Author Archives: The Fresh Princess

Chicken Shawarma Bowls

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I’m all about efficient dinners these days. Long gone are the evenings where I’d toil away at the stove and sit down to dinner after 8pm. Today, dinners heavily involve microwavable rice from Trader Joe’s (a literal godsend!!) and one-pan dishes served promptly at 5:30pm. And, that’s OK.

I’m here to share my latest dinner efficiency, which shortcuts (just barely) a favorite NYT recipe for oven-roasted shawarma. Boneless chicken thighs roast in the oven with shawarma spices, loads of garlic and red onions. Serve with rice or pita, a quick Israeli salad, pickles or olives, your favorite Mediterranean dips (I did a vegan tzatziki and hummus) and you’ve got yourself a Cava-level bowl any working professional would be happy to eat during their lunch break. God, I miss fast casual lunches.

Chicken Shawarma Bowls 

  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 1/3 cup 
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced 
  • Kosher salt 
  • 3 tablespoons shawarma spice blend (I like Pereg)
  • 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 1 large red onion, peeled and quartered
  • Fixings of your choosing – rice, pita, cucumbers, tomatoes, pickles, hummus, tehina etc.

Whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, shawarma spice in a large bowl or Ziploc bag. Add the chicken and toss well to coat. Chill for at least 45 minutes in the fridge.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Drizzle some olive oil on a sheet pan. Add the onion to the pan and pour the chicken with all the marinade goodness – toss to combine with the onion and lay everything in even layer.

Put the chicken in the oven and roast for about 40 minutes. Remove from the oven, allow to rest 2 minutes, then slice into strips. Serve with rice, Israeli salad, pita, pickles, olives, hummus, tehina, tzatziki – sky’s the limit!

Roast Chicken With Maple Butter & Rosemary

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If you’re looking for a simple roast chicken recipe that hits all the cozy notes of fall, look no further. This is it. Thank you, Colu Henry and the NYT! Maple, rosemary and butter (I used vegan butter because, kosher) join forces to create a juicy bird that is caramelized on the outside and a delight to eat. I threw in carrots and potatoes to roast alongside the chicken and I do not regret that decision. The veggies caramelize in the flavorful maple-y chicken pan drippings making this a complete meal. Littles enjoy this sweet-salty dish too!

Roast Chicken with Maple Butter & Rosemary

Adapted slightly from The New York Times

  • 1 (3 1/2-pound) whole chicken
  • Kosher salt and black pepper
  • 2 to 3 rosemary sprigs, plus 2 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted vegan butter
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 3 whole carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
  • 3-4 Yukon gold potatoes, cut into chunks
  • 1 onion, quartered
  • Olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Season the outside and inside of the chicken with salt and pepper. Place the chicken (breast-side up) in a large cast-iron skillet or dutch oven and stuff the rosemary sprigs inside the bird.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the chopped rosemary and the maple syrup for about 1-2 minutes until it thickens a bit. Spoon all of the mixture over the chicken, making sure it is evenly covered all over. Don’t worry about the mixture landing in the bottom of the pan. Scatter the carrots, onion and potatoes around the chicken, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss around.

Roast the chicken and veggies, occasionally basting the chicken with the pan juices (if you remember) for about 60-120 minutes until it’s nice and golden. Allow the chicken to rest at least 10 minutes before carving.

Salmon Cakes

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Salmon cakes. Who am I kidding? These are salmon patties. But cakes sound so much chicer than patties, so I’m going with cakes. This recipe is from Julia Turshen’s new cookbook, Simply Julia, which I’m really enjoying. It’s an approachable, warm book with loads of healthyish takes on comfort food. I’m all about uncomplicated recipes that are satisfying and quick to throw together these days. I love Julia’s personal essays and really enjoyed all the recipes I’ve tried so far – sticky chicken, cornmeal cobbler with frozen fruit, crispy smashed turkey burgers, and a great all-purpose soy saucey/tehina dressing. Other things I’m dying to try from the book: the green spaghetti, kale and mushroom pot pie, and the sled dog muffins!

