Good morning. It was peak cherry blossoms final week the place I keep, the flowers virtually able to spring off their branches to blanket the curbs like drifts of snow. There was a deep humidity within the air and it made me consider summer time down south, the best way the ambiance can appear virtually liquid beneath the solar, all the pieces ripe, all the pieces sluggish. I made candy tea and drank it over an infinite quantity of ice, on the stoop, marveling at how typically candy tea is the most effective tea, even for those who normally drink tea straight, no sugar, with not even a lemon to counter the tannins.
Candy tea is reckless tea, unhealthy tea, a liquid sweet bar, not one thing to drink every single day. Nevertheless it has its place, and I made sufficient of it so I may use the leftovers as a brine for Millie Peartree’s luscious roast hen (above).
It’s a lifeless easy recipe, excellent for a Sunday dinner. Mix the tea with a giant handful of Cajun seasoning and marinate hen legs in all of it day. Then roast them on an oiled sheet pan in a scorching oven for a bit over half-hour, till they’re crusty darkish brown and cooked via to the bone. Baste with the juices and serve with baked candy potatoes, oh my.
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That’s Sunday sorted, then. As for the remainder of the week. …
Monday
I scored some thick fillets of tautog the opposite day and used Julia Moskin’s recipe for pan-roasted fish fillets with herb butter to coax them right into a state of perfection: crisp on one facet and softly just-done inside. Use no matter fish you could find that’s native and contemporary and also you’ll expertise related pleasure.
Tuesday
Right here’s a recipe for hen galbi noodle salad from Kay Chun, a weeknight particular impressed by Korean beef galbi. Kay’s recipe simmers floor hen in a easy sauce with garlic, ginger, scallions and sesame oil, then tosses that blend with bell peppers and basil earlier than swirling all of it into glass noodles. Eat heat or at room temperature.
Wednesday
Ali Slagle developed this midweek banger, a horseradish and Cheddar tuna soften that comes collectively rapidly and appears expressly designed for the broil setting on a toaster oven. I like them on Bays English muffins, however there are not any guidelines right here, solely steerage: any bread you discover scrumptious will work.
Thursday
Tantanmen is a Japanese tackle dan dan noodles, from the Sichuan province of China. Hetty Lui McKinnon’s vegan tantanmen with pan-fried tofu is possibly higher than both one, substantial in its salt-fiery sesame broth. “My gawd this slaps,” one reader wrote on the recipe.
Friday
After which you’ll be able to head into the weekend with Alexa Weibel’s recipe for arrabbiata sauce, the basic Italian tomato sauce, fired up with crushed crimson pepper and run via with olive oil and garlic. It’s nice served over penne with a bathe of Pecorino, however these days I’ve discovered it a terrific sauce for pizza, a three-alarm margherita.
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Now, it’s nothing to do with tempering chocolate or deveining shrimp, however it’s best to completely learn Sally Jenkins in The Washington Submit, on the rodeo star J.B. Mauney, “the primary man to get legit wealthy at bull using.”
Right here’s Danny Lyon in The New York Assessment of Books, on his decades-long quest to take pictures of each constructing in his neighborhood in decrease Manhattan, earlier than town knocked them down.
