What to Cook This Week - The New York Times

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What to Cook This Week - The New York Times Posted: 31 Jan 2021 07:30 AM PST Good morning. Even before the pandemic ended dinner parties (remember them?), I had a complicated relationship with appetizers, nibbles, nuts and cheeses, any consumption that precedes a meal. I don't like the idea of cooking for any great period of time — assembling a braise, making noodles, overthinking a salad, preparing a dessert — so that a guest can arrive in my home, eat a quarter-pound of salted cashews and then pick at dinner a half-hour later. It's churlish of me, I know, but there you have it. I want you seated at the table hungry, and I will feed you in response. But Dorie Greenspan's bringing me around. She has a lovely piece in The Times today about the savory little quick breads called cakes salés that she discovered at a Picard shop in Paris, and which she has reverse engineered into a recipe (above) so that we can enjoy them at home. Cakes salés go beautifully with an aperitif of white wine, are super easy to make and are endlessly adaptable in terms of mix-ins and seasonings. Eating a slice or two before dinner, warm from the oven, reminds me of what it was like to eat in a good restaurant, bustling, loud and crowded. I don't have guests now, but if I did, I'd urge them to eat their cake salé. I'd push it on them with a few cheeses, some olives, maybe even nuts. Change is good. Make one today, why don't you, in advance of something like this chicken paillard with Parmesan bread crumbs? Jennifer Steinhauer, the Washington reporter and cookbook writer who brought us the recipe, serves the cutlets on top of a pile of torn escarole, making it meal and salad in one. You don't need a starch. You had the cake salé! For Monday's dinner, consider this baked rice with white beans, leeks and lemon. (Here's a good tip from a number of subscribers: To cook the rice, use stock in place of plain water.) On Tuesday night: caramelized shallot pasta. Odds are, you'll be making that all the time. I like this roasted cauliflower salad with halloumi and lemon for Wednesday night, but I also understand that Wednesday nights can be hard. There's no shame in a midweek omelet. Indeed, a midweek omelet can be the very best omelet there is. Korean barbecue-style meatballs on Thursday, please, with steamed rice and kimchi. And then you can end the week as you maybe haven't in years, with baked Buffalo wings and a platter of nachos. Put some beers in the freezer for a half-hour before dinner, so they're flecked with ice when you eat. Bring on the Super Bowl! There are thousands and thousands more recipes to cook this week waiting for you on NYT Cooking. Click on over and see what you find. Then save the recipes you like and rate the ones you've cooked. You can leave notes on them, too, if you've learned a trick or two that you'd like to remember or share with others. You do need to be a subscriber to do all that, it's true. Subscriptions are what make this whole dance possible. This newsletter is free, but if you haven't already, I hope that you will subscribe to NYT Cooking today. Thanks. And please reach out for help if something goes sideways in your cooking or our technology. We're at cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. Or you can escalate matters by sending me an arrow (or an apple!) at foodeditor@nytimes.com. I read every letter sent.

These Recipes Are So Smart - The New York Times Posted: 29 Jan 2021 09:30 AM PST Hello and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes, a newsletter for busy people who still want something good to eat. As a home cook and an editor, I love and seek out recipes that are animated by a great idea: a clever technique, a sharp shortcut that defies conventional wisdom, a magic combination of flavors or textures, or an ingredient moonlighting in a new context. Those are the recipes I try to give you in every newsletter, and this week's is really chock-full of them. Cacio e pepe — but made with farro, and using a technique that is easier than the classic. Chicken adobo — but made with cauliflower, which also turns it vegan. On another note, last week I asked how the weather was where you are, and what you're cooking, as food and weather are inherently entwined. It was wonderful and fascinating to read your emails. (The farthest came from a town outside Berlin, where it was about to snow and the writer had just cooked chopped cauliflower al dente and used it in a salad with smoked salmon and mustard vinaigrette. Ooh!) Keep sending them, or just reach out with your cooking quandaries. I read every note: dearemily@nytimes.com. [Sign up here to receive the Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter in your inbox every Friday.] Here are five dishes for the week: 1. Farro e Pepe Traditional cacio e pepe is simple but finicky to make. Samin Nosrat changes that by using an immersion blender to make the sauce here, a foolproof technique she found in a YouTube video featuring the Roman chef Flavio de Maio. Samin pairs the sauce with farro, for a consistency that she likens to risotto, but you could use it on pasta. If you don't have an immersion blender, use a food processor. View this recipe. _____ 2. Broiled Fish With Lemon Curry Butter Melissa Clark takes the reliable combination of broiled fish and butter and spikes that butter with garlic, ginger and curry powder. The results are abundantly more flavorful, with next to zero extra effort on your part. I'd want potatoes alongside, but if you make rice, you can cook extra to reheat and serve with the cheese buldak or cauliflower adobo below. (Not as good as freshly made rice, but definitely good enough and saves you a pot to clean.) View this recipe. _____ 3. Maangchi's Cheese Buldak (Fire Chicken) Cheese buldak takes chicken braised in a sauce made with spicy gochujang and gochugaru, staples in Korean cooking, then covers it with shredded mozzarella. (The origins of the dish likely have something to do with the arrival of pizza chains like Domino's in South Korea, and with them a mountain of low-moisture mozzarella.) This recipe comes from Maangchi, the YouTube star and cookbook author, and it's really easy to make. 4. Cauliflower Adobo I made this recipe by Ali Slagle for dinner on Wednesday and was delighted anew by how smart and simple it is: a vegan take on chicken adobo that comes together within 45 minutes, but keeps the delicious flavors of the Filipino classic. We had it with rice, and next time I'll fry an egg to serve on top, too (which, of course, makes the dish not vegan). View this recipe. _____

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