This recipe, called ‘ricotta and potato chip fish cakes with peas’ in the book, includes a creamy pea sauce which really took me back to childhood. My Aunt Jean made the most delicious salmon patties (pan fried in lots of butter) and always served with a creamy pea sauce. I didn’t know it was really a thing. I butchered the pea sauce here, unfortunately. I had neither enough peas or milk. The salmon cakes don’t really need it though… I also used crushed Ritz crackers instead of sour cream and onion (!) potato chips (which are undoubtedly fantastic). The ricotta adds a whipped lightness to the patties and lemon zest and Old Bay Seasoning give them tons of flavor. Don’t forget to hit these with a generous squeeze of lemon before eating, it really brightens it up! I served these with an easy stovetop mac and cheese and roasted broccoli. This trifecta of fish, mac and cheese, and broccoli is my comfort food love language.

Salmon Cakes

Adapted slightly from Simply Julia

  • 2 (6 ounce) cans of pink salmon packed in water, drained
  • 2 ounces of Ritz crackers (half a sleeve-ish), crushed into fine crumbs
  • 1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
  • 1 tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning
  • 1 lemon, zested
  • 2 tablespoons chopped chives
  • 2-3 tablespoons butter

In a large bowl, add the cracker crumbs, salmon, ricotta, lemon zest, chives, and Old Bay Seasoning. Stir mixture really well breaking up the salmon as you go. Form into 8 patties.

Place the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Once butter melts and begins to bubble, place the fish cakes in the skillet and cook for about 2-3 minutes until nicely browned on the bottom. Flip each one over and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Try not to crowd the pan, you can fry them in batches adding more butter as you go. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Cut the zested lemon into wedges and serve with the fish cakes.

Pastrami Roast Chicken with Schmaltzy Onions & Dill

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This recipe, from Molly Baz’s new cookbook, was love at first sight. I don’t even own the book yet (it’s in my cart, don’t worry), but I knew the moment I laid eyes on this dish (on Insta) that I needed this chicken in my life. Thankfully, my Molly Baz loving friend bought the book and sent me the recipe – bless her.

Just like Ina, I too make a roast chicken for dinner pretty much every Friday night. I’ve tried a lot of recipes over the years – from the Ina classic with fennel and carrots to Peruvian-style with a green sauce to Portuguese piri piri, Israeli with zaatar and lemon to the cult-favorite Zuni Café rendition. All delicious, but this friggen chicken recipe blew my mind and transported me to one of my all time favorite places – Second Avenue Deli.

The pastrami spice rub is just magical and the synergy of the schmaltzy red onions with the dill made me feel like I was eating a bowl of matzo ball soup with my pastrami sandwich (my go-to order). It was just something else. Also, highly recommend serving this with Dijon mustard for slathering, as Molly suggests. Really delivers maximum Jewish deli vibes. Maybe the best part about this recipe is that it’s so easy to make with ingredients you most likely have on hand. This is my new favorite Friday night bird.

pastrami roast chicken

Pastrami Roast Chicken with Schmaltzy Onions & Dill

From Molly Baz’s Cook This Book

  • 2 large red onions
  • 2 whole garlic heads
  • 1 3.5-4 pound whole chicken
  • 5 tablespoons olive oil
  • Kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon paprika
  • 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup dill leaves, chopped
  • Dijon mustard, for serving

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut onions into 3/4 inch thick wedges and place in cast iron skillet or roasting pan. Cut garlic heads in half and place in skillet nestled with onions. Drizzle 3 tablespoons olive oil over the onions and garlic, sprinkle with about a teaspoon of salt and toss gently. Adjust garlic heads to they are cut side down in the pan.

In a small bowl combine 1.5 teaspoon salt** (I used a Kosher chicken so cut back quite a bit on the salt, Molly uses 4 teaspoons in her recipe), 1 tablespoon paprika, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 teaspoon black pepper and 2 tablespoons olive oil mixing until a paste forms. Place the chicken breast side up on top of the onions in the skillet. Rub the paste all over the chicken – really get into the nooks and crannies and underside of the chicken!

