Go for the gold: Now, Cook For Yourself

November 29, 2021

Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Sophie Leng.

Now, Cook for Yourself

By Sam Sifton

Good morning. Well, that's done then: Thanksgiving sorted, Hanukkah started and holiday cookie season (above) on its way. I hope you'll take some time for yourself this week, to cook the food you want to make.

For myself, that's Eric Kim's recipe for kimchi jjigae with ribs, and the cheese enchiladas with chili gravy I learned to make from the Texas restaurateur Robb Walsh. It's Kay Chun's sesame salmon bowls and Hetty McKinnon's tofu larb. It's the smoked bulgur and pomegranate salad that Joan Nathan picked up from the chef Ori Menashe. It's always and forever French onion soup.

And, man, I'd love to make some paneer, as Tejal Rao advised in The Times this week, for a riff on a dish that the chef Chintan Pandya serves at his restaurant Dhamaka in New York, paneer ajwaini tikka. Here's Tejal: "It's one of the simplest fresh cheeses for home cooks to tackle because it's fast and it doesn't require rennet to form the curds, just an easy-to-find acid like lemon juice or vinegar." Oh, and a paneer press! I found one online for under $20 and it will arrive this week.

Also, I think it'd be super to make some dinner sandwiches soon. Years ago, after a trip to Boston to interview the chef overseeing the student cafeterias at Boston College, I worked out a recipe for the school's Screaming Eagle cheese-steak sub and served a number of them at a dinner party heralding a colleague. That was an exceptional early winter night that I'd like to recreate. But I wouldn't sneeze at a tuna club, if the family raises a flag at the meat bomb.

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We're here if you need a helping hand, either with your cooking or our technology: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Drop us a line and someone will get back to you. If you have an arrow to sling or would like to deliver a nosegay, you can write to me: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I read every letter sent.

And, speaking of mail, we're launching a newsletter for December, "Your Daily Cookie." Sign up and we'll email you a cookie recipe every day in December until Christmas.

Now, it has absolutely nothing to do with mincing garlic or skinning an eel, but Port Magazine put me on to Karen Marshall's new book of photography, "Between Girls," a 30-year project that began in 1985 when Marshall set out to document the lives of a group of teenagers in New York City. You should check that out.

Aruna D'Souza, meanwhile, alerted me to Jennifer Packer's solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, via her terrific review in The Times.

And here's Scott Sayare in Harper's, on "The Odor of Things," a meditation on perfume and the mysteries of scent.

Finally, Earl Sweatshirt is back, with "2010." Listen to that a few times and I'll return on Wednesday.

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