35 Lessons From Our Quarantine Kitchens
The first thing we did was shop. At the start of quarantine in mid-March, we, like so many of you, bought lots of beans, pounds of rice, and alllll the toilet paper. As a staff suddenly working from home, we enjoyed the opportunity to cook—to skip the salad line and make something delicious in our own kitchens before plodding back to makeshift workstations. But then we realized: Three meals a day every single day is a lot of cooking! There were So. Many. Dishes. And why do sandwiches taste so much better when someone else makes them? As days turned into weeks and then months, something changed: We became different kinds of home cooks.
Of course, quarantine has had impacts far greater than dirty dishes and chickpea fatigue. There has been immense hardship and devastation; we are grateful for our health and our livelihoods. And we are grateful to have found bright spots in our kitchens. We got more creative as cooks. More efficient. We learned to cut down on food waste, and on time spent chopping. We ate the tastiest beans (and we didn’t even soak them). We, people who write recipes for a living, embraced the fact that recipes are merely suggestions. We drank extremely potent cocktails with our parents.
There’s much about quarantine cooking we’re eager to leave behind: the stress of a grocery run, not being able to share food with a table full of friends and family. But what follows are strategies and recipes we picked up along the way—lessons we hope stay with us after that 20-pound bag of rice is finally gone.
Photographs by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou1/35Don't Soak Your Beans
I don’t soak beans. Ever. Why? Think about it: Dried beans are very absorbent, and when you let them puff up in a bowl of water overnight, what they’re absorbing is just that—plain water. To me, the hour or two that process shaves off your cook time simply isn’t worth a plain-water-flavored bean. Instead, I do like most Mexican households and toss my beans straight into a flexible five-ingredient blend of water, salt, herbs, garlic, and some kind of allium. After a few hours of simmering (fresher beans cook faster, but any will work), every last bean is suffused with rich, savory flavor. And yeah, this is also very good news for people who don’t plan ahead. —Rick Martinez, contributing food editor
Get the recipe: Frijoles de la Olla
Illustration by Sabrena Khadija2/35The Fridge Isn't a Black Hole
Even if you’re not the type to keep an itemized list of everything in your fridge, designate a prominent spot in your refrigerator for leftovers. That way you’ll remember to turn that 1⁄2 cup of beans and 1⁄4 cup of rice into koshari instead of forgetting them in the very back until it’s too late. —Sarah Jampel, Basically editor
Photo by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou3/35A Few Yolks = Perfect Fried Rice Every Time
Growing up, I watched Shin Chūka Ichiban!, an anime about a kid battling cooks in China. In one episode he coats rice in egg yolks before stir-frying. I was like, WOW. Golden fried rice comes from Chinese imperial cuisine, which sounds fancy but is home-cook-friendly. Take leftover rice, stir into yolks, and throw in whatever you want—it’s adaptable. The yolks separate each grain into a capsule of flavor, so you get superb fried rice. That generational knowledge is legit. —Lucas Sin, chef, Junzi, New York City
Get the recipe: Golden Fried Rice With Salmon and Furikake
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Illustration by Sabrena Khadija5/35Happy Hour Is Better With…Your Parents?
Contributing writer Priya Krishna spent the beginning of quarantine in Dallas with her parents. At a time when anxiety felt inescapable, the cocktails and cheese boards they made nearly every night for three months were her constant. Read more about how this family routine grounded her.
Kewpie mayonnaise may just be the greatest condiment of all time. It’s a thick, silky Japanese mayonnaise made with egg yolks, giving it intense richness, and perfectly balanced with vinegar for sweetness and tang. As I cooked meal after meal in quarantine, I found myself reaching for the (convenient, genius) squeeze bottle constantly—mixing Kewpie with Sriracha to make a spicy mayo for lettuce cups, whisking it into anchovy dressing for a quick spin on Caesar, and squeezing it over slices of clean-out-the-fridge frittata. Almost every food is made more delicious by the creamy umami of Kewpie. I went through three bottles in three months. —Claire Saffitz, contributing food editor
Photo by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou7/35There's a Better Way to Store Your Produce
Once “I’ll just swing by the store” stopped being an option, it became more important than ever to stretch the life span of my vegetables. And my crisper wasn’t made for this. I found the best way to keep carrots, snow and snap peas, radishes, and cut celery crunchy for weeks was to store them submerged in water in the fridge. Whenever I changed the water—every four to five days—I marveled at their eternal youth. —S.J.
