222 dark recipes

Moo grataem, a Thai garlic pork stir-fry with fish sauce, sweet dark soy sauce, and fresh cilantro. Thin-sliced pork tenderloin over rice in 30 minutes flat.

Stir-fried flank steak with a soy-sherry gravy over crunchy scalded bean sprouts and onion, seasoned with homemade Szechuan pepper salt. A textural Chinese beef dish.

Grilled bourbon chicken basted with a sticky glaze of bourbon whiskey, dark brown sugar, ketchup, Worcestershire, and garlic. Sweet, smoky, and charred at the edges. Backyard BBQ gold.

Wolfberries are some of the most nutritionally dense superfoods on earth and have been used for thousands of years in Chinese and Tibetan medicine. They contain all the essential amino acids, making them complete proteins. They also have very high concentrations of vitamin C and 21 trace minerals necessary for health.

Vegan maple rum rice creme made with short grain rice, soy milk, and maple syrup pureed smooth, served with a cocoa-honey chocolate sauce. A dairy-free, low-fat dessert.

Vietnamese peanut sauce (nuoc leo) with chicken livers, crunchy peanut butter, tahini, and dark soy sauce. A rich, savory dipping sauce for spring rolls, grilled meats, and rice paper wraps.

No-bake cherry rum balls rolled in powdered sugar, made with vanilla wafer crumbs, coconut, chopped nuts, and sweet cherries. This batch recipe yields 100 bite-sized treats.

Peanut butter crescents wrap refrigerated crescent rolls around a brown sugar peanut butter filling, then drizzle them with a peanut butter glaze. Eight rolls in 35 minutes from a single tube of dough. Quick breakfast pastry win.

Parchment wrapped chicken: tender chicken strips marinated in ginger-soy, tossed with bean sprouts, scallions, and walnuts, folded into parchment parcels and steamed. A classic Chinese restaurant appetizer made at home.

Rye beer bread with dark beer, molasses, and crushed caraway seeds. A yeast-risen round loaf with a chewy, crackling crust from steam baking.

Guizhou lianai doufu: golden-fried tofu squares stuffed with a garlicky cilantro-chili filling, simmered in a gingered soy sauce. A spicy Southwest Chinese classic worth the effort.

Chinese halibut grills thick steaks marinated in fresh ginger, scallion, light and dark soy, rice wine and toasted sesame oil. Charcoal-grilled in under 15 minutes for clean, smoky-savory weeknight fish.

Elegant individual tiramisu parfaits layered in stemmed glasses with mascarpone Italian meringue, coffee-soaked crumbs, dark rum, and bittersweet chocolate triangles.

Whipped sweet potatoes with orange juice, brown sugar, and warm spices, baked inside hollowed-out orange halves. A stunning holiday side dish you can freeze ahead of time.

Coconut-rolled vanilla ice cream balls floating in hot cocoa spiked with cream of coconut and optional dark rum. Topped with chocolate sauce and a cherry. A showstopper hot chocolate dessert for 8.

Homemade ketjap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce) from dark brown sugar, soy sauce, molasses, galangal, and cilantro. Stores for months at room temperature.