Celery Salad with Cilantro and Sesame by Alison Roman

I put off a celery salad for as long as I could. I just couldn’t imagine an entire salad made of celery -- a vegetable I don’t dare eat on its own. Its flavor is too strong for me. Eating it requires too much chewing. I don’t mind celery mixed into things like soup, but a base of celery? Never. 

I started a new full-time job in September and have made some new coworker pals. One evening after work, I was standing on the train platform, waiting for my ride back home to the city. I stood waiting with one such pal and told her about this project. “Oh Alison Roman! I love her recipes! My favorite is her celery salad with cilantro.” I did a double take. Of ALL the tasty recipes she could choose from, her favorite is a celery salad?! I was stumped. 

Of course, I now see a bit more of what she meant. No, this recipe isn’t my top 20 of the 225 recipes I’ve (almost) cooked. But it’s certainly in the top half of Alison salads and it’s something I’d make again. I followed Alison’s suggestion and prepared this recipe alongside her Soy-Braised Brisket (which was even better than I remembered it). The salad’s combination of sesame oil and fish sauce really complement the soy and honey flavors of the meat. Beyond the brisket, this salad would work really well with main dishes like pho, bulgogi, or chicken teriyaki.  

While the title suggests that the bulk of the salad consists of celery, I found it to be proportionately balanced with scallions, jalapeño, and cilantro as well. Tossed together with fish sauce, sesame oil, lime juice, and toasted sesame seeds — this celery salad is a wild card front runner I never saw coming.

210 recipes cooked, 15 to go.

Creamy Cauliflower and Onion Gratin & Cumin-Roasted Cauliflower and Dates with Tahini and Pine Nuts by Alison Roman

I admit that cauliflower isn’t my favorite vegetable. It probably ranks #10 in my top ten. It has very little flavor and too much fiber for its own good. Cauliflower can only wow me if it’s been given a glow up by other definitive flavors. There are many ways to doctor up these bland little trees, and the two recipes mentioned here are perhaps the tastiest cauliflower recipes I’ve cooked to date. 

(Side note: I firmly believe cauliflower should not be “riced” — rice grains are rice. Don’t mess with a beautiful thing.)

The cauliflower gratin adds red pepper flakes and a whole lot of dairy to help spice things up. At first, I was intimidated by the way the cauliflower is cut — in half inch thick disks. The picture in the book shows a perfect spindly flower fitting into a 9inch cake pan, and I wondered if I could attempt the same thing. Turns out, it’s not that hard! You just need a long, sharp knife and steady hand. The cauliflower is layered with cheese and poured over with a mix of cream and melted butter. Once baked and bubbly, that’s really all there is to it. 

One miss for me is Alison‘s lack of salting directions. It’s not like her to skip telling you to add salt and pepper at pretty much every step in a recipe. Here, she didn’t add salt to the layers of cauliflower, (just to the cream and cheese) and I felt the dish was overall under salted. So feel free to add a small sprinkling of salt over each layer of cauliflower. 

I skipped the breadcrumbs in this go around, but would recommend adding them for textural contrast and added saltiness. Also, my cream mixture never solidified in any real way. I’m not sure if I didn’t keep in the oven for long enough, or if the cream should truly stay in liquid form, but beware if you plan to bake and then transport this dish to a Friendsgiving — cream WILL spill out the sides if you’re not careful. 

Above all, the cumin-roasted cauliflower recipe truly wins the contest (yep, it’s a contest now). I made it as our vegetable side dish for Thanksgiving, and much to my surprise, Jordan said it was his favorite part of the entire meal. We had Alison’s stuffing, a turkey, two kinds of potatoes, and still, he liked the cauliflower the most. Believe me when I say, that’s a powerful statement coming from him. 

What made the cumin roasted cauliflower so great was the variety of flavors and textures used. Cauliflower gets broken down into tiny florets and roasted with cumin seeds until crispy and charred in some places. Part way through, dates are added to the roasting sheet, bringing a sweetness that nicely contrasts with the acid from the white wine vinegar and creaminess of the tahini. Cilantro makes this dish sing. I admit to skipping mint and pine nuts due to cost, but in no way did I feel like this dish lacked anything. Mint and pine nuts would have only elevated it further. 

