Plush, perfumed pepperpot

This beloved Guyanese stew, spicy, slightly sweet and sticky, is just the thing for a winter weekend.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story January 28, 2024 Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Plush, perfumed pepperpot By Sam Sifton Good morning. Time was, a goodly part of my correspondence was with readers annoyed with me or with The New York Times for publishing recipes calling for ingredients unavailable to them, either for reasons of geography or because they didn't wish to stray beyond the aisles of their local supermarket. Online shopping and better supermarkets changed all that. You can have oyster sauce shipped to your small town or your corner of a large city, and find mullein-leaf tea, tubs of Vegemite and egusi seeds, too. I had a hankering for a St. Louis-style pizza. I didn't have to fly to Lambert Field. Two or three clicks on the laptop and the mail carrier soon brought me a few pounds of the Provel cheese necessary to make it. Today's shopping: cassareep, a Guyanese syrup of boiled cassava root, savory-sweet, like a cross between molasses and Worcestershire sauce. It's a crucial ingredient in one of Guyana's most beloved dishes, pepperpot (above), which Millie Peartree brought to New York Times Cooking this week. Of course you can buy cassareep online, but if there's a Caribbean market where you are, it's most likely stocked there as well. Browned into beef chuck, it makes for a lovely stew: spicy, fragrant, slightly sweet and sticky. Millie serves it with sliced white bread. I think that's lovely. Featured Recipe Pepperpot View Recipe → As for the rest of the week … Monday The other night I attempted a freestyle, no-recipe recipe for miso soup. It was an unmitigated disaster. Follow Eric Kim's excellent, actual recipe for miso soup instead. It's fantastic. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Chris Simpson for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Sophia Pappas. Miso Soup By Eric Kim 50 minutes Makes 4 servings Tuesday What I like about Ali Slagle's recipe for chicken quesadillas is that she mixes shredded chicken with cheese in advance of assembling the tortillas, which yields a perfectly melted filling. And it comes together quickly, making it one of the great weeknight uses of a rotisserie (or leftover) chicken. Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Chicken Quesadillas By Ali Slagle 10 minutes Makes 2 quesadillas Wednesday Lidey Heuck's recipe for a Waldorf salad sees its roots in the fancy-dan cuisine served at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan in the 19th century, but in 2024 it's a perfect example of how you can make a beautiful dinner out of plain-Jane supermarket ingredients: a couple of apples, some table grapes, celery, mayonnaise, lemon and a handful of toasted walnuts. Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Waldorf Salad By Lidey Heuck 25 minutes Makes 4 servings Thursday There is no high-heat, fast-hands stir-frying in Genevieve Ko's recipe for an easy kung pao chicken. It's medium-heat, low-stress home cooking instead, a wonderful foil for greens steamed with garlic and a bowl of rice. I might add some peanuts to the mix, myself. Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks. Easy Kung Pao Chicken Recipe from Pearl Han and Grace Han Adapted by Genevieve Ko 15 minutes Makes 4 servings Friday And then you can head into the weekend with Kay Chun's recipe for seafood burgers with Old Bay mayonnaise. They're not complicated: shrimp, cod and scallions, with Delmarva-scented mayonnaise for fat and silkiness. Kay grills the patties, but they'll cook just as nicely in a well-oiled cast-iron pan. Serve on toasted buns with plenty of iceberg lettuce and, if you like, sliced pickles. So great. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Grilled Seafood Burgers With Old Bay Mayonnaise By Kay Chun 25 minutes Makes 4 servings There are many thousands more recipes waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. You do need a subscription to read them. Subscriptions are what make this whole enterprise possible. So, please, if you haven't taken one out yet, would you consider doing so today? Thanks. Reach out for help if you find yourself in a jam with our technology. We're manning the inbox at cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. Or you can write to me. I'm hopeless with technology, but I'm a good listener: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I can't respond to every letter. But I read every one I receive. Now, it's a far cry from galangal or smoked goose, but the South African soprano Golda Schultz is coming to the New York Philharmonic this week to sing Mozart. Here she is doing just that in London a few years ago. Let's go! See what you think of Paul Keegan, in the London Review of Books, on the Philip Guston show at the Tate Modern. A lovely piece of work: My colleagues Priya Krishna, Tanya Sichynsky and Umi Syam on the state of the restaurant menu right now. It's a fun piece to explore. Finally, it's Rakim's birthday. He's 56. "Don't Sweat the Technique"! I'll be back on Friday. Sign up for the Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter Fresh dinner ideas for busy people who want something great to eat, with NYT Cooking recipes sent to you weekly. Get it in your inbox Sign up for The Veggie newsletter Tanya Sichynsky shares the most delicious vegetarian recipes for weeknight cooking, packed lunches and dinner parties. Get it in your inbox Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Cooking from The New York Times. To stop receiving Cooking, unsubscribe. 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