What to Cook This Weekend

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Andrew Sullivan for The New York Times

Friday, May 1, 2020

What to Cook This Weekend

Sam Sifton

Good morning. The mailbag’s been interesting these days, missives from all over the world, from up and down the socio-economic ladder: people eating rillettes in the Alps and canned beans in rural Maine; front-line medical workers craving fresh strawberries, unemployed car salesmen grilling pork ribs and wondering what’s going to happen next.

Julie G. wrote from California to say she’d lost her job at a glamping hotel, hadn’t seen a penny of unemployment yet, was feeling claustrophobic in her studio, alone with her dog. But, she wrote, “each day holds something to look forward to: small lizards doing push-ups on the lip of the planter boxes, a hawk settling into a tree, flowers blooming, clouds, fields of orange California poppies and purple lupine, homemade white bread grilled cheese sandwiches with a tiny bit of sliced tomato.” I thought that was just great. She added a postscript: “And cocktail hour! Don’t forget that.” Julie favors manhattans.

So do a lot of you, if the search data we dig out of Google’s rich soil is any indication. Also: martinis, negronis, mimosas, sangria, margaritas, mai tais and piña coladas. Make one of those this evening if you can. (If you can’t, have a nonalcoholic orchid thief, a steaming cup of herbal tea, an ice-cold Coke. Work the program. Take care of yourself.) The weeks beat on, the weekends arrive. For many, they’re not so different from the other days. But mark them all the same. It matters.

I’ll make salmon this weekend — frozen sockeye I bought from the Salmon Sisters in Alaska. Maybe Alison Roman’s salmon with sesame and herbs? Or Mark Bittman’s salmon with yogurt-curry sauce? I could go for Melissa Clark’s ace sautéed salmon with brown-butter cucumbers. I might default to my old standby: pan-roasted salmon with jalapeño.

How about you? Salmon’s not for everyone, and airfreighted wild fish for fewer still. You might prefer chicken braised with grapes or caramelized-scallion noodles, buffalo chicken dip, cheesy cauliflower toasts, an egg-salad sandwich to recall meals from Zabar’s in New York.

Weekends are good for pancakes, for waffles (above). (If you have a sourdough starter, even if you’re mad at it because it produces flat loaves, use a little in your batter. The flavor will shine through.) Also for grilled asparagus, charred lamb and eggplant, apple pie. And, on Saturday night, maybe you could have a taco party?

Thousands and thousands more ideas for what to cook this weekend await you on NYT Cooking, including many appropriate for breaking Ramadan fasts. A lot more than usual are free for your use even if you haven’t subscribed to our site and apps. (We’d be so appreciative if you decided to subscribe all the same. Subscriptions support our work.)

Come see us on Instagram if you like, and on Facebook, where we’ve built up a crackly and enjoyable community group you might join. We’re on YouTube, as well, and Twitter. And if you need help with anything, you can write us directly: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you, I promise.

Now, it’s nothing to do with grill pans (terrible!) or pellet ice (what I would give for pellet ice right now!), but please read Thomas Gibbons-Neff in The Times, on gender integration at the Marine Corps’ training facility at Parris Island, S.C., with remarkable photographs by Hilary Swift.

Also, Susan Tallman in The New York Review of Books, on Gerhard Richter, “contemporary art’s great poet of uncertainty; his work sets the will to believe and the obligation to doubt in perfect oscillation.”

The British monarchy is so weird, as this profile of Princess Anne in Vanity Fair makes clear.

Finally, do you like this newsletter? I’m starting another one, At Home, that’s all about how to live a full and cultured life right now. I hope you’ll sign up for it. I like writing you letters. See you on Sunday.