My cousin texted me the other day with the prompt of all prompts: “Is there a New York Times Cooking recipe that’s an absolute slam dunk in your mind — a go-to if people are coming over for dinner?”
My first question: “Any dietary restrictions?” (I’m not here to send anyone into anaphylactic shock.)
“Nope.”
[Cracks knuckles]
Reader, let’s do this.
My first move is Ali Slagle’s olive oil baked salmon, a recipe that produces silky, perfectly cooked fish. A small fillet that someone might cook solo for a quick dinner shouts efficiency, while a huge portion gently baked in an olive oil bath purrs: “Hello. Pour yourself a glass of wine and get comfortable.”
Ali’s salmon goes with all types of sides and salads, and I love how versatile the recipe is — I always add whatever fresh herbs I have on hand, and the comments are full of great suggestions. Add cherry tomatoes! Sliced onion and olives! Anchovies and fresh fennel! It’s your fish and it’s your party.
Featured Recipe
Olive Oil Baked Salmon
I will also bring out this sheet-pan chicken with grapes and shallots, a Colu Henry recipe that feels very fancy but is very easy. This is a great dish to anchor a delegated dinner: Put one person in charge of beverages, another in charge of bread and cheese and, come dinnertime, ask your most cooking-inclined friend to assemble this simple green salad.
On the topic of salads: The first time I had Becky Hughes’s vegan Caesar salad was at a New York Times Cooking team event, where it fed a packed room of food-minded professionals who kept going back for more. If that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is.
Not a food professional — but someone with similarly strong opinions about what she likes and dislikes — my friend’s daughter always requests “that sushi thing” whenever I make our group dinner. “That sushi thing” is sushi bake, and I am happy to oblige.
Stay with me here while I swerve into two dinners that I haven’t yet made but I’m certain will be winners: Genevieve Ko’s miso-marinated pork roast and Eric Kim’s baked potato banquet. Genevieve is one of the most thoughtful recipe creators out there — she’s always thinking about how to make a recipe foolproof for the most tired and distracted among us — and this holiday pork roast, as she writes, is impossible to mess up.
Similarly, Eric anchors his potato party with easy yet perfect baked potatoes and three fun topping options: aglio e olio, caramelized kimchi, and goat cheese and hot honey for a Nickelodeon-orange baked sweet potato.
But my best dinner party trick is hot pot, specifically shabu shabu. I do mine with boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead of beef, marinating them for a couple of hours in a glug of sake with salt, pepper, a few ginger slices and the flattened whites of some scallions (this I learned from “Love Japan”). Come dinnertime, all I have to do is prep my veggies and put everything in the prettiest bowls I have, reminding my guests that the noodles go in last so they can soak up that delicious broth. Sure, there’s the initial buy-in of getting your electric hot pot, but then you can use it over and over and become the hot pot house. It’s a lovely thing to be.
And, finally, dessert. Marti Buckley’s Basque cheesecake, a recipe adapted by Tanya Sichynsky, is unashamedly rich; a small slice makes a big impact. But this just means you can send people home with the leftovers, which they can then enjoy with their morning coffee and remember what an awesome host you are.
All of my favorite recipes — and plenty, plenty more — are ready for you with a New York Times Cooking subscription. Right now you can subscribe at a special rate, but the sale ends tomorrow. (Thank you to everyone who’s already subscribed!)
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