Milk Street: Tuesday Nights
Winner, 2019 James Beard Cookbook Award for Best General Cookbook Tuesdays are the new Saturdays!
Now simple midweek suppers will taste like Saturday night. Ginger-Soy Steak, Salt and Pepper Shrimp, Hazelnut-Crusted Chicken Cutlets, Pasta with Seared Cauliflower and Garlic, and Cuban-Spiced Burgers. Milk Street has searched the world for simple techniques that deliver bold flavor in less time. Here, we present more than 200 solutions for bold weeknight cooking, showing how to make simple, healthy, big-flavor meals that come together in minutes using pantry staples and just a few other ingredients.
Il Colle Del Gusto Sicilian Pistachio Spread
Made from Sicilian pistachios and extra-virgin olive oil, Pistacchiosa is a creamy, aromatic spread you will want to put on all your desserts and, yes, eat straight out of the jar.
Huilerie Beaujolaise Calamansi Vinegar
We absolutely love this small-batch vinegar from French artisanal producer Huilerie Beaujolaise. With a bright and tangy vibrancy akin to tangerine, this vinegar almost tastes like a shrub, or drinking vinegar. Ubiquitous to Filipino cuisine, calamansi is a citrus hybrid between kumquat and mandarin orange.
Mymouné Pomegranate Molasses
I discovered this Pomegranate Molasses from Mymouné through a Cambridge restaurant called Moona; the Lebanese company makes all of its products by hand in small batches, and their pomegranate molasses is the sharpest and brightest I have ever tasted. The bottle will last a long time, and it is so much better than the sweeter, less balanced supermarket products. It's a a powerhouse ingredient used throughout the cooking of the Middle East and the Caucasus region that I guarantee you'll love. — Christopher Kimball
Megachef Premium Oyster Flavored Sauce
Megachef Oyster Sauce is made with premium oysters that are harvested off the Gulf of Thailand and smoked over hardwood for a deeper flavor and smoky, grilled aroma. We love its complex yet clean flavor: robust and savory, slightly briny and almost sweet. Although it's prepared by cooking down oysters until their juices caramelize, this sauce does not taste like oysters; rather, it has a molasses-like richness and sweet, savory and umami flavor that's slightly similar to soy sauce. Megachef's version has no added artificial flavors or colors—in contrast, even high-quality brands tend to augment their oyster sauce with ingredients like MSG and caramel coloring, resulting in an artificial taste.
While oyster sauce is mostly used as an ingredient for marinades, stir-fries or flavoring rice or noodle dishes, Megachef's Oyster Sauce is also delicious on its own as a condiment—the sauce's smoother consistency compared to other brands is perfect for dipping or drizzling over dishes.
Villa Jerada Harissa
Villa Jerada’s Harissa No. 1 is our favorite version of this North African red pepper paste for its bright, complex flavor. While many store-bought varieties have a one-dimensional spicy flavor, this harissa layers acidity and fruitiness with preserved lemons, a touch of vinegar and tomato paste for a lively, tangy condiment. Villa Jerada uses just enough high-quality Moroccan olive oil to make the harissa spreadable and smooth without diluting its flavor, as opposed to conventional brands that contain a high proportion of water and vegetable oil.
Little Apple Treats Original Apple Cider Vinegar
Produced from hand-picked apples, not the low-grade and windfall apples most companies use, and aged in oak barrels for two years before bottling, Little Apple Treats cider is bright and sharp, with a bold apple flavor and subtle caramel tones contributed by the barrel aging. This is the best American apple cider vinegar we’ve tasted, every bit on par with the fancy, expensive French stuff from Normandy.
Pic's Smooth Peanut Butter
Pic’s Peanut Butter works equally well for classic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as it does for baking and cooking. Choose between salted or unsalted—even the salted version has only half the salt of comparable brands. And while not impervious to separating, we find the peanut butter comes together quickly with just a stir or two, as opposed to the vigorous blending required with other versions. It also boasts a shelf stability up to 10 times greater than regular peanut butter. And the peanut butter itself is always made without any added sugar, oil or emulsifiers, so the peanut flavor comes through clearly in both sweet and savory recipes.
