#recipes

#recipes

The book, with its bold print, panels of colour and moving photographs, felt shocking. As did the recipes, which seemed both near and completely out of reach.

Garlic scapes are flavorful and versatile flowers that possess subtler notes of alliums like onions and garlic. They can be used in many recipes.

On a single crumb of cheese rind there are more than 10 billion microbes: that's more microbial cells than there are people on Earth. Cheese rind is an intensified expression of the cheese, with a powerful flavour and highly concentrated community of good bacteria, yeast and mould.

Hall's oats felt like a parfait with a lovely mix of textures. The presentation was nice, too. Drummond's overnight oats were good, but Fuller's impressed me the most and looked amazing.

"The recipes that you have as a child are very powerful, they are very visceral. They stay with you, too. I remember many recipes, but certainly one of them, when my mother used to go to the garden just before we ate, and unearthed those tiny potatoes we called grenaille in France, which are like a fingerling potato."

"The solution to everything was just add butter. It was the moment when I realized so much of the magic that occurs in pastry, but also in sauces, emulsification, creating that silky texture of a classic French sauce, it's all because of butter."

When it comes to exploring Black foods, cultures and histories in the U.S., author Anela Malik says her book, "American Soul: The Black History of Food in the United States" (National Geographic, $40) is just a starting point. Because while Black history is vital, the present and future are also important to understand, she says. In an effort to do that, the book highlights a range of recipes and introductions from some of the contemporary voices in Black culinary leadership today.

When you're craving a dish that feels cozy but still offers all the nutrients you need to feel your best, roasted vegetables are the way to go. They often taste richer and more complex than their raw or steamed counterparts, but they still make you feel your best when you eat a big batch of them. Whether you just want some roasted vegetables as a side dish or you want to incorporate them into a more coherent meal,

Yogurt bowls are great-both the sweet and savory kinds-but there are so many more recipes with yogurt to know and love. This versatile dairy staple can bulk up a breakfast smoothie, anchor a marinade for lamb and other meats, form the base of classic dips like tzatziki, and transform ice pops into high-protein, healthy desserts-adding tang, tenderness, and creaminess along the way. From weeknight dinners to no-bake sweets, yogurt does more heavy lifting in the kitchen than almost any other dairy product.

Can food exist without love? And, inversely, can love exist without food? The answer to both is yes, of course, but the two are so intertwined that it's hard to imagine a romantic date without dinner, or a form of care greater than cooking a loved one their favorite meal. With Valentine's Day approaching, we at New York Times Cooking took a spin through our reader comments and found many tales of courtship and connection, of partings and proposals.

Start with our cover star, food director Chris Morocco's one-hour bolognese that uses a pantry shortcut, Chinese black bean sauce, to kick up the umami. Then make his Green Chile Puttanesca Pork Chops where jarred jalapenos and guindillos offer buzzy heat and brightness to counterweight the rich meat. Senior Test Kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic also shared wintry vegetable dishes that can stand on their own.