Good morning. I drove 100 miles the other morning, only to discover that the piece of paper I needed at my destination was actually at my departure point. This occasioned a 100-mile trip back and another 100 miles back from that: 300 miles on the odometer before noon. It left me rattled and sore. The last thing I wanted to do that night was cook.
But cook I did, because cooking’s a practice, my practice, and I find that doing it even when I don’t really want to brings a kind of slow satisfaction. I may start out cranky, laying out ingredients, annoyed. But the irritation fades away as I slice and chop and sauté and mix, and by the time dinner’s done I’m happier than I was when I started, as if I’d meditated or gone for a run.
Is that true for you, too? I recognize that sometimes the better cure is delivery pork buns with hot pot to follow, or a seat at a bar that serves exemplary chicken wings. Still, you ought to try it one night when the day’s gone sideways, just to see. Cooking makes things better, almost every time.
For dinner this evening, then, Melissa Clark’s recipe for baked fish and chips (above), served with a horseradish tartar sauce. I like it best with cod, though any mild, white, flaky fish will do — something sweet beneath the crisp, herb-flecked crust. Do follow Melissa’s directive to preheat the sheet pan you’ll roast the potatoes on. It really makes a difference in the quality of the chips.
Featured Recipe
Baked Fish and Chips
As for the rest of the week. …
Monday
I continue to cook under the sign of Melissa, this time with her recipe for pasta primavera with asparagus and peas. It’s best with a springy, fresh egg pasta, cooked until just al dente, so there’s a chewiness to the strands. Frozen peas are more than fine if you can’t find fresh ones — just add them at the very end of the process so they don’t go mushy and bland.
Tuesday
I love Kay Chun’s new recipe for beef fried rice because she velvets sliced sirloin with cornstarch and soy sauce before cooking it, which gives the meat a tender, silky texture against the grains of rice and pops of peas. A drizzle of sesame oil over the top at the end brings everything together.
Wednesday
Ali Slagle deploys a neat trick in her new recipe for simple whole artichokes, using a pot lid smaller than the pot you cook the artichokes in to keep them submerged in liquid. (Many Japanese cooks keep a drop lid for just this purpose, and others. It’s called an otoshibuta.) Ali serves them with a luscious lemon butter, which is aces high. But I wouldn’t sneeze at a hollandaise in its stead.
Thursday
Here’s a lovely recipe for chopped salad with jalapeño-ranch dressing from Alexa Weibel, festive and flavorful and not at all difficult to assemble. There is nothing subtle about it, Lex says. She’s absolutely right. It’s big flavor, all the way down.
Friday
And then you can head into the weekend with a rehearsal for an Easter feast: Yotam Ottolenghi’s new recipe for slow-roasted lamb with grapes. You rub the meat with cumin, salt and a touch of sugar and then cook it tented in the oven until everything is soft and shreddy, the richness of the lamb perfectly complemented by the sticky-sweet sauce of roasted grapes and bright lemon.
There are many thousands more recipes to cook this week waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. Go look around and see what you find. (You need a subscription to do so, naturally. Subscriptions make this whole operation possible. If you haven’t already, would you consider subscribing today? Thank you.)
Please write for help if you run into issues with your account: [email protected]. Someone will get back to you. Bleats of dissatisfaction or statements of praise may be sent to me: [email protected]. I can’t respond to every letter. But I read each one I get.
Now, it’s nothing to do with fruit preserves or potted shrimp, but I don’t want you to miss Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s essay for The New York Times Magazine, “This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write.”
While you’re at it, here’s Kelefa Sanneh, in The New Yorker, on the musician Patrick Schneeweis, whom you may remember as the anarchist punk folk singer Pat the Bunny.
Spend some time with the artist Joiri Minaya, in Artforum.
Finally, it’s Al Green’s birthday. He’s 79. Here’s his 1973 hit “Love and Happiness.” Listen to that while you’re cooking and I’ll be back next week.
Sam Sifton is an assistant managing editor, responsible for culture and lifestyle coverage, and the founding editor of New York Times Cooking.
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