Good morning. I hope you’ll be getting first tracks at Mt. Hood in Oregon this weekend, pushing out of Timberline to hit Thunder to Phlox to Wingle’s Wiggle, then back up Pucci, en route Magic Mile. I hope you’ll greet sunrise at the edge of the Everglades, push down toward the Lostmans River, Watson’s Place, Shadow Country, and cast to rolling tarpon or hidden snook. I hope you’ll get out into Acadia for a few hours if you live Down East, hike the Witch Hole Pond Loop, warm up with some hot chocolate afterward. I hope you’ll end the day at Grandview, in Encinitas, Southern California, ripping swells that developed hundreds of miles to the west.
Not me. I’ll be looking out into the mealy-mouthed winter of New York circa 2020 and thinking about my grill. Live-fire cooking, after all, is an activity that can unite the nation, even if some of us will be cooking in layered wool, and others in flip-flops. (This time of year, if you visit the public park grills at Jacob Riis Park, in Queens, you’ll see how some combine those looks.)
What I’d like to cook, what maybe you could cook yourself: Momofuku’s bo ssam (above), but on the grill and not in the oven, the heat opposite the protein, with lots of wood chips to flavor the smoke. (Yes, of course, you can make the dish in your oven instead of going outside and firing up the grill. That’s how the recipe is written. But the fantasist takes it outdoors!) What a Saturday night that would be, along with a few dozen oysters on the half shell.
Though maybe a whole day of smoke-roasting is not in the cards for you? I get it. I’m wired differently. If you’d still like to grill, though: How about this awesome and speedy charred broccoli situation I learned to make from the chef Joe Carroll’s book, “Feeding the Fire”? You could pair that with some grilled sausages and radicchio, from Melissa Clark. Or her sweet and spicy grilled chicken breasts.
Back inside in your actual kitchen, you might cook some crisp-fried pork chops with buttered radishes, an Alison Roman jam of some distinction. I like one of the notes on the recipe from a subscriber called Discerning1: “At Step 1 spread a little mayo on both sides of the chop and then dip in panko. Panko adheres nicely. Good with fish fillets too.”
Creamy braised white beans could be nice this weekend. Likewise this vegan mushroom étouffée. Mango pie? Chocolate whiskey cake? Even if you’re not grilling or skiing or surfing or fishing, even if you’re just going to sit on the couch for most of the weekend reading “Three Women” by Lisa Taddeo, the world is your topneck clam. Prepare it as you like.
Go look around on NYT Cooking to see what other recipes strike your fancy. You may hit what we call a paywall. That will slow your roll. It’s what we call “friction.” It’s designed to encourage you to purchase a subscription to our site and apps. That subscription supports our work and allows it to continue. And I think you’ll find it worth your while, if you haven’t taken one out yet. If you have: Thanks so much!
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Now, it’s a solid three-iron shot from the (salad) green(s), but the rules hold that when Amanda Fortini has a byline, we need to read it right away. Here she is on the people who live in Las Vegas, who aren’t visiting, who make up the actuality of the place, in The Believer.
I’ve been enjoying “The Catch and Kill Podcast With Ronan Farrow.”
Also, the original season of “Top Boy,” from 2011, when Dushane and Sully were young.
Finally, here’s Buckingham Nicks, “Heartbreaker (Circles in Time),” and if it’s not a great recording, they’re still throwing off strong ’70s energy to take you into the weekend. Listen to that loud and I’ll be back on Sunday.