Roast the chicken for 50-65 minutes, giving the onions a toss after 30 minutes. My bird got a bit too dark, you can tent with foil if it starts to get too dark for the remainder of the cook time if this happens to you.

Sprinkle the onions and garlic with the dill. Carve chicken and return on top of the onions and garlic for serving. Slather with that dijon for maximum pastrami sandwich vibes.

Seared Tuna Bowl with Spicy Mayo & Ponzu Sauce

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My saved posts on Instagram consist mostly of weeknight dinner inspiration. Not the glossy, overly-styled food photos shot by a professional, but the hand-in-the-shot, poorly lit (but delicious looking) dinner plates of both the strangers I follow and the people I actually know. This relatable content helps inform my weeknight dinner repertoire on the reg.

Here’s a window into my saves – there’s baked chicken tenders with homemade ranch sauce, a 15-minute veggie lo mein and a Mexican-inspired rice bowl with black beans and Trader Joe’s corn salsa. Real meals by real people is what sparks inspiration on my feed because ‘what am I having for dinner tonight?‘ is a question that plagues me from the moment I wake up. #dinneranxiety

One such dish that inspired me recently was a seared tuna rice bowl with spicy mayo that’s a go-to for my friend and cooking mentor, Pam aka @potsandpams. She shared a pic of her dinner plate and I immediately saved the photo and asked for the recipe.

This dish is super simple, healthyish and full of flavor. Cook the tuna to your preferred doneness or you could even chop it up and serve it raw, poke style. The veggies lend a fresh, bright crunchiness to the dish and the two sauces are so good you could drink them with a straw. You could opt for just one of the sauces, but you’re going to want both – they’re that good.

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Seared Tuna Bowl with Spicy Mayo and Ponzu Sauce 

Serves 2, with leftovers for work tomorrow  

Tuna

  • 1 pound sushi grade tuna
  • 1/4 cup of black and white sesame seeds
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 tbs vegetable oil

Spicy Mayo

  • 1/4 cup mayo
  • 1 tbs sriracha
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp mirin
  • 2 tsp rice vinegar

Ponzu Sauce

  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1 tbs mirin
  • 1 lime, zest and juice
  • 2 tsp freshly grated ginger (or 2 cubes of frozen minced ginger!)
  • 1 tsp sriracha

Bowl toppings

  • 1 cup short grain brown rice*, cooked
  • 2 cucumbers, thinly sliced
  • 1 avocado, thinly sliced
  • 4 radishes, thinly sliced
  • 3 scallions, sliced
  • handful of cilantro, chopped

Rub tuna with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place sesame seeds on a large plate and dredge tuna in the seeds covering completely on both sides. Heat vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until almost smoking. Place tuna in the skillet and cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side. Remove tuna from the skillet and let it cool slightly and then thinly slice it.

Whisk all ingredients for ponzu sauce in a small bowl and set aside. Whisk all ingredients for spicy mayo in a small bowl and set aside. To assemble, divide the rice among bowls and top with sliced tuna, cucumber, radishes, avocado, cilantro, scallions and drizzle with spicy mayo and ponzu sauce to your heart’s content!

*Short grain brown rice is a recent addition to my life and I’m obsessed and never going back to non-short grain brown rice. 

Eggplant Parmesan

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Let’s talk eggplant parm. Cheesy, Italian, vegetarian comfort food at its finest, eggplant parm is not particularly difficult to make but it does require time.  Pre-salting the eggplant, breading and frying it, baking the dish and then the most painful part: letting it rest for a full 20 minutes before eating to solidify. This dish is best suited for a Sunday evening when you have time to graze in and out of the kitchen and leisurely sip on a glass of wine to ward off the Sunday scaries.

I hope I didn’t just deter you from making this dish – it really is easy and apart from the eggplant, you likely have all of the ingredients already. Especially if you’re like me and keep a Costco sized bag of shredded mozzarella in your freezer and a can of pizza sauce in your pantry at all times. Serve your eggplant parm with a big green salad or a side of pasta (completely unnecessary, totally delicious) for the perfect Sunday supper.

