Go for the gold: What to Cook This Week

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Michael Kraus for The New York Times

Sunday, July 11, 2021

What to Cook This Week

Sam Sifton

Good morning. It’d be nice to steer into the worlds of tiny houses, #vanlife and trail cooking. But I’d want a lot of cooking equipment, too, which complicates matters: a smoker and a 60-inch grill, say, along with a propane hob cooker; a discada; a 110-quart cooler filled with pellet ice. I’d want shovels for clambakes, a rotisserie, a Schwenker and absolutely a wood-burning pizza oven on a trailer to haul behind the van or the house, depending. So this remains a pipe dream.

I’ll think on the possibilities, though, as I make my way through these smoke-roasted chicken thighs with paprika (above) this afternoon, to serve with lemon-tahini slaw and a peach poundcake for dessert. I’ll imagine myself cooking on the edge of the desert, or on a lot overlooking an Oregon beach, or down deep in a West Virginia holler, working the magical huge grill that is somehow part of my vintage Volkswagen Westfalia. Those are good summer reveries.

Back to reality on Monday, news blaring out of the radio in the kitchen and everything serious once more. I’m thinking gado-gado for dinner, a dish beloved across Indonesia and made many different ways. (This recipe is based on the style made in Bali.)

For dinner on Tuesday, how about this excellent ground lamb pulao? Judging from the notes beneath the recipe, you could make it with just about any protein and achieve success. But listen: Lamb’s fantastic here. Do give that a try.

Sheet-pan baked feta with broccolini, tomatoes and lemon for Wednesday, a one-pan meal that’s like a delicious hot salad, easily made. (If it’s too warm where you stay and you have a grill, you could swap that rig in for your kitchen oven and cook the meal outdoors.)

To bring a zip to Thursday’s repast, how about this summer shrimp scampi with tomatoes and corn?

And then on Friday you can end where I started, with another fine chicken recipe: huli-huli style, to eat with this spicy kimchi potato salad and cold watermelon for dessert.

There are thousands more recipes to cook this week awaiting you on New York Times Cooking. (Stunning summer fruit desserts! No-cook recipes for a heat wave!) It is true that you need a subscription to access all of them, and to access all the features on our site and app. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. I hope, if you haven’t already, that you will think about subscribing today.

We are here if you need us, if you’re troubled by a recipe or if something goes wrong with our code. Just write cookingcare@nytimes.com and someone will get back to you, I promise. (You can also write to me: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I cannot reply to everyone. But I read every letter sent.)

Now, it’s a long-distance drive from chervil and stone-ground grits, but I raved about S.A. Cosby’s “Razorblade Tears” a while back, and maybe you didn’t believe me. So let Adam Sternbergh make the case for reading it right now, in The Times.

You should also check out E. Alex Jung’s profile of the actress Jennifer Coolidge, in New York.

And while there’s a Scottie Pippen interview in GQ this month that delivers some excellent tea, the real draw is Margaret Pattillo’s portrait photograph of Pippen standing at rest, with a glass of bourbon. He looks content, even happy.

Finally, old music to play us off, Dyke & the Blazers, “Funky Broadway.” Listen to that real loud, and I’ll be back on Monday.