I look forward to the first zucchini of the season almost as much spring’s first asparagus. Taut, crunchy and with an almost grassy taste, the small, early zucchinis have a concentrated flavor without the diffuse bloat of their overgrown siblings. Of course, the vegetable gardeners among us have all summer to take their pick of…
Let us now praise the lettuce wrap! Depending on what you fold inside, the frilly green leaves can make hand rolls without the rice, sandwiches without the bread or tacos without the tortillas. Who needs forks in the summer? Cybelle Tondu’s new recipe for ground turkey, shiitake and cashew lettuce cups combines salad with stir-fry…
Good morning. There’s a famous New York City dream where you discover an extra room in your apartment and it changes your life, at least until you get used to having the space. I experienced a version of that in my waking life recently. I arose early, showered, got dressed and made to head off…
We’re on a high with cooking at my house. Pretty much everything we’re eating is from one farmers’ market or another, because glorious summer produce is upon us. It’s heavenly. The fresh, fully formed flavor of ripe, in-season fruits and vegetables makes cooking exciting — and easier. Take, for example, hothouse tomatoes. In winter, they…
It’s time for our annual reminder that gazpacho is the queen of summer cooking, a coolly satisfying remedy for intense, sluggish heat. Our recipe is called best gazpacho, and it delivers on that promise. It’s simple, salty, thick and smooth, with no bobbing cubes of cucumber in sight. (I never liked those.) We have dozens…
Hello! Mia here, filling in for Melissa Clark today. How are you? I’m … tired. Maybe it’s the heat, maybe it’s just Monday, but I’m slow and sluggish, the human equivalent of that womp-womp trombone noise. I need a dinner that knows how bleh I am but also knows I’m hungry and want something substantial…
Good morning. I’ve been cooking outside as much as I can these last few weeks, turning meats and vegetables over fire. Sometimes the fuel is wood, other times charcoal, many times propane. Grilled food is the song of my summer. I’m not alone in feeling that way. It seems my whole neighborhood is smoke-scented these…
It recently dawned on me that a significant portion of my favorite, most-repeated New York Times Cooking recipes rely on eggplant. There’s Kay Chun’s eggplant dal and eggplant adobo, Alexa Weibel’s eggplant caponata pasta and this trio of stunners from Eric Kim: gochujang-glazed eggplant, bulgogi eggplant, eggplant Parm. These recipes take this very dependable vegetable…
If I were mayor of Picnictown, every picnic would have the following: a blanket, a 1:1 dog-to-human ratio and esquites. The blanket’s there because grass is itchy no matter what the most outdoorsy person in the group says; the dogs because dogs are great. The esquites are essential because my favorite outdoor corn is elotes,…
It’s Juneteenth, a day traditionally celebrated with brightly hued red foods. If you’re searching for some summery inspiration, look no further than Gabrielle E.W. Carter’s recipe for country panzanella with watermelon dressing, adapted by Nicole Taylor and Yewande Komolafe. This colorful, cooling salad, full of toasted bread, tomatoes and watermelon, is tossed with a piquant…
