We’ve hit the a part of January after I actively begin daydreaming about sunnier, hotter locales. As I pull on my wool toque, oversize coat and heavy boots (in case you’re imagining the youthful brother in “A Christmas Story,” you’re not far off), I’m enthusiastic about solar hats, brief sleeves and heavy pours of orange wine.
This is beginning to present in my cooking, in fact. I stay dedicated to warming soups and stews, however I’m working in bursts of brightness — including an additional strip of lemon peel in Andy Baraghani’s hen thighs with chickpeas and dates, say, or choosing the biggest dried guajillo chiles for Paola Briseño-González’s camarones al ajillo (shrimp in garlic and guajillo sauce).
Yasmin Fahr’s new salmon with avocado and cilantro salad is totally vibrant, a straightforward dish stuffed with invigorating flavors, all inexperienced: lime, scallion and jalapeño. The leafy salad ingredient might be both watercress, child arugula or child spinach; I really like the pepperiness and curly tangle of watercress and the way it retains a bit construction even when it wilts a contact from the warmth of the salmon. This is simply the dinner to offset a day spent shoveling snow or slip-sliding on icy sidewalks.
I do know, my mouth is watering, too. Time to go make a few of Genevieve’s black sesame shortbread to tide me over till subsequent week. See you then!