NYT Cooking: Quick Tasty Meals

I am an enthusiastic cook during normal times. Living in Seattle and fortunate to be able to source great ingredients—specifically fish and shellfish just hours out of the water, meal preparation has never been a chore. But during pandemic times, even the occasional special meal “out” has been put on ice since February, due to a high risk situation that makes it really not worth the bother. So I’ve sharpened my knives, organized my pantry and soldiered on. I’m not generally a cookbook user—yes, I do collect them and subscribe to all the usual suspects on a monthly or quarterly basis, but I rely on a book or magazine more for a concept to riff on or a food trend to explore. But when I began delving into NYT Cooking—a part of my Times subscription at large, that changed. There are so many great recipes it makes it easy to cook anything and everything from a pantry pasta to the most elaborate meal and have an excellent outcome—and fun along the way. I am a lifestyle journalist, so I love the context and backstory of each recipe—reading the accompanying article is a great source of pleasure. But these recipes really work and the shopping list tool is a handy helper. In short, I’ve found an endless source of material, entertainment and great food at my fingertips. Thank you for keeping me inspired and cooking with joy! ❤️

Every chef will have a decent take on most recipes, which will do in a pinch. But no chef and no team is going to have the traditional recipe for every dish in every cuisine on the globe with suggestions on what you can do to make it fantastic. New York City is one of a handful of cities in which every country and ethnicity is represented. Where else can you find what is a reasonable substitute when a rare ingredient is out of season, or how to manage a hard dried stored version of a hard to find and mostly unknown ingredient? If my friend is homesick for the Singaporean Chicken and Rice she grew up on, I want to have the real thing when she gets here and I will look here. If I want to reinstate our family tradition of making sweet chile rellenos the day before a holiday and I can’t remember how much cloves to add, I am going to look here. It is possible to have a cookbook for most cuisines, but not all. But someone in NY remembers making dumplings with their mom in Tibet before the family escaped and arrived in NYC and they will contribute the recipe if someone needs it. I have not looked for every recipe I mentioned so I hope I don’t disappoint but if you need one that is not here, then ask! And it WILL be here. This is, hands down, my go to if I want the REAL recipe for…well…Anything!

The NYT cooking app has given a new lease on life to my nightly dinner prep. I search the app almost every evening for inspiration about how to make a tasty meal from the random items in my fridge - that still-snowy-white cauliflower I bought a week ago, the frozen shrimp, the impulse purchase of a new harissa sauce. It never fails me. If I don’t have all the ingredients in a recipe, I don’t run to the store, but improvise. I substitute parsley for cilantro, sweet onions for leeks, or just omit. I love that all the recipes are attributed to chefs I’ve come to know from regular reading of the Times, so I can prioritize my favorites, whose tastes are a good match for my household’s. This alone makes the app far more reliable than the recipes that pop up on a random Google search. If I happen to be connected to a printer, I print a hard copy for reference in the kitchen. If not, I prop up my smart phone or tablet on the kitchen counter, fetch my ingredients from the convenient list at the top, and switch over to a news program to stave off kitchen ennui while I chop and simmer. My only complaint is that the recipes tend to underestimate prep and cooking time, so I’ve learned it’s best to allow some extra time. But the $39/year was a great expenditure.