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Eggplant Parmesan

Makes a nice little micro eggplant parm, serves 2-3 hungry people. 

  • 1 large eggplant, sliced lengthwise 1/2 inch thick
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2/3 cup flour
  • 1 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 1 cup Parmesan, grated
  • 1 1/2 cups mozzarella, shredded or torn if using fresh
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 1/2 tsp dried basil
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 can pizza sauce (I like Don Pepino)
  • salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375°. Season the eggplant slices with salt and let them hang out in a single layer for a bit (an hour or so if you can spare it) so the eggplant can release some of its liquid. Wipe away the accumulated moisture on top of each slice with a paper towel.

Mix panko with 1/4 of grated Parmesan, dried basil, oregano and season generously with salt and pepper. Dredge eggplant slices in flour and shake off the excess. Dip slices into egg and then panko mixture.

Heat vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook eggplant slices (as many as will fit in the pan) until deep golden brown on both sides – about 5 minutes total. Transfer to paper towels to absorb any excess oil.

Mix mozzarella with 1/2 cup of Parmesan. Spread 1 generous tablespoon of sauce over the bottom of a 9×9″ glass baking dish, top with a layer of eggplant slices (if you need to cut them to ensure they fit, that’s fine). Spread about 1/4 cup of sauce over the eggplant slices and sprinkle generously with your mozzarella-parm mixture. Add another layer of eggplant, followed by 1/4 cup sauce and half of the remaining cheese mixture. Repeat layers until you’re out of ingredients. Final layer should be cheese! Cover with foil and bake for 35-45 minutes. Turn broiler on high. Broil uncovered until the top gets all golden and bubbly – about 2 minutes. Let it rest for 15-20 minutes before serving – this is very important!  Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan before serving.

eggplant parmesan recipe easy

eggplant parm recipe

Korean BBQ Brisket

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As a parting gift after a visit with my brother, Andrew, he gave me a generous baggie full of gochugaru – Korean red chili pepper flakes, non-woke friends. This is the kind of epicurean relationship we have. We go grocery shopping for fun and have a shared google doc with our future restaurant’s menu mapped out. He orders me a bottle of limited edition Red Boat fish sauce, I bring him back a bottle of Douro Valley wine from Portugal. It’s a give and take relationship that revolves mostly around food – and love and admiration too!

The gochugaru sat relatively untouched in my pantry for a while until one day the inspiration struck to make bo ssam for some friends coming over for dinner. Bo ssam, a popular Korean dish, is a slow roasted caramelized pork shoulder. After consulting Andrew on adapting the recipe using a brisket, I abandoned the bo ssam idea and landed on a Korean BBQ brisket recipe that I could make in a crockpot. My plan was to serve it bo ssam style with lettuce cups, scallion garlic sauce, spicy mayo, rice and kimchi of course. To say it was a hit is an understatement. Tender, spicy brisket wrapped in crisp butter lettuce and topped with a zingy, flavorful sauce is the most perfect bite of food. It’s fun to eat and great for entertaining.

You can find gochugaru on Amazon or at your local Asian supermarket (H-mart for life!). I recommend shopping in-store for it though. Roam the aisles and you’ll find tons of unique and delicious ingredients that will inspire you to expand your repertoire and cook new, interesting dishes outside of your comfort zone.

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Korean BBQ Brisket

From Melissa Clark

  • 4 to 5 pound beef brisket
  • 1 tablespoon gochugaru
  • 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 to 3 tablespoons neutral oil
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
  • 1 cup lager-style beer
  • 1/4 cup gochujang (Korean chile paste) or Sriracha
  • 2 tablespoons ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons light or dark brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons Asian fish sauce
  • 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Rub the beef with the gochugaru flakes, paprika, salt, and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Heat a large dutch oven over medium high heat. Add a tablespoon of the oil, let it heat up for a few seconds, and then add the brisket and sear on both sides, about 2 minutes per side, adding more oil as needed. Remove brisket from the pot.

