Good things don’t need much.

Hello, I'm back. I’ve been quiet here for a while, so let me catch you up...

I spent a month eating my way through Spain, and it became clear pretty quickly that the the article-a-week plan wasn’t going to happen. Traveling with my kids meant free time for writing was hard impossible to find… and also, I felt I had to keep absorbing the place before I could start writing about it. I decided to just keep notes and put it all together once I was home. So the San Sebastián essay is coming, and the Barcelona pieces will follow… they’re the biggest projects I’ve attempted for TEW and they deserve the time to get them right.

But while I’m still in the editing and researching weeds on those, I want to share the actual take aways Ive had in the kitchen since I’ve return to Los Angeles. Because the time away has had a dramatic shift on how I’m cooking now.

I am eating more Spanish, but in the laziest way possible.

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Here’s the thing, Spanish cooking relies on a lot of ingredients that just aren’t on the shelves of a standard grocery store here in the States. So recreating many of my favorite dishes isn’t even really an option without visiting a specialty shop. But that’s ok, because what stuck with me most this summer was just the general ethos around food and mealtime in Spain. The commitment to seasonal produce and simple preparations… and to having the same handful of really good dishes over and over while they’re in season.

So now that I’m back home in LA, I’ve been practicing this idea…. buying a lot less ingredients, and doing less to those ingredients. And I’m repeating the same the same meals over and over again. No one minds, because we love these meals and know that the window on them is closing. Summer makes this especially easy because the produce doesn’t need much and there is a general sense that we need to gorge ourselves on the bounty while we can.

These are four meals I’ve been making on repeat. They’re Spanish-inspired, they use minimal and overlapping ingredients from one night to another, and they’re built around what’s in season right now. If you want to simplify your kitchen for the last stretch of summer, I can’t recommend enough embracing this approach… doing less each night, but still very much eating well.

But first, a few words on salt and wine….

Flaky Sea Salt

The Spanish use a flaky sea salt for finishing just about everything. It’s harvested from Mediterranean salt flats using traditional sun- and wind-evaporation methods, and the crystals have a delicate, pyramidal structure that dissolves quickly on the tongue. The crunchy texture is part of the appeal… it’s also less dense and thus less salty than table salt, making it harder to over-salt the food. Seeking out a Spanish brand is nice, but Maldon makes a good version that is pretty widely available.

Everything listed here will benefit from a nice scattering of these little crystals before serving. It will have an enormous difference in how these meals comes out.

Spanish Wine

Spanish wine is meant to be simple, affordable and enjoyed with every meal (sometimes even breakfast). Buy a couple bottles and use them across the week. For red, a young Rioja or Garnacha will do the trick. For white, stock an Albariño or Verdejo. Drink them chilled, the whites but also the red, as the Spanish do in summer.

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Steak + Tomato Salad

Yes, this is inspired by Bar Nestor in San Sebastian, where steak and tomato salad are basically all they serve, and its perfect.

In the Basque country, steak means grilled txuletas- super thick, marbled rib eyes from mature grass-fed cows. The thickness is important… it allows the outside to sear hard while the inside stays rare. What surprised me was the seasoning technique: very coarse salt goes on after the first side has seared. When you flip, you then season the other side. This timing ensures the salt enhances the crust as it finishes cooking, rather than drawing out moisture before it hits the pan.

Ideally this happens over hardwood charcoal or a wood fire. If you don't have access to wood fire or hardwood charcoal, you can finish with just a bit of smoked flaky sea salt (Maldon makes a good one) to get that smokey depth, but use a light hand.

The tomato salad is simple but thats the point. Use ripe heirloom tomatoes sliced into thick wedges, and generously salted to bring out their flavor. White onion (the sweetest when raw) sliced thin, flaky salt, nice olive oil, and a splash of sherry vinegar if you need a little extra acid to balance.

Serve with bread to soak up the juices.

Pork Tenderloin + Blistered Padron Peppers + Manchego

A dinner that comes together with just one cast iron pan and some salt and oil.

