Go for the gold: What to Cook This Weekend

February 11, 2022

Kate Sears for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

What to Cook This Weekend

By Sam Sifton

Good morning. Eric Kim is in The Times this week with an argument for cooking together on Valentine's Day and a menu to follow: seared radicchio with melty cheese; individual beef Wellingtons (above); and no-churn olive oil ice cream with hot fudge.

They're terrific recipes, and the notion of cooking together is sweet, but on this subject I prefer Eric's earlier suggestion: to make and eat jajangmyeon as a restorative holiday dish for one. That I'll make the noodles for my family of Valentines, and not solely for myself, is a changeup of sorts, a meeting-in-the-middle meal that allows me both to celebrate (what's not to love about love?) and to not celebrate (inane Hallmark holiday!). Best of both worlds. Whichever tack you take, consider a Champagne cocktail to go along with the meal, and some red-velvet cupcakes for dessert.

Other things to cook this weekend include Eric's new recipe for seared scallops with glazed brussels sprouts, Melissa Clark's incredible crisp chicken schnitzel with lemony herb salad and David Tanis's exquisite wild mushroom tart.

I might fire up the slow cooker for Sarah DiGregorio's chicken with 20 cloves of garlic. Or head out to the grill to make Gabrielle Hamilton's dead-of-winter smoky pork shoulder with chile paste. This could be the weekend for the birria de res that Tejal Rao brought us, and quesabirria tacos, too.

Colu Henry's pasta e ceci might make an appearance. And I'll definitely have Julia Moskin's classic French toast for breakfast — on Saturday and Sunday, once to serve with fruit salad, and once with bacon. And the weekend is always a time to make banana bread. I like Julia's recipe for that, adapted from one used at Bakesale Betty in Oakland, Calif.

Tens of thousands more recipes to cook this weekend await you on New York Times Cooking. (And you'll find even more ideas on our TikTok, YouTube and Instagram channels.) You need a subscription to access them, of course, just as you do if you want someone to send you paper money from around the world every month. Subscriptions support our work. So, if you haven't already, I hope you will subscribe today. Thanks!

We will, meanwhile, be standing by to offer assistance, should anything go wrong while you're cooking or using our site and app. Just write to cookingcare@nytimes.com, and someone will get back to you. And if you're particularly steamed or just want to say hello, you can write to me. I read every letter sent: foodeditor@nytimes.com.

Now, it's nothing to do with stewing apples or the high cost of skirt steak, but do take a look at Gabriel Sherman on the rise and fall of Jerry Falwell, Jr., in Vanity Fair.

For Curbed, Caroline Spivack checked in on the businesses on the desolate ground floor of the old Hotel St. George in Brooklyn Heights, where the entrance to the Clark Street subway station has been closed so that workers can renovate its elevators. The situation there is not good.

Margaret Lyons turned me onto "Sylvanian Drama," a series of satirical soap-opera shorts on TikTok. As she wrote in her essential "Watching" newsletter for The Times, "'Sylvanian Drama' distills and spoofs a robust corner of the entertainment world, one that includes 'Euphoria,' 'Gossip Girl' (both versions), prime time soaps, daytime soaps, text-speak, Taylor Swift videos, 'The Hills: New Beginnings' and the entire 'Real Housewives' universe." Click!

And finally, here's Pomplamoose singing (with John Tegmeyer) Charles Trenet's "Douce France," the start of my Valentine's playlist. Enjoy that, and I'll see you on Sunday.