Photographs by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou8/35You’ll Never Regret Having Garlic Around
If there’s one thing that cooking three meals a day from home has taught me, it’s that there is absolutely, positively no such thing as too much garlic in the pantry. It’s big flavor, fast, and I love it for that. On the rare occasion I find myself with more garlic than even I know what to do with, I whip up this extra-garlicky Caesar dressing, slather it on a chicken, and roast it to perfection. —Molly Baz, senior food editor
Get the recipe: Caesar Salad Roast Chicken
Illustration by Sabrena Khadija9/35Grow Your Own Herbs
Quarantine gave me a taste of a different life, where I can wake up later, drink a cup of coffee, and maintain a backyard garden. This summer my husband and I grew tomatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, herbs. Rosemary is my favorite. It grows year-round in New Orleans and I use it on everything: confit tomatoes, pasta, that trout we caught over the weekend. Add some fresh rosemary and there’s your flavor. It’s not subtle, but it complements anything—and it’s really hard to kill. —Nina Compton, chef, Compère Lapin, New Orleans
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Illustration by Sabrena Khadija11/35Don't Save the Good Stuff
Where did we learn “to save the best for last” anyway? I’m blaming the only place I ever learned anything: Sesame Street. But it doesn’t make a lick of sense. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? At the start of quarantine time, I opened a tin of souvenir sardines someone brought me from Paris. I forked them onto crackers while watching Schitt’s Creek on a Tuesday and I felt like the queen of the couch. There was MUSTARD in there; it was amazing! The next night I opened a bottle of natural vermouth I paid too much for in an attempt to look cool in front of my coworkers. It was cherry-cola delicious. Defrost the big steaks! Use that $$$ almond paste! Crack open the rainy-day Ghirardelli brownie mix! However you define the good stuff, don’t sit on it any longer waiting for a “special occasion.” The special occasion is, hopefully, that you have your health and people in your life who send you birthday texts. I’ll toast to that. —Alex Beggs, senior staff writer
As a chef I want to use my platform to lift up good products from passionate producers. This Hot Pepper Chowchow is one of my favorites. Instead of the standard mix of vegetables, owner Wanda Blake uses only peppers for a sweet, tangy flavor with background notes of onion and a little garlic. The first time I tried it, I bought 10 jars and served it at my Honeysuckle pop-up with a salami whose recipe I found in a book about how enslaved Africans preserved food. Cooking at home during quarantine, I put it on everything: fried chicken, tuna salad, collard greens. I use it as a mignonette for oysters or chopped up in beef tartare. This chowchow deserves to be anywhere and everywhere. Kraft should be beating down Wanda’s door with a billion-dollar contract. —Omar Tate, chef, Honeysuckle, Philadelphia
Photo by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou13/35Sure, Beans Are Nice, But Lentils Are Better
As a mostly vegetarian home cook, I have always relied on legumes as meal staples. But while beans got the spotlight this year, I was simmering big pots of lentils to make dal, toss into salads, or pour over toast. Lentils are beans’ more efficient cousins—they absorb flavors better, cook faster, and don’t require an overnight soak. That’s why I make lentils every week, and my favorite way to eat them is in khichdi—a soul-warming one-pot meal of lentils, rice, ghee, and spices (my family’s version leans into sharp fragrant ones like peppercorns and cumin seeds). The magic comes in the soft, smooth texture that results from lentils and rice comingling in the same pot until silken. After a potful of khichdi, you’ll want to stock up on lentils too. —P.K.
