Good morning. Tejal Rao introduced a radical new biscuit technique in The New York Times Magazine this week, and delivered a recipe to go along with it for a tomato cobbler (above) that you should absolutely make as soon as you can. It comes from the gifted mind of Nicole Rucker, the Los Angeles pastry chef, and it takes some getting used to if you’ve got a good biscuit recipe already. (There’s ricotta in it!) But oh, man. Please try it. You might end up making the cobbler. Or you might just serve the things plain, as dessert.
Above and beyond the biscuits, I hope you get the chance to grill this weekend, to make like our forebears and cook over open flames. (I can help you out if you don’t really know how to do that. Here’s “How to Grill.”) You could start with barbecued chicken. You could make hamburgers. You could grill a trout. You could go low and slow, and pull yourself some pork.
Whatever you make for protein, though, and whether you’re grilling in a public park or a private yard, on a dock or on a fire escape, I hope you make some fire-kissed coleslaw to serve on the side.
Steven Raichlen wrote about the process for The Times this week, and it’s a fascinating read, with great recipes to illustrate his points. You might, for instance, thrill to ember-roasted slaw with mint. Or to grilled slaw with ginger and sesame. I love the idea of smoked cabbage slaw with creamy horseradish. I think that would be fantastic alongside Melissa Clark’s recipe for grilled flank steak with Worcestershire butter. It’d also be pretty good on its own.
So, biscuits, grilling, slaw. I’d also like to make Alexa Weibel’s recipe for pickle-brined fried chicken sandwiches this weekend, starting Saturday afternoon with the brining, and then following through on Sunday with the eating, aside a tall glass of red Lambrusco — or, in a pinch, straight grape soda, very cold.
(Not going to fry anything this weekend, even if I tell you how delicious it is? Make these chorizo sloppy Joes with kale and provolone instead. Holy smokes is that a good sandwich.)
You can find more inspiration at NYT Cooking, at least once you’ve taken out a subscription to our site and apps. (Check out this creamy corn pasta with basil I found over there!) And you can visit us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube for more.
Please write for help if something goes wrong along the way, either with your cooking or our technology: cookingcare@nytimes.com. We are here to serve. If your issue is philosophical, or if you’re mad about something, please write me instead: foodeditor@nytimes.com.
Now, it’s the opposite of delicious, and it won’t make you feel better about the world either, but you should absolutely read Matt Richtel’s terrifying story about how the pork industry blocks investigations into tainted meat and drug-resistant infections, in The Times.
