Kay Chun has a brilliant way to unleash the magic of miso. In her beloved, five-star recipe for coconut-miso salmon curry, she adds a dollop of white miso to the pot at the very beginning, letting it sear, caramelize and integrate with the ginger and garlic to deepen their character. Then she stirs in some coconut milk to create a creamy, lightly sweet broth to simmer the salmon and the spinach. Finished with sliced fresh chiles and herbs and served over rice, it’s no wonder it has over 12,000 ratings. Who doesn’t love a light and umami-rich weeknight meal, especially when it’s this easy to make?
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Coconut-Miso Salmon Curry
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I know I do, and I’ll bet you can relate. It was a long winter, and the laid-back days of summer aren’t here yet to revive us, so now’s when I lean into pared-down recipes requiring zero fuss. David Tanis’s pepper-crusted steak fits the bill. Sure, you do need to let the salted, peppered meat sit at room temperature for about an hour so it can absorb the seasonings, but there’s absolutely no chopping involved. The steak will cook to rare and juicy perfection in about 10 minutes, and you can use either a heavy skillet or a grill to cook it.
All the steak really needs is a big green salad to go with it. But if you’ve got a little extra energy, you could also whip up Hetty Lui McKinnon’s spanakorizo, a Greek spinach and rice dish stippled with feta. Hetty adds a couple of jammy eggs to turn it into a meatless main, but you could leave them out for an elegant side that foregrounds its vegetable-starch love match.
With eggs or without, that spanakorizo would also work perfectly alongside Lidey Heuck’s crispy-skinned baked chicken thighs. If you have time to let the chicken marinate overnight in the garlicky, mustardy mix, the meat will become particularly well flavored. But even a half-hour will get you what you need.
Naz Deravian’s yaki udon is another excellent option, offering some soothing, repetitive chopping and slicing of the aromatics and the vegetables. These are then quickly stir-fried with ground meat, udon noodles and a sweet and pungent mix of mirin, rice vinegar and oyster sauce. It’s a colorful, multitextured meal that appeals to the eyes, the nose and the palate.
I don’t know about you, but I could use a slice of cake right about now. On cue, Vaughn Vreeland brings us his fantastic new recipe for rum-raisin carrot cake. The rum does double duty in this moist and tender cake: After plumping up the raisins, the leftover liquid is added both to the cake batter and the frosting, giving them a heady, delightfully boozy fragrance. Vaughn also uses crushed pineapple in his carrot cake, a controversial move that I wholeheartedly endorse. His garnish of candied ginger sprinkled on top adds sparkle and verve.
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Let’s come back to wholesome vegetables for our weekly one-pot meal. Priya Krishna’s easy vegetable pulao is scented with whole spices and enriched with ghee, which imbues the rice with a sublime perfume. Serve it with a dollop of yogurt for a cool and tangy contrast that rounds everything out.
