Three Things
Rooftop veg-forward dinners, a twist on turkey burgers, and what bestselling author Rachel Khong is reading and loving right now
Greetings eaters and readers! What’s for dinner tonight? Abby is back home again and last night we had a crispy chickpeas version of the popular shawarma recipe from the Times. (Same spices, same roasting instructions, zero marinating time. See also: my tofu take from March.) Tonight, it’s gonna be the veg-packed chilled noodles from my new book out in just a few short weeks. In other news, I’m still thinking of the fat asparagus stalks with red wine anchovy butter that I ordered at Brooklyn’s Sailor with your (second) favorite newsletter writer Adam Roberts and his husband, Craig.
So simple, so flavorful! I will be reverse engineering the dish soon, but I’m curious to know how you’d make that anchovy butter, with that consistency, if, say, you were on a cooking show with no access to google, and your survival til the next round depended on it. How would you do it? Please weigh in on this very important topic.
Lastly, I’m delighted to introduce a new feature in my newsletter today that will hopefully enhance your reading-and-eating life. It’s called “What the Writers Are Reading” and is exactly as it sounds: Well-known novelists weighing in on their favorite books (because who would know better) and dinners — because I can’t help it. With no further ado, your weekly Three Things.
1. Le Grand Green Goddess
Well, I guess this next sentence will come as a surprise to no one: Nine months after trading in my house for a New York apartment, I realllllllllly miss my patio dinners. In particular my grilled patio dinners, like the Salmon Salad that would await Phoebe every year on her return from college, the grilled Chicken with Pineapple and Spicy Peanut Sauce that blew our minds last summer, the Charred Kale and Burrata pizzas we’d grill in the summer to avoid turning our kitchen into an inferno. I’m not complaining, I’m just, uh, wistfully remembering. And anyway, I still get to eat al fresco, even if that looks a little different these days. Our apartment building has a pretty great roof deck and we take advantage of it as often as possible, enjoying a Friday night cocktail or a Saturday morning coffee alongside our dramatic view up the Hudson River and across Central Park. Dinner has proven trickier, though. Since an elevator and a narrow stairwell is involved, I have to be more strategic about what meals we carry up there, and how many utensils and platters and plates and stuff is required. So far I’ve discovered two dinners that work: 1) Takeout and 2) what I’ve been calling my Grand Green Goddess Platter, which is like a Le Grand Aioli Platter but, you know, with Green Goddess dip instead of the garlicky mayo. I wrote about it over on Cup of Jo today.
P.S. In conveniently related news, my friends Colu and Natasha partnered with Oona Wine, to make this “all-season” canned rosé, an excellent rooftop accompaniment. (Check out their Oona Dinner Party menu.) It’s tart and acidic like all my favorite rosés, and, needless to say, also perfect for picnics, patios, and parties.
2. The 2.0 Turkey Burger
Back in the olden days, when our girls were little, turkey burgers were one of the few dinners everyone ate without short-order modifications, which meant we had them a lot, usually California-style, craggy-edged with white onions, ketchup, mustard, and pickles, maybe some roast potatoes on the side. When I type that now, of course it sounds classic and perfect, but at the time I would’ve given anything to shake up the routine. Especially since, in spite of all the fixins, the burgers were often dry and tasteless — we hadn’t yet discovered that the key to making a good turkey burger was to start with good-quality ground dark meat (not breast meat), most easily found at a co-op or our local farmer’s market. One night, when we just couldn’t face the prospect of the same old same old, I did a little recipe research, turning up a tandoori-ish chicken burger from the pages of Martha Stewart. (The print magazine. I told you: olden days.) The recipe, decidedly not authentic, borrowed spices and flavors from a classic roasted tandoori chicken — yogurt, scallion, cumin, paprika, cayenne — and called out to my feeding-children-deadened tastebuds so I just decided to go for it. Of course, one of the girls flatly rejected the imposter, so brazenly slathered in yogurt instead of ketchup (!), but the rest of the table thoroughly enjoyed the switch-up, resulting in a stretch of not-so-boring burger nights for at least little while. Last week, Andy and I revisited the recipe, using ground turkey meat from our farmer’s market and doctoring up the yogurt sauce to make it more aggressively herby. They were so good and summery, and I imagine they’d be A-plus-plus on a grill. If the girls had been home that night, I feel certain they’d agree. The recipe is over on DALS today and also downloadable here ⬇️.
3. What the Writer’s Are Reading: Rachel Khong
I have so many books piled up on my own nightstand for summer reading, and right up top is Rachel Khong’s Real Americans, the page-turning family saga about three generations of Chinese Americans that explores identity, belonging, and class. (See also: glowing reviews.) Today, Rachel gives DALS a mini tour of her own nightstand:
What’s on your nightstand? Oye by Melissa Mogollon, See: Loss, See Also: Love by Yukiko Tominaga, Loneliness & Company by Charlee Dyroff, Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang.
Best book you’ve read this year: Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad, about an adrift British-Palestinian actor who returns home to Haifa, Israel, and joins a theater troupe performing Hamlet in the West Bank. Hammad is so skilled at observing and articulating the tensions between people; at times a phrase would surprise me totally, which is my favorite feeling while reading. The book is both intimate and about huge issues; it kept me captivated on an Amtrak train from New York to Boston and back.
What did you have for dinner last night? I'm on a brief break from my book tour so it's thrilling to be home and cooking again. My husband grilled corn and I made slow-roasted steelhead trout, along with a salad with our few early tomatoes and a creamy basil dressing from our overgrown lemon basil plant.
Thanks, Rachel. Have a great week, everyone.
Jenny
Love this new series with writers, Jenny - I've realized all my favorite things exist at the intersection of reading and eating...so thank you for sharing this!
Rachel Khong is my hero. I loved her on Recipe Club — she always put David Chang in his place!