Good morning. The cherry blossoms were at their peak last week where I live, the flowers almost ready to burst from their branches to cover the curbs like snow. There was a deep dampness in the air and it made me think of summer down south, the way the atmosphere can seem almost fluid under the sun, all ripe, all slow. i made sweet tea and drank it over a huge amount of ice, on a stoop, marveling at how sometimes sweet tea is the best tea, even if you usually drink tea plain, unsweetened, without a single lemon to counteract the tannins.
Sweet tea is reckless tea, unhealthy tea, a liquid confection, not something you drink every day. But it has its place, and I made enough of it to be able to use the leftovers as a brine Millie Peartree’s delicious roast chicken (over).
It’s a simple recipe, perfect for a Sunday dinner. Combine the tea with a large handful Cajun Seasoning and marinate chicken legs all day. Then bake them in an oiled pan in a hot oven for a little over 30 minutes, until they are golden brown and cooked right through to the bone. Brush with the juices and serve baked sweet potatoesOh my God.
Suggested recipe
Sweet roasted chicken salted with tea
That’s Sunday sorted, then. As for the rest of the week. …
Monday
I made some thick tautog fillets the other day and used Julia Moskin’s recipe pan-fried fish fillets with spiced butter to induce them to a state of perfection: crispy on one side and soft just finished inside. Use whatever fish you can find that is local and fresh and you will experience a similar joy.
Tuesday
Here is a recipe for chicken galbi noodle salad from Kay Chun, a special night inspired by Korean beef galbi. Kay’s recipe simmers ground chicken in a simple sauce of garlic, ginger, onion and sesame oil, then tosses it with peppers and basil before swirling it all into glass noodles. Eat warm or at room temperature.
Wednesday
Ali Slagle developed this midweek hit, a horseradish and tuna Cheddar melt that comes together quickly and seems expressly designed for baking in a toaster oven. I like Bays English Muffinsbut there are no rules here, just guidance: any bread you find tasty will work.
Thursday
Tantanmen is a Japanese version dan dan noodles, from Sichuan Province, China. Hetty Lui McKinnon’s vegan tandanmen with fried tofu it is perhaps better than one, substantial in its salted sesame broth. “My goodness this slaps,” one reader wrote on the recipe.
Friday
And then you can go into the weekend with Alexa Weibel’s recipe Arrabbiata sauce, the classic Italian tomato sauce, baked with crushed red pepper and drizzled with olive oil and garlic. It’s great served over penne with a shower of pecorino, but lately I’ve found it to be an amazing, three-alarm pizza sauce daisy.
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Now, it’s not about softening chocolate or shrimp, but you should definitely read Sally Jenkins in the Washington Post, to rodeo star JB Mauney“the first man to become legitimately rich riding a bull.”
here you go Danny Lyon in The New York Review of Booksin his decades-long quest to photograph every building in his lower Manhattan neighborhood before the city tore them down.