178 and 179 recipes cooked, 46 to go.

Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder with Garlic, Citrus, and Cilantro by Alison Roman

You know when you’ve recently had something so good that afterwards you can’t help but compare anything else you have that’s like it? Well I recently made a Melissa Clark Instant Pot carnitas recipe (yes, I know, Instant Pot, a shortcut, I get it, also, get over it) with chipotle peppers and fresh-squeezed orange juice and limes. I let the pork cook in the pot, but fried it in the leftover fat to give it a crispiness at the end. Wow, it was spectacular. 

Alison’s pork shoulder recipe doesn’t purport to be carnitas. She doesn’t even want you to shred the pork, just slice it! But the flavor profile is so close to that of carnitas, and frankly, the meat was way too soft after 3+ hours in the oven to hold together in slice form, leaving me no choice but to shred it. So how could I not compare it to Melissa Clark’s carnitas? It was simply out of my hands. I couldn’t compare texture, because, different recipes. But in terms of flavor, Melissa’s was more particular in flavor, and Alison’s surprisingly more mild. I found myself craving Melissa’s leftovers, but let Jordan take care of Alison’s. Jordan loved Alison’s pork, but then again, he loves any shredded pork. At the end of the day, I’d choose Melissa’s carnitas. Just putting this out there. 

Given the subtle flavor profile and moist, juicy form of the pork, this recipe would work really well if you’re serving picky eaters, or children, or bringing food to a potluck where you’re not sure how everyone feels about spice. The main flavors here are the citrus (lots of orange and lime), some coriander, and plenty of garlic.

Here’s a quick rundown. Brown some seasoned pork shoulder in a large pot (preferably a dutch oven) on all sides to render fat at the bottom of the pot. Pour most of the fat out but keep enough to cook two halves of a large orange and two heads of garlic cut in half, plus spices like thyme, coriander seeds, and chile flakes. Pour in a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice and some water and stir. Put the pork back in the pot and cover it before placing the pot in the oven for three or more hours at a low temp. 

At this point, I left my apartment to go to a workout class. By the time I returned an hour and some change later, the smells of garlic and orange practically hit me in the face as I walked through the door - in a great way! After another two hours of smelling the pork, I pulled the pork out of the pot to rest and added lime juice to the juices in the pot. I quickly noticed that the pork had softened past the point of slicing (which I had suspected and wasn’t mad about), and decided to shred it. After pouring the leftover juices mostly over the shredded meat, along with the softened garlic cloves, the meat was ready for serving. We ate it with warmed corn tortillas and Alison’s Iceberg Salad. And don’t get me wrong - it was good pork! Just more mild in flavor than I prefer. 

152 recipes cooked, 73 to go.

Seared Short Ribs with Quick Kimchi and Sesame Salt by Alison Roman

“Short rib” is a misnomer. Imagine a rack of beef ribs. A string of bones connected by sinews with a thin layer of chewy meat on top. Now think of short ribs. Tender meat stands tall atop a long line of bones, with layers of fat interrupting the surface. In other words, short ribs are not shorter at all! Hence my confusion whilst shopping for short ribs. Do not be fooled, dear friends, by the height of the meat. A butcher’s vocabulary will always remain a partial mystery. 

Near our new apartment is a meat shop called Wild Fork. I’ve never lived so close to a meat shop before, and let me tell you, it’s a real treat! Wild Fork only sells frozen meat, so I had to let my short rib thaw in the fridge for two days before it was ready. On the day of cooking, Jordan took the meat out an hour or so beforehand to let it come closer to room temperature, then covered it with salt and brown sugar. By the time they were ready to sear, the brown sugar had turned liquidy and showed the color of molasses over the surface of the ribs. 

I’ll admit, I was nervous about attempting to sear a new cut of meat. Short ribs just look intimidating, there’s no way around it. With mild trepidation, I nestled the ribs meat-side down in my skillet and let the sugar form a dark crust while the meat cooked. Alison recommends 6-8 minutes per side, not counting the bone side. However, after the instructed amount of searing, my thermometer read 99 degrees in both ribs, which is far more rare than I’m comfortable with. If the cookbook picture of this recipe tells us anything, it’s that Alison doesn’t mind a bloody piece of beef. But sadly, I cannot wrap my head around that one. So I ended up turning the temperature to medium-low, covering the skillet with a lid, and cooking it until 125 degrees. While it was edible, I can’t say I loved the fattiness or the rareness. Our dinner guests said they enjoyed it, but I wasn’t thrilled. 