Add more oil to your pot if needed and add the onion and sauté until golden, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and sauté 1 minute longer. Add the beer, gochujang, ketchup, soy sauce, brown sugar, fish sauce, and sesame oil. Scrape the mixture into your crockpot.

Cook on high for 7 to 9 hours or low for 10 to 12 hours. Cool brisket in the fridge until it’s fully cold. Slice it while it’s cold and reheat in the oven in all its saucy goodness.

Apple Pie

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I adore pie (pie > cake any day of the week) but I’m not that great at making it. The real trouble arises when I try to crimp the edges of the pie crust. I just can’t seem to get the hang of it.

My Aunt Debbie, an expert pie maker and my personal pie mentor, led a pie bootcamp for me a few years ago.  We spent the afternoon in her kitchen and she coached me in the basics of pie baking from crimping to lattice work. Unfortunately, years later it still doesn’t come naturally to me.

But here’s the saving grace in my pie game – struesel topping. It’s delicious and will cover up any unsightly crust errors. Plus, it’s a cinch to make – just crumble together butter, sugar and flour and dump it on top of your pie.

This apple pie recipe is adapted from my pie-guru Aunt and makes the perfect fall dessert. The crust is flaky and delicious, the apple filling stays perfectly in place when you slice it and it’s got all of the delicious fall spices. Your friends will ooh and ahh over the fact that you made a pie from scratch (I promise it’s not hard!) and it makes the perfect end to a fall dinner.

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Apple Pie 

Adapted from Aunt Debbie

For the crust: 

1 ½ cups flour

1 ½ T powdered sugar

1/8 t salt

6 T unsalted margarine or butter

2 ¼ T Crisco

2-4 ½ T cold water

 

For the apple filling:

6-8 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and sliced

3/4 c granulated sugar

3 T flour

1 t cinnamon

1 tsp kosher salt

½ tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp allspice

½ lemon, zested

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the streusel topping: 

2/3 cup flour

1/3 cup softened unsalted butter or margarine

1/3 cup granulated sugar

 

To make the pie crust: 

Put flour, margarine or butter cut into chunks, powdered sugar, salt, and Crisco into a food processor. Pulse off and on, until crumbly.  Then add water, 1 T at a time, through the top, while pulsing, until a ball forms. Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for ½ hour or more.

Lightly flour 2 pieces of waxed paper. Remove ball of pie dough from refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature – about an hour. Flatten ball slightly and using a rolling pin, roll to a thin round disk. Disk should extend one inch beyond the sides of an 8 or 9 inch pie pan. Fold the dough in half using your rolling pin and place in your pie dish and unfold it. Form a “standing ridge” around the sides of the pie pan by folding the extra pastry under, and then flute the edge. Consult YouTube for further instructions.

Assembling your pie:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the apples with the sugar, flour, spices, salt, lemon zest and juice. Pour apple mixture into your pie crust. Cover apples with streusel topping.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Then turn temperature down to 350 degrees and bake for 45-55 minutes or until apples are tender. Took me a good 1:15 to get the top nice and golden and apples tender.

Funfetti Birthday Cake

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There are few people in this world who merit a 3-layer funfetti birthday cake. My sister in law, Devora, happens to be one of them. She’s the loveliest person and when she asked me to bake her birthday cake this year, I was honored. Devora is a huge sprinkle-lover (she introduced me to ordering vanilla milkshakes with rainbow sprinkles) and I knew immediately that her birthday cake had to be funfetti. Sprinkles just make people happy.  This cake tastes way better than the classic boxed cake version and elicits all the fond memories of that birthday cake you ate in 1998. While not for the faint of heart or organically-inclined (hello, butter!), this cake is perfection in every other way and enhances a birthday second only to cold-hard cash.  I decided to really go for it here and cover the entire cake in sprinkles. Ultimately, I’m glad I did, as it yielded the desired results – lots of oohs and ahhs, but my kitchen was a sprinkle massacre and hasn’t recovered yet from the whole ordeal. You’ve been warned.

