Good morning! Today we have for you:
Freeze it and forget it
I’m not sure if the kids still use this phrasing, but Louis Theroux’s “Subway Takes” (Tube Takes) video has been living rent-free in my mind. Two ideas, in particular, have wedged themselves deep in my brain: the concept of “ambient exercise” — getting exercise from doing everyday things, like carrying heavy bags of groceries or riding your bike to work — and the practice of stashing things in the freezer to completely forget about and rediscover later. That first one explains why I now whisper “ambient exercise” to myself when I take the stairs instead of the escalator in the metro, and why I’m a bit better about shoveling the snow in our walkway. The second one — freeze it and forget it — is why I’ve bookmarked these black bean burgers from Mark Bittman. We have a very handy new guide for scaling our recipes, which will help me make a double batch of this one so that I have eight supersized, assertively spiced vegan patties. Two will be dinner tonight, and the remaining six, formed but not cooked, will go into the freezer for future lunches and dinners. I can see it now: It’s Friday. I’m tired, but I want a dinner that feels very Friday. I open the freezer, and there they are — my black bean burgers. I set two on the counter to defrost while I walk — briskly (ambient exercise) — to the store for hamburger buns, an avocado if there’s a ripe one and sweet potatoes for roasted sweet potato fries. Or, if I don’t feel like a store run, I can use the sliced sandwich bread that’s also stashed in the freezer for a vegetarian patty melt situation. Or I could break up the patties and crisp those big crumbles in a skillet for nachos. Black bean patties in the freezer makes dinner life easier. Featured Recipe Black Bean BurgersYou can read more about our new scaling feature here. If you’ve ever tried to halve or double (or triple) a recipe on a whim, you know that it’s not always as simple as basic division or multiplication. Genevieve Ko, one of our senior editors and recipe geniuses, writes: “When engineers at The New York Times steered a generative artificial intelligence model to scale our recipes, I worked with them to address common questions that math alone can’t answer and create nuanced rules for a range of situations. (How do you halve three whole eggs?) Our recipe editors, all of whom have decades of professional experience, then reviewed rounds of scaled recipes, and the engineers incorporated that feedback into their model to help ensure the best possible outcomes.” Cold-weather cookingGolden potato and greens soup: The low this weekend where I live is predicted to be around -15 Fahrenheit, which means the long underwear is going on and the Dutch oven is coming out. I made this Andy Baraghani soup last week and was reminded of just how wonderful it is, especially considering its modest ingredient list and easy assembly. I used good ol’ yellow onions because I didn’t have leeks and added some cooked rice because I love rice, and it turned out fantastic. Chicken enchiladas: Cold weekends, I think, are also for project cooking. Of course, you can make Rick Martinez’s five-star chicken enchiladas using a rotisserie chicken and premade enchilada sauce, but I have no plans to be outside (see projected temperatures above) and the idea of a pot of enchilada sauce bubbling away on my stove is very warming, indeed. Jerk sweet potato street fries: Apparently, I am still stuck on sweet potato fries, and I’m now thinking that a weekend in is a nice time to promote them from supporting player to main star. Jenné Claiborne’s dish perks up the spuds with Jamaican jerk seasoning, scallions, nutmeg, black pepper and thyme. (You can watch her make these fries here.) Her dish is vegan as written, but I’m going to slide a fried egg on top of my fries for extra protein and oozy, yolky goodness.
And before you goIn a newsletter that talks about scaling recipes up or down, saving goodies in your freezer and deep-winter cooking, I’d be remiss not to mention Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese sauce. Double the recipe and stash away the leftovers — but only after, of course, you’ve had a gorgeous Saturday night dinner of this beloved sauce with your favorite pasta, a green salad and some red wine. Oh, and garlic bread. With tiramisù to finish.
Thanks for reading!
|
.jpg)
