Good morning! Today we have for you:
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A super-easy shrimp curry
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A five-star ratatouille
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And, a no-bake granola bite recipe perfect for the back-to-school set (or anyone who needs a make-ahead breakfast)
I always get a little thrill at a new David Tanis column. His fresh, creative takes on seasonal cooking provide an endless trove of ideas for me to borrow. This month’s lineup is no exception: He opens with a tomato and cucumber salad seasoned with cumin and curry leaves and ends with a rose-scented watermelon pudding with pistachios. But in between, there’s the main attraction, a Goan-style shrimp curry enriched with coconut.
The curry recipe, adapted from the star cookbook writer and actor Madhur Jaffrey, is actually one that I’ve made before, and I can tell you, it’s a keeper. Just bloom spices and shallots in oil, swirl in some canned coconut milk and then add the shrimp, which turn pink and succulent in the heady mixture in a matter of minutes. Serve it with rice and sliced tomatoes (with or without the cumin and curry leaves), and revel in the best of late-summer cooking.
Featured Recipe
Madhur Jaffrey’s Goan Shrimp Curry
More food for thought:
Ratatouille: Have you made ratatouille yet this summer? Fear not, there are a few weeks of eggplant, zucchini, pepper and tomato season left to go before decorative gourd season takes over. In this take on the classic, I roast the vegetables separately to soften and brown them, and then combine them for a final, olive-oil coated bake. Served with goat cheese and a baguette, it’s one of my favorite meatless meals.
Saltine-crusted pork tenderloin: In this schnitzel-like dish from Kevin Pang, pork cutlets are pounded until thin, coated in crushed saltines and then fried in a mix of butter and oil for a richness of flavor and a golden-brown crunch. Popular in diners across the Midwest, they’re often served alongside mashed potatoes or sandwiched in soft rolls.
Zucchini butter pasta: For her latest brilliant weeknight pasta, Hetty Lui McKinnon takes a cue from Julia Child by simmering grated zucchini into a buttery, Parmesan-spiked sauce until the shreds sweeten, collapse and practically melt. Then she tosses that with pasta and tops it all with more Parmesan, basil leaves for freshness and walnuts for crunch. Be sure to season the sauce generously — zucchini’s mild nature can handle plenty of salt, pepper and bright lemon juice.
Grilled chicken breasts with turmeric and lime: This gem from Pierre Franey’s “60-Minute Gourmet” archives proves that the simplest marinades often deliver the most spectacular results. Turmeric, rosemary, garlic, lime juice and olive oil work together to create chicken that’s both aromatic and juicy. The usual white-meat caution applies here: Don’t let the chicken breasts linger on the grill, or you’ll turn perfectly seasoned protein into pricey shoe leather.
Granola bites: Genevieve Ko’s no-bake granola balls are back-to-school brilliance — chewy, crunchy and carefully engineered not to crumble on the go. Dates act as a natural glue, binding almonds, dried cherries and sunflower seeds into perfectly portable bites. They take just minutes to blend and roll, and deliver a week’s worth of sweet, satisfying and tidy breakfasts and snacks.
That’s all for now. If you need any technical help, the folks at [email protected] are there just to help you out. And I’m at [email protected] if you want to say hi.
See you on Monday.
Melissa Clark has been writing her column, A Good Appetite, for The Times’s Food section since 2007. She creates recipes for New York Times Cooking, makes videos and reports on food trends. She is the author of 45 cookbooks, and counting.
The post Tonight’s Dinner Could Be a Best-in-Class Shrimp Curry appeared first on New York Times.