Spain produces some of the best pork in the world, and while much of it is reserved for the famous cured jamón ibérico, the solomillo (the tenderloin) can be purchased fresh, and it's prized for its tenderness. It's one of my favorite cuts, in Spain or in the states.

And it's best if you don’t overcook it, keeping it a little pink inside. I just use salt, pepper and a little oil. Sear in a very hot cast iron until the outside is golden and the inside is still pink. Let it rest, then slice into medallions.

In the same cast iron, toss the padron (or shishito, a more readily available substitute) peppers with a little oil in a single layer until their skin chars and blisters, then finish with flaky sea salt.

Serve with some manchego and olives for snacking while cooking.

Grilled Chicken + Smoky Artichokes + Piquillo Peppers

Simple, smoky, sweet and savory.

Simple grilled chicken legs rubbed with sea salt, pepper, and a little smoked Spanish paprika (sweet or hot, your choice). Grill over medium-high heat until the skin is golden and crispy and then move to the top rack to continue to cook through until fall-off-the-bone tender.

Remove the stems and tough outer leaves and trim the tips of the artichokes. Parboil or steam for 15 minutes until tender. Around the time you move your chicken to the top rack, add the artichokes and grill both top and bottom, until smokey and charred. If you prefer, halve them first so you can remove the fuzzy center choke before grilling, easier for guests to eat, but not something i really worry about if I’m in a rush.

Make a cheater aioli by whisking good store-bought mayo with fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper, olive oil and a smashed garlic garlic clove.

Serve with jarred roasted Spanish piquillo peppers drained and arranged on a platter, drizzled with good olive oil and flaky salt. They're already cooked, they're sweet and mild, and they don't require any technique. Serve them cold, or if you want, warm them gently in a pan with olive oil and minced garlic, the way they are done in Basque country. Add some bread for dipping in the oil if you like.

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Garlic Shrimp + Pan con Tomate + Spanish Mixed Salad

Garlic shrimp (gambas al ajillo) are ubiquitous in tapas restaurants all over Spain. If you want to go deep on garlic shrimp, this is a great how-to, but you can do less and still get good results. Make sure shrimp are thawed and dry before you begin. Gently heat olive oil in a ceramic vessel or regular pan. Add thinly sliced garlic and your shrimp and continue to cook gently. Don’t overcook them, just until they turn pink. You want a letter “C”, not a letter “O”.

Speaking of ubiquitous, garlic shrimp beg for the ever present Spanish pan con tomate. Slice a ripe tomato in half and rub the cut side onto toasted bread until the bread is saturated with juice and seeds. Drizzle with good olive oil, sprinkle with salt. It might look a bit banal but you will become addicted. Use it to soak up all the garlicky shrimp oil.

Serve with a Spanish mixed salad which means some kind of lettuce base with wedges of tomato, thin slices of white onion, olives, maybe some hard-boiled egg, or a little tinned tuna, and/or jarred white asparagus if you keep that kind of thing around... The point is to use whatever you have on hand and to include some brined and pickled things as well as fresh. Dress simply in olive oil, sherry vinegar, and salt.

So that's the rotation right now… four meals, minimal ingredients, nothing too complicated, and somehow we're not tired of any of them yet.
I have lots to say on Spain, and I’ll be sending out the longer articles soon, but the idea of doing less might just be the most useful thing I brought home.
Summer doesn't require you to overthink anyways. The tomatoes are still sweet and juicy... And the nights are long and warm. So let this be your sign to buy some nice produce and do less, you really can just make the same four meals until you're sick of them, or the season passes.
I'll be back with the San Sebastián essay soon.

Until then,

-Miranda

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Why lunch? These all work for a casual dinner party too, but lunch is just my preference these days. Mostly because of the kids and a bedtime routine that doesn’t really slot well with hosting a group of people in the backyard. But also because I like a leisurely meal without cutting into the late night hours, and it’s really nice to have a little time after hosting to clear the table, clean the kitchen, maybe even go for a little walk rather than falling into bed with a stomach full of rich things.

I’m offering three menus, from lightest to most indulgent. They are all pretty make-ahead friendly and involve a grill. I’ve included what to serve alongside each main and a suggestion for what to drink. I think there’s something for just about everyone.

