What to Cook This Weekend
by Cindi Sutter, Founder of The Spirited Table® - Recipe by Sam Sifton
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
We'd say good morning, except we've had awful ones in America these last few days, as the home page of The Times lays out in detail. It can seem small to be talking about cooking amid the horror and the anguish, the anger and the pain. But we believe it can help. Cook something today, for yourself and for others, and you have done something to bring pleasure and happiness into the world, even as others would snatch them away.
Cook what? Well, we're liking this kinda-local corn we're starting to see at the market. We like to grill corn on the weekend (above). We like to make sweet-corn salad. We like to caramelize corn in butter, and shower it with fresh mint. We like a basic corn chowder that we can slurp before we take aim at a bowl full of steamed clams. (Or before we face off with a platter of clams and chicken.)
Corn goes great with steak. Also with grilled sausages, onions and peppers. And fried scallops. Treated as it is on some Mexican street corners, corn can be its own reward. So why don't you cook some tonight, or tomorrow, or both? Hold back a few ears, and you can use them in the batter for an excellent cornbread on Sunday night to accompany a big skillet of smothered chicken.
Other things to cook this weekend: Melissa Clark's recipe for charred lamb and eggplant with date-yogurt chutney, accompanied by this Yotam Ottolenghi recipe for baked rice that I picked up in London a few months ago. Kim Severson's recipe for frogmore stew? Melissa's recipe for the ultimate veggie burger. Hot-and-sour soba salad? Spicy big tray chicken!
Maybe bake a giant lemon angel food cake with preserved lemon curd? Or weave a lattice top for Edna Lewis's recipe for rhubarb pie, which we've had in our database since 1991? You could make porchetta pork roast. How about making some cold lobster and lobster mayonnaise as an appetizer before it? With a sprinkle of caviar on top, it could be a nod to Wolfgang Puck, who was born on this day in 1949. If you'd like to celebrate the great chef's birth with his signature pizza covered in smoked salmon and caviar, we have the recipe. It's great.
Browse the Cooking site and apps other ideas for what to cook this weekend. (You ever make crab Newburg? It's amazing. Not for you? At least make some burgers!) Then rate the success of the recipes on a scale of one to five stars. Leave a note on a recipe if you have one to add, either for yourself or for our growing community of like-minded gourmands. Organize your recipe box. Or get in touch with us if you can't figure out how: cookingcare@nytimes.com.
And take to social media to show us all what you're up to. We monitor the hashtag #NYTCooking (not to mention #renewDocMcStuffins). Add to the chorus: Show us your tarts and hashes, your pizzas and cocktails, your roasts and fried goods. (You can find mine on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, even Pinterest.)
Now, please read David W. Dunlap's amazing obituary for Vernon Kroening, who was killed 36 years ago when a homophobic former transit cop named Ronald K. Crumpley went on a murderous rampage in the West Village, firing a gun into a crowd of men standing in front of two gay bars. It is a remarkable piece of reporting, and writing. Have a great weekend.