Our round-up of the 10 most popular recipes of January 2022 features a combination of new recipes, from Terence’s eggs, potatoes and chorizo breakfast skillet recipe to my Russian navy style macaroni recipe for Makarony Po-Flotsky or Макароны По-Флотски, as well as recipe collections, from our top 6 potato salad recipes to our 30 best curry recipes.
It’s almost the end of the month and we have a busy few days ahead so I decided to review our stats from the previous month today and share our 10 most popular recipes of January 2022.
I love seeing what you searched for, read and, we hope, cooked, or at least bookmarked to cook. And it appears you enjoy it, too, as this monthly round-up turned out to be one of our most popular new series of 2021, so we’ll be continuing it in 2022.
Funnily enough, by far our most popular recipe post of January was our compilation of 10 most popular recipes of December. It would be a bit silly to include that in this round-up of the 10 most popular recipes in January, so the list below starts at #2.
Same rules apply as last year: we’re excluding the recipes that keep landing on these lists time and time again, such as my Russian beef Stroganoff recipe, along with the decade-old recipes, such as Terence’s côte de bœuf recipe, which chef Pierre Gagnaire gave us in Paris, tomato bredie recipe from Cape Town, and rabo de toro oxtail stew from Jerez.
Those older recipes were created for our series called The Dish, in which we shared recipes for the quintessential dishes of each of the places we settled into for two weeks at a time on the 2010 yearlong global grand tour that launched Grantourismo. They top our best recipe lists year after year.
It would be so boring for you to see them topping this series month after month, so when they appear on the top ten lists I’ll link to them and reference them in the intro, but exclude them from the list below.
Now before I share our 10 most popular recipes of January 2022, the recipes our readers searched for and spent most of their time in January, the recipes that we hope you cooked last month, we have a favour to ask.
Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by using our links to book accommodation, rent a car or campervan or motorhome, buy travel insurance, or book a tour on Klook or Get Your Guide. You can also shop our Grantourismo store for gifts for foodies, including fun reusable cloth face masks designed with Terence’s photography. You could also buy us a coffee, although we won’t buy coffee, we’ll put that donation toward cooking ingredients for recipe testing.
Another option is to contribute to our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon or purchase something on Amazon, such as these James Beard award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, cookbooks for culinary travellers, travel books to inspire wanderlust, gifts for Asian food lovers, picnic lovers and travellers who love photography. We might earn a small commission from your purchases but you won’t pay any extra. Now let me share our 10 most popular recipes of January 2022.
10 Most Popular Recipes of January 2022 – Here’s What Our Readers Have Been Cooking
Here are the 10 most popular recipes of January 2022 on Grantourismo – the recipes our readers searched for, spent time on, and cooked this month.
6 Potato Salad Recipes – Our Best Potato Salads for Summer and Winter Eating
After our round-up of the top December recipes, which I linked to above, this collection of our best 6 Potato Salad Recipes was next on the list of our 10 most popular recipes of January 2022.
Our collection of best potato salad recipes include recipes for everything from a Japanese potato salad that’s part mashed potatoes, which I’ve left on this list (below) as it’s a new recipe, to a Burmese potato salad with tamarind, chilli, fried onion, and fragrant mint, and my Russian salmon potato salad with jammy soft-boiled eggs, capers, gherkins and dill.
It’s no surprise as who doesn’t love a potato salad? An Australian of Russian heritage, I have mayonnaise running through my veins, so I could live on potato salad. Almost!
Some of our best potato salad recipes are some of our best summer salads, but they are also fantastic eaten in winter. In cool weather, you can serve potato salad warm or at room temperature, while in spring and summer you can refrigerate potato salad overnight and serve it chilled.
Best Potato Salad Recipes – 8 Potato Salads You Can Eat All Year
Eggs, Potatoes and Chorizo Breakfast Skillet
Terence’s eggs, potatoes and chorizo breakfast skillet recipe for Weekend Eggs was next on the list of our 10 most popular recipes of January 2022. It makes our favourite take on the classic American country skillet breakfast made in a cast iron skillet, also called a cowboy skillet breakfast or farmer’s skillet breakfast.
Although there’s an infinite array of variations on the traditional breakfast skillet recipe – additions include anything from bell peppers to kidney beans – the essential ingredients of the classic skillet breakfast are eggs, potatoes, onions, cheese, and bacon or ham.
We prefer to make it with spicy chorizo sausage instead of bacon and ham, and specifically soft Mexican chorizo, which has to be cooked before eating, rather than the firm Spanish-style chorizo, which could also be used, but take care not to over-cook it as it tends to go hard.
Monterey Jack cheese is a must, otherwise a young cheddar cheese will work. For the hot sauce, our current favourites are Tapatio Salsa Picante and Cholula Original Hot Sauce.