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Menu One: A Provençal Salade Niçoise

This is the menu for the group who want to linger over lunch, without needing a nap afterwards. It is also almost entirely make-ahead and a quick assembly, which makes it a perfect meal for having people over.

Start with sliced baguette and a trio of spreads- an olive tapenade, a poivronade (made from fire-roasted sweet peppers), and a tomatade, which is essentially a sun-dried tomato spread and equally delicious. You can seek them out at a French specialty shop, make them yourself, or use close approximations (olive tapanade is pretty easy to source and Trader Joe's carries a roasted red pepper spread that works great as a stand-in for the poivronade).

The centerpiece of the lunch is a big deconstructed Niçoise on a large platter. A bed of arugula and baby spinach or baby greens, little arrangements of blanched green beans, soft boiled eggs, Castelvetrano olives, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and radish, and baby potatoes, coated in a salty tangy dressing. The tuna goes on last, sliced thick and laid right on top as the finishing touch. Everyone can sort of assemble their own plate with as much of each component as they want.

Everything except the tuna can be done the morning of or even the night before, which means by the time guests arrive you have almost nothing left to do except grill the fish and open the wine.

To drink, pour a cold Provençal rosé.

For dessert, set out a small board of a few cheeses, a pot of honey or jam, nuts or some ripe summer fruit. A light finish to a pretty little lunch.

If you want one last thing to savor at the end of the meal, pour a round of pastis over ice with a splash of cold water, another little Provençal touch.

The Niçoise Platter

Serves 6

For the dressing:
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Juice of half a lemon
1 small shallot, very finely minced
2 tablespoons capers, roughly chopped
Half a cup good olive oil
Salt and black pepper

For the platter:
2 cups arugula
2 cups baby spinach
1 pound baby red potatoes, boiled and halved
1 pound green beans, blanched in salt water, tips removed and halved
6 eggs, soft boiled, peeled and halved
1 cup Castelvetrano olives, torn in half
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 medium cucumber, sliced in quarters
4 radishes, thinly sliced
Anchovy fillets, optional
Flaky salt and pepper

Make the dressing by whisking together the Dijon, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, shallot, and capers. Stream in the olive oil slowly while whisking until emulsified. Season well with salt and pepper and taste. It should be bright and punchy. Set aside.

For the potatoes, boil in well salted water until just tender, about fifteen minutes. Drain, halve, and while still warm toss with a spoonful of the dressing so they absorb some flavor. Refrigerate until completely cool.

For the green beans, bring the pot of salted water back to a boil and blanch the beans for two to three minutes until just tender but still with a little crunch. Drain and immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking and set the color. Drain again and refrigerate until ready to use.

For the eggs, bring a separate small pot of water to a boil. Lower the eggs in gently and cook for exactly seven minutes. Transfer immediately to an ice bath and leave for at least five minutes before peeling. The whites will be fully set and the yolk will be jammy and dark gold, firm enough to hold its shape when halved but with none of that chalky texture. These can be boiled and peeled the morning of and kept in the fridge in a covered bowl.

To assemble, spread the arugula and spinach across your largest platter or board. Arrange the potatoes, green beans, eggs, olives, cherry tomatoes, radish and cucumber in separate loose piles across the greens. Season everything with a little flaky salt. Spoon the dressing generously over the whole platter. Lay the grilled tuna on top last. If you are using anchovy, drape a few fillets over the top.

Grilled Peppercorn Tuna

Serves 6

One and a half to two pound piece of sushi grade tuna, at least an inch and a half thick
Coarsely cracked black pepper
Flaky salt
Olive oil

Generously coat all sides of the tuna in cracked black pepper and flaky salt. Drizzle with olive oil and pat so it adheres. Get your grill as hot as it will go. Grill the tuna for about 90 seconds per side, including the edges if the piece is thick enough to stand on them. You want good color and crust on the outside and a warm but very rare center. Let it rest for five minutes then slice thickly and lay across the assembled platter.

