Go for the gold: What to Cook Right Now

August 2, 2021

David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

What to Cook Right Now

By Sam Sifton

Good morning. Melissa Clark is in The Times this week with an invaluable guide to one of the world's most versatile — and sometimes tricky — methods of live-fire cookery: grilling with skewers.

Of course there are recipes to accompany her advice and, because it's Melissa Clark writing, they're inventive, delicious and cookable even if you're new to the game of threading ingredients onto spears and putting them over flames. Try her spiced ground meat skewers or summer vegetable skewers (above) to start. If you're feeling confident already, consider her amazing smoky paprika cheese skewers (I like those with provolone), or her fish skewers with herbs and lime, particularly fine with swordfish.

Whichever skewer you grill, do take on her coconut and pineapple skewers with marshmallows for dessert, at least if you can resist the siren song of s'mores.

No grill? You could give any of these recipes a shot in the broiler of your oven, or file them away for a weekend at a park grill or a vacation down the line. Try our best gazpacho for dinner tonight instead, or a summer pasta with zucchini, ricotta and basil, or any one of these awesome no-cook recipes from our collection.

And oh, man, you've got to look at this trio of pies Dawn Perry's come up with for us: no-roll crusts and no-bake fillings that are just perfect for summer sweets. I love her milk and honey pie with a cereal crust and can't wait to fill out her blackberry frozen yogurt pie with a cracker crust. You may prefer her strawberry cream pie with a chocolate cookie crust. Or all three!

There are thousands and thousands more recipes to cook right now waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. As you surely have figured out by now, you need a subscription to access them. It's a good deal, we believe. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. If you haven't secured one yet, I hope you will subscribe today.

You'll find further inspiration — for free — on Instagram and YouTube, where Yewande Komolafe recently taught us to make shrimp and corn fritters. (Find the recipe here.) And you can find our news stories and wine and restaurant criticism on Twitter.

If you run into trouble with anything along the way, just reach out for help: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back you. (You can also write to me, if you like: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I can't respond to every letter, and I'm absolutely not the guy to help you resolve what email account is associated with your registration. But I read every letter sent.)

Now, it's a far cry from peaches and muesli, but Max Lakin in The Times turned me onto the Highwaymen show at the Charles Moffett gallery in New York, which you should see in person if you can. (Here's more on the Highwaymen, at the Backus Museum.)

Patrick Nathan at Dirt alerted me to the YouTube channel "Unusual Videos." You won't be sorry to click.

The occasion of my first flight in well over a year got me wandering around an airport news kiosk, where I discovered the novels of Ace Atkins. They're probably not for everyone, but they're dark and rowdy, anyway, and do pass the time.

Finally, some relatively new music to play us off. Here's Kelly Lee Owens, "On." I'll be back on Wednesday.

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