Good morning. The weekends have been filled with frustration lately, all kinds of broken things that need to be fixed before anything fun can happen: the frost-killed hose bib out front; the 30-amp fuse in the hydraulics on the skiff; the shorted-out taillight on the trailer beneath it. That’s often the way of the world: 20-minute jobs that can run to an hour if you’re not careful, two if you’re reckless. It’s annoying!
I suppose there are those who think about cooking this way. I am not one of them. A few hours out in the wild struggling with machines and I’m ready for the best reset I know: a retreat to the kitchen, a workshop I know inside and out, with every tool and ingredient in its place. Delicious is the best salve for exasperation, every time.
So here’s a dinner for anyone who’s wrestled the weekend and brought it only to a draw: Korean fried chicken (above).
Julia Moskin adapted the recipe from one developed by the food writer Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee, using either boneless chicken thighs or bone-in wings. Taste the sauce for the glaze as you make it — some will want a little less ketchup, or a little more gochujang. Serve with sheet-pan japchae and beer you’ve stored in the freezer while you’re cooking the chicken, so cold that it has flecks of ice in it.
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Korean Fried Chicken
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With Sunday sorted, you can turn to the rest of the week.
Monday
Simplicity itself: Melissa Clark’s new recipe for buttered noodles with jammy eggs, a pantry classic that’s as simple to make as it is comforting to devour. (Make extra eggs so you can drop them into ramen noodles for lunch later in the week.)
Tuesday
The salmon harvest got underway on the Copper River in Alaska last week, and while I wait for the fresh fish to make its way east, I’m eager to use up the last of last season’s canned sockeye with Lidey Heuck’s recipe for salmon patties. I use crushed saltines in place of the panko, even though I have panko, because that’s what I was taught by my grandmother.
Wednesday
Ham El-Waylly’s recipe for kung pao tofu is a bonkers-good vegetarian take on a mainstay of Chinese American cooking, fiery with dried chiles, tingly with Sichuan peppercorns and thick with peanuts in a silky, flavorful sauce. Could you use cashews in place of peanuts? Of course. Just as you might use cubed boneless chicken thighs in place of the tofu.
Thursday
Here’s a perfect recipe for a busy weeknight when almost the last thing you want to do is cook: Ali Slagle’s lemon-garlic linguine. It’s as satisfying as a loaf of fresh garlic bread fresh from the oven, though significantly silkier. You could, if you wanted, top it with seared shrimp or scallops.
Friday
And then, before heading into another weekend of chores, you should make Farideh Sadeghin’s new recipe for tandoori chicken, which doesn’t require a tandoor — your broiler or grill will do. Marinate the chicken for as long as you can manage, as the lemon juice and yogurt will help tenderize the meat. Serve with steamed basmati rice and cucumber cilantro raita.
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Now, it’s nothing to do with parsnips or pea shoots, but you might consider watching the comedian Katt Williams’s new special on Netflix, “Woke Foke,” if only so you can read Jason Zinoman’s critical accounting of the performance in The Times afterward. Jason is writing at the top of his game.
Here’s Benjamin Dreyer in The Washington Post on what he calls “Redefinition by Misapprehended Inference.” That is, when words don’t mean what many people think they mean. Salacious!
GQ has an excerpt from Glenn Kenny’s new book about the making of “Scarface.” Every Hollywood story is grim and complicated and this one is no exception.
Finally, Childish Gambino dropped a new video, “Little Foot Big Foot,” featuring Young Nudy, off his surprise album, “Atavista.” Watch that while your chicken’s marinating. I’ll be back next week.