Stack plate and serving spoons and let everyone dish themselves.

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Menu Two: An Italian-Californian Panzanella with Calabrian Honey Chicken Skewers

This one is for the group that wants something light and produce-forward but a little more substantial on the plate.

Set out a small spread of mixed olives, a wedge of some hard cheese like Manchego or aged Gouda, and a round of Cynar spritz. That’s enough to graze on while chicken grills and the table is set.

It’s pretty common to see grilled chicken added into a panzanella. This plays off that idea but keeps the two things separate, chicken skewers on their own platter alongside the salad. People will probably end up mixing everything together on their plates anyway, but it looks nice to have the separate elements on the table.

The chicken is marinated in Calabrian chili, honey, and lemon and then skewered and caramelized on the grill. The panzanella goes off-script with summer stone fruit, torn grilled bread, ripe tomatoes, sliced nectarines, fresh mozzarella, basil and mint, all tossed with a balsamic glaze. If you have vegetarians at the table, or simply want one more thing on the spread, a simple marinated white bean salad could fill out the table.

Open a bottle of cold Vermentino to pair with everything.

For dessert, make a free-form nectarine and blackberry crostata. Its intentionally rustic and therefore forgiving for even the most helpless bakers (I’m thinking of myself here).

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Calabrian Honey Chicken Skewers

Serves 6

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into roughly 2-inch chunks
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon Calabrian chili paste, or a little less or more depending on heat preference
Zest and juice of one lemon
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and black pepper

Whisk together the honey, Calabrian chili, lemon zest and juice, garlic, oregano, olive oil, and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Add the chicken and toss well to coat. Marinate for at least one hour and up to overnight in the fridge.

Thread the chicken onto skewers, leaving a little space between pieces so they cook evenly rather than steam. Rub the hot grill with half an onion to prepare the grates and prevent sticking. Grill over medium heat for about 10 minutes per side, until the chicken is cooked through and the outside is nicely charred and sticky. Let rest a few minutes before serving.

These are good warm or at room temperature, which makes them very easy for a lunch where things come off the grill in stages.

Nectarine Panzanella

Serves 6

Half a good sourdough or country loaf, sliced or torn into rough chunks
Half a small red onion, very thinly sliced
3 large ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges
2 ripe nectarines, sliced
Half a pound fresh mozzarella, torn
A large handful of fresh basil leaves
A smaller handful of fresh mint leaves
Good olive oil
Balsamic glaze
Flaky salt

Toss or rub the bread in olive oil and a little salt. Slices work best for the grill and chunks for the broiler. Toast them until they have real color and some char on the edges, a few minutes per side. Let them cool slightly and tear into slightly smaller chunks.

If you have an assertive onion, soak the slices in cold water for ten minutes while you prep everything else, then drain and pat dry.

Combine the tomatoes, nectarines, red onion, and grilled bread in a large bowl. Dress generously with olive oil and a long drizzle of balsamic glaze and toss everything together. Taste and add more glaze or salt as needed. Tear in the mozzarella, basil, and mint right before serving. The bread should be absorbing all those tomato and nectarine juices, getting a bit softened.

Arrange the chicken on a platter along with the large bowl of salad and let guests serve themselves.

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Menu Three: Summertime Ribs with Peach Bourbon Glaze

This menu is our most hearty. Good ribs, some fun twists on classic sides, and cold boozy drinks. Finish it off with peaches and ice cream, and you will feel you have officially done summer right.

This is my husbands ribs method, and it yields the most beautiful tender meat. Essentially a reverse sear in concept, the grilling happens at the very end just to give that smokey flavor, but the majority of work happens earlier in the oven. His big secret is to remove the silver skin when you first bring the ribs home. This little step makes a huge difference to the overall fall-apart-ness of the meat.

The racks get a dry rub the night before, then baked low and slow the day of, you can just let them hang out on the counter cooling until people arrive, and then finish them on a hot grill right before serving. Letting them cool all the way is the other secret. It means the ribs soak up their juices and stay moist.

To finish the ribs we make a quick peach bourbon glaze. It takes ten minutes on the stove and uses the same bourbon you’ll open for the cocktails.

