Good morning. This isn’t an enormous weekend for well being meals. Folks will fry rooster wings for the Tremendous Bowl, make loaded nachos, chili, barbecued ribs. I’ll put out queso and chips, some stuffed jalapeños, perhaps some brats, get everybody snug, prepared to look at violence and promoting.
That’s for Sunday, although. Tonight, I wish to soar within the wayback machine, transport myself to the Nineteen Eighties and the heyday of the chef Paul Prudhomme, who first popularized the magic of blackening redfish by dipping fillets in butter, coating them with cayenne and dried herbs after which searing them tight in a ripping sizzling cast-iron pan.
Naz Deravian tailored the method for a dish of blackened salmon (above). I fold the fillets into French bread with mayonnaise, sliced tomatoes and shredded iceberg lettuce for a Cajun Alaskan po’boy state of affairs. It’s a superb meal, definitely worth the shrieking of the smoke detector when it inevitably goes off whilst you’re cooking. Crack some home windows and observe my lead.
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Blackened Salmon
Then perhaps stick with the Louisiana pantry for breakfast within the morning with some French toast amandine? And yakamein for Saturday lunch? I’ll be prepared for journey within the night, towards bulgogi, perhaps, or masala black-eyed peas.
After all, you possibly can contemplate a zag on Sunday, when everybody else zigs towards game-day requirements like guac and mozzarella sticks. It’d be good to spend the day assembling a correct cassoulet, the culinary equal of a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, or pancit palabok to serve to a crowd. It may be enjoyable to bake an apple pie on a cold February afternoon, or a chocolate Guinness cake.
Me, I’m on this elk kick. I lately obtained a bunch of stew meat going within the strain cooker, with lime juice, cider vinegar, smoked paprika, cumin, floor cloves, a bunch of garlic, a chopped onion, a number of splashes of rooster inventory and a few slices of salt pork for fats. I let that go on excessive strain for round half-hour, then strained off a lot of the braising liquid and beheld a pleasant bowl of barbacoa. It was nice on heat tortillas with salsa, and you possibly can make it with beef if you happen to don’t have recreation. You’ve been at this cooking recreation some time now, I’m betting. You don’t at all times want a recipe. Embrace the arrogance you’ve earned. Simply cook dinner.
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Now, it’s nothing to do with pigeon peas or matcha tea, however the second season of “Mo,” on Netflix, is rather more formidable than the primary, each extra and fewer nuanced, foolish and critical. Very “Texas Endlessly.”
My colleague Sam Dolnick put me onto Susie Boyt’s 2023 novel “Cherished and Missed,” proving as soon as once more that essentially the most serendipitous guide suggestion machine is the human one. It’s completely gutting.
It actually comes out of nowhere, however Jerry Jones, the proprietor of the Dallas Cowboys, has a cameo in “Landman” that’s type of extraordinary. Man can act, apparently.
Lastly, right here’s a brand new observe from Bonnie “Prince” Billy, “Turned to Mud (Rolling On),” music for blackening fish. I’ll see you on Sunday.