Angkor Food Lemongrass Paste
Angkor Food's Lemongrass Paste is an all-purpose curry paste made with bright and aromatic lemongrass, makrut lime leaves and galangal, balanced out by earthy garlic, onion and turmeric; fish sauce gives the paste a savory and complex boost.
Belazu Ingredient Company Rose Harissa
Made with dried rose petals, this aromatic harissa has an amazing depth of flavor, with an up-front warmth that builds gradually. The subtle rose flavor doesn't overpower but rather enhances the other ingredients, layering botanical notes with earthy spices and playing up the fruity and floral notes of the chili. Made with dried rose petals, this aromatic harissa has an amazing depth of flavor, with an up-front warmth that builds gradually. The subtle rose flavor doesn't overpower but rather enhances the other ingredients, layering botanical notes with earthy spices and playing up the fruity and floral notes of the chili.
Yugeta Organic Yuuki Shoyu Soy Sauce
This Japanese soy sauce has a light-tasting without being too thin or watery, with a rounded, mouth-filling umami flavor and clear, bright salinity that quickly yields to a light, wheaty nuttiness. Its clarity of flavor and clean finish are perfect for delicate foods like chicken and fish, as the shoyu won't overwhelm but rather enhance other flavors in a dish.
Irish Black Butter
A conserve of apples, cider, brandy, and spices, Irish Black Butter has a uniquely deep, caramelized apple flavor with subtle spice notes and an almost earthy, smoky finish. It’s made by cooking down the country’s famous Armagh Bramley apples until they developed a rich molasses-like quality and warm complexity; the apples themselves have a Protected Geographic Indication recognized by the European Union. Irish Black Butter has an excellent smooth, spreadable texture that is a bit thicker than store-bought apple butters; it isn’t silky or gelatinous on the tongue but rather has a very fine granularity like any good homemade apple butter. We absolutely love this award-winning paste for its depth of flavor—it’s the best apple butter you’ll ever have.
Auria's Malaysian Kitchen Lime Leaf Sambal
Based on a family recipe, Lime Leaf Sambal by Auria's Malaysian Kitchen is a one-of-a-kind tangy and savory chili paste made with makrut lime leaves and lime juice. The clarifying aroma and complex floral notes of makrut lime complement the chili peppers' fresh, vibrant quality without making the hot sauce taste overwhelmingly citrusy. The sambal is rounded out with pungent garlic, cane sugar and kosher salt for a savory, balanced condiment that has both the brightness of fresh chilies and the depth of cooked chilies.
Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil
Made from the seeds of wine grapes, this cold-pressed oil has an exceptionally light flavor yet full body. Similar to good olive oil, it has a fine balance of subtle peppery and fruity notes, ideal for enhancing vinaigrettes without leaving a greasy aftertaste. Yet the flavor is subtle enough that it won’t impart flavors to dishes when you want a neutral cooking medium. Arguably one of the best oils with a high smoke point, grapeseed oil is our go-to choice for sautéing, searing and stir-frying. It won’t impart flavors to dishes when cooking, nor will it smell fishy, like overheated canola oil. We also appreciate that company founder and Austrian-born chef Valentin Humer makes a point to package his product in metal bottles so no light gets in, ensuring a more stable product with a longer shelf life. Use Salute Santé's Grapeseed Oil for lighter foods—such as fish or delicate vegetables—that could benefit from a little richness but not the heaviness of fats like butter. It's the perfect oil for recipes such as our Udon Noodles with Shiitake Mushrooms and Spinach. Or try it in our Hazelnut-Crusted Chicken Cutlets with Arugula and Fennel Salad for fried and breaded chicken that is rich but not greasy. We also like to use Salute Santé Grapeseed Oil raw for subtle dimension in salad dressings. Use it in our Apple and Fennel Salad with Candied Pecans to emphasize its peppery and fruity flavors. Or make a chili-infused oil to dress our Smashed Cucumber Salad, which will still taste refreshing and crisp with Salute Santé's light and smooth product.