The Sides

For sides, I would pick two out of these three.

-A charred Mexican street corn salad with cotija and lime is addictive and pretty simple to batch ahead.

-For something crisp and bright to cut through the richness of the ribs, this no-mayo vinegar slaw is really good, the fennel and apple make it feel a little unexpected.

-A potato salad really is the perfect partner for ribs. I love a Japanese style potato salad made with Kewpie mayo, a little lighter than the classic American version.

For dessert, grilled peaches with big scoops of vanilla ice cream. Or if you want to go above and beyond, this peach cobbler is incredible and can be made ahead.

To drink, a batched pitcher of Gold Rush cocktails keeps you on the bourbon theme. Top with a little seltzer if you want it lighter. Once the pitcher runs dry, switch to cold beers.

The Ribs

Serves 6

Two racks of St. Louis style ribs

For the rub:
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
Half a teaspoon cayenne

For the peach bourbon glaze:
1 cup good peach preserves
3 tablespoons bourbon
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Half a teaspoon smoked paprika
A pinch of salt

Mix the rub ingredients together. The night before, pat the ribs dry and remove the silver skin. Then coat them all over with the rub, pressing it in so it sticks. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, take the ribs out of the fridge about an hour before cooking. Heat your oven to 275 degrees. Wrap each rack tightly in foil and place on a baking sheet. Cook for two and a half to three hours until very tender. You can do this in the morning and let them sit, still wrapped, until you are ready to grill.

While the ribs are resting, make the glaze. Combine all the glaze ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir to combine. Let it cook down for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until it thickens slightly. Taste and adjust, a little more vinegar if it needs brightness, a little more honey if you want it sweeter.

When guests are arriving, heat your grill to medium high. Unwrap the ribs and remove from foil. Grill for about five minutes per side, brushing generously with the peach bourbon glaze in the last few minutes so it caramelizes onto the outside without burning. Rest for a few minutes, slice between the bones, and serve on a big board with any remaining glaze on the side.

Batched Gold Rush Cocktails

Makes enough for 6

For the honey syrup:
Half a cup honey
Half a cup warm water

For the batch:
2 cups bourbon
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup honey syrup

Make the honey syrup first by combining the honey and warm water and stirring until the honey is completely dissolved. This can be made days ahead and kept in the fridge.

Combine the bourbon, lemon juice, and honey syrup in a large pitcher and stir well. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Pour over ice and garnish with a lemon slice. If anyone wants something lighter, top their glass with a splash of sparkling water.

Once the pitcher runs dry, switch to cold beers.

I hope you try out one (or all) of these menus this summer. If you do, let me know!

Our next dispatch will be from San Sebastian, Spain. I’ll be sharing a bit on what and where I’m eating, and how you can adopt some of this famous food (read: Basque Pinxos) into your own kitchen.

Until then, happy summer.

xx

-Miranda

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My solution is to flip the whole idea of dinner. I stop worrying about the main and I start obsessing over the side, which is pretty much always a salad. The protein becomes something I lazily assign to the grill, and the salad is the star.

This is also how I solve my summer produce FOMO problem, because if I don’t plan the peaches, cherries and tomatoes and corn into my meals, I blink and it’s September and I’ve missed them.

I’m leaving for Spain next month - a week in San Sebastián, three weeks in Barcelona - so I’m front-loading my LA summer meals before we disappear down the Basque and Catalonian rabbit hole. These are some of the salads in this seasons rotation. None of them are a science, so the ingredients are listed without measurements, eyeball it for however many you are cooking for. The proteins are suggested, swap as needed. And because we like a drink with dinner around here, I’ve included a beverage pairing for each one, courtesy of the house somm.

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Grilled Peach Caprese

A caprese salad is already a perfect trifecta of sweet, tangy, and creamy. It really needs nothing else. But if it's peach season and the grill is on anyway, this is a beautiful addition. The char on the peach brings out the sweetness of the fruit, which can be great if they are just under perfectly ripe… but if your peaches are at peak ripeness, you can skip the grill entirely and just slice them straight onto the plate.

