Hello you, and happy new year. This is my first dispatch of 2023, and I’m excited to cook. I was away for the holidays, so I entered January refreshed in this regard, delighted to be in my own kitchen and swiping through recipes like I’m on a dating app. (There’s also the fact that it’s January, the best time of year to just stay home.)
What am I looking at? Birria de res (and, perhaps more important, quesabirria tacos). Bryan Washington’s new recipe for miso pecan banana bread. Pistachio Bundt cake. Chocolate soufflés. Is this the winter I finally make Yotam Ottolenghi’s butternut squash and fondue pie with pickled red chiles? Or Tejal Rao’s lamb biryani?
And then there are the recipes I picked below, specifically for weeknights and high on my to-cook list. I always aim to get you as excited about recipes as I am — so let me know how I’m doing and what you’d like to see in the coming months. I’m dearemily@nytimes.com, and I love to hear from you.
1. Green Curry Salmon With Coconut Rice
Ooh, this looks delicious. You could just make the coconut rice in Melissa Clark’s new recipe, flavored with scallions, cilantro and green curry paste. Or you could steal the simple trick of spreading curry paste over salmon fillets before cooking for an immediate and quite dramatic flavor boost. But it’s the marriage of the two, in one pot, that makes this a must-try.
2. Crispy Pepperoni Chicken
Pepperoni crumbs: An inspired creation, from the chefs Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli of the restaurant Don Angie, in New York, and Ali Slagle’s superb addition to a weeknight chicken dinner. You get some of the salty, crisp pleasures that come with schnitzel or katsu, but without the mess of dipping the chicken into egg or flour.
3. Kimchi Carbonara
I’ve had my eye on this Korean-Italian mash-up for a few months now: a rich, spicy and vegetarian alternative to spaghetti carbonara, from the chef Melanie Hye Jin Meyer (by way of the reporter Elyse Inamine). I’m finally making it, and I can’t wait.
4. Pork Chops With Kale and Dates
I like pork chops, but I love dates, which are what make this dish from Ali Slagle so alluring. If you are less enamored of dates than I am, you can skip the salad and still use Ali’s cooking method for the pork, which will yield very juicy chops.
