Dinner

Starred review from December 5, 2016
Anyone seeking a cookbook for a 2016 time capsule should consider this volume by New York Times food writer and columnist Clark, which is designed to render evening meals enticing without excessive effort. It includes many of-the-moment ingredients, methods, and catchphrases, crispy chicken skin croutons in a roasted chicken salad, pizza crust based on dough used at Brooklyn pizzeria Franny’s, shades-of-Ottolenghi za’atar chicken with lemon yogurt, and a quinoa dish dressed with pomegranate molasses. A chapter titled “The Grind” includes coconut kafte kebabs, and seared sausage and rhubarb. Another on big salads features an escarole salad with crispy pimentón chickpeas and a runny egg. The green pea guacamole recipe that caused an uproar when it was published in the Times (President Obama weighed in via Twitter) also appears. Clark has skills beyond taking the temperature (with an instant-read thermometer, no doubt) of the eating zeitgeist: she is a crack recipe writer. Sharp, easy-to-follow instructions and helpful spreads on subjects such as cooking grains and using canned and dried beans round out this excellent volume.

January 1, 2017

You'll happily ditch complicated menus and meal plans for these more than 200 stand-alone dinners from author and longtime New York Times food columnist Clark (Cook This Now). Fantastic dishes such as garlic-chile chicken breasts with cucumbers and green ginger sauce, seitan enchiladas with cheese and pickled jalapenos, and roasted hake with crispy mushrooms are doable even on the busiest of weeknights and require little in the way of accompaniment--a simple salad or some bread will do. Clark balances meaty and meatless recipes and brings unexpected sophistication to popular forms of convenience cooking, including sheet pan suppers, grain bowls, and one-pot dishes. VERDICT A stellar collection of low-effort, high-impact meals.

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