Recipe Archive

Main Dishes

Main dishes anchor the meal. This category gathers poultry, seafood, meat, pasta, grains, and plant-forward recipes with clear methods and satisfying structure.

3095 recipes

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Recipes

Fish with Ginger Stir-Fry (Pla Pad Khing)

Chef Fai

Fish with Ginger Stir-Fry (Pla Pad Khing)

Ginger is the governing aromatic here, slivered and seared in a screaming wok, coating delicate fish in a light glaze that proves Thai stir-frying isn't always about brute force. Sometimes the wok whispers.

Salt-Crusted Grilled Fish (Pla Pao)

Chef Fai

Salt-Crusted Grilled Fish (Pla Pao)

A whole fish buried in salt, grilled low and slow over charcoal until the crust cracks open to reveal flesh so moist it falls from the bone. The nam jim seafood dipping sauce carries all four pillars. The fish just needs fire and patience.

Crispy Fish with Chili Sauce (Pla Rad Prik)

Chef Fai

Crispy Fish with Chili Sauce (Pla Rad Prik)

A whole fish fried until the skin shatters, then drowned in a sauce born from the kreung tam: dried chilies, garlic, shallots, and kapi pounded in the krok, cooked out with tamarind, nam pla, and palm sugar. The four pillars, poured hot.

Three-Flavor Fried Fish (Pla Sam Rot)

Chef Fai

Three-Flavor Fried Fish (Pla Sam Rot)

Sweet, sour, spicy: three of the four pillars in one glossy sauce, poured over a whole fish fried so crispy it shatters. The system names itself in this dish.

Turmeric Fried Fish (Pla Thod Kamin)

Chef Fai

Turmeric Fried Fish (Pla Thod Kamin)

A two-ingredient kreung tam, turmeric and garlic, pounded and rubbed into fish, fried until the crust shatters gold. Southern Thai preservation science made permanent by flavor.

Southern Fried Mackerel (Pla Too Tod)

Chef Fai

Southern Fried Mackerel (Pla Too Tod)

The fish that feeds the Gulf coast daily: short mackerel scored, rubbed with turmeric and salt, fried until the skin shatters. No ceremony. Just the four pillars working through the plate, not just the pan.

Plátano Macho Relleno de Queso Costeño

Chef Lupita

Plátano Macho Relleno de Queso Costeño

The Costa Chica's meatless home plate: ripe plátano macho boiled soft, mashed, and wrapped around salty queso costeño, then fried dark in manteca until the sugars caramelize. Sweet and salt in one bite, from Mexico's Afro-Pacific coast.

Plátanos Rellenos de Picadillo Jarocho

Chef Lupita

Plátanos Rellenos de Picadillo Jarocho

From the Sotavento coast of Veracruz, ripe plátano macho pounded into a sweet dough, wrapped around a sweet-savory beef picadillo of raisins, almonds, olives, and capers, then fried in lard until the shell turns deep gold.

Plukfisk

Chef Freja

Plukfisk

Boiled torsk flaked into a gentle mustard bechamel with waxy potatoes, quartered eggs, and fresh dill. Mormormad, the quietest and most generous kind of Danish home cooking, made with love and meant to be shared.

Poc Chuc

Chef Lupita

Poc Chuc

Mérida's daily grilled pork, thin loin marinated in sour orange and charred garlic, seared fast over screaming charcoal, and served with chiltomate, pickled red onions, and frijol colado.

Poisson au Black Bean (Tahitian-Chinese Steamed Parrotfish)

Chef Makoa

Poisson au Black Bean (Tahitian-Chinese Steamed Parrotfish)

Lagoon parrotfish steamed the Papeʻete Chinese way, with salted black beans, ginger, scallion, and hot oil, a Tahitian celebration dish that lets the reef fish stay itself.

Poisson Cru (Tahitian ʻIa Ota, Raw Fish in Coconut and Lime)

Chef Makoa

Poisson Cru (Tahitian ʻIa Ota, Raw Fish in Coconut and Lime)

Raw ʻahi turned just enough in lime, bathed in fresh coconut milk, and run through with cucumber and tomato. Tahiti calls it ʻia ota; poisson cru is the French name sitting beside it.

Poke ʻUlu (Hawaiian Breadfruit Poke)

Chef Makoa

Poke ʻUlu (Hawaiian Breadfruit Poke)

Cooked Hawaiian ʻulu, the breadfruit our canoes carried, cubed and dressed like poke with sweet onion, limu, sesame, and ʻinamona. No fish today. Same bowl, elder food.

Polenta Concia

Chef Graziella

Polenta Concia

The enriched polenta of the Aosta Valley, where fontina melts into cornmeal porridge with enough butter to fuel a day in the high Alps. Mountain cooking that asks only for time and a strong arm.

Polenta Cremosa com Ragu

Chef Juliana

Polenta Cremosa com Ragu

You don't need talent for creamy polenta. You need hot stock, a steady whisk, and the nerve to keep stirring until the corn relaxes into dinner.

Polenta Pasticciata

Chef Graziella

Polenta Pasticciata

Northern Italy's answer to lasagna, where humble cornmeal becomes something worthy of Sunday dinner. Layer it, bake it, let it rest. It improves with waiting.

Polenta Taragna

Chef Graziella

Polenta Taragna

The dark polenta of Valtellina, where buckwheat flour meets cornmeal and local alpine cheese transforms a peasant dish into something that sustained mountain people through centuries of hard winters.

Politiko Imam Bayildi (Ιμάμ Μπαϊλντί)

Chef Dimitra

Politiko Imam Bayildi (Ιμάμ Μπαϊλντί)

Constantinople's Imam Bayildi is eggplant split open and filled with onions cooked down in olive oil, garlic, and tomato, then left to rest until soft, sweet, and glossy.

Pollastre a la Catalana amb Prunes i Pinyons

Chef Isabel

Pollastre a la Catalana amb Prunes i Pinyons

Catalonia braises chicken slowly with prunes, pine nuts and vi ranci, then stirs in a pounded picada so the fruit softens into a dark, glossy sauce without turning it sweet.

Pollastre amb Escamarlans

Chef Isabel

Pollastre amb Escamarlans

Catalonia's mar i muntanya brings browned chicken and langoustines together in one cassola, with a slow, dark sofregit underneath and an almond picada binding the sauce at the end.

Pollo a la Naranja Sonorense

Chef Lupita

Pollo a la Naranja Sonorense

Sonora's savory orange chicken stew, bone-in pieces browned in lard and braised with Valencia orange, white onion, garlic, canela, and clove, finished at the table with warm flour tortillas to catch the sauce.

Pollo a la Sidra Asturiano

Chef Isabel

Pollo a la Sidra Asturiano

Asturias braises chicken with its dry natural cider, sweet onion, and tart apple. Brown the meat well, then reduce the cider until the sauce clings in a bright, glossy coat.

Pollo ai Limoni alla Siciliana

Chef Graziella

Pollo ai Limoni alla Siciliana

A whole chicken roasted in the Sicilian manner, with lemons tucked inside and scattered beneath, oregano perfuming the skin, the juices running clear and golden. This is not about sauce. This is about restraint.

Pollo al Acuyo Veracruzano

Chef Lupita

Pollo al Acuyo Veracruzano

Central Veracruz chicken in a green acuyo sauce, where tomatillo gives brightness, serrano gives the edge, and hoja santa brings the anise perfume that no jarred seasoning can fake.

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