Good morning. Our J. Kenji López-Alt gave us a fantastic new recipe this week for moo shu mushrooms (above), based on the pork version his parents were introduced to by the chef Joyce Chen, who died in 1994. It’s accompanied by instructions on how to make Mandarin pancakes for wrapping the moo shu, but no one’s going to object on a Wednesday if you don’t do that. As Kenji advises, you can always serve the dish as the strip-mall Chinese restaurants do, with warm flour tortillas. Either way, you’ll eat very well.
Alison Roman has new material as well: a fantastic caramelized shallot pasta that yields enough of the sauce to have leftovers you can refrigerate and use later to serve with fried eggs, or as a topping for roasted root vegetables, or as a base for crisp-cooked chicken thighs. Maybe that’s your dinner tonight?
Or perhaps you’re looking to improvise, as we often do on Wednesdays here, cooking what we call no-recipe recipes, off a narrative prompt. (It’s like art school, basically.) Like, say, what if you made glazed tofu, to serve over rice? Your glaze might be the barbecue sauce that’s in the door of your refrigerator, or a purpose-built one of ketchup, soy sauce, a little vinegar, some lashings of hot sauce. Mine is gochujang, lime juice, fish sauce and a little molasses, cooked with chopped garlic and ginger over medium-high heat until it’s bubbling.
Regardless, heat your oven to 400, and, if you’re not using the extra-firm variety of tofu, press it to release its liquid. Line a pan with foil, paint it with a little glaze, slice the tofu and place it on the foil, cover it with the glaze and bake until it’s crisp and shining, which’ll take around 20 minutes. I put that on cold lettuce leaves, shake some sesame seeds or furikake over the top, and serve with rice and kimchi.
Here’s an actual recipe to cook tonight or in coming days: Jamie Oliver’s ultimate veggie burgers, which he joined us in the kitchen to make the other day, for this exclusive video we made just for you. Check that out, why don’t you?
Here’s another: crisped chickpeas in spicy brown butter, which I like with a fried egg and a spoonful of yogurt. (Confidential to Nervous in New Orleans: Yes, you can make your own yogurt!)
Here’s a third: one-pot turmeric coconut rice with greens.
You could make creamy lemon pasta. You could make Italian subs with sausage and peppers. Stir up some Buffalo cauliflower dip and eat it standing in the kitchen, spooning the stuff into your mouth with tortilla chips or celery sticks while the kids play “Bad Guy” again and again, and everyone dances through dinner.
Something like 20,000 more recipes await your consideration on NYT Cooking. (Have you put together a food plan for the Super Bowl yet?) You do need a subscription to access them. Subscriptions make the whole thing possible. Thank you for yours.
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Now, please take some time to read Kim Severson on Amy Klobuchar and the politics of Minnesota hot dish, in The Times.
It’s nothing to do with cutlets or sage, but you should also read Sasha Weiss on a radical renovation of “West Side Story,” in The New York Times Magazine. And, while you’re at it, Raffi Khatchadourian on the amazing N.K. Jemisin, in The New Yorker.
Holy cow this trailer for “Promising Young Woman”!
Finally, there are only about 400 North Atlantic right whales left in the world. A photographer saw one with her calf off the coast of northeast Florida this weekend. Think about them, and I’ll be back on Friday.
