Good morning! Today we have for you:
A surefire schnitzel
Do you have a favorite kitchen toy, appliance or tool that, for whatever reason, you can’t stop using? For me, right now, that’s my cast-iron skillet. (I blame Chris Fleming’s excellent bit about cast-iron pan maintenance in his HBO comedy special). For that reason, I’m seeking out recipes that are especially satisfying to make in my pan — oatmeal pancakes and maduros, check and check. Next up is this chicken schnitzel with cucumber salad, a new recipe from Sue Li. The key to an airy, puffed-up coating, Sue writes, is to gently shake the pan while cooking the chicken. Granted, my pan is pretty heavy, so I’ll count this push-pull motion as my arm workout for the day. And as excited as I am for these golden, crispy cutlets, I’m equally eager for Sue’s cucumber salad, which is super bright with chopped pickles and loads of parsley and dill. This is the sort of dinner that works just as well for a busy weeknight (it’s under 40 minutes, start to finish) as it does for a weekend gathering with friends. Featured Recipe Chicken Schnitzel With Cucumber SaladIt’s Saturday, I’m in loveAsparagus-feta salad: If you have a Sunday dinner on the books, I have a menu for you. More accurately, David Tanis has a menu for you — this snappy asparagus and arugula salad, brown-buttery salmon with boiled potatoes, and a swoon-worthy fresh strawberry tart. (I call out the salad because it’d be a nice side with all sorts of mains, if, say, you’d rather do a roast chicken.) Poached chicken breasts: Last Saturday, I poached a giant, whole chicken breast, using the resulting tender white meat for burritos and salads. And I thought: Why don’t I do this more often? So here is Yewande Komolafe’s fail-safe recipe for poached chicken breasts, in case you’d like to join me in a bit of weekend meal prep. Aloo anday (potatoes and scrambled eggs): Weekday mornings are for overnight oats or muesli shoveled into my mouth while leaning over the sink, trying not to spill on my shirt. Weekends, however, are for hot breakfasts assembled while wearing my softest stained sweats, spatula in one hand, mug of milky coffee in the other. This spicy, savory scramble from Zainab Shah is exactly the sort of hearty breakfast I need to fuel me before a long walk through the neighborhood to spot all the bulbs (finally) breaking through the cold dirt. For a limited time, you can enjoy free access to the recipes in this newsletter in our app. Download it on your iOS or Android device and create a free account to get started.
And before you goMy favorite thing about spring, if I’m being honest, is that it means summer is around the corner. And summer means more reading: reading at parks, reading on patios and — joy of joys — reading on vacation. I’ll be using The Times’s handy-dandy “What to Read Next” interactive to put together a customized list of titles to look for at bookstores in the coming months, in the hopes of scoring used copies. Join me! Thanks for reading!
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