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funfetti birthday cake recipe

funfetti cake recipe

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funfetti cake recipe

There’s something oddly ethereal about this pic.

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Funfetti Cake

Adapted from Molly Yeh’s recipe in her cookbook, Molly on the Range

Cake
2½ cups flour
¼ cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
4 large egg whites
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon clear imitation vanilla (I used McCormick brand)
¾ cup whole milk
½ cup rainbow sprinkles

Frosting
1¾ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
3½ cups powdered sugar
⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
1½ teaspoons clear imitation vanilla
2 tablespoons whole milk

2 cups sprinkles for decoration

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and line the bottoms of three 8 or 9-inch cake pans. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking powder. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the egg whites, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the oil and the vanilla extract. With the mixer running on low speed, add the dry mixture and the milk in two or three alternating batches and mix until just barely combined.

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the sprinkles until they’re evenly distributed. Distribute the batter among the cake pans, spreading it out evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Begin checking for doneness at 25 minutes. for cupcakes. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting: In a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth and gradually beat in the powdered sugar. Add the salt, extracts, and milk and beat to combine. Frost the cake and decorate with sprinkles as desired.

Key Lime Pie

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Meal prepping is a lifestyle that’s just not right for me.  I respect the practice and know it has a lot of merit but it’s kind of depressing. First of all, who wants to spend a Sunday night boiling eggs and washing and chopping vegetables? The sunday scaries are hard enough.  Plus, you’re basically eating leftovers for a week straight. It sparks no joy in me. And if we were Marie Kondo-ing my life, we’d eliminate meal prep for this very reason.

At the opposite end of the spectrum in a place far away from 3-day old grilled chicken and quinoa is key lime pie. It’s decadent. It’s tropical. It’s fun!  It’s everything that meal prep is not and that’s why you should make one this week. 

Besides for the muscle required in juicing 10 limes, key lime pie is pretty easy to make. And the payoff is huge. Perfectly tart custard piled high with whipped cream all nestled in a buttery graham cracker crust. It’s sheer perfection as Mary Berry would say if she tasted a slice of my pie.

I used Alison Roman’s recipe from her cookbook, Dining In. This cookbook has quickly become a favorite – and I’m a discerning cookbook scholar. For the topping, Roman combines freshly whipped cream and Greek yogurt which yields a delightful tart yet rich topping which complements the lime nicely. She also uses coconut oil (in addition to butter) in the graham cracker crust for a nice tropical island vibe. Crank the heat in your apartment, turn on the reggae channel on Pandora and eat a slice of this pie on a Sunday night. It’s way better than meal prepping, I promise.

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Key Lime Pie

From Alison Roman’s Dining In

Crust
10 graham crackers
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
A pinch of kosher salt

Filling
4 large egg yolks
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons lime zest, plus more for garnish
1 cup lime juice, about 10 limes
Pinch of kosher salt

Topping
1 cup heavy cream
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 cup full-fat Greek yogurt


Preheat oven to 350°. Using your hands, crush graham crackers in a large bowl until coarsely ground. You can also use a food processor but don’t pulverize it; you want some nice texture.  Add the butter, coconut oil, sugar, and salt and mix until well blended. Press the crust evenly in a 9″ pie dish. Use your fingers and work the crust up the sides of the pie dish. Bake crust, until lightly golden brown about 10 minutes. Let the pie crust cool while you make the filling.


Using an electric mixer on medium speed or a whisk beat the egg yolks until pale and light – about 5 minutes. Add in the sweetened condensed milk and beat for another 3 minutes until mixture is pale and frothy.  Whisk in the lime zest, juice, and salt. Pour into the crust. Bake pie until filling barely jiggle in the center – about 20 minutes. Let cool completely.


Whip cream and powdered sugar in a large bowl until stiff peaks form. Add in the yogurt and mix until just combined. Top the cooled pie with the cream leaving the outer rim exposed for a nice contrast. Garnish pie with lime zest.

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