Canned Tomato

Once, when I was visiting Paris, my friend Emile from Gabon, Africa, made this dish for me. I was amazed that cooking with peanut butter could be so good.

All of the ingredients in this festive meal can be found in your pantry or freezer, making it a convenient wintertime treat. However, try to break up a frozen block of ground meat before adding it to the pot. There’s no need to defrost a package of frozen spinach. Let it sit on the counter to soften while preparing other ingredients. Cut it into chunks using a sharp knife, then stir the chunks into the meat mixture. Fresh spinach can be chopped slightly and mixed with the meat, or kept whole and layered on top.

Traditional masala spices are dry-roasted, which releases the aroma. Masala also calls for pureeing the onions and tomatoes together in a blender with the yogurt mixture. Here I offer a simplified masala, designed to be quick and easy. Of course, you may always vary any recipe to suit your own preferences. You can purchase masala spice mix in a specialty food store, or you can make your own. Combine 1/4 teaspoon garam masala, 1/4 teaspoon curry powder, 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander, 1/8 teaspoon turmeric, and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne. Keep leftover mix tightly covered in a dark cabinet. Substituting soy yogurt or light coconut milk is fine. Coconut milk used to get a bad rap for being high in saturated fat, but now we know it has the good kind of saturated fat. Turmeric is an anti-inflammatory herb, thought to be good for diseases that cause internal swelling, such as multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, and arthritis.

Puttanesca is a traditional pasta dish that supposedly had its origins in the food prostitutes cooked for themselves at the end of the night. The amount of spice called for here makes a medium-spicy dish. Adjust it according to your own taste. Although anchovy paste (or minced anchovies) is called for, don’t worry if you don’t have any or just want to leave it out. A tip: Do not lift the lid “just to check” before this meal is done or it will take longer to cook and your pasta may not come out perfectly al dente. This recipe works equally well with fresh or frozen shrimp. Instead of broccoli and artichoke hearts, try this with spinach or green beans. Consider red bell peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, or eggplant as well.

Adapted from a recipe out of Guam, the bananas give this meal a tropical flavor that my mother and mother-in-law both love. Be sure to cut any brown spots off the bananas before slicing. Sweet potatoes and yams range tremendously in size. You may be able to use all of a medium sweet potato in a single meal. However, if it is ten inches or longer, use only part of it. To make this dish even spicier, add a diced fresh jalapeño or serrano pepper to the onion layer at the bottom.

Cioppino, or fisherman’s stew, had its origins in San Francisco by way of Italy, but all Mediterranean countries have similar fish stews. Make this version your own with your favorite treats from the sea. Traditionally, this dish is not very soupy; for more broth, do not drain the can of tomatoes. I prefer to avoid precooked seafood for Glorious One-Pot Meals. If your frozen shrimp is pink, it’s precooked. While using precooked seafood certainly won’t ruin your meal (it’s difficult to fail with a Glorious One-Pot Meal!), raw seafood results in a stronger flavor and will be more tender after cooking.

In this recipe I deviate from the usual formula where the spinach would be the last ingredient added. I do this because sometimes spinach that touches the lid becomes browned, and although this doesn’t bother me, some may find it unappetizing. This method leaves the spinach greener. I get the best results when using frozen raw shrimp, though thawed raw shrimp will work well, too.

Bobby loves his goulash. It’s still the dish he begs Mama to make for him, even though he can have this easier, leaner version ready for himself when he gets home whenever he likes. Mama often serves her goulash the next day to let the flavors marry; cooking it in a crockpot in a single day achieves the same delicious effect.

Cooking chicken with mushrooms gives you such a nice intense and meaty-tasting broth. Along with meltingly soft bell peppers and onions, this throw-it-all-in-the-pot stew has wonderful Italian flavor. We love it over buttered noodles.

Serve this hearty chili over rice for a simple meal, or do it up Deen style over a bowl of Fritos corn chips with cheese, fresh onions, and sour cream. It sure tastes good with Moist-and-Easy Corn Bread (page 45).

We never get tired of the sweet, mild flavor of tilapia, but some nights we like to pair it with a nice bold sauce like this Italian combo, which offers salty capers and tangy tomatoes. Serve it with a side of rice to soak up all that delicious sauce.

If you’ve ever had Frito pie down South, then you know where we’re coming from here. This creamy turkey casserole, topped with a crispy layer of melted cheese and crushed corn chips, is the kind of thing that can make grown men cry on Super Bowl Sunday. Bobby loves to serve this with a side of crunchy, garlicky broccoli.

We always have a red rice dish on the buffet table at The Lady & Sons. Here we added beef to the skillet to turn our Cajun-influenced red rice dish into an easy crowd-pleaser. Since we’re on the Georgia coast, we’ll also do red rice with sausage and shrimp, so you can use that instead if you like: Just brown crumbled sausage in place of the beef and stir in a half pound of shelled shrimp for the last five minutes of simmering (or until they’re pink).