i cooked every recipe in alison roman’s “dining in”: these are my top 10
Last year, I made it my new year’s resolution to cook every recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, Dining In (Alison Roman).
Out of the 113 recipes I cooked, there were some that stood out from the rest. Recipes I can’t wait to eat again, or I’ve already made more than once, or I still day dream about a year later. These are the special ones. Welcome to the highlight reel.
#10: blueberry cake with almond and cinnamon
Starting things off at #10 is this sweet-but-not-too-sweet blueberry cake that basically tastes like a giant muffin and is therefore an obvious crowd pleaser. I’ve made this twice now and it’s just as good with almond flour as it is with regular, so it’s a great option for my gluten-free folks. This is in the dessert section of the book, but I’ve taken the liberty to treat it as a breakfast cake.
#9: crispy chickpeas and lamb with greens and garlicky yogurt
This meal has a relatively small amount of ingredients but it packed so much flavor. The cumin-y, garlicky lamb gets crisped up, which makes for a super delicious dinner (albeit a slightly greasy one). Chickpeas + lamb are already a killer combo, and the yogurt and greens complimented the flavors perfectly. Definitely one I’ll be making again.
#8: grilled branzino with lemons all the ways
Wow wow wow. I love grilled fish, especially a fancy one like branzino. But these fishies got extra charred (somewhat accidentally…I won’t go into it, but I may or may not fully know how to use a grill and there’s a chance I fired these babies up at 700°). Basically I charred them into oblivion. But honestly I think it just made them extra delicious. And those lemons all the ways — aka raw lemon inside the fish, grilled lemon alongside it, and preserved lemon on top — were just the trifecta the dish needed to really shine.
#7: whole wheat pasta with brown butter mushrooms, buckwheat, and egg yolk
Pasta and mushrooms are two of my favorite things, so it’s no shock this one made the list. The unique ingredients + flavor combination made this one really different, and everything worked beautifully. I never would have thought to put crispy buckwheat on top of pasta (pretty sure buckwheat was just a character in The Little Rascals to me before this cookbook), but it was a really nice touch. And once you break that yolk and mix it into the dish: leveled up.
#6: paprika-rubbed sheet-pan chicken with lemon
Again, so so much flavor with this one. Garlic, fennel, lemon, paprika two ways — smoked and hot. To be honest I wasn’t even excited about this one; I was like, “okay cool, paprika…”. But this one knocked my socks off a little. The chicken turned out perfectly cooked after roasting low and slow, and was totally worth the work of spatchcocking it. It was so tender and juicy and satisfying. This is my reminder to rub this spice mixture on way more things.
#5: brown butter-buttermilk cake
I’m not sure if it’s because this was the very last recipe in the book, which I saved for the very last day of the year; or if it felt celebratory because it was New Year’s Eve; or maybe if it’s just the fact that this is called a brown butter-buttermilk cake…but this one hit different. Roman says it “tastes like an old-fashioned donut, in cake form,” and she is 100% telling the truth. Perhaps even better than the cake itself is the glorious buttermilk-y, salty frosting it’s covered in. This was the perfect treat to close out the year and celebrate a completely cooked cookbook.
#4: luckiest biscuits in america
I was nervous to make these because I notoriously suck at baking, especially when it involves dough or pastry. But I guess these are called the “luckiest biscuits in america” because even I could pull them off. And my gosh were they good. Crispy on the outside, soft and flaky on the inside, super buttery. Another one I will be coming back to, let’s just hope I get lucky again.
#3: roasted tomato and anchovy bucatini
A simple yet exceptional pasta. This involved some slow-roasted tomatoes, which ended up really making a difference. Other than putting some extra time in, this was a low effort recipe to make — with high reward. That touch of anchovy in the sauce made it stand out a bit from your typical tomato sauce; a saltier, umami-esque version. And bucatini is a stellar noodle that doesn’t get enough credit. Winner all around.
#2: grilled eggplant dressed with garlicky walnuts and lots of basil
I am one of the world’s biggest fans of eggplant, so I would have been happy enough with some charred eggplant to be honest. Throw that garlicky, toasty walnut situation on top? Yes, yes, yes. And freshen the whole thing up with a bunch of basil? Yes again. This was a fire combo and I loved every bite. (And no grill mishaps with this one)!
#1: anchovy-butter chicken with chicken fat croutons
Winner winner: chicken dinner. And there’s that anchovy again. I think this recipe was the first time I ever cooked with it, so I didn’t quite know what to expect here. But with “butter”, “fat”, and “croutons” as main elements in this dish, I think I understand why this comes in at #1. Again, a perfectly tender chicken, this time with crisp, buttery skin and an extra hit of salt and brine. But the true star of this dish are those crispy croutons hiding below it, soaking up all the chicken fat and anchovy -butter goodness. I couldn’t stop going back for them. Truly memorable.
