Go for the gold: What to Cook This Weekend

View in Browser

Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book.

Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Friday, February 26, 2021

What to Cook This Weekend

Sam Sifton

Good morning. Purim ends this evening. The holiday celebrates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, a high official in the Persian court who sought their extinction in the fifth century B.C., but whose plans were foiled by his cousin Esther. It’s a time of feasting and happiness, and for the holiday’s signature stuffed cookie, hamantaschen — in English, “Haman’s pockets.” (In Hebrew, they’re oznei Haman, “Haman’s ears.”)

Try one with a poppy-seed filling. Or a version with chocolate chips. Caramelized onion and poppy seed hamantaschen (above)? Yes, please, I’d like that very much.

It’s also the second Friday of Lent, the Christian period of reflection and sacrifice that precedes Easter. For those who abstain from eating meat on Lenten Fridays, indeed for anyone looking for a delicious dinner, here’s a fine plate of cod cakes.

(It’s also the birthday of the British cooking personality Fanny Cradock, born in 1909. Here, she is in 1956, making French onion soup at the Royal Albert Hall with her husband Johnnie. Those were wild times.)

I’d like to make these pork chops with lemon-caper sauce for dinner this weekend. And I’d like to make this Southern caramel cake for dessert.

I’d also like to make focaccia in the style of Caroline Fidanza, and use it for lunchtime sandwiches. I’d like to get a jump on next week by cooking some dishes that taste better on the second or third day. And I’d really like to see if I can pull off the beautiful deliciousness of these Bavarian-style soft pretzels.

Is this a weekend for chili? Or for kimbap? With cara caras at my market at least, it’s time for a citrus salad with prosecco. And it’d be very nice to serve a buttermilk-brined roast chicken as well.

There are many thousands more recipes to cook this weekend waiting for you on NYT Cooking. Go browse among them and see what you think. If you have a subscription to the site, you can save the ones you want to cook and rate the ones you’ve made. You can leave notes on them, too, if you have any that you’d like to keep for yourself or share. (Subscriptions are what make this whole adventure possible. If you don’t have one yet, I hope you will consider subscribing today.)

And we are here to help, should something go awry in your kitchen or on our site and apps. Just write us at cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. (You can also send me a dart or an apple: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I read every letter sent.)

Now, it’s nothing to do with short ribs or vanilla beans steeped in bourbon, but here’s Dwight Garner on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel “The Committed,” a sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Sympathizer,” from 2015. I’m in.

You should also take a look at Alana Dao’s reflective essay in The Bitter Southerner, on Houston hip-hop and its connection to Timmy Chan’s, her grandparents’ restaurant.

“Nadiya Bakes,” on Netflix, is an emotional support animal disguised as a cooking show, from a favorite winner of “The Great British Baking Show.”

Finally, here’s some music from Loshh to play us off, “Faji.” Listen to that and I’ll see you on Sunday.