Go for the gold: Watermelon Season!

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Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Wednesday, June 9, 2021

Watermelon Season!

Sam Sifton

Good morning. Nicole Taylor wrote about watermelon for The Times this week, and when I was finished reading her piece I went to the market and got one of those globe watermelons that sit in the huge cardboard box at the front of the store and put it in the refrigerator to chill. Nicole’s article was about good watermelons — heritage watermelons, black-seeded and sweet — and mine was just a commodity watermelon, but no matter: It was my first of the season, and I was looking forward to it.

I used about a quarter of it to make her recipe for country panzanella with watermelon dressing (above): amazing. I blitzed another quarter with ice and lime juice to make agua fresca. I made watermelon chaat to accompany a dinner (keema with rolls and yogurt). And then I made watermelon granita because I like watermelon granita after dinner in the summertime, even if I’ve been eating watermelon all day.

All this was terrific. But Nicole’s story left me craving seeds and deeper flavor, and I’m going to spend some time in the next couple of weeks seeking both out. I hope you’ll do the same.

What are you getting up to in the kitchen? I’m thinking this Jamaican curry chicken and potatoes may be worth my time this week, along with kimchi bibim gukso and crispy tofu with cashews and blistered snap peas.

Melissa Clark has an awesome new recipe for the easiest lemon curd, which she makes in a microwave in about six and a half minutes. So I want to try that out, and maybe modify the recipe as she suggests to make grapefruit-Campari curd.

I could see my way to making fried catfish with hot sauce this week. (I got a high-sided cast-iron chicken-fryer pot for about $40 a few months ago, and it has transformed my fry game.) Or chicken with vinegar. Or both. I might make shaved asparagus with arugula and Parmesan, Roman egg drop soup, a French potato and green bean salad. I would absolutely like to make spicy slow-roasted salmon with cucumbers and feta.

There are thousands and thousands more recipes waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. Go browse our virtual aisles and see what strikes your fancy. Save the recipes you want to make. Rate the ones you’ve made. And please leave notes on them, if you’ve come up with a hack or substitution that you want to remember or share with your fellow subscribers.

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We are standing by to assist, should something go awry in your kitchen or with our technology. Just write cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you, I promise.

Now, it’s nothing to do with chocolate milk or chicken larb, and I’m late to it besides, but if you like true crime and false love, you may want to check out the podcast “Dirty John,” by Christopher Goffard of The Los Angeles Times.

My colleagues on “The Daily” have spent six months documenting the reopening of Odessa High School in West Texas. On Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern time they’ll celebrate graduation there live, with further reporting, a drum line performance and a commencement speech from La’Darius Marshall, star of the Emmy-award-winning Netflix series “Cheer.” Subscribers to The Times (that’s you, I hope!) can join them by signing up here.

Here’s some new fiction by John Edgar Wideman in the Virginia Quarterly Review, “Jordan.”

Finally, new music to play us off: Billie Eilish, “Lost Cause.” Listen to that and I’ll be back on Friday.