Latest news with #YewandeKomolafe
New York Times
2 days ago
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
Don't Roast. Rotisserie.
Each season has a chicken. Fall's chicken is soupy and stewy; winter's is a festive roast bird. Spring's chicken, if not seared in a skillet and scattered with herbs, is fried (for picnics under the flowering trees, naturally). Summer? Summer's chicken is a rotisserie chicken. Pick it up on that Costco run for sunscreen and pool noodles. If your farmers' market has one of those portable rotisseries with the golden birds spinning above a trough of potatoes, those are your summer chickens. Could summer's chicken be grilled? Absolutely. But I don't have a grill, and open flames lose their appeal when the sun is already blazing. So let's all pick up a summer — sorry, rotisserie — chicken to make Yewande Komolafe's chicken and herb salad with nuoc cham, a happy jumble of chicken, cabbage, crunchy vegetables and leafy herbs in an assertively zippy dressing. It's a star of our no-cook collection, a compilation of recipes that don't require any stove or oven action. If you're new to nuoc cham, you're in for a treat: It's a lip-smacking, salty-sour-sweet mix of garlic, chile, sugar, lime juice and fish sauce. And if you know (and thus love) the charms of nuoc cham, you know that keeping a jar in your fridge is a pro move, so that you're not only set for Yewande's salad, but for any number of quick, healthy, summery meals. Featured Recipe View Recipe → Crispy suya-spiced salmon: 'Traditionally used to season grilled meat skewers in Nigeria, suya spice (also called yaji) is a spicy peanut-based blend that brings a bold, layered flavor to anything you throw on the grill — and it has plenty of other uses, too,' Kiano Moju writes of her new recipe. She recommends serving it with rice and a juicy tomato-cucumber salad, which is exactly what I'll do. Vegan pesto pasta salad: I make vegan pesto often; I'm not vegan, but I often don't have cheese (it doesn't last long around here). Ali Slagle's recipe gets plenty of umami punch from capers and nuts, and has loads of happy reviews. Fresh mango pudding: It is mango season, and I am hauling armfuls of them home like the heavy gems they are. The mangoes that I don't immediately inhale will go into Cybelle Tondu's delightful pudding, which I'm going to make in my trusty two-quart baking dish (Cybelle provides a tip) for more generous scooping and scarfing. In the interest of showing, not telling — and of riding out this heat wave refreshed and thirst-quenched — here's Kasia Pilat making her pickle lemonade: Thanks for reading!
New York Times
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Our Summer 100 Is Here!
Just in time for the first day of summer (which is tomorrow): Our updated summer 100! Margaux Laskey — she of this huli huli chicken and these sugar cookie bars — has refreshed our list of 100 very doable, must-make recipes for this season of high sun and high temps. (There's a whole no-cook section.) Eric Kim's new dak bulgogi feels very summery to me, the sort of light yet filling dinner I want to make and eat every summer Friday. Maybe it's the sweet-salty-garlicky flavors in the marinade that feel like blue skies and a fresh breeze. Maybe it's that the dish comes together in about half an hour, leaving me more time to lizard in the sun. Or maybe it's because I'll wrap bites of chicken and rice in perilla leaves from my overperforming patio plant, and will enjoy everything with a crisp cold beer. Whatever the reason, this recipe is going to be on repeat all summer, and likely into fall and winter. Featured Recipe View Recipe → Poached chicken breasts: Having perfectly cooked, juicy chicken breasts ready to go in your fridge is never a bad idea, as it puts you halfway to all sorts of great salads and pastas and sandwiches. Consider this Yewande Komolafe recipe a gift to future you. Sheet-pan shrimp oreganata: There's no such thing as too many good sheet pan recipes, and there's also no such thing as too many good shrimp recipes. As such, here's this breezy, white-wine-y dish from Anna Francese Gass. Asparagus and tofu with black bean sauce: Black bean sauce, in my mind, signals a dish that's proudly salty and funky and unabashedly umami. Hetty Lui McKinnon pairs it here with snappy asparagus and bouncy tofu for a fantastic vegan dinner. Hojicha tiramisù: Classic tiramisù is a pretty perfect dessert, but this version from Hetty — which trades the espresso for nutty, toasty hojicha — sounds so, so good. And because it's a Hetty recipe, there's a clever twist: A mixture of mascarpone and Greek yogurt replaces the eggs, which, as Hetty writes, delivers an airy texture and a tartness that complements the earthiness of the tea. 'In an Era of Upheavals, Los Angeles Restaurants Are Banding Together.' I was born and raised there, so I'll always have love for L.A., and this article for The New York Times by Meghan McCarron about the Independent Hospitality Coalition just reinforces that pride. Thanks for reading!