If you enjoy this combo of chorizo, potatoes and eggs, you should also enjoy our Spanish potato omelette recipe with chorizo, Basque-style ‘messy eggs’ recipe for fried eggs with chorizo and potatoes, and our breakfast taco recipe with fried eggs, chorizo and crunchy potatoes.
Eggs Potatoes and Chorizo Breakfast Skillet Recipe for a Twist on a Classic American Breakfast
30 Best Curry Recipes from Chicken Curries to Chickpea Curries from Southeast Asia, Africa and Beyond
We love curries so I was thrilled to see that this compilation of our 30 best curry recipes from Southeast Asia, South Africa and beyond was next on the list of our 10 most popular recipes of January 2022.
They include everything from a rich Cambodian Saraman curry and its cousin Thai Massaman beef curry to the more gently-spiced Cape Malay chicken curry, Burmese Indian-Style curry, and the decadent pork belly curry, gaeng hang lay moo from Northern Thailand.
Our best curry recipes from Southeast Asia, South Africa and beyond include 30 recipes for curries, curry noodles and curry soups from across the region, as well as our meat pies and sausage rolls made with Southeast Asian curries, and our curried egg sandwich recipe.
Curries are cooked all over Southeast Asia, especially in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, and Indonesia, all of which experienced periods of Indianisation. Indian culture influenced so many aspects of Southeast Asian cultures – architecture, sculpture, art, music, dance, costume, as well as the cuisines.
Japanese Potato Salad Recipe
This Japanese potato salad recipe was next on the list of our 10 most popular recipes of January 2022 and is one of the most versatile potato salad recipes you will make. It was included in that collection of our best potato salad recipes, above, however, it’s a new recipe, so I thought I’d leave it here seeing it was the third most popular recipe of January.
On the menu at izakayas, in bento boxes, and served with dishes such as tonkatsu in Japan, a typical Japanese potato salad comprises partly-mashed diced potatoes, finely sliced cucumbers and carrots, corn kernels, boiled eggs, ham, and Japanese mayonnaise.
Our Japanese potato salad recipe makes a quintessential Japanese potato salad, which, if you’ve travelled in Japan you may have come across on the menus at Japanese izakayas (drinking taverns), discovered in that bento box you bought on the bullet train, or enjoyed as a side served with tonkatsu.
If you love potato salads and you have made our potato salad recipes before, from our decadent salmon potato salad to our traditional Russian potato salad for an Olivier salad, then you’re going to love this Japanese potato salad.
This Japanese Potato Salad Recipe is One of the Most Versatile Potato Salad Recipes You Will Make
Russian Navy Style Macaroni
My Russian navy style macaroni recipe for Makarony Po-Flotsky or Макароны По-Флотски was another of our 10 most popular recipes of January 2022. It makes a spicier take on a Soviet-era dish called Fleet Macaroni.
The dish was cooked up for the naval forces, particularly submarine crew, who were fed better than other seamen to make their months underwater more tolerable. Their rations even included red wine!
A quick, easy and affordable dish to prepare during the Soviet period, when a standard fleet macaroni recipe included no more than a handful of ingredients – pasta, minced beef, onions, oil, and salt and pepper – the old-fashioned dish evolved in the diaspora, becoming a comfort food favourite for nostalgic Russian migrants.
It’s also called ‘Soviet Bolognese’, although aside from minced beef and onion, it shares little with ragu alla Bolognese, which has a richer meat sauce and greater depth of flavour – something I’ve tried to inject with spice, rather change the identity of the dish.
I serve it with a classic garden salad on the side, along with dishes of homemade dill pickles and quick-pickled red cabbage. I have more salads and sides in my Russian family recipes collection.
Nostalgic Russian Navy Style Macaroni Recipe for Makarony Po-Flotsky or Макароны По-Флотски
Our Best Stew Recipes from a Traditional Russian Beef Stew to Rich French Cassoulet
Our collection of best stew recipes was another of our 10 most popular recipes of January 2022.
The compilation includes comforting recipes for everything from a traditional Russian beef stew and authentic beef Stroganoff to a rich French cassoulet Toulousain, classic Cape Town tomato bredie with spicy lamb and potatoes, and a Moroccan lamb tagine with prunes and almonds.
If you’re in the mood for comfort food, browse this collection of our best stew recipes. Few dishes beat a hearty French cassoulet Toulousain or traditional beef stew, or even a braise such as an authentic Russian beef Stroganoff, if you need a hug or warming up, particularly if you’re in the northern hemisphere, where it’s winter.
Although we’re using unexpected cool weather here in Siem Reap as an excuse for dipping into our best stew recipes and cooking up some comforting stews, warming braises and nourishing winter soups, it doesn’t matter what the weather’s like, our best stew recipes will take good care of you.
