Good morning. Happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate.
My mom sure didn’t. She called it a Hallmark holiday and resisted all efforts to take her to brunch, a meal she loathed with passion and eloquence. Once I tried serving her a mimosa. She gave me a withering side-eye and didn’t touch it.
For my kids’ mom, then, or your mom, or some other mom today: biscuits with butter and jam, French toast amandine with maple syrup and plenty of bacon, maybe these silky scrambled eggs with pancetta, pepper and pecorino (above).
And how about this bacon and egg pizza from Melissa Clark? Melissa’s instructions call for cooking the pizza for a number of minutes, then using the back of a large spoon to create divots in the ricotta into which to crack a couple of eggs. What I do instead is separate the eggs into yolks and whites, then use a squeeze bottle to drizzle the whites over the pizza as it goes into the oven, finishing the pie with drizzles of yolk when it’s done. The heat of the pizza warms the yolk through — and there’s white and yolk in every bite.
Make a big breakfast in any event, and then wind down into a celery Victor salad for dinner. That’s a very good day.
As for the rest of the week. …
Monday
Kay Chun’s meatless recipe for the savory Korean stir-fry known as japchae is one of my favorites. She gets a ton of spring vegetables into the mix, and allows their sweetness and snap to shine against the chewiness of the sweet potato noodles. I like to make it right after work and allow it to sit for a couple of hours before dinner. It develops!
Wednesday
You can grill the mushrooms for Kay’s mushroom piccata, but I never do that on weeknights. I just put them in a hot oven to roast while I’m making the sauce. Butter, shallots, garlic, capers, parsley? You could nap a Hoka with that combination and have a fine dinner.
Thursday
There’s a deeply fiery intensity to Zainab Shah’s recipe for kali mirch karahi, or black pepper chicken, which comes together in roughly a half-hour. Secret ingredient: malt vinegar. Oh, wow.
Friday
And then you can celebrate the end of the week with a platter of the crab cakes that Emily Meggett taught Kim Severson to make, urging her to flavor the meat with just a tiny bit of mace, nutmeg’s peppery cousin. Yes, crab’s expensive. Budget the rest of the weekend accordingly.
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Now, I know I usually close out these newsletters with wide-ranging cultural recommendations. I want you to read well, listen to amazing music, experience the transcendence of art. But sometimes the delicious must trump everything. And so: the Delfiore Pork Store on North Ocean Avenue in Patchogue, in south-central Suffolk County on Long Island.
Yes, the sausages are fantastic. But the Italian special hero on semolina? That is a top-flight sandwich. As the tire company used to say: Worth a detour. Enjoy that if you can and I’ll be back next week.
