Good morning. I was in Montauk over the weekend, the easternmost tip of Long Island in New York, chasing fish in the rips and off the point, then west along the south side of the island to Warhol’s and Ditch.
On shore, there were the usual dock hangs, and two somewhat-larger affairs into which I was dragooned into cooking over raging charcoal: a bunch of flap steak and chicken and fish, piles of vegetables, spiedies for miles. This was for friends old and new, and when it was all over, one of them walked me down to the dock and hauled a tote out of the water, gave me a half-dozen lobsters to take home. And that was more joyous work, right there: the lobsters steamed and cooled, the meat harvested for lobster rolls and lobster mac and cheese, the shells broiled in the oven and used for lobster butter and lobster stock and, eventually, let’s hope, for lobster bisque. Life on the water is a game of trade.
It is on the hard, as well, as anyone who traffics in sourdough starter can tell you. And that’s anyone who has sourdough starter! Just ask around, and you’ll get some, and easier than lobsters. Sourdough starter comes in handy.
For instance, we’re delighted to announce the publication of How to Make Sourdough Bread (above), by Claire Saffitz, a smart and exhaustive guide to the process of baking beautiful, flavorful bread with natural leavening. I had a thick chunk of a test loaf the other day in the newsroom and it was, frankly, phenomenal.
Lobster, sourdough bread? I know. It’s Wednesday, and cooking in the middle of the week is already a bear, and now you’re thinking, What’s next, duck terrine?
No! Instead, here’s a simple no-recipe recipe instead, a kind of midweek exhortation to cook improvisationally, this time with cheap Chinese, Japanese or Korean freezer dumplings of the sort you can find all over New York City’s nine Chinatowns, or in the cold section of your local supermarket, often labeled “pot stickers.” It’s an idea I picked up from Mandy Lee, the Lady and Pups blogger whose quirky-cool “The Art of Escapism Cooking” will be on bookstore shelves soon.
Just make a tomato sauce: puréed canned tomatoes with garlic, thyme, chile flakes, a big splash of fish sauce and another of brown sugar. Simmer it until it thickens, then add your dumplings and let them cook through in the sauce, stirring gently so they don’t actually pot-stick. Stir in a little cream at the end and serve with shredded Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. Kooky fantastic!
Actual weeknight recipes await your attentions on NYT Cooking. (Five-minute hummus from Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook? You could serve it as a dip for pita, a bedding for sautéed ground beef, an accompaniment to grilled vegetables or lamb. Pan-roasted eggplant with peanut-chile sauce, from Cal Peternell? Great with a pile of rice. Cauliflower adobo? Likewise and so delicious.)
Yes, you need a subscription to access these. In return, we won’t just keep working hard to bring you the best recipes in the world. We’ll get to keep working!
Further inspiration for what to cook tonight and in coming days is on our Instagram and YouTube pages, and on our Twitter and Facebook accounts. Help with our technology or your cooking is available at cookingcare@nytimes.com.
In other news, I think you may have heard we’re playing host to a food festival this weekend?
If nothing else, you should come see me talk with the rapper and one-time restaurant cook Action Bronson on Saturday, along with Jon Caramanica, a Times critic who follows him tight. On Sunday, join Kim Severson for a conversation with Kerry Diamond of Cherry Bombe, Jon Gray of Ghetto Gastro and Julia Turshen, who writes cookbooks and runs Equity at the Table.
And absolutely spend both days in Bryant Park, among other things eating food from Roberta’s, Ugly Baby, Emmy Squared and the very best of Smorgasburg. Come say hi!
Now, it has nothing to do with food, and you’ll need to register to get to the page, but I still think you should read this scary story in The Independent about how global shipping companies have been rigging “cheat devices” to get around environmental regulations, a kind of floating Volkswagen diesel scandal that could have devastating consequences for the world’s oceans.
Please read Priya Krishna on the dark business of modern cookbook publishing, in The Times.
Finally, here’s Katie Lockhart in Atlas Obscura on the rise of Thai restaurants in Greenland, and how that’s led, among other things, to reindeer pad krapow. See you on Friday!
