Go for the gold: What to Cook This Week

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Lisa Corson for The New York Times

Sunday, January 10, 2021

What to Cook This Week

Sam Sifton

Good morning. I like a Sunday spent in the kitchen and if pandemic safety protocols mean I can’t use the day to make a big supper for neighborhood friends and family, the hours can still pay delicious dividends, and for many days to come. Mask up and shop! We’ve got a big agenda this afternoon.

Say, an egg salad sandwich (above) to start, a lunch homage to Konbi in Echo Park, Los Angeles? Yes, it’s a fussy recipe, and you’ll spend a lot of time on presentation. It’s the weekend. You’re stuck indoors. Lean into the preparation. You can take lots of photographs of the sandwiches before you eat them.

Then, how about Dorie Greenspan’s Swedish almond cake? It smells incredible in the oven, makes for a terrific late-afternoon snack and a fine breakfast repast the next morning. Repeat until you’re out of cake.

Can you multitask? I know you can. Make Francis Lam’s caramelized scallion sauce while you’re baking the cake. It is one of the world’s great unsung condiments, and I’ll ask you to deploy it later this week, if you can manage to wait that long.

And then, after a slice of cake and some strong coffee, why don’t you turn to Paul Prudhomme’s excellent recipe for chicken and sausage gumbo? It’s an excellent chance to clear out the freezer and use bits of protein left over from other recipes: a couple of chicken thighs, perhaps, or a bag of pheasant a friend dropped off after a successful hunt, that kielbasa you bought and froze in November, six frozen shrimp.

On Monday, you could shift gears a little: creamy cauliflower soup with rosemary olive oil is what I’m thinking. Or a charcuterie board?

Tuesday night’s for sheet-pan cooking, this time with sausages and brussels sprouts with honey mustard.

And on Wednesday, you can fish out that caramelized scallion sauce you made in advance, for caramelized scallion noodles that I hope will become a family favorite, a weekly go-to.

Thursday’s for mushroom Bourguignon. Serve with polenta? With mashed potatoes? With grits? Dealer’s choice, but if you go mashed potatoes, use this recipe, please.

And then on Friday night, in keeping with longstanding tradition, you might roast a chicken. I’m partial to Jacques Pépin’s recipe, but Melissa Clark’s take, with crunchy seaweed and potatoes, is a phenomenal changeup.

Thousands and thousands more recipes to consider making this week are available on NYT Cooking. Go browse among them and see what you discover. (Trotter gear!) You should save the recipes you like. And we hope you’ll rate the ones you’ve made. You can leave notes on the recipes, if you like, either for yourself or for fellow subscribers, if you’ve made any changes you’d like to remember or share.

Yes, you do need to be a subscriber to do that. Subscriptions support every aspect of our work. So, please, if you are able to do so, if you haven’t already, I hope you will subscribe to NYT Cooking today.

We are meanwhile standing by to help, should anything go wrong in your cooking or our technology. Send us a note if you find yourself stymied: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you, I promise.

Now, it’s nothing to do with turbot or turbinado, but please read Sam Anderson in The Times, on the last two northern white rhinoceroses on earth.

I loved this oral history of the National Brotherhood of Skiers, in Outside.

Also, this ranking of the best fast-food tacos in Texas, by José R. Ralat in Texas Monthly. It’d be great to get on the road to fact-check that, no? Someday!

Finally, check out David Bowie’s Mick Jagger impression from long ago, as he sits beside Tom Hanks for an interview on British television. I’ll be back on Monday.