Get the recipe: Khichdi
Photographs by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou14/35Ground Meat Gets Dinner On the Table
I’m not a meal prepper. I just buy what’s good and figure it out at 6 p.m. But during quarantine, I started getting one-pound portions of ground meat and sticking them in the freezer. You can deploy them in so many different ways, like the easiest meatballs, Andy Baraghani’s recipe for quick stir-fried rice cakes with pork, or longer-cooking stewy picadillo from Rick Martinez. Plus, a pound goes a long way—you can stretch it out with vegetables and carbs. My freezer is my state of mind right now, and there is no greater joy than opening it up and defrosting some ground meat. —Chris Morocco, test kitchen director
Get the recipes: Weeknight Meatballs; Picadillo; Salt-and-Pepper Pork With Crispy Rice Cakes
Photo by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou15/35Never Say No to Loaf Cake
If I’m going to bake something for my household of two, with few opportunities to share, it has to meet a few standards. First, it needs to be as appropriate with my morning coffee as my after-dinner tea. Second, it should accommodate what I’ve got around—I’m not loading it up with three kinds of dairy and five types of sugar. Third, it should skip any cumbersome equipment, and finally, it should be long-lasting and freezer-friendly. This loaf cake checks all the boxes, and it’s also sturdy enough that when a chance to share does arise, I can toss a (well-wrapped) hunk to a friend from six feet away. —S.J.
Get the recipe: Apple Cider Doughnut Loaf Cake
Illustration by Sabrena Khadija16/35Don't Let “Use By” Dates Scare You
“Is __________ still good?” “[Sniiiiiff]...yeah, good enough.” So goes many an exchange in our house ever since a trip to the grocery store began to take on the significance of a trip abroad. A half-squishy bunch of parsley is no longer trash-bound. Week-old beans? Simmer them for a while—it’ll be fine! This degree of waste aversion might previously have felt extreme. But I’ve increasingly developed a more... intuitive approach to what stays and what goes. White mold is okay on cheese, why not on sour cream? These past few months I’ve learned that, despite what the FDA and our beloved research department will say, a good sniff will tell you more than an expiration date—the coward’s way out!—ever could. —Amiel Stanek, editor at large
Photo courtesy Horn Barbecue17/35Making Grilled Cheese for My Kids Is as Satisfying as Smoking Meat for a Living
Pitmaster Matt Horn often worked 48 hours straight for his Oakland pop-up, Horn Barbecue. Read about how quarantine gave him a chance to step back.
I’ve always thought re-creating the barista-caliber drinks I cherished from my morning trips to the coffee shop would call for fancy equipment. It turns out I don’t require a special grinder, a top-of-the- line espresso machine, or a temperature-controlled kettle to re-create the café experiences I’ve missed while home. All I need is a handheld milk-frother that can whip my beloved oat milk (and the regular stuff) into soft fine bubbles in a matter of seconds. Now I’m topping my coffee with luxurious foam, and turning my usual tea, from hōjicha to matcha to Darjeeling, into airy tea lattes. I can only dream of the day I’ll have counter space for, say, that special grinder, but for now this small battery-powered stick lets me indulge in all the foamy milk I want. —S.J.
Photo by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou19/35Everyone Could Use a Back-Pocket Broth
Over the years I’ve experimented with making broths that don’t rely on an animal carcass (which I rarely have lying around) and that are punchier than your average boxed chicken stock. A good broth should be able to stand on its own—not just in the background of a stew. This version is inspired by rasam, a South Indian soup that typically gets its tangy flavor from tomatoes and tamarind juice, and it’s the one I’ve been making on repeat. It comes together quickly and is tasty on its own, added to a braise, or ladled over crispy rice with a handful of herbs. —Andy Baraghani, senior food editor
Get the recipe: Spicy and Tangy Broth With Crispy Rice
Photo by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou20/35Call Your Mom—Then Fry Her Fritters
In isolation I’ve leaned hard on the everyday Bangladeshi food my mother cooked when I was growing up. It makes me feel safe in a way grilled cheese or fried chicken just can’t. She’d fry up these crispy, sweet fritters anytime there was a ripe banana around, so during quarantine I called her for the recipe. When I make kolar pitha now, it transports me back to her kitchen, which is exactly where I need to be. —Sohla El-Waylly, associate food editor
Get the recipe: Kolar Pitha
Illustration by Sabrena Khadija21/35Stop Wasting Food With FIFO
Throwing out food causes me physical pain and anguish, especially when I’ve been grocery shopping during these past several months. To minimize waste and stay on top of my fridge and pantry, I employ a restaurant strategy called FIFO. Shorthand for “first in, first out,” it’s a mandate to use ingredients in order of freshness, starting with the oldest. For example, I reach for that lingering produce before touching the newest spoils from my CSA. To master FIFO, labeling is essential. Invest in a roll of painter’s tape and a Sharpie to label and date every food item so you can see what needs to be used before going bad. Now you can be a more creative and nimble (not to mention less-tortured) cook. —C.S.
