Friday, April 26, 2024

Sesame noodles, buttered biscuits, charred cabbage, huevos rancheros

The weekend is here. Let's eat.
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Cooking

April 26, 2024

A stainless steel skillet holds spicy sesame noodles with chicken and peanuts as well as a wooden spoon.
Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Sesame noodles, buttered biscuits, charred cabbage, huevos rancheros

Good morning. There was a bald eagle flying up Shin Creek in the Beaverkill Valley, in the Catskill Mountains of New York. I was driving alongside her, on the roadbed above the stream. The eagle was looking for trout, as I would be later, she undoubtedly more successfully than me, and fair play to her for that. A bald eagle is an apex predator. I'm an amateur with a fake bug on the end of a 20-foot leader, waving a stick to send it in the direction of the fish whose head I saw rise on the edge of a riffle, near that stick that points sideways toward the rock — no, the other rock.

It got me thinking about dinner. We had that in common, anyway, the bald eagle and me. For her, rainbow trout sashimi, no soy sauce. For me, spicy sesame noodles with chicken and peanuts (above), though with ground pork in place of the chicken and spaghetti in place of the fresh ramen noodles, because that's what's in the cupboard. It's one of those dinners that comes together fast, with big flavor, and at the end of the week that's generally what I'm looking for: easy preparation, with significant returns on a modest investment.

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And then: all-purpose biscuits in the morning, to split, butter and griddle. I'll use those for midmorning egg sandwiches, with melted Cheddar and crisped bacon, ahead of a long drift on the river, or a short walk followed by a long nap.

For dinner (if you take the buttering of those biscuits seriously, there'll be no need for lunch), how about grilled lemongrass pork, with some rice vermicelli noodles, roasted peanuts, sliced cucumber, cilantro, mint and a lot of lime wedges?

I'll make some charred cabbage slaw to go with it. You don't need a recipe for that, only vague instructions, what we call a no-recipe recipe in my neighborhood. Put a small whole cabbage onto your grill while the flames are high, the coals not yet fully formed. Roll it around every once in a while, so it burns all over and begins to sweat from within. This should take around 30 minutes.

Make a dressing in the meantime: mayonnaise, a lot of sweet Thai chili sauce, rice wine vinegar or lime juice, a hit or two of soy sauce, everything to taste.

Take the incinerated cabbage off the fire, let it cool slightly, remove all the burned outer leaves, halve the head, cut out the stem and slice the cabbage into shreds. Dress judiciously and taste. It probably needs a little salt. Serve that with the pork and accept your accolades.

Huevos rancheros for breakfast on Sunday? Creamy white beans with herb oil for lunch? Yes, and I'll honor the eagle at dinner, with a version of Tamar Adler's recipe for fireplace trout, cooked on the stove because I don't have a fireplace.

There are thousands more recipes waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. Yes, you need a subscription to read them. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. If you haven't done so already, would you please consider subscribing today? Thanks extremely.

If you find yourself flummoxed by the technology, please ask for help. We have good people standing by at cookingcare@nytimes.com; someone will get back to you. Or, if you'd like to register a complaint or say something nice, you can write to me. I can't respond to every letter. But I read every one I get. I'm at foodeditor@nytimes.com.

Now, it has little to do with chives or chervil, but I think you should read my colleague A.O. Scott on the originality of modern literary fan fiction, an essay that helps explain our — or at least my — love of Barbara Kingsolver's "Demon Copperhead" and Percival Everett's "James." (Scott's also very good on the poetry critic Helen Vendler, who died this week at 90.)

Mark Krotov has a great dispatch in n+1 from this year's New York International Auto Show in Manhattan, which reminded me of the outsized role the show played in my own childhood, when I went every year to gape at cars we'd never own.

Rachel McAdams is terrific in Amy Herzog's "Mary Jane," just as Jesse Green says in his Times review of the play. It's tough stuff to watch: "The death of the self in the love for one's child," Jesse wrote. Go if you can.

Finally, here's Hurray for the Riff Raff, "Hawkmoor," music for birds of prey. I'll see you on Sunday.

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WHAT TO COOK

A fluffy, golden biscuit has been split, filled with melted butter and restacked.

Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

All-Purpose Biscuits

By Sam Sifton

1 hour

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Article Image

Joe Lingeman for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

Grilled Lemongrass Pork

By Rick A. Martínez

1 hour 30 minutes

Makes 4 servings

Article Image

Sang An for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.

Huevos Rancheros

By Kay Chun

45 minutes

Makes 4 servings

Article Image

Linda Xiao for The New York Times

Creamy White Beans With Herb Oil

By Colu Henry

15 minutes

Makes 2 to 4 servings

Article Image

Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food stylist: Suzanne Lenzer. Prop stylist: Kate S. Jordan.

Fireplace Trout

By Tamar Adler

10 minutes

Makes 4 servings

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Tanya Sichynsky shares the most delicious vegetarian recipes for weeknight cooking, packed lunches and dinner parties.

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Tanya Sichynsky shares the most delicious vegetarian recipes for weeknight cooking, packed lunches and dinner parties.

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