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Stir and shovel and feel utterly satisfied
Hello, all. Maybe you’re already planning for Thanksgiving: stacking cans of pumpkin in the pantry, stocking up on butter when it goes on sale. Or, because it’s Wednesday, maybe you’re just trying to figure out what to make for dinner tonight. Well, I have one answer (dan dan noodles), two recipes. This version, based on my favorite childhood bowl, leans more sesame, less spicy. But it follows the standard three-story dan dan build: a foundation of savory chile-sesame sauce, a house of noodles and a roof of stir-fried ground pork and ya cai or other Chinese preserved mustard greens. Like carbonara or any easy pasta, it comes together quickly. Featured Recipe Dan Dan NoodlesBut not quite as quickly as the one I threw together while writing my dan dan column, stomach grumbling, heart craving the toasty, savory warming noodles. I had 20 minutes before my next meeting and a need to eat the dish. I couldn’t have been happier with my midday, barest-of-bones take. Here’s the 15-minute no-recipe recipe: Put a small pot of water on to boil. While waiting for its bubbles, mix spoonfuls of Chinese sesame paste (or tahini mixed with toasted sesame oil), soy sauce and chile crisp with a pinch of sugar in the bowl you’ll eat from. Adjust all the seasonings to your taste and then stir in boiling water until runny. Cook your noodles (lo mein, ramen, spaghetti, whatever is long and thin), drain, rinse and slide into the bowl. Grab whatever vegetables you need to use up (I sliced celery, but truly anything works) and throw them on top with, if you have them, a heaping spoonful of ya cai and peanuts. Stir and shovel and feel utterly satisfied. More dinner ideasOne-pot Roman chicken cacciatore with potatoes: Rosemary feels most welcome in fall, especially when its piney fragrance mingles with garlic and capers in cacciatore. Cybelle Tondu swaps the classic cacciatore tomatoes for potatoes in a roast where the chicken skin stays crispy and everything else ends up slicked with the savory white wine sauce. Some commenters tossed peas into the pot to complete the meal with something green, but I threw a sheet tray of chard onto the top oven rack for roasted leafy greens. Smoky shrimp saganaki: In his take on Greece’s shrimp saganaki, Yotam Ottolenghi starts with dried chipotle and ancho chiles and fresh red ones. They soften in olive oil with whole garlic cloves and cherry tomatoes into the best-smelling blend that ends up seasoning delicate shrimp and a whole big block of melty feta. It tastes like a restaurant wonder, but is ready in 30 minutes. Vegan al pastor tacos: The pineapple zing of al pastor is usually applied to pork, but it’s also great with turkey, fish or the tempeh in this completely meatless iteration from Hetty Lui McKinnon. With pineapple both in the chile-hot marinade and diced into a salsa for the top, these tacos taste like sunshine.
Turkey Day TrackerIt’s been 10 years since we first featured these crispy, cheesy Hasselback potatoes from the brilliant mind and hands of Kenji López-Alt, and they remain as stunning as ever. (They’re also our most popular potato gratin recipe.) Kenji’s clear writing made the Hasselback assembly easy, but you can now see how he does it in this video.
But, really, all Thanksgiving potatoes are irresistible. If you can’t decide which ones to cook, here are the recipes our readers love most.
Thanks for joining me on my dan dan journey. See you soon with more Thanksgiving goodness! 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. |