Peaches halved and grilled until they pick up little char marks and soften slightly. Sliced rounds of fresh mozzarella and ripe heirloom tomato. Lots of torn basil. Balsamic, good olive oil, salt and pepper.

If the dinner needs something else- grilled ciabatta or sourdough- slice it thick, brush with olive oil, and put it on the grill while the pork is resting.

Grill: Pork chop rubbed simply with olive oil, salt and pepper. If you like something more fancy, a little peach preserve thinned with apple cider vinegar painted over the chops during the last minute of grilling.

Drink: Italian Lambrusco… Slightly sparkling and fruity, very good with stone fruit and fresh cheese. Serve it chilled.

Greek Salad with Cherries and Olives

Essentially a greek salad with cherries subbed for tomatoes. Not a Greek thing to do, but when in cherry season you find ways to enjoy them in as many ways as possible. If it isn’t your thing, use the tomatoes.

Fresh cherries, both halved. Cucumber quartered. Red onion sliced thin. Kalamata olives torn. Basil and mint. Feta crumbled over the top. Red wine vinegar, good olive oil, salt and pepper.

If you want something crunchy and carby- finish the salad with crushed pita chips scattered over right before you eat.

Grill: Chicken skewers, marinated in olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, paprika, thyme, salt and pepper. Grill hot and fast.

Drink: An Assyrtiko from Santorini if you can find it, he salinity and citrus cut through the feta without clashing with the cherries. A dry rosé works well too and is easier to find.

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Summer Corn, Tomato, Avocado, and Goat Cheese Salad

A perfect summer salad to celebrate corn and tomato season.

Arugula with basil and cilantro leaves tossed throughout. Cherry tomatoes halved. Avocado sliced. Corn, poached and cut off the cob into thick planks (loose kernels get lost). Goat cheese crumbled over the top at the end. Dressed with 50/50 mix of balsamic and red wine vinegar, minced shallot, olive oil, a tiny bit of grated garlic, salt and pepper.

Grill: Grilled steak, well-rested, sliced thin with straight up salt and pepper.

Drink: A glass of chilled down Beaujolais or a light Barbera, either has enough fruit to meet the sweetness of the corn but also enough acid to cut through the goat cheese. If you want a glass of white, a Vermentino would be great.

Messy Summer Wedge with Grilled Wings

Wedge salads can be fairly minimal things throw together with a few ingredients and a grocery store dressing, and still absolutely hit. Grill some wings, pour a beer. Amazing.

Iceberg halved or cut in big wedges. Blue cheese dressing (the 4 top winners of this article align with my preferences) spooned generously over the top. Then heavily scatter with - cherry tomatoes (halved). Cucumber (quartered and sliced). And red onion (thinly sliced). Finally, sprinkle with flaky sea salt and ground pepper.

Grill: Dry-rubbed grilled chicken wings. Pat the wings dry and rub with paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper and let them sit at least 30 minutes. Grill indirect at around 375°F for 35-40 or so minutes, flipping halfway, then move them over direct heat for a couple of minutes per side to crisp and char. Finish with a squeeze of lemon right off the grill. Or toss them in your favorite wing sauce if you want to be a maximalist.

Drink: A cold lager. Or a gin and tonic, which is really good with salty grilled foods.

Spicy Thai Mango Salad

Shredded green cabbage as the base. Red Onion. Mango, cherry tomato and avocado. Fresh cilantro, mint, and Thai basil torn over everything. The dressing is Thai sweet chili sauce, lime juice, fish sauce, a minced Serrano, minced shallot, and a little lemongrass paste or smashed stalk of lemongrass left to soak while the steak cooks. It should be punchy, tangy, and a little sweet. Taste and adjust lime or fish sauce as needed. Finished with crushed toasted peanuts if you like.

Grill: NY strip, thick cut, seasoned generously with salt. Grill over high heat with the lid open. Pull it 5 degrees before your target temperature.. rare comes off at 115-120°F, medium rare at 120-125°F. Rest it, then slice thin against the grain.

