Good morning. Samin Nosrat wrote about cooking vegetables for The New York Times Magazine this week, making an argument for cooking them way, way, way longer than you probably usually do. On a Sunday in late August when it might be customary to make dinner of steam-kissed corn and raw tomatoes, perhaps alongside a roast chicken, I’m thinking taking the opposite route might be a cool thing to do, using her recipe for long-cooked wax beans (above). Someone will cavil as you cook. Always keep ’em guessing.
Speaking of, “Game of Thrones” wraps up its season tonight. So either start your long-cooking vegetables early, so your dinner’s done by the time someone in your household wants to scamper off with laptop and headphones to watch, or embrace their addiction: Make this honking big cheese steak sandwich, wrap it in wax paper, and let them eat on the couch. (I’m staying out of Westeros, myself, and watching “Rake” on Netflix.)
Then on Monday, you could make a simple bowl of spaghetti, adorned with Marcella Hazan’s insanely flavorful recipe for tomato sauce. It’d be very nice with Julia Moskin’s recipe for grilled garlic bread on the side, though, if you don’t have access to a grill, it might be better just to load up a loaf of good bread with as much butter and garlic as you can stand, wrap it in foil to bake, and then hit it with a mountain of chopped herbs when it comes out of the oven.
On Thursday, I’m thinking a good bet is Nigella Lawson’s recipe for tarragon chicken, which if you want to get old-school Midwestern, you could finish with a pan sauce made of the drippings and a good lashing of heavy cream. Make a salad to go with it, and a platter of soubise if you have the energy. Otherwise, this rice is nice.
Fish for Friday? I was at The Dutch in New York City the other night, and Jason Hua, the executive chef, was serving some fish tacos where he swapped in wasabi leaves for the tortillas, and that was ridiculously good, if you can find any wasabi leaves. But if not, or if you don’t want tacos, see if you can’t find inspiration in one of these 18 easy weeknight salmon recipes.
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Now, do check out this Munchies feature on the Miami Subs restaurant chain, a story that embodies nearly every contradiction and fantastic detail of Florida culture over the last three decades.
Moving further away from food, check out Matt Jablow’s new documentary on MSG, “Beyond the Boardwalk,” which looks back at a terrible incident on Long Island in 1991: teenagers, race, girls, bats. It’s Nassau County in a can, disquieting and remarkably affecting.
SAM SIFTON
