Top 10 recipes of 2008 (plus five runners-up):
- 1
Naked ribs Some people like barbecue for the sauce; purists like it for the pork.
- 2
Breakfast is making a comeback in Southern California restaurants -- even in places you might not expect it.
- 3
Old-fashioned custard pies seem to have gone the way of Sunday suppers and country roads, but if you want to learn what you’re missing, it only takes only a piece of this fabulous walnut-raisin pie from Patty Pinner’s cookbook “Sweety Pies: An Uncommon Collection of Womanish Observations, With Pie.”
- 4
Some exotic mushrooms may be becoming commonplace.
- 5
Chicken breasts have a bad reputation -- too often they’re considered nothing but diet food, and dried-out diet food at that.
- 6
Happiness, writes frequent contributor Liz Pearson, is a dinner that just about cooks itself -- and also leaves plenty of leftovers to carry you through the week.
- 7
Total time: 3 hours, 15 minutes Panforte is kind of like the Italian version of fruitcake -- a dense, chewy fruitcake at that.
- 8
There are few combinations in cooking more natural and flexible than beans and greens.
- 9
Former Test Kitchen director Donna Deane, who retired this year, was one of the best bakers we’ve ever known.
- 10
Total time: 1 hour, 40 minutes There’s more to do with pumpkin than put it in a pie, Test Kitchen manager Noelle Carter found during the Thanksgiving holidays.
- 11
Dario Cecchini, the Tuscan meat-cutter who may just be the most famous butcher in the world, came to Los Angeles this year to visit friends.
- 12
Subtler than smoked salmon, gravlax has a velvety texture and a delicate taste, particularly when it’s scented with notes of anise and licorice the way Amy Scattergood prepared it for a story on brunches.
- 13
To put it mildly, Test Kitchen manager Noelle Carter has a thing for bacon.
- 14
Canned tuna is so commonplace you might think it’s crazy to make your own.
- 15
Total time: 45 minutes Is romesco becoming the new pesto?