Photo by TED+CHELSEA CAVANAUGH22/35Get the Most Out of Your Freezer
We used to treat our freezers like temperature-controlled junk drawers. Three stray taquitos. A half bag of corn. Vintage pesto. But for strategic, economic cooking, something had to change. Read our 13 tips to make the most of the freezer.
Photo by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou23/35Cabbage Seems to Last Forever, Huh?
Cabbage is truly the gift that keeps on giving. It’s healthy, it’s cheap, it’s hardy, and it holds up for ages in the fridge. It’s one of those ingredients you can forget about for a week and it’ll still be fine. It’s versatile too: a pleasure to stir-fry with kielbasa, a revelation when raw and turn into a creamy slaw, and just as delightful roasted with a spiced tomato paste. —M.B.
Get the recipes: Kielbasa-Cabbage Stir-Fry; Spicy and Creamy Slaw; Fall-Apart Caramelized Cabbage
Illustration by Sabrena Khadija24/35Might As Well Multitask
The days when I’d turn on the oven to roast a handful of almonds are over. To maximize efficiency—for both me and my hardworking appliances—I’ve been treating my kitchen equipment like high-occupancy vehicles. If the oven’s already hot, I might as well roast sweet potatoes for tomorrow’s salad on the bottom rack while tonight’s salmon fillet cooks gently on the top, then bake a tray of brownies while I’m doing the dishes. If I’m pan-frying tofu or stirring risotto, I’ll also boil eggs or steam a pot of rice for later since I’m already standing at the stove. And if I’ve dragged the food processor, blender, or Instant Pot down from a high shelf, you can bet I’m not calling it a day after just one sauce (all it takes is a quick rinse between projects to go from muhammara to pesto). But tomorrow I’m sleeping in! —S.J.
Photo by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou25/35Anything Is a Taco—With the Right Salsa
I’m developing a cookbook while living alone in quarantine, so I have a loooot of leftovers. A tablespoon of this, a quarter cup of that: I can’t bear to throw any of it away, so it’s all packed into little containers throughout my fridge. But what’s the ideal way to use up this stuff? Tacos—which you can make out of just about anything as long as you have a highly versatile salsa to pull it all together (even when it means week-old fried rice or a few surplus meatballs). This tomatillo-based standby lasts five days in the fridge or up to a month if you freeze it. But my guess is that you’ll plow through it long before you reach that point.—R.M.
Get the recipe: Salsa Verde o Roja Cruda
We can’t live without a stash of duck, pork, and avocado fat Caramelo flour tortillas in our freezer. At the start of the COVID crisis, Kansas-based Caramelo was inundated with thousands of orders—which meant tens of thousands of tortillas, made by just five people—and still operates on a four-week waiting period. “I want my staff to feel safe and my customers to know we’re taking all appropriate precautions. So if that means we’re a little behind, I’m good with it,” said owner Ruben Leal. “We’ve been extremely fortunate. Just being able to keep the doors open was a major victory.” Pandemic or not, stretchy, wonderful Caramelo tortillas are now as essential to our freezers as ice. –A.B.