Drink: Again, a cold beer is perfect. If you want wine, a cold off-dry Riesling, the slight sweetness works with spicy.

Grilled Salmon with Avocado, Lime and Cilantro Salad

Little gem lettuce. Torn cilantro leaves. Avocado, radish, and cucumber sliced. Jalapeño or Fresno chile in thin rounds if you want a little heat. Charred scallions chopped. Dress with olive oil, lime juice, a little grated garlic, ground cumin, and salt. Top with pepitas.

Grill: Salmon fillet, skin on, rubbed with olive oil, salt and pepper and a drizzle of the salad dressing if you like. Grill skin-side down over medium-high heat and leave it alone… the skin protects it and the flesh will release easily with a fish spatula once cooked. Cook alongside the scallions, which will only take a few minutes to char for the salad.

Drink: A Txakoli. Crisp, slightly sparkling, with a little salinity that goes with fish. For more on Txakoli-read last weeks article.

-Miranda

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The regions of western Europe seem to understand this conundrum, and each has its own answer to the summer wine question. I’m highlighting three… from Spain, Portugal, and France… each a dry, light white wine, slightly fizzy, and lower in alcohol than your typical bottle.

What got me thinking about this has been my Spain research. I leave for San Sebastián in a few weeks, and this will be my third time in the city, so I sort of know what to expect. Lots and lots of pintxos - the Basque region’s version of tapas - with little glass tumblers filled with Txakoli (CHAH-koh-lee). It’s the local wine of the Basque region, slightly effervescent, light, with a saline crispness.

The tradition is to pour the wine from above, sometimes laughably far from the glass, resulting in some splatter but creating aeration and fizz. It speaks to the casual attitude toward this wine… not something to be swirled and sniffed, just the local beverage meant wash down a lot of salty and savory bites. My house sommelier (my husband) recommends Ameztoi. It typically runs around 10.5 to 11 percent alcohol and is the easiest to source here in the states. A few glasses of Txakoli and you’re still able to enjoy your afternoon, which is key when dinner isn’t until 9:30pm.

Portugal’s answer is Vinho Verde, and I have a soft spot for it that goes back to a girls trip where I was first introduced. We went through quite a lot of Vinho Verde that week along the Algarve coast, partly because the price couldn’t be beat, but also because it went great with all the seafood we were eating, and left me feeling up for the post-lunch hike we inevitably had scheduled. I’ve kept it as a household staple ever since, especially in the warmer months.

The name means “green wine,” which refers not to the color but to the youth of the grapes, harvested early to preserve high acidity and a natural, very slight effervescence. Dry, saline, and zippy, it’s what my husband calls a speed bump wine, something you open between your fancier bottles when your guests are particularly thirsty. If you see Alvarinho on the label, expect something with a little more body and stone fruit, though those bottles can run a bit higher in alcohol depending on the producer. Straight Vinho Verde blends tend to be leaner, more citrus-driven, and reliably lower, sometimes as light as 9 percent. Perfect alongside grilled fish, steamed clams, or a little seafood salad eaten outside. Look for Quinta de Ameal, a Loureiro-based bottle that’s a step above the grocery store options (no shade to them).

France’s answer is Muscadet, maybe the most underestimated of the three. It's also the highest ABV of the three, but not by much, still reliably under 12 percent. Made from Melon de Bourgogne grapes grown in the Loire Valley, it is crisp, mineral-y, and refreshing. Look for “sur lie” on the label, which means it was aged on its lees, picking up a little extra smoothness and texture along with fine natural bubbles. It wants oysters, but it’s equally good with cold poached salmon, a niçoise salad, or a plate of burrata with ripe summer tomatoes. The bottle rec here is Chéreau Carré’s Château l’Oiselinière, around $18 and one of the better values in French white wine right now.

I hope you find something to quench your thirst on this list.

-Miranda

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I recently took a last minute trip up to Northern California to visit my dad. He had just received some scary health news, my husband was going to be out of town all weekend, and I already knew I was going to spend the week distractedly shuttling kids from one playdate to another, obsessing over what the diagnosis meant and how long we had. So somewhat impulsively, I loaded up my car, picked the kids up early from camp, and made the relentless drive up the 5 to the small coastal town in northern California where I am from.

