Hello and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes. Celestially speaking, we are still in summer, but as soon as we pass Labor Day, I start thinking of roast chicken, squash and apple cakes. (This may have something to do with the fact that your hard-working NYT Cooking staff is currently preparing for Thanksgiving.)
But I’m not yet ready to part with peaches, or plums, or berries, tomatoes and corn. So here are recipes that merge summer produce and fall cravings, or that would just be really delicious right now. Tell me whether I hit the mark at dearemily@nytimes.com.
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Here are five dishes for the week:
1. Sheet-Pan Chicken With Roasted Plums and Onions
Golden chicken! Juicy plums! I will be making this Melissa Clark recipe for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which begins on Friday, Sept. 18. The meal traditionally calls for some sweetness, which those plums provide. You can make this with bone-in thighs, rather than a cut-up whole chicken, if that simplifies cooking or shopping.
2. Sook Mei Faan (Cantonese Creamed Corn With Tofu and Rice)
This is one of the best recipes I’ve cooked in a long time. Hetty McKinnon uses fresh corn in place of the canned creamed corn you’d typically find in this Cantonese dish, and she swaps in silken tofu for the meat or fish. The simple flavors here are delectable together, especially with chile oil, but the way the textures mingle makes the dish.
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3. Skillet Meatballs With Peaches, Basil and Lime
Here’s another recipe from Melissa Clark that combines meat with stone fruit — a time-tested and superb combination — and I like that she finishes the dish with a long squeeze of lime. The gingery meatballs can be made with any ground meat, including chicken and turkey, but pork is best.
4. Spicy Cucumbers With Yogurt, Lemon and Herbs
A salad this special can anchor a meal. Don’t wait too long to make this spicy, herby recipe by Yewande Komolafe — it will taste best at the end of a hot day, with something utterly simple on the side. (I’d grill or pan-fry fish.)
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