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Sohla El-Waylly head shot - Epicurious

Sohla El-Waylly

Contributor

Sohla is a recipe developer and video host. Before she started developing fun recipes for home cooks, she worked as a chef in NYC. and LA, briefly owning a restaurant in Brooklyn with her husband and fellow chef, Ham El-Waylly. She lives in the East Village with Ham, their two dogs, and cat. Find out what else she's up to on Instagram @sohlae.

Short Rib Carne Asada Tacos

Short ribs aren’t just for braising. Make sure to grill them to medium doneness, just long enough to render fat and tenderize, without letting them overcook or toughen.

Salted PB&J Ice Cream Pie

Peanut butter, jelly, and buttery crackers, now a in no-churn ice cream pie form. Any nut or seed butter, jam or jelly, will work.

Eggplant Adobo

Adobo—both a style of preparation as well as the name of a dish—is one of the most widely known foods of the Philippines, often referred to as its national dish. To make adobo, which can be wet (very saucy) or dry (crispier and less soupy), pork, chicken, tubers, vegetables, squid, lamb, shrimp, or even duck, is simmered in vinegar, often with soy sauce, black peppercorns, and bay leaves. This recipe channels the same flavors of bright vinegar and dark soy sauce, using eggplant as the base, with the addition of ground pork for extra richness.

Corn and Peach Chaat

Juicy ripe peaches, raw sweet corn, and roasted peanuts come together in this peak summer snack—a perfect way to refresh after a day in the sun.

Grilled Naan and Tomato Party

Snatch up summer’s last big, juicy heirloom tomatoes and join Sohla El-Waylly for a grilled naan and tomato party. Grated raw tomato and ghee-sizzled nigella seeds create a base for pretty-in-pink raita and do double duty smeared on the naan during grilling. Meanwhile, big tomato wedges get tossed in spiced yogurt before charring on the grill. The dough for the naan is sticky and soft, but don’t be tempted to add flour. A supple and moist dough is key to a tender, bubbly bread. Just keep kneading and the dough will grow bouncy and smooth. If you haven’t worked much with yeast, don’t fear! Flatbread is a forgiving place to start playing with fermentation.

Salted PB&J Ice Cream Pie

Peanut butter, jelly, and buttery crackers in (no-churn!) ice cream pie form.

Trail Mix Cookies

Running out of Thanksgiving pie is the biggest drag of the holiday season. Console yourself by making these cookies with oats, chocolate chips, dried fruit, and nuts.

Ranch Fun Dip

Guaranteed to make any raw vegetable taste good, and it will last for weeks! The pistachios, nutritional yeast, and salt should be ground to the texture of coarse sand so the dip easily clings to the cut sides of the vegetables—just like, well, Fun Dip candy.

Cinnamon-Date Sticky Buns

These fluffy buttermilk rolls are filled with a cinnamon-scented date purée to capture all that sticky bun glory without being overly sweet.

Triple-Threat Onion Galette

The key to this flaky galette crust is to move fast! Rolling and folding the dough before the butter has a chance to warm up creates distinct layers of butter and dough that will steam apart during baking, becoming light and flaky.

Pork and Scallion Dumplings With Crispy Skirt

If the words crispy dumpling skirt don't send you running to your stove, we don't know what will. Instead of steaming these dumplings in water, we simmer them in a vinegary cornstarch and flour slurry that creates a lacy, crunchy golden crust as the water evaporates and the dumplings brown. The vinegar adds tang, but also creates the lightest and crispiest skirt, a pro move we borrowed from Dumpling Galaxy in Flushing, Queens. 

Cardamom-Pistachio Carrot Cake

Take your time when streaming the butter into the egg and sugar mixture—you want to create an emulsion, as when making a vinaigrette. If you go too quickly, you’ll end up with a greasy batter.

Ranch Fun Dip

Guaranteed to make any raw vegetable taste good.

Triple-Threat Onion Galette

Not just a clever name, this savory tart combines three alliums (scallions, garlic, and onion) for maximum flavor and crispy-jammy texture. The key to the flaky crust is to move fast! Rolling and folding the dough while the butter is still cold creates distinct layers of butter and flour that will steam apart during baking, making the crust light and flaky.

Spiced Lamb and Dill Yogurt Pasta

You’ll find all the flavors of Middle Eastern shish barak (tiny lamb and pine nut) dumplings here, but made simpler and brighter with help from dried pasta and plenty of fresh dill.

Cardamom-Pistachio Carrot Cake

Here’s what happened after carrot cake met carrot halwa, the milky, long-cooking, spoonably-soft confection common in South Asia. Raisins, cinnamon, and cream cheese frosting made way for brown-butter pistachios, cardamom, and sticky carrot glaze and the rest of their romance was history. 

Digestive Cookies

Wheat germ, the nutrient-rich heart of wheat kernels, gives these cookies their hearty, nutty crunch while also keeping them tender and crumbly. You can often find wheat germ in the bulk bin aisle of the grocery store, but toasted rolled oats or ground flax can be used in its place for a similar texture. These cookies are ideal for making in advance, as their flavor and texture improve after a few days. The butter and milk can be substituted with plant-based alternatives without sacrifice, so make them vegan if you want.

Healthyish Fried Chicken

We really went for it here, drawing on the flavor and texture of idli podi (a coarsely ground spice mixture that also goes by the name “gunpowder spice”) to create a gluten-free version of craggy-crunchy fried chicken. Our version swaps chickpea flour and sesame seeds for wheat flour, and, once fried, we dust it with lime zest, coconut, and crushed red pepper flakes. Be sure to fry the chicken to a deep brown to create superior crunch and coax out the nutty flavors of the chickpea flour and sesame seeds. And don’t skip the honey: It will balance out all the bold flavors.

Steamed Kabocha With Ginger-Soy Dressing

The magic of steam cooks the squash both quickly and evenly, and steaming the dressing with the squash opens up the flavor of the ginger, garlic, and scallions.

Better Than Celery Juice

Celery juice—all the rage! But still kind of a hard sell. With apple, parsley, apple cider vinegar, and a dusting of black pepper, things start to get interesting. Better yet: It also tastes good with gin.