Go for the gold: A Picture-Perfect Rice Bowl

May 16, 2022

David Malosh for The New York Times

A Picture-Perfect Rice Bowl

By Sam Sifton

Good morning. I love this recipe for a hoisin-glazed pork bowl with vegetables, even if I can't find watermelon radishes, won't make it with black or brown rice and can never get my sugar snap peas to look as beautiful as the ones Simon Andrews prepared for David Malosh's photograph (above). Make your bowl the best that you can. It's invariably pretty and always an elegant meal.

It's also a good reminder that pork tenderloin is a worthy weeknight ingredient — quickly cooked in the oven, on the stovetop or on a grill — and a wonderful canvas for sauce. In that sense, it's the tofu of meats. Which means, of course, that the transitive property applies: For the bowl, you could use tofu in place of the pork. Just press it dry before adding it to the marinade, and let it sit for 30 minutes or so before cooking.

Here's another idea. I've been saying on and off for years now that you should always have some pizza dough in the fridge, getting flavorful on the long proof. So if you have the dough, cook the pork bowl later. Make Monday night pizza instead!

You could channel Roberta's in Brooklyn, and make a version of their green and white pie. Or you could recall California Pizza Kitchen with a take on that chain's salad pizza with white beans and Parmesan. (Then there was the time I convinced Margaux Laskey to make a chocolate chip cookie pizza. You could always bake that!)

If none of those recipes suit, how about brothy cod with peas and mushrooms? Or this green masala chicken? And I've never regretted making portobello patty melts for dinner on a weeknight, not even once. "This is a super recipe, as is," a subscriber wrote in the notes. "I kicked it up a few notches and used giant shiitake mushrooms and Morbier cheese as an experiment. Went from a 'wow' to a 'wow-wee.'" I might give that a shot myself!

You can find even more ideas for what to cook right now on our TikTok, Instagram and YouTube accounts, and on New York Times Cooking. You do need a subscription to access them, it's true. Subscriptions support our work. I hope you will consider subscribing today if you haven't done so already. Thank you.

Please write us if you run into trouble with that process or with our technology: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. Or if you'd like to rant or rave, you can write to me: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I read every letter sent.

Now, it's a long haul from anything to do with quinces or muffins, but Outside has an excerpt from Ben McGrath's new book, "Riverman," which I think you'll enjoy. (Gregory Cowles, an editor on our Books desk, certainly did.)

In case you missed it, here's Alexandra Jacobs's Critic's Notebook in The Times, about the heady days when magazines mattered and were the coolest shops in Manhattan. As Alexandra writes, now they're the coldest.

Here's a new poem from Ada Limón, in The New York Times Magazine, "Joint Custody."

Finally, Quinn Shemet, one of our subscribers, compiled a Spotify playlist of every piece of music I've recommended in the last bunch of months. Maybe you could play that during dinner? Thanks, Quinn! I'll be back on Wednesday.