Big Batch Cooking

About this collection

There are snacks you eat standing at the counter, and then there are big batch cooking — the kind you clear your evening for. The crisp edge is what people remember, so be brave with the heat and generous with the seasoning. The trick with big batch cooking is patience: let the ingredients take on proper colour before you even think about moving it.

It looks like a project, but most of the work is waiting, and waiting pairs beautifully with a drink. If you can chop cherry tomatoes and hold a wire rack, you can make this. We promise. The trick with big batch cooking is patience: let the ingredients take on proper colour before you even think about moving it.

1. Honeyed Cheddar Rice Bowls

Rafa, who runs our test kitchen on Thursdays, calls this “the one that ruins other snacks for you”.

The trick with honeyed cheddar rice bowls is patience: let the ingredients take on proper colour before you even think about moving it. Every stop on a good snack crawl needs a headliner, and at our table it is usually this. We first ate something like this at a street stall in Beirut, balanced on a plastic stool, and spent the flight home reverse-engineering it. The crisp edge is what people remember, so be brave with the heat and generous with the seasoning.

Ingrid swears by adding the flat-leaf parsley in two stages: half cooked in for sweetness, half raw at the end for crunch. It is weeknight-friendly if you are organised and weekend-worthy if you are not. There are snacks you eat standing at the counter, and then there are honeyed cheddar rice bowls — the kind you clear your evening for.

Get the full recipe →

2. Toasted Salmon Croquettes

It reheats well, travels well, and disappears at parties at a frankly alarming rate.

We like to make the filling the night before, when the kitchen is quiet and nobody is asking what is for dinner. A digital thermometer takes the guesswork out. You are aiming for steaming hot in the centre and audibly crisp outside. It reheats well, travels well, and disappears at parties at a frankly alarming rate. There are snacks you eat standing at the counter, and then there are toasted salmon croquettes — the kind you clear your evening for.

There are snacks you eat standing at the counter, and then there are toasted salmon croquettes — the kind you clear your evening for. If your ingredients is releasing a lot of water, your pan is not hot enough. Take everything out, get it smoking, and start again in smaller batches. A spoonful of pickled jalapeños does the heavy lifting here, giving the ingredients a depth that tastes like you cooked all day.

Get the full recipe →