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Photo by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou28/35Cut Down on Prep Time, Not Flavor
Cooking two big meals a day for a family of four is already tough. Throw in endless Zoom meetings and you can understand why I’m not spending an extra 15 minutes chopping garlic, onions, and ginger anymore. Instead, I look to my spices. Inspired by Indian chhonk, I throw whole spices into hot fat, which dials up their flavor and makes them crispy and fun to eat. I drizzle it over everything, like this buttery, spice-laden cod recipe, or use it as the base for virtually any sauce. My relationship with spices—and the aromatics I definitely don’t miss chopping—is forever changed. —C.M.
Get the recipe: Saucy Spiced Cod With Corn
Illustration by Sabrena Khadija29/35Meal Prep Is More Fun When You Have a Grill
Lately I’ve been doing one huge grilling day a week at home. I throw steaks, marinated pork belly, whole fish, and sausages on the grate and then fill up the fridge. I don’t have a gas grill and getting the charcoal going is a chore, so I try to grill as much stuff as I can at once. Then, throughout the week, I can turn those grilled meats into anything. Steak becomes a Hawaii-style chop steak stir-fry; sausages are stuffed into breakfast burritos; fish goes into soup; and we do fried rice at least once a week to clean out the fridge. It’s kind of like how we do it at the restaurant, precooking things to make it easier during service. Shoots, it’s awesome. —Sheldon Simeon, chef, Tin Roof, Kahului, HI
Photo by Molly Milroy30/35It Took a Global Pandemic for Me to Stop Cooking Like a "Chef" and Just Chill
Chef Meherwan Irani remembers the real reason why he cooks, for flavor and fun not fanfare. Read how he realized this on, of all places, Instagram.
Photo by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou31/35Sweet Potatoes Are a Blank Canvas
If you can eat it, you can put it on a sweet potato and it’ll probably be delicious. Our method for success: Roast, sear, and don’t hold back on garnishing. Read more about how we do it here.
Photo by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou32/35Always Have Tofu on Hand
I never think twice about stocking up on a few packages of firm tofu to stash in the fridge. On the inevitable night when I don’t want to spend more than 20 minutes on dinner, I whip up this riff on dubu jorim, a popular Korean side dish, and call it dinner. I pan-fry thick tofu slices in a skillet until golden, then quickly braise them in a salty-sweet-spicy soy sauce mixture until they’re steeped with flavor, ready for a simple side of rice and sautéed greens. —Christina Chaey, associate editor
Get the recipe: Spicy Braised Tofu
Illustration by Sabrena Khadija33/35Give a Kid a Wok
During quarantine I tapped into the storytelling aspect of cooking. I was with my son a lot—he’s 10—and I was telling him about being in Hong Kong last year for Art Basel and how we did a dinner series with artists. I shared with him what we learned over there and taught him things I didn’t have time to do before. Like cooking with a wok. I made us stir-fries with mushrooms, sesame oil, and soy sauce and Shanghai- style omelets that puff up. He loved it, and he wanted me to teach him how to flip ingredients in the wok. He dropped a couple of things, but he’s upped his wrist game. Give him a year and he’ll be able to do the flip. —Lester Walker, chef, Ghetto Gastro, The Bronx
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Illustration by Sabrena Khadija35/35Take a Night Off
The problem with being a chef in quarantine is that everyone assumes you’ll handle the cooking. I am perhaps partly to blame (I have been known to bake my own birthday cakes just to avoid the agita of watching someone else try to do it). But we all have limits, and six weeks of breakfast, lunch, and dinner at Camp Ididn’taskforthis was mine. Taking a break from the grind by picking up a couple of pizzas changed my quarantine life and empowered me to look for other ways to save my sanity in the kitchen. I started to embrace shortcuts, like jars of Lucini marinara sauce ($16 on Amazon) and meals built around opening up a can of Amy’s Organic Refried Beans ($3 on Amazon). And it’s not like my kids minded that we were suddenly eating a lot more pasta, pizza, and quesadillas. Turns out letting myself off the hook a little made it a lot easier to take care of everybody else. —C.M.
