Go for the gold: What to Cook This Week

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Melina Hammer for The New York Times

Sunday, April 4, 2021

What to Cook This Week

Sam Sifton

Good morning. It is Easter today for some, and the last day of Passover for others. In Senegal, it is Independence Day, a celebration of that nation’s liberation from France in 1960. If a leg of lamb (above) is not on your menu for today, you might look to the Senegalese chef Pierre Thiam for a dinner idea, and to his recipe for chicken yassa in particular. He serves the dish over fonio, but rice or millet would do nicely. And a number of readers have suggested serving the dish with green olives as well.

That’s tonight. On Monday, if you’re not eating leftovers from an Easter feast, you should take a look at this marvelous shakshuka with feta, which is a light enough lift that you may have time left over to make some Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins for breakfast the next couple of days. (I like them sliced in half and griddled in butter, with a bloop of plain yogurt on the side.)

Taco Tuesday? I like these picadillo tacos Rachel Wharton learned about from Adán Medrano, a chef and writer whose work focuses on the Mexican-American food he grew up eating in South Texas. They’re based on the rolled tacos that were served for nearly 70 years at the Malt House in San Antonio, before it was demolished in 2018.

You can take it easy on Wednesday night with a simple five-ingredient creamy miso pasta.

Then ramp back up again on Thursday with this boss recipe for oven-fried chicken that Marian Burros prized out of former Representative Lindy Boggs back in 1985. I like that one with buttermilk-mashed potatoes and, these days, mango coleslaw.

And then on Friday? I’m thinking seared scallops with jammy cherry tomatoes and a big bowl of spaghetti dressed simply with butter and Parm.

There are many thousands more recipes to consider waiting for you on NYT Cooking. You need a subscription to access them, of course, but we think it’s worth your scratch, and we know it allows us to continue doing this work that we love. I hope, if you haven’t already, that you will subscribe today.

As always, we’ll be standing by in case something goes awry while you’re cooking or using our site and apps. Just write cookingcare@nytimes.com and someone will get back to you. Or, if you’d like to vent, quarrel or offer faint praise, you can write directly to me: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I read every letter sent.

Now, it has nothing at all to do with lentils or bao, but you’ve got to read Christian Cooper on Scott Weidensaul’s “A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds,” in The Times.

I’ve been enjoying “The Good Detective,” a South Korean television series on Netflix, about homicide police struggling — often with one another — to discover the truth. It’s relaxing.

This year is the 20th anniversary of Jonathan Franzen’s “The Corrections.” Remember arguing about it when Franzen snubbed Oprah Winfrey for selecting the novel for her book club? Maybe not. Time to read or reread, according to your experience. Here’s Michiko Kakutani’s review in The Times.

Finally, here’s Mory Kante to play us off, “Ye Ke Ye Ke.” Listen to that while you cook and I’ll be back on Monday.