Recipes worth coming home to.

This homemade smoked bacon is built for thick-cut slices, diced bacon lardons, and especially pasta carbonara. Pork belly is cured with kosher salt, pink curing salt, black pepper, garlic powder, bay leaf, and crushed juniper berries, then lightly smoked until savory, aromatic, and pork-forward without becoming overly sweet or barbecue-like. The result is a clean, peppery, lightly smoky slab bacon that renders beautifully and gives pasta, eggs, cheese, and black pepper plenty of room to shine.

Total time

1 wk 1 d

Difficulty

Intermediate

Servings

Serves 20

By Russell Toris

This San Jose-style orange sauce is inspired by the famous orange sauce served at La Victoria Taqueria in San Jose, California. It blends roasted tomato, onion, and garlic with fermented jalapeños, dried árbol chiles, guajillo chiles, salty jalapeño brine, and neutral oil into a smooth, creamy, fiery orange sauce. The fermented jalapeños give it a tangy depth that makes the sauce taste fuller and more addictive after an overnight rest in the fridge.

Total time

1 wk 4 d

Difficulty

Intermediate

Servings

Serves 36

By Russell Toris

A fragrant homemade garam masala made by gently toasting whole spices, then grinding them into a fine powder. This blend is warm, floral, earthy, and aromatic, with black cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, fennel, star anise, mace, poppy seeds, rose petals, and optional saffron and nutmeg. Store it in an airtight container and use it to finish curries, dals, braises, rice dishes, roasted vegetables, and marinades.

Total time

15 min

Difficulty

Easy

Servings

Serves 16

By Russell Toris