Good morning. The sea otters were hammering clams open at the New York Aquarium the other afternoon, al fresco dining under a high sun that hinted at warmer days ahead. They looked stoked. We’d fed ourselves roast beef sandwiches from Roll-N-Roaster in Sheepshead Bay beforehand, and were in a similar mood. It was one of those perfect weekend days, a reminder that when it comes to time spent away from work, away from routine, it’s a good idea to put food at the center of the leisure — to eat for pleasure, with intent.
It needn’t be roast beef, though roast beef is awesome. (It needn’t be clams, either.) This weekend, as Ramadan comes to an end, it might be chicken biryani (above) showered in pomegranate seeds, to eat with raita and naan. I love Naz Deravian’s recipe for its vibrant depth of flavor, and for the way the chicken almost melts into the rice.
Featured Recipe
Chicken Biryani
It’s a process recipe, which means it has a lot of steps. But that’s fine on a weekend; more than fine. You can escape into the cooking and feel the pressures of the week that was fade away, replaced by the satisfaction of craft. The results are delicious. (Make sheer korma for dessert.)
Onward! You could set yourself up for warm bowls of overnight oats for breakfast, a meal my father would sometimes augment with crumbled bacon and cream, before pouring a splash of Scotch over the whole. You could build a pimento cheese pie for lunch, make chicharrones or bake and assemble a blackout cake.
There’s Detroit-style pizza to consider as well. And this version of the celery Victor salad served at Inga’s Bar in Brooklyn Heights.
Process doesn’t always mean recipes, of course. You could also freestyle. I have a neat recipe for a kale salad with cranberries, pecans and blue cheese. But I don’t always make it that way. The night following our aquarium expedition I made it with dried cherries, roasted cashews and Port Salut cheese and piled it onto plates, then draped chicken cutlets over the top of each one. Only instead of coating the chicken with panko and Parmesan, I used corn flake crumbs. This was fantastic, and I recommend following my lead and making it yourself, real soon.
If that doesn’t appeal, though, go take a gander at the other terrific recipes we have waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. (You need a subscription to do that, of course. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. If you don’t have one yet, would you consider taking one out today?)
If you run into problems with your account, please write for help: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. Or you can write to me, if you want to deliver an apple or a worm: hellosam@nytimes.com. I can’t respond to every letter. But I read each one I get.
Now, it’s a far cry from anything to do with cardamom or rendered lamb fat, but you should make some time for the limited series “Douglas Is Cancelled,” on BritBox. It’s an unsettling almost-a-comedy starring a bumbling Hugh Bonneville and an unsettling Karen Gillan.
Our Jason Farago delivered a fantastic “Close Read” of Piet Mondrian’s “Blue Chrysanthemum,” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. You’ll want to explore that, as well.
I caught up with the third season of “Occupied” on Amazon Prime. Lots of spycraft and Russian intrigue, but what really fascinated me is how, in Norway, everyone’s front door seems to open out to the weather and not in to the house, as ours do.
Finally, a piece of housekeeping. In a recent newsletter I linked to an excellent article in the Ellsworth American by Alex Seitz-Wald, about the state of Maine’s lobster industry. I did so because that’s where I read it, but the original publisher of the piece was the Midcoast Villager, a relatively new news outlet in Maine where Seitz-Wald serves as deputy editor. Give their site a spin and I’ll see you on Sunday.