Best Stew Recipes from a Traditional Irish Beef Stew to Rich French Cassoulet
Creamy Smoked Salmon Dip Recipe
This smoked salmon dip recipe made with salty capers, dill pickles, purple shallots, a pinch of paprika, and plenty of fresh perfumed dill beats a store-bought dip any day and it was another of our 10 most popular recipes of January 2022.
While it might cost you a bit more to make, nothing tops homemade and you’ll taste the difference in the fresh herbs and proper salmon. It makes an utterly addictive dip – I could not stop eating it! – which is why it was another of our most popular January recipes.
By the way, I also add white pepper, garlic powder and sea salt, all of which you can adjust to your taste.
The dip is part of my series on nostalgic dishes and snacks, homemade and store-bought, from the 1970s through 1990s.
Creamy Smoked Salmon Dip Recipe with Salty Capers, Dill Pickles, Paprika and Fresh Dill
Oyakodon, A Japanese Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl
It was so cool to see Terence’s rendition of oyakodon make this list of our 10 most popular recipes of January 2022 as he only published it a week ago for Weekend Eggs.
This Japanese chicken and egg rice bowl is made from silky soft scrambled eggs with sweet spring onions and tender chicken simmered in dashi and served atop a bowlful of steamed Japanese rice.
If you’re not familiar with oyakodon, it’s incredibly delicious, comforting and addictive, and is a popular donburi dish – donburi meaning a ‘rice bowl’ meal – where a generous topping is placed on a bed of rice in a bowl.
In Tokyo, donburi is an affordable fast-food lunch or dinner for students and workers, as much as a comforting home-cooked meal and perhaps the most quintessential of Japanese comfort foods.
While you don’t need a specially-made oyakodon pan, you will need bonito flakes and kombu to make the dashi stock. This is not negotiable, otherwise it’s not oyakodon. And while you’re at your favourite Asian market, grab some ‘shichimi togarashi’, which is sprinkled on top. It’s a blend of seven spices and has chilli as a base. We like the S&B brand.
Easy Oyakodon Recipe for a Japanese Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl for Weekend Eggs
Chorizo Cabbage and Three Bean Stew Recipe
This hearty chorizo cabbage and three bean stew recipe makes my spicy take on a traditional Eastern European stew my Russian grandmother cooked, so I love seeing that it made this list of 10 most popular recipes of January 2022.
Called kapustniak, kapustnyak or kapusniak in Russian, Ukraine and Poland, it was originally made with kielbasa and sauerkraut, but I use chorizo to add warmth and deep flavours, and three types of beans to add texture.
Like all good Russian grandmas, my baboushka had an impressive repertoire of hearty soups and stews. In autumn and winter, there seemed to always be a big pot of something bubbling on the stove, steaming up the windows in a kitchen that was always cold, and filling the house with mouth-watering aromas.
I think half the time I cook my Russian family recipes, I do it as much for a taste of the past and to provoke those memories of simpler times, as I do for a chance to savour her delicious food – or something that resembles it. I’d give anything to be in that house again with my family tucking into bowls of baba’s stew.
Make sure to serve it with fragrant fresh dill for garnishing and dishes of homemade dill pickles and pickled cabbage, and sour cream. A Russian garden salad is nice on the side and shots of vodka will warm you right up in no time.
Chorizo Cabbage and Three Bean Stew Recipe for a Spicy Take on a Traditional Eastern European Stew
Homemade French Onion Dip Recipe for a Rich Caramelised Onion Dip from Scratch
My homemade French onion dip recipe for a rich, creamy caramelised onion dip was another of the 10 most popular recipes of January 2022.
This recipe will take you back in time to the dips you helped your mum make for backyard barbecues by stirring French onion soup mix into cream cheese or sour cream. Only my French onion dip recipe makes an even more delicious dip and is worth the little extra effort.
If, like me, you’re yearning for simpler times when pandemics were things of the past you learnt about in history class, when guests were greeted with cheek kisses and bear hugs not elbow bumps and foot taps, and the only people who weren’t doctors who wore surgical masks were actors playing doctors on day-time TV, then make this homemade French onion dip recipe right now.
It was inevitable that I’d get around to doing a homemade French onion dip recipe for a caramelised onion dip made from scratch. After all, the festive season saw me making smoked salmon dip, baking cheese straws and assembling prawn cocktails, and, as regular readers know, I love my retro classics such as devilled eggs, beef Stroganoff and chicken Kiev thanks to my Russian heritage.
But this homemade French onion dip recipe wasn’t a family recipe. When I helped mum prep hors d’oeuvres for weekend get-togethers, backyard barbecues and dinner parties at home in Sydney in the 1970s, the French onion dip that she had me make came from a recipe on the Continental French Onion Soup packet.
My recipe is inspired by that dip, however, I still recommend you serve it with Jatz biscuits, just as we did in the 1970s.
Please do let us know in the comments below if you’ve cooked any of the recipes in our 10 most popular recipes of January 2022 as we’d love to get your feedback.
