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