Something about receiving difficult news had my dad digging into old boxes, pulling forgotten items off shelves, and cleaning out cupboards. In the midst of his rummaging he came across my old crepe pan… a battered steel thing with short sloped sides that he bought for me when I was a tiny girl with a crepe obsession. He had also gone out and bought the ingredients, plus strawberries and whipped cream, our favorite toppings.

The backstory on the crepe obsession- my uncle Scottie used to make them for all the little cousins when we all got together, which was often. The smell woke us up in the old Berkeley craftsman bungalow, and we would run downstairs for the thin pancakes doused in butter and maple syrup, competing for the next one off the pan.

At some point around first or second grade I weaseled the recipe from him and started making them myself, waking before my parents to whisk up the batter, standing on a wooden stool to reach the stovetop. In our house we filled them with strawberries and jam and whipped cream, or butter and banana and maple syrup, or sometimes in winter, frozen raspberries saved from the garden simmered with sugar into a syrup.

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Later in college I started filling them with savory things too, inspired by the late night versions from vendors I had devoured on the streets of Paris and Nice during a post high-school trip with friends. I made the classic ham and cheese with a soft sunny-side-up egg, but also more California-leaning concoctions… spinach, goat cheese, pesto, sun-dried tomato. An easy lunch for a broke art school student living in my first apartment.

So my dad and I made a batch, trying to rope my kids into the excitement of it. Oblivious to the nostalgia the moment held for us, they wandered off, only circling back to take spoonfuls of whipped cream directly from the bowl. They didn’t get it yet, but my dad and I licked our plates clean.

In a world of sandwiches and wraps, the crepe is a beautiful third option - ready to be savory or sweet, and able to envelope almost anything in your fridge without feeling like a bread bomb. The batter actually gets better as it sits, so I often make a jar of it and use it over a couple of days. Just a thin layer in a hot cast iron, filled with whatever needs using. As summer approaches and the days get looser, this is exactly the kind of thing you want up your sleeve. Make a batch, keep it in the fridge, and you have breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a late snack waiting.

This is the recipe I have been making since I was small enough to need a stool. It’s my father’s pan and my uncle’s recipe and hopefully with time, my kids’ new food memory in the making. I hope you try them this weekend.

-Miranda

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Classic Crepes

Makes about 12

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups whole milk

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tablespoon melted butter, plus more for the pan

Pinch of kosher salt

For sweet crepes add 1 tablespoon sugar and a splash of vanilla and a dash of cinnamon if you like.

For savory add a tablespoon of minced fresh herbs, parsley, tarragon, chervil or chives all work. Or leave it plain and use it for both.

Whisk everything together until smooth. If you let the batter rest for at least 30 minutes it relaxes the gluten and makes the crepes tender, but skip it if you are in a rush.

Heat a pan over medium heat until a drop of water skitters across the surface. Coat lightly with butter. Pour in just enough batter to coat the bottom in a thin layer, swirling the pan immediately as you pour. If there is more batter than immediately sticks to the pan, liquid still swirling around on top, pour it off back intot he batter. Cook until the edges look dry and begin to lift, about a minute. Loosen the edge gently with the tine of a fork. Pinch an edge and flip. Thirty seconds more. Either fill it there if you would like some heat on the filling (for an egg or cheese for exmaple) or pull it to. a plate and fill.

The first one will come out wonky, too thick and maybe burnt or torn. Thats very normal, toss it and move on. The rest will be fine.

Store in a jar and refrigerate for up to three days. Shake before using.

Ways to fill them….

Sweet: Fresh sliced strawberries with strawberry jam and whipped cream / butter and maple syrup / Nutella and sliced banana / lemon juice and powdered sugar

Savory: Black forest ham, Swiss and a fried egg / Spinach, pesto, goat cheese and sun-dried tomato with an optional lightly scrambled egg / Fresh mozzarella, tomato, basil and a drizzