What to cook this Fourth of July weekend
Good morning. The flags are up, bunting secured to porticos. There’s big cookout energy wherever you look. People are staging grills, piling briquettes into kettles or lifting heavy new propane tanks into position. Here’s a California roller splitting oak for a tri-tip feast, a cat in Tucson, Ariz., piling mesquite for carne asada just so. In Westport, Mass., I’m hoping Chris Schlesinger’s getting his big, big skillet going for an outdoor fish fry to serve with mango coleslaw. Me, I’m getting burgers together: porky gochujang patties with a spicy slaw (above) for some of my set, and salmon burgers for others, a nod to the Alaskan harvest. (The sauce used in the gochujang burgers, by the way? You can use it to dress grilled vegetables, to daub on grilled steaks, to marinate chicken. You’ll use it all summer long.) I’ll make some traditional cheeseburgers, too, because it’s not Independence Day without them, and some hot dogs and barbecued chicken as well, same reason. Featured Recipe Gochujang Burger With Spicy SlawI’ll put a cast-iron pan on the grill to sear black bean burgers for the vegetarians, and set a big pot into the coals afterward, to heat water, wine or beer for steamed clams. I’ll grill romaine, carrots, corn. My intention is to be outside for most of the day. Other side dishes: I’m thinking potato salad with pickles; herby pearl couscous and sugar snap peas; cherry tomato and white bean salad. Also, some Rotel dip and plenty of chips for snacks. Cucumber-avocado salad, too? Yes, please. It’s very cooling, very demure. Then strawberry shortcake for dessert, maybe with some blueberries to echo the flag, or a fruit salad to eat with s’mores. Perhaps a peach cobbler? Definitely I’ll bring out some of those Freedom Pops they sell at Walmart for like $2 a dozen, to stain the mouths of the children before the fireworks start. The idea is simply to bring to life the declarative sentence that we celebrate today, the very definition of a successful cookout, 249 years into the American experiment: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” To the grills we go! For more ideas for what to cook this weekend, head on over to New York Times Cooking. (You need a subscription to do so, naturally. Subscriptions make this whole enterprise possible. If you haven’t taken one out yet, would you think about subscribing today? Thank you!) And please reach out for help if you find yourself caught crosswise with our technology or your account. We’re at cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. Or you can write to me if you’d like to say something nice, or cutting, about our work: hellosam@nytimes.com. I can’t respond to every letter. But I do read each one I get. Now, it’s a long way from anything to do with rhubarb or radicchio, but I’ve jumped into another Garry Disher novel, “Under the Cold Bright Lights,” from 2017, like a visit to an Australia that would be fine to continue for months and months. Oliver Whang, in The New York Times Magazine, is very good on Luke Littler, an 18-year-old darts phenomenon who appears poised to bring his sport onto the global stage. (For more darts excellence, please turn to Martin Amis’s 1989 novel, “London Fields,” which features a petty cheat of a character, Keith Talent, who aspires to what Littler has achieved.) Finally, here’s Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to play loud while you’re cooking today: “American Girl,” live in 1985. Enjoy the day. I’ll see you on Sunday.
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