Go for the gold: What to Cook This Weekend

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Zachary Zavislak for The New York Times

Friday, July 9, 2021

What to Cook This Weekend

Sam Sifton

Good morning. I think it may be a good weekend for making paella, outside on a grill if you can, trusting in the magical properties of rice, stock, heat and time to bring a new measure of joy into your life. Naturally I have a recipe (above) for you, but you may want to range around and consider other preparations, other techniques, before you cook.

Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby, for instance, have excellent receipts for Valerie Gurdal’s paella of the land and Chris’s paella of the sea. David Tanis has a fine one for paella with shrimp and fava beans. Alice Hart weighed in with a recipe for seafood paella with saffron aioli. And if your aesthetic runs to minimalism, you can always try Mark Bittman’s recipe for paella, which allows the most improvisation of all.

No? It’s hot and you just want to sit in the air-conditioning and watch “The Shop Around the Corner” on TCM? Check out this sweet-and-salty party mix, which brings popcorn, nuts and Bugles into the equation, everything coated in a caramelish coating that’s salty with soy and Worcestershire sauces, and has a little cayenne zing. Eat that with some full-bodied peach tea!

You might try this asparagus, goat cheese and tarragon tart on for size. Or whip up a batch of five-minute hummus to act as a bed for warm, spicy Jerusalem grill. Is it a weekend for clam fritters? For a peach upside-down skillet cake with bourbon whipped cream? For mango royale?

New York Times Cooking is filled with thousands and thousands more recipes to try this weekend. (It’s true that you need a subscription to access them and to use the tools and features on the site and app. Subscriptions are what allow us to continue to do this work that we love. I hope you will consider, if you haven’t already, subscribing today.)

We will be standing by like docents at the Met in case you get turned sideways in your kitchen or while using our technology. Just write: cookingcare@nytimes.com, and someone will get back to you. (Write me if you’d like to vent or to just say hello: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I read every letter sent.)

Now, it’s a far cry from American barbecue or lobster rolls on a dock in Maine, but I still think you ought to read new fiction from Sally Rooney: “Unread Messages,” in The New Yorker.

Kim Severson reported for us this week on a new breed of technologically advanced hydroponic farms that’s drawing interest from investors and celebrity chefs — and plenty of critics as well. Dave Chapman, a Vermont farmer and the executive director of the Real Organic Project, told Kim: “Hydroponic production is not growing because it produces healthier food. It’s growing because of the money. Anyone who frames this as food for the people or the environment is just lying.”

Thanks to the invaluable Longreads, I came across this remarkable tale in Alpinist, by Barry Blanchard, about a mountain rescue in the highest reaches of the Canadian Rockies.

Finally, it’s Courtney Love’s birthday today, her 57th. Here’s “Doll Parts,” live in 1999. She is the girl with the most cake. I’ll see you on Sunday.