A kitchen archive of home cooking — recipes passed down, travelled for, and lovingly adapted.
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22 recipes
Carrot cupcakes are the ones you bring somewhere and everyone acts surprised that something with a vegetable in the name can taste this good, as if the carrot is doing anything other than keeping the whole thing moist. The cream cheese frosting is non-negotiable and I will not be discussing alternatives. These are the babies I reach for every spring without needing to think too hard about it, which is exactly what I want from a cupcake.
Mango lassi is the kind of drink that asks almost nothing of you, a blender, a ripe mango, yogurt, and five minutes, and gives back something cold and sweet and deeply satisfying. Growing up, mango was never a special-occasion fruit. It was just the one my family in Malaysia produced in quantities that made rationing seem absurd. Making this at home is the closest thing to that, even if my mango came from a supermarket and not someone's garden.
Peach and almond tart is the kind of thing you make in August when the peaches at the farmers market are so ripe they barely make it home. The frangipane, that almond-scented cream that fills the shell, is one of the more reliable things in my baking repertoire, which is not a long list. My oven and I have reached an understanding on this one, and let me just say: it took a while.
Sourdough pizza dough is slower than anything made with instant yeast, which is both the point and the inconvenience. The overnight ferment gives the crust a depth of flavor you simply cannot rush into existence, and the slight tang pairs with a bright tomato sauce in a way that makes everything else feel like a compromise. My starter and my oven have a complicated relationship, but when all three of us are getting along, this is the pizza I make in a heartbeat.
Cardamom buns made with a sourdough starter are the kind of thing you make once and then find yourself making every other weekend without fully understanding how that happened. The cardamom is the whole point, warm and floral and slightly citrusy, it turns a plain enriched dough into something that smells like your kitchen is doing its best work. My starter needs feeding before I can do anything, which is humbling, but let me just say: these babies are worth every hour of planning.
Sourdough is the recipe that taught me patience, which is not a lesson I was looking to learn. You cannot rush a sourdough loaf. The starter requires feeding, the dough requires time, and the oven requires a confidence I did not have on my first attempt, or my third. But I kept at it, because that is what I do, and this whole wheat version, earthy and deeply flavored with a proper crust that shatters satisfyingly when you cut into it, is the reason I kept a jar of starter alive through everything my kitchen has thrown at me.
Babka is the kind of bread that makes people think you spent the whole day doing something very difficult. You did spend the day, technically: there is rising time and then more rising time, but the actual work is mostly watching, which suits me fine. The cinnamon filling gets layered into a rich, buttery dough, and then the whole thing is twisted into something that looks considerably more impressive than it has any right to. These babies are my latest obsession.
FeaturedThere are dishes I make because they require skill, and there are dishes I make because they require excellent ingredients and very little else. This platter is firmly in the second category. Cold shrimp and crab claws, properly seasoned and served with two good sauces, are the kind of thing that stops conversation when you set them on the table. I have served this at gatherings and felt very pleased with myself, and I will not pretend otherwise.
A good fried fish is always on my list of current cravings, and this is the recipe I reach for when I want that craving met with some ceremony. The fish is light and crispy, the mango salsa is cold and a little sweet and a little sharp, and the whole thing gets tucked into a warm tortilla and eaten immediately. At this point, you can just forget about being a lady with the fork and knife. Things will get messy. That is the whole point.
Pandan is the smell of my childhood. It is what the kitchen in Malaysia smelled like when something sweet was being made, and it is the color I associate with home cooking done properly. This bread is soft and pillowy, with a fragrance that is difficult to describe to someone who has not grown up with it, slightly sweet, slightly grassy, warm in a way that has nothing to do with temperature. I couldn't wait to share this with you.
Bucatini Pomodoro is the kind of pasta I make when I want to remember why I love cooking in the first place. There are four ingredients that matter: good tomatoes, good olive oil, garlic, and pasta. That is it. I know that sounds like underselling, and it is not. The restraint is the whole point. I have added things to this recipe over the years and then taken them back out again, and the simple version wins every single time.
FeaturedRhubarb is one of those ingredients that looks like it cannot possibly taste good and then surprises you completely. The stalks are alarming. The color is magnificent. And once it is cooked down with a little sugar and poured into a buttery tart shell with a silky custard underneath, the whole thing becomes something I find very difficult to eat in moderation. Let me just say, this tart has caused me to start a second slice before I am done with the first.
Turkey chili is what I make when I want a big pot of something comforting and have told myself I am being sensible about it. The turkey is the sensible part. Everything that goes on top, the sour cream, the cheese, the extra handful of tortilla chips, that part I leave out of the conversation. This is a deep, slow-cooked chili with proper smoky heat, and it is very good.
FeaturedI have always had a weakness for anything from the sea that comes pan-fried and golden. Crab cakes are the kind of thing I order whenever I see them on a menu, just to see how someone else does it, and then I come home and make my own version. This one sits on a bed of dressed greens, something crisp and cool underneath something warm and a little crispy, and the combination is, let me just say, very satisfying.
These wings are the kind of thing I make when I want something sticky and deeply savory and I do not want to be delicate about eating it. The sauce is built around sesame and soy, flavors I grew up with, and once it coats the wings and caramelizes in the oven, there is very little that can stop a person from eating too many. I say this as someone who has eaten too many.
There is a story that belongs to this recipe, and it starts with my mom. Watching her make pie crust from scratch as a child, her hands moving with the kind of confidence that only comes from making something a thousand times, is one of my clearest food memories. I never asked her to teach me, which I will spend the rest of my life regretting. But I have been practicing on my own, and these little pot pies are my current favorite result.
Something warm and pull-apart-able from the oven on a slow morning, that is the whole point. These cinnamon rolls have cream cheese in the dough and a cream cheese frosting that melts into every fold while they are still warm. I have made these on a Saturday when I had nowhere to be. That is exactly the kind of recipe this is.
FeaturedCornbread is one of those things I always told myself I didn't need a recipe for. And then I tasted one that stopped me mid-sentence at a potluck, and just like that, I needed a recipe. This version has butter and honey in the batter, and more honey on top, because I couldn't help myself. It is warm, golden, and dangerously easy to finish in one sitting. I say that from experience.
FeaturedStack them as high as you dare. There is cold butter, real maple syrup, and fresh berries waiting, and absolutely no reason to be anywhere else this morning.
FeaturedA whole bird roasted low and slow under a thick blanket of sage butter, until the skin turns a deep, crackly gold. The kind of turkey that makes everyone find reasons to wander into the kitchen.
Mango and sticky rice is one of those combinations that earns its reputation. Glutinous rice soaked in coconut milk until it is tender and fragrant, ripe mango sliced alongside, and salted coconut cream poured over the top: this is not complicated, and it does not need to be. The whole thing depends entirely on the quality of the mango, which means you wait for the right season and do not compromise.
FeaturedMilk bread fell into my life after one sourdough loaf and the thought that I could do something more interesting with it. The tangzhong paste, a small amount of flour and liquid cooked together before going into the dough, keeps this bread soft for days rather than hours. The colors come from beet, turmeric, spirulina, and butterfly pea flower, which means every slice looks a little different depending on the swirls, and I find this more satisfying than I probably should.