Go for the gold: What to Cook This Week

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Beatriz Da Costa for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich.

Sunday, April 11, 2021

What to Cook This Week

Sam Sifton

Good morning. Yewande Komolafe has a fine new recipe for kunun gyada (above) this week, a warmly spiced West African porridge of rice and peanuts that, she pointed out in her article about the dish, is an excellent addition to iftar, the daily breaking of the Ramadan fast that begins next week and runs for a month.

For those not fasting during the day, kunun gyada makes for an excellent morning meal. You might top the porridge with fresh fruit or preserves or honey, sprinkle some granulated sugar over it, or mix into it a dollop of sour tamarind or a tablespoon of lemon juice. You could blend it with kefir or a loose yogurt to make a drink. And it stores well in the refrigerator — up to a week — so I’m thinking you could make a batch and use it in coming evenings for iftar or in the morning instead.

That’s one thing to cook today. For dinner tonight, though, I think you should consider Melissa Clark’s latest bit of brilliance: a seared spiced salmon with sugar snap peas and red onion.

Then on Monday, how about vegetarian kofta curry, from Tejal Rao? Or a kale and quinoa salad with tofu and miso, from Corinne Trang?

Tuesday might be good for beef stroganoff if you’re not observing the Ramadan fast. (If you are observing, here are many, many recipes for suhoor, iftar and Eid al-Fitr.) Alternatively, if you have a little time and the desire for excess, you could always make meatloaf with stroganoff gravy.

On Wednesday, maybe just order takeout and watch the third season of “Shtisel” on Netflix? Or if you are bound to cook, make it takeout-style for the vibe? I’m thinking cold sesame noodles, or cheesy pan pizza.

Thursday could be excellent for lentil soup, though I wouldn’t sneeze at sole meunière and neither should you.

And then you can end the week as I used to do for years and want to do again, with a simple roast chicken, watercress tossed in a mustardy vinaigrette, with a baguette and salty butter on the side. Why’d I ever stop, with that one?

There are thousands and thousands more recipes to make this weekend waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. You do need a subscription to access them, of course, along with the many tools and features we’ve built to help you use them. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. Please, if you haven’t already, won’t you subscribe today?

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Now, it’s nothing to do with garlic or vinegar, capon or duck, but it’s gotten to the point where I’ve started finding new books to read on the bookshelves of people I see during video meetings. That’s what led me to Allen Drury’s towering political novel from 1959, “Advise and Consent,” which I spied behind my colleague Carolyn Ryan, next to her two copies of Robert Caro’s “The Power Broker.” It’s riveting and very, very long.

Here’s an interesting profile of the chef Joshua Skenes, by Daniel Duane in Outside.

I’m not going to say it’s good, precisely, but there’s something satisfying about tooling around Boston with Kevin Bacon in Showtime’s “City on a Hill.”

Finally, some music to cook by: Memoryhouse covering the Beatles with dream pop, “No Reply.” Listen to that and I’ll be back on Monday.