what I recently made from Genevieve Ko’s 2016 cookbook,…