Good morning. Our Tejal Rao has a delicious read in The Times today about the relationship between Ramadan fasting and the food that follows it, and how the evening break-fast provides a moment – a month! – for Muslim home cooks to shine. “While I’m not consuming food all day, I’m thinking about food,” a social worker named Amanda Saab told Tejal. “Not about how I’m missing out, but about how to make the best thing to fulfill everyone’s cravings after a long day of fasting.”
That is true of many, as it happens, even those of us who aren’t celebrating the holiday. Fasting or not, many of us find ourselves thinking in the middle of the day about how best to feed those around us at day’s end, no matter who we are or where we come from. Take a look at Ms. Saab’s recipe for namoura, a syrup-soaked semolina cake (above), and at Malika Ameen’s recipe for watermelon chaat, a savory fruit salad dressed in toasted cumin and dried mango powder, and see if you don’t agree they’d make a nice treat on a long, warm evening as the season kicks toward summer.
Or you could join us in our Wednesday tradition here and cook without a recipe, simply riffing off a narrative prompt. Like, for instance, braised chicken thighs. Dust one or two bone-in thighs per person in salt, pepper and flour, then brown them in butter and oil. Set them aside and sauté some diced onions, carrots and celery in the remaining fat, then deglaze the pan with a cup of red wine. Return the chicken to the pan with some chopped thyme and slide the thing into a hot oven to braise and bubble for 30 minutes or so, until the chicken is tender and the skin above it is crisp. Remove the chicken to a warm serving platter and reduce the braising liquid on the stovetop until it has thickened into a kind of gravy. Serve with couscous, maybe? It’s good.
Thousands of actual recipes to cook today or just consider for future meals are available on Cooking. Please save the ones you like to your recipe box. Put stars on them when you’ve finished cooking and eating them, and add notes to the ones you’ve hacked to account for your own tastes or understanding of the delicious. Such emendations help us all. And if you find yourself in a jam, confused by either the cooking or the technology, do reach out for help. We’ll get back to you: cookingcare@nytimes.com.
Now, do read this grim dispatch from the peach orchards of the American South, where Kim Severson reports that South Carolina has lost close to 90 percent of its crop this year, off a mild winter followed by a brutal three-day freeze in March.
SAM SIFTON
