As soon as I returned from my trip to Asia, I immediately got sick, a nasty cold that lingered for days. Usually, I reach for chicken soup when I’m laid low. But this time, I needed chiles and plenty of them, anything shockingly spicy to help clear my woefully stuffed nose.
A jar of chile crisp was my salvation, and I smeared the red-flecked oil on everything from toast to eggs to — why, yes, even chicken soup, where a spoonful stirred into the broth gave my nasal passages just the right healing jolt.
I’m all better now, so I can let my hunger for chile crisp lead me to even more satisfying pursuits, like Ali Slagle’s chile-crisp shrimp and green beans. Inspired by the jarred condiment, Ali achieves the same texture and flavor from a combination of red pepper flakes, soy sauce, garlic and shallot, along with ground cumin and a cinnamon stick for an aromatic pop of flavor. Asparagus works in place of the green beans, an especially nice option if you live in a place where the local stalks are coming into season.
Featured Recipe
Chile-Crisp Shrimp and Green Beans
Speaking of speedy, pescatarian dinner options, have you made Lidey Heuck’s baked salmon yet? Her minimalist recipe calls for a mix of brown sugar, paprika and garlic (powdered or fresh) for seasoning the fillets. It bubbles into a sticky glaze to coat the salmon, the rich flesh absorbing all those sweet and heady flavors.
There’s more tangy sweetness — this time powered by honey, ginger and cider vinegar — in Eric “Great on Drums” Kim’s honey baked chicken drumsticks. This lovely recipe has the hands-off ease of a sheet-pan meal, except that Eric bakes it in a deeper, 9-by-13-inch pan, which gives the browned chicken and root vegetables a glossier, saucier appeal.
Or you can take the more classic sheet-pan route with Ali’s roasted sausages and sweet potatoes with balsamic kale. This colorful, multitextured dinner is pure Ali — easy to make yet thrilling to eat, with a harmonious mix of dried cranberries and shallots that gets tossed with kale and the savory, brawny drippings from the bottom of the pan. The recipe has been out for a only couple of weeks, but it’s already a five-star winner.
I know that the bug I got is going around, so for anyone else so afflicted, may I suggest Hetty Lui McKinnon’s French onion white bean soup with its Gruyère crouton topping? Actually, Hetty’s smart dish is perfect for all soup lovers, under the weather or not. Enlivened with dashes of vinegar and soy sauce, it’s both bracing and mellow — and meatless to boot.
Let’s circle back to Lidey for something sweet, like her melt-in-the-mouth peanut butter fudge. Calling for only five ingredients and five minutes of prep time, it’s the kind of thing you can whip up between emails in the late afternoon and then stick in the fridge for a few hours so it can firm up. Waiting for it to chill might just be the hardest part.
To get these and all the other thousands of recipes available at New York Times Cooking, you’ll want to subscribe (and thank you if you already do). For technical issues, send an email to cookingcare@nytimes.com; there’s someone there who can help. And I’m at hellomelissa@nytimes.com if you want to say hello.
That’s all for now. I’ll see you on Wednesday.