As per usual, Alison nails the condiments here. Quick kimchi, cucumbers, cilantro, flaky salt, and sesame oil are the perfect accompaniments. I made Melissa Clark’s Coconut Rice from Dinner, which paired well, but I missed having meat juices or a type of sauce to drizzle on the rice. 

Given the price of short rib, and my preference for less fattier meat, I don’t plan to invest in short rib again. I want more meat for my money. Next time I’ll try the sides in this recipe with a flavorful, less fatty beef or pork. 

143 recipes cooked, 82 to go.

Coconut-Braised Chicken with Chickpeas and Lime by Alison Roman

I’ll admit I came to this recipe with a bit of healthy skepticism. An Indian-Korean fusion dish sounded nice in theory, but could gochujang and cumin really go well together? Thank goodness it’s in Alison we trust (at least when it comes to cooking). I didn’t have to taste this dish to know my doubts were laid to rest. I simply had to smell it… 

This recipe calls for a mix of bone-in, skin-on chicken parts. Instead of trying to cut up a whole chicken myself this time, I bought 1.7 pounds each of legs and breasts. Which turned out to be a good call. With so much rich coconut milk, a darker meat, like thighs, would have felt too heavy. The whiter meat soaked in the fatty coconut and strong spices nicely. But I’m getting ahead of myself… 

The first twenty minutes were spent browning the chicken in my dutch oven, trying to render as much fat as possible. Sadly, much of the skin stuck to my pot, ripping off the skin as I took it out. I kept the heat at medium, like Alison says, and used canola oil too. Perhaps it’s my pot? Maybe the heat was still too high? 

With the chicken browned and the fat rendered, the chicken lies in waiting on a plate while garlic and onion spend time softening in the fat. Then joins the spice brigade: gochujang (Korean chili paste -- find this at Whole Foods or H-Mart), ginger (freshly grated), turmeric (I used the ground kind), cumin, and red pepper flakes. This is one powerful combination, and each spice is essential to the end result, adding dynamic heat, floral and earthy tones, and acidic tang (gochujang is fermented). The spices took no time at all to become fragrant. I added two cans of coconut milk next, along with chicken broth. I’ve recently taken after my pal Margaret and stopped buying cartons of chicken broth. Instead, I bought a Costco-sized jar of Better Than Bouillion and add one teaspoon at a time to boiling water before I start any recipe that requires chicken broth. It takes no time at all to make my own, plus it’s more fridge-space efficient and environmentally friendly! 

I submerged the chicken in the liquid, and sprinkled in a drained can of chickpeas. Now for the fun part: put on the lid and walk away. Forty-five minutes later, the smells of spice and coconut are frankly irresistible. But the stew needs more time. I removed the lid and let everything simmer for another half hour. You’ll know it’s ready when the chicken meat can practically fall off the bone with the smallest nudge. 

Toppings can make or break a dish. Good thing Alison’s suggestions make this dish a hundred times better: namely lime juice (use it liberally), fresh cilantro (sprinkle it freely), and thinly sliced red onions (enjoy). These three elements elevated the dish from being too heavily dominated by the coconut milk and chicken fat. I made the effort to chop up more for leftovers too – they’re that essential. For the record, Alison suggests fish sauce and peanuts as well, but I felt they were unnecessary. 

This dish is hands-down in my top three Alison-chicken dishes. It requires moderate effort and skill for such flavorful and filling results. Plus, I’m a huge fan of Indian and Korean flavors, so it’s no surprise that this dish won me over. The other top two are her Slow-Roasted Oregano Chicken with Buttered Tomatoes (no surprise there), and Crispy Chicken Legs with Rosemary, Tiny Potatoes, and Sour Cream. I also love when a dish makes enough for leftovers. Quick tip: before storing the rest in a container, try separating all of the chicken from the bones. It takes about ten minutes, but it makes eating leftovers effortless, and less messy. You’ll thank yourself later. 

140 recipes cooked, 85 to go.