New York Times
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Intensely Flavored and Supremely Comforting
Here's some good news worth shouting from the rooftops: Yewande Komolafe is back! After a serious illness that kept her out of the kitchen for more than a year, she's sharing her creative, soulful words and recipes in her column once again. First up is her Ghanaian light soup, a popular dish across West Africa. 'Impossibly rich but never heavy or thick,' Yewande writes in The New York Times, the soup is traditionally made from dried fish or meat simmered with tomatoes, ginger, chiles and other aromatics. But in her take — inspired by Afia Amoako of 'Eat With Afia' — Yewande substitutes a mix of dried and fresh mushrooms to make a plant-based meal. Intensely flavored and supremely comforting, it's both a balm and a delight. Featured Recipe View Recipe → But wait! I have even more thrilling news to share. After nearly a year of interim restaurant critic duty after Pete Wells stepped down last summer, Priya Krishna and I are returning to our regular roles. Tejal Rao and Ligaya Mishan have been named co-chief restaurant critics, and we'll see an ambitious expansion of our restaurant reviews in New York and across the country. I cannot wait to read what these two brilliant writers have to say. Lemon-miso tofu with broccoli: Here's Hetty Lui McKinnon's vegetarian version of Cantonese-style lemon chicken, swapping in tofu for the meat. A touch of miso in the sauce adds umami notes and tones down the usual sweetness. Hetty fries the tofu in a skillet until it's golden and crisp, but you can use an air-fryer if that's more convenient. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
21-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
These Jam Bars Are My Jam
The sun smiled down over Brooklyn last weekend. The temperature gently hovered around 75 degrees, and on Prospect Park's Great Lawn, picnickers spread themselves out like asparagus on a sheet pan. We're eating outside again: Summer is a-comin' in! To tee up alfresco dining season, Tanya Sichynsky (she of the The Veggie) has assembled a collection of our best 'portable and shareable recipes built for the backyard, the beach and the communal barbecue.' She may not say it in so many words, but the list definitely works for picnics and park hangs, too. Tanya has lined up two dozen absolute bangers to pick from, but high on my list is Yewande Komolafe's recipe for chewy strawberry jam bars with cardamom. Yewande is a shortbread sorcerer, ever coaxing new flavors, shapes and colors from her exquisite, buttery dough. These simple bars with a nubby, crumbly topping hold up well for travel, easily feed a crowd and are maximally adaptable. Substitute any thick jam for strawberry — ideally something tart to balance the sweet crust. And if these treats, like most shortbreads, tend toward crumbliness, well, you're eating them outside. The squirrels, ants and sparrows will be more than happy to tidy up. Featured Recipe View Recipe → Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
An Electric Chicken Breast Dinner With the Salad Built In
Wherever the cook extraordinaire Yewande Komolafe goes, I will absolutely follow — even if it's to boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Normally I'd prefer literally any other part of the bird (thigh, drumstick, wing, neck, liver, giblets, tail or feet), but I know from experience that Yewande works magic with everything she touches. And that includes the meek and mild chicken breast. I'm thinking of her ginger chicken with crisp napa salad, where she pounds chicken breasts until thin, so they have more surface area to absorb the assertive seasoning mix of grated fresh ginger, cilantro, lime zest and a not insubstantial amount of cayenne (Yewande doesn't play when it comes to chile). After a quick sauté, she finishes her chicken with a ruffly napa cabbage salad, brightened with fresh mint and chives. Who knew white meat could party this hard? Featured Recipe View Recipe → Now that Yewande's recipe has used half of our head of cabbage, what shall we do with the other half? Enter Ali Slagle and her bubble and squeak. A combination of bacon, leftover mashed potatoes and vegetables (usually cabbage), this traditional British recipe is named for its sizzling, popping cooking noises, as the moisture evaporates noisily from the pan. The key here is to cook the mixture until the bottom and edges get brown and crisp, adding texture to the silky vegetables. Vegetarians can omit the bacon, and anyone who loves an egg can slide a poached or fried one right on top. The runny yolk makes this classic dish even better. Perhaps you're in the mood for a garlicky, lemony shrimp scampi? Lidey Heuck reconfigures the scampi ingredients in her 25-minute spaghetti al limone with shrimp. The surprising note here is tarragon, which gives the dish a snappy licorice freshness that's unexpected and exactly on target. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
