October - December 2024 COTM + COOKING FROM thread: NEW YORK TIMES COOKING (website & cookbooks)

Welcome to the Fall-Winter COTM reporting thread for New York Times Cooking.

(As it’s a prolific collection of recipes, we can also use this going forward as a Cooking From thread.)

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To report on a recipe, please list the title in ALL CAPS. If someone else reported on the recipe before you, please REPLY to that post rather than start a new one (so all posts for a given recipe are linked together and can be followed easily via the helpful linking arrows the site software enables).

Feel free to list ingredients and summarize method in your own words, but please do not copy a recipe verbatim in your post to respect copyright. Add a link if you have one.

Pictures are always fun, though not required.

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As NYT recipes are frequently shared, if you get blocked by the paywall, just search for the exact recipe name (“in quotes”) or the full NYT link (http://…) here (or on google) and you may very well find that a prior gift link has already been provided.

But if you don’t find one, just ask – enough of us here are subscribers that we can share a gift link or the recipe via DM.

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Happy cooking – and sharing!

Here is the COTM archive and here is the Master List of Cooking From threads.

Here is the other thread for Oct-Dec, for The Christmas Chronicles.

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I cook from the website fairly frequently. And the book was COTM on CH years ago, and was very successful. My copy is well used.

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I was reminded by the Thanksgiving thread that two of the most delicious things I ate last Thanksgiving were from NYT recipes (and both made by a teenager).

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They’re great. I seem to recall a few HOs finding them rather mediocre/poopooing them for being basic & needing lots of tweaks, but honestly — some of my favorite recipes are from the NYT… as is evident in the authorship of most of these :joy::

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It’s my local paper, so it’s been a primary source for decades (and long before they created “Cooking” as a revenue source), but I do find a big difference between the old recipes and the more recent ones.

Have not been much a fan the recent slew of young “authors” slapping together international ingredients for trendiness / one-note burst of flavor, or the more recent and frequent onslaught of “collections” to shill for the pay site.

But with the sheer volume of recipes, there are bound to be more than a few good ones.

Apparently Mark Bittman is coming out with a new book in the “How to Cook” series soon.

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SALMON ROASTED IN BUTTER

I was looking for something different to do with salmon tonight.

Bittman is usually good for an easy technique that’e endlessly riff-able, especially from the Minimalist days.

The “recipe” here is to place butter and herbs in a pan into a HOT oven (475), place the salmon into that skin side up and cook for 4 mins, then peel the skin off, season with s&p, flip, season again, and finish cooking for another 3-5 mins, spooning the herby butter over the fish to serve.

The technique is really perfect for the unscaled salmon fillets TJs insists on stocking as their refrigerated option – the skin peeled right off after 4-5 mins, and left the flesh exposed to be seasoned and flavored by the herby butter.

For my herb, I used cilantro in the form of zhoug, which lent some additional spices to the butter.

I put some extra butter into the dish and drizzled the herby butter over steamed broccoli too.

Will definitely repeat.

(Proportions: 4 tbsp butter and 4 tbsp herbs for 1.5 - 2 lbs salmon)

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SALMON BURGERS

Twice in the last two weeks I’ve made Bittman’s salmon burgers. His recipes - especially during the Minimalist years - can be quite approachable.

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I have this inexplicable aversion to chopping up a nice piece of fish :joy: — same reason I have yet to make salmon rillettes :woman_facepalming:t2:

Maybe this quarter!

(Found one of Dorie’s recipes for salmon rillettes from the Olympics, but I’m more excited about this potential use for all the sardines I have mysteriously stockpiled :roll_eyes:)

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Mincing fish is one of my least favorite cooking-related jobs, but the resulting texture (over grinding) usually is worth it.

ETA: Thanks for the rillettes recipe link - that looks interesting. I’m assuming she’s talking about cold-smoked salmon here (and not hot-smoked).

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It’s not the job, but the destruction of a perfectly nice piece of fish :joy:

I saw some salmon strips at the Korean store, those might serve well.

Re salmon rillettes — yes, cold smoked. There’s a flavor variation in Dorie’s book that uses wasabi and sesame oil that looks good too.

Martha Rose Shulman has a David Lebovitz / Susan Loomis recipe as well.

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My better fishmonger sells the little bits they trim off fillets. I’m sure some shops do this near you. :slight_smile:

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SARDINE TOASTS WITH TOMATOES AND SWEET ONION https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020464-sardine-toasts-with-tomato-and-sweet-onion

This has become one of my favorite quick solo meals, and even went over well with the family. Made it last night, and realized it could be reported on here. Make toast, rub with garlic, then butter the toast, top with sliced tomatoes. Salt this and add sardines, then sweet onion (made it once with red onion and felt the onion was too strong), a little olive oil, lemon, and season.

Bad light in this photo, sorry.

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Oh, love this. I just opened a jar of sprats and this is definitely their next incarnation!

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That looks faboski! Real date food, too :wink:

J/k, although my PIC would run for the hills if I put this on a plate or ate it and then went for him :rofl:

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Definitely NOT for a romantic evening.

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I mean… unless both (or more hahaha) have an onion/fish breath fetish?

How do sprats compare in flavor to sardines? Stronger or milder?

I bet sprats sounds better in French.

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We’re in the fortunate position of having over 50 lbs. of fish filets in our freezers (annual fishing trip). Mostly we enjoy it prepared simply, but both of us are on board with properly prepared fish cakes and as odd as it may sound, view them as a treat. :drooling_face:

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What an embarrassment of riches! That’s amazing.

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