Good morning! Today we have for you:
About those pancakes: I went deep on them for our Cooking 101 series, analyzing the common pitfalls and explaining the path to making truly great ones. You can read more about it here. There’s a video, too, in which I get to nerd out a little on the science behind leaveners. Remember making homemade volcanoes in chemistry class? It’s all there, fizzing away. Check it out; your pancakes will thank you.
Also on the menu
BBQ chicken: If you’re making dinner to celebrate Dear Old Dad, consider grilling up Sam Sifton’s classic recipe. The technique of thinning out the barbecue sauce with water before basting the chicken keeps the meat from burning while flavoring it through and through.
Grilled salmon: Or would Dad prefer seafood? Try Ali Slagle’s perfectly simple salmon recipe for the best and easiest grilled fish imaginable. Her trick? Skip the flip.
Zucchini salad with basil, mint and feta: This summery salad from David Tanis is a perfect match for the above chicken or salmon — or pretty much any protein you’d cook on the grill (or in the oven or on the stove for that matter).
Reading and eating
Not a book recommendation, but Lauren Collins’s brilliantly nuanced article in The New Yorker about a heated controversy in France about chocolate hazelnut spread just won a James Beard Award. I also loved listening to Collins talk about her life as an American journalist living in Paris in this excellent conversation she had with David Lebovitz on his podcast.
And speaking of chocolate hazelnut spread, it goes exceptionally well with pancakes. Or use it to make Jessie Sheehan’s Nutella brownies with their fudgy, almost puddinglike texture.
That’s all for now. I’ll see you tomorrow.
