Simple Cooking

Victoria sponge cake’s simple filling of whipped cream, jam, and fruit makes it the perfect dessert for a celebration.

These tandoori-spiced chickpeas get slow-cooked with aromatics in oil, and they’re sublime for a make-ahead meal.

It’s official: The best vegan chocolate cake is also the easiest chocolate cake in the world, no dairy or stand mixer required!

These jammy eggs are a quick and beautiful addition to any cocktail party.

Almond extract boosts the coconut flavor of these streamlined macaroon cookies. The recipe makes four bite-size confections but can easily be doubled.

This fairly classic gumbo recipe is made with okra and, optionally, filé powder. Chicken, andouille sausage, and a dark roux add savory depth.

The Manhattan is a classic cocktail made with whiskey and sweet vermouth.

Garlicky, buttery shrimp scampi is an Italian-American restaurant staple that takes little more than a skillet and 15 minutes of your time to make at home.

These sesame flatbreads can be made ahead and frozen—or, if you plan ahead, made fresh for breakfast.

Thepla is a quintessential Gujarati flatbread that goes with anything—mango lassi, a cup of chai, or achar for dipping.

In this bok choy recipe, you’ll stir fry the vegetables with soy sauce, ginger, and garlic, and drizzle with sesame oil.

If you like mojitos, you’ll like this minty swizzle from the Queen’s Park Hotel in Trinidad. The swizzle is a category of cocktails named for the special bar tool used to mix all crushed-ice cocktails in the days before blenders. A swizzle stick is a long stick made with three to five forked branches originally made from the allspice bush. If you don’t have one, though, you can use a bar spoon to churn the drink with a similar motion, rotating the stick by rubbing your hands back and forth again …

One of the oldest and most perfect of three-ingredient cocktails, the Japanese Cocktail first saw print in 1862 but remains stubbornly unknown and underappreciated.

The Manhattan/Brooklyn cocktail riff that birthed a dozen others, Vincenzo Errico’s Red Hook was first served at the original Milk & Honey, the influential bar in New York.

When you store this batter in the fridge (for up to 2 days!) every day can be pancake day.

This vegetarian pad Thai gets its tangy-sweet flavor and flush of heat from a sauce made with tamarind pulp, soy sauce, brown sugar, and Sriracha.

Using tangzhong—a technique that calls for mixing a cooked flour mixture into bread dough—produces a bread that’s unbelievably soft, sweet, and fluffy.

These sour cream pancakes are just as tender and flavorful as ones made with buttermilk, but the real star is the tangy-sweet sour cream maple syrup.

Though this pâté can be eaten the day it's made, we find it even more flavorful when made one or two days ahead. If you use several small ramekins instead of a pâté crock or terrine, you may need more clarified butter to seal the tops.