Good morning. It’s shoulder season where I stay — warm during the midday hours, but still with a little bite to the evening breeze off the water. I like that juxtaposition, and want to cook to it this weekend: say, Filipino beef short-rib adobo (above), with a bowl of rice and a sharp citrus salad.
For that salad, by the way, you don’t need a recipe. Just combine peeled chunks of grapefruit, diced cucumber, some sliced jalapeños and a handful of cilantro and mint. Toss everything with a little bit of lime juice and a dollop of honey, with a sprinkle of salt. You’ll figure it out!
In the morning there can be huevos rancheros or one-pan fried eggs and potatoes, some ace blueberry muffins, maybe a stack of pancakes alongside sunny-side-up eggs. Fix a pan bagnat for lunch, then take it out into the world for a walk, and a picnic somewhere you haven’t been since last year. (This month, I favor Fort Tilden Beach on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens.)
A mushroom potpie for dinner, or roasted shrimp drizzled with a simple teriyaki sauce? Maybe a one-pot turmeric chicken and rice.
Then, on Sunday, you can sleep in if you’re not working, go try out a new pizza place for lunch, shop for the week’s cooking and return to your kitchen for another no-recipe recipe: a version of this scallop dish the chef Sydne Gooden made the other day for the Instagram account of the restaurant where she works, Gage & Tollner, in Brooklyn.
It needn’t be as fancy as Gooden’s. She serves hers over puréed root vegetables, garnished with microgreens. You could serve yours with toast and have a salad afterward. The cooking’s straightforward: Secure some fat scallops, a lot of butter, a small jar of salmon roe and get down to business. Make a béarnaise first, then let it sit warm on the stove. Sear your scallops until they develop a good golden crust and bathe them in butter with a little garlic and thyme. Then mix the roe into the béarnaise and spoon it over the scallops. Wow.
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Now, it has almost nothing whatsoever to do with artichokes or summer savory, but I’m very glad I watched “Beef,” on Netflix. Dark, funny, unsettling and smart.
Also in that vein, though a little less funny, is Jim Thompson’s 1964 novel, “Pop. 1280.” (Bertrand Tavernier used the plot for a 1981 film, “Coup de Torchon,” moving the action from Texas to West Africa.)
You should read this marvelous piece of criticism from Deborah Solomon in The Times, wrestling with her feelings about Pablo Picasso, 50 years after the artist’s death.
Finally, here’s new music from The National, “Eucalyptus,” from the band’s forthcoming album, “First Two Pages of Frankenstein.” Listen to that while you’re cooking. I’ll see you on Sunday.
