Go for the gold: What to Cook This Week

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Christopher Simpson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Sunday, October 25, 2020

What to Cook This Week

Sam Sifton

Good morning. It’s the cabaret queen Barbara Cook’s birthday, and she would have been 92. It got me thinking about all the good preshow meals I knocked down at Café Carlyle before seeing her sing or seeing the Pizzarellis play. I wrote about that once, a long time ago, and emerged with a couple of great recipes to consider making on a Sunday in fall.

One’s for the lobster bisque the Carlyle Hotel’s executive chef James Sakatos conjured out of stock, rice and less cream than you’d think: It’s insanely flavorful (and it freezes well). The other’s for his chicken hash, which was so well loved by the singer Bobby Short that the recipe took his name. That’s a fine feed, too, and a reminder of the Before Times, when we could all squeeze together to eat and drink and listen. Make one of those recipes today and eat it with a martini. Your soundtrack? Mr. Short, of course.

That’s your Sunday taken care of, then, at least if those recipes struck a chord. If they don’t, here’s Lidey Heuck’s latest: a barbecue pulled chicken that my friend Simon Andrews made into a sandwich (above) of remarkable intensity. Or, failing that, roasted butternut squash bread salad. You could always make pressure cooker garlicky beans with broccoli rabe.

On Monday, I like the idea of vegetable pajeon, a scallion pancake filled with grated carrots, bell peppers and zucchini, or with whatever you’ve got in the crisper, really.

Tuesday night, how about sheet-pan roasted fish with sweet peppers? I’ll make that with tautog, where I stay, but hake, cod or flounder work just beautifully.

Pull out of the midweek slump with roasted cauliflower with pancetta, olives and crisp Parmesan and cruise into Thursday with a cook’s choice: either pasta with fried lemons and chile flakes or a simple spread of fish tacos.

Then, to round out the week, a warming bowl of picadillo. (“I know I’m going to sound like a freak,” one reader posted in a note below the recipe, “but I executed the recipe exactly as directed. It was amazing.”)

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Now, it’s a far cry from rillettes and cooking sous vide, but Rachel Monroe’s article in The New Yorker about the detectives who investigate military phonies — those who lie about their service for personal gain — is an utterly fascinating read.

Do read as well Patrick Blanchfield in The New Republic, on Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling’s book, “A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (and Some Bears).”

It’d be nice to be driving through rain-soaked streets listening to Loski, featuring Popcaan, “Avengers,” drill music turned dancehall with a classic rhyme from Popcaan when he arrives: “Aye, Loski, wha gwan, broski?”

Finally, won’t you take a little time to explore the Gregory Crewdson show at Gagosian Los Angeles, “An Eclipse of Moths”? It’s terrific. I’ll be back on Monday.