It's not a cookbook, but it's not not a cookbook.
NYT Cooking turns 10!
I love physical books. Cookbooks, of course, but also fiction, poetry, art books. You name it. Having the tangible item to hold and flip through will always be my preferred experience over looking at a screen, but my life is not screen-free. You’re reading this on a screen, yes? So, we’re in the same boat.
There are several websites, newsletters, and online magazines that I’m a big fan of, and I’ve found reading recipes or food history benefits my natural curiosity more than scrolling social media. I had been toying with the idea of doing a post rounding up all of my favorite digital recipe sources (which will happen one day!), but then…
As a NYT Cooking subscriber, I got an email earlier this month saying the app turned 10 this year and subscribers can share unlimited recipes in September! This means I could give links to some of my favorite recipes that you can view (for the month) for free! So without further ado, let’s dig in to NYT Cooking!
Why I Love NYT Cooking
NYT Cooking (an app and also it’s own dedicated website) has 22,000+ recipes from an incredibly wide variety of recipe developers and professional chefs. When I was working full-time, my cookbooks were more of a weekend pleasure, with the occasional forethought to bookmark and shop for recipes to try throughout the week. More often, I’d scroll through the app on my lunch break while I daydreamed about what I’d cook when I got home.
Now out of that phase of life, if I am looking to make something that isn’t well-represented in my current cookbook collection (like Thai food), NYT Cooking is the first place I go.
The app also gives you the ability to rate a recipe (1-5 stars), leave a public or private comment, mark a recipe as “Cooked,” save a recipe, and make folders to organize all your saved recipes. You can search by diet (gluten-free and vegan friends, rejoice!) or cooking method or ingredients, just to name a few. There’s also video content, recipe recommendations based on the things you’ve saved, and curated lists, like “Our 50 Greatest Hits, According to You.”
Some Favorite NYT Cooking Recipes
I had a really hard time narrowing down what to feature here. Ultimately, I decided to give you a menu of sorts - an appetizer, a salad, two mains, and two desserts. Mix and match, or spread them out over the month. They have all been a hit and are (mostly) uncomplicated.
Spicy Molten Blue Cheese Dip by Melissa Clark
My sister, who doesn’t like blue cheese, told me she had found the exception and brought me some (more on that in Extra Extras). I used it as an excuse to make this dip, which is my family’s favorite way to consume cheese, and HOLY SMOKES! I could have eaten all on my own. My family would tell you I still ate most of it… 🙂
I don’t tend to get excited about salad but I do about this one. It is light and fresh and filling, the kind of salad I am just as happy to eat as a side as I am just a big bowl of for lunch. Once you’ve made it once, you’ll realize how easy it is to adapt to your liking. I’ve made it a few times (high praise since the first time was only in July), adding or subbing based on what’s in my fridge/pantry. It is a perfect salad on its own but also a perfect blueprint.
Shrimp and Grits by Pearl’s Cafe, Adapted by Julia Reed
I have made shrimp and grits more times than I can count, from a wide enough variety of recipes that now I just improvise based on what is available to me. This recipe is one of my foundational pillars and it's a really good one. If you like shrimp and grits, and you haven’t made it before, this is a great place to start.
Slow-Cooker Beef Stew by Sarah DiGregorio
This is my favorite beef stew. Period. I am a big slow-cooker advocate, but if you don’t have one, the recipe headnote gives instructions on how to complete this on the stovetop or in the oven. I have been patiently waiting for the weather to be cool enough to make again (this is the opposite of summer food to me) and it is almost time!!! The recipe calls for potatoes, parsnips, and carrots, but if I can’t find parsnips, I just use extra carrots and potatoes. Browning the meat beforehand does make a difference, and I use Guinness Extra Stout as the beer.
The Silver Palate’s Chocolate Cake, adapted by Christine Muhlke
I feel like this is a sneak peak because this recipe is adapted from a cookbook I will write about in this space one day, The Silver Palate Cookbook. However, it is such a good recipe and so easy, I couldn’t not share it now. If you are looking for a go-to chocolate cake recipe, I can’t recommend this one enough. It does require a tube-pan, which you may not own, but they can often be found for cheap at thrift stores (which is where mine came from) and are worth adding to your collection so you can make this cake on repeat.
Giant Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cookie
My husband Edwin’s favorite dessert combo is chocolate + peanut butter, so for every birthday or anniversary, I try to make something in that realm. I made this for our anniversary this past May, and we loved it (as did the rest of the fam). It is essentially a giant Girl Scout cookie, and if that didn’t sell you on this recipe than nothing will. Tagalongs forever!
Pairings
I have been mainly recommending albums over singular songs here, and I’ll get to that in a second, but we have to talk about Fake Empire.
If you’re already a fan of The National, then you know Fake Empire is not new. Heck, you may not even think you know The National and still know this song, just for how popular it became in the indie world. It came out on their 2007 album, Boxer, and it is one of my favorite songs of all time. It has always felt very NYC-in-the-evening to me, which is why I thought of it here. Edwin also reminded me recently that I played this song A LOT when we first got together, because musically, that song has always felt to me like falling in love. The piano, the horn fanfare, the drums, *sigh* it gets me every time. Even now, if this song is playing, I can never play it loud enough, and I’ll drum on the dashboard until I inevitable fall out of tempo. This song is the first track off Boxer, so you’re starting off strong. If you’re looking for an album to cook to, Boxer gets my vote.
Extra Extras
I’m so glad I could share these this month, when otherwise they’d be locked behind a paywall. Should you decide to become a NYT Cooking subscriber, it is $4.99/month or $39.99/year, and they have an app for both Apple and Android users in addition to their website. I’m a big fan of rotating my subscriptions services, so I get to try a lot of things, but this one I keep because I use it so often. They also do a free trial week, if that is up your alley. I’m not here to sell you on anything, just to spread the word on what I think is educational and useful. You do you!
Since this is the part of the newsletter where I tend to post links and give extra-curricular info, I’m going to start spotlighting some of my favorite ingredients, local farmers, retailers, etc. Again, I am not here to sell anything, I don’t get a commission - these are just things I think are good and knowledge is meant to be shared!
This brings me to that blue cheese I mentioned earlier. If you are a blue cheese lover, you should really check out Shakerag by Sequatchie Cove Creamery, out of Sequatchie, TN. Wrapped in whiskey-soaked fig leaves, it’s in a league of its own. Sequatchie Cove makes other cheeses as well, if blue cheese isn’t your thing but you’d like to support a local cheese maker. You can order their goods online. Should you find youself in Chattanooga, they sell at a variety of locations. If you’re in Nashville, my sister picked this up at Smokin’ Oaks, an organic farm with a full-service butcher + market on 8th Ave. I’ve bought from them since their farmers market days, and I went there often when I still lived in the city. They’re good people with great products - the best steak I’ve ever made was one of theirs.
That’s all for now. I hope you cook something good this week, and I hope you support a local farmer/butcher/creamery.