The Best Tasting Table Recipes Of 2015
Our most-loved recipes of the year, plus our editors' top picks
We had a deliciously busy year in the Test Kitchen hanging out with famous chefs, trying out their recipes and creating some of our own. Here are your most-loved dishes of 2015, plus a few of our editors' favorites.
Readers' Top Picks:
Homemade Irish Cream
Drink it straight (for all they know, that's a pre-bedtime glass of milk) or pour it into coffee Dublin-style. Considering you need less than five minutes to make a batch, it's not too late to give this as a holiday gift to everyone on your list.
Braised Chicken Thighs with Garlic, Lemon and Greek Olives
Marco Canora nearly broke the recipe internet with his Mediterranean chicken dish. Was it the ease of using a single pan? Or the sweet caramelized onions mixed with acidic lemon and olives? Whatever the reason, we don't blame you—this dish is in our weekly rotation of staples as well.
Chocolate Layer Cake
Layers really are the key to staying cozy in the winter, especially when they're made of fluffy cake and have a layer of creamy, chocolate ganache frosting as padding. Make this for birthdays, Valentine's Day or any other time that might need celebrating—and, yes, making it through a rough Monday definitely counts.
Cinnamon Rolls
Sweet breakfast dreams are made of these nostalgic, doughy goods. The day we ran out of reasons why they would possibly need "retesting" was among the sadder of the year, sweetened only by the fact that it meant assistant food editor Katy Peetz had perfected the gooey, buttery pastry.
Ratatouille
When the snow starts falling and fresh nightshades feel a world away, close your eyes and think of a happier time—one that contains eggplants, tomatoes and peppers—the basics for a traditional bowl of Provençal stew.
Editors' Favorite Dishes:
Khao Soi
A bird's-eye chile- and turmeric-powered curry paste, thick coconut milk broth and wiry fried egg noodles—Thai cooks really know how to do chicken noodle soup. Kanlaya Supachana, the chef at Brooklyn's Chiang Mai, makes a nose-clearing, soul-warming, supremely satisfying version of this Burmese-influenced soup, and it's what editor Elyse Inamine will be making all winter long.
Grilled Vegetables with Miso Sabayon
Take the Italian dessert custard, remove "Italian" and "dessert" from the picture and toss in miso, dashi and sake to get Andrew Zimmern's strangely addicting sauce. "If I were to start a food-based religion, it would be around this miso sabayon," editor-at-large Kat Kinsman says, and we'd all be right next to her in the pews.
Frozen Margarita Pie
Would you put whipped cream on top of a margarita? Maybe not. But you'd most definitely want it on this dessert, which is a cocktail you can stick a fork into. Insider's secret: We tested the final recipe of this editor's pick right before heading to the Lobster Rumble, where we each ate 20 lobster rolls. There wasn't a crumb of pie remaining when we left the office.
Pasta e Lenticchie (Pasta with Lentils)
2016 trend prediction: Lentil braising liquid is the new butter. As hearty brown lentils slowly simmer away, they release their liquid, which helps to thicken the one-pot pasta dish into a ragù-like sauce. A touch of milk helps makes it even creamier—and fully converted us to devotees of classic Neapolitan fare.
Thai-Pickled Mushrooms with a Fried Egg and Rice
More than a few editors were smitten with this versatile dish. Senior editor Devra Ferst has a love for it that goes around the clock: "I would eat them for breakfast, standing around in the my kitchen late at night or happily serve them at a dinner party." Chef James Syhabout from Hawker Fare also showed us how to make Thai-fried eggs, mesmerizing us by instantly blistering the whites in a pan of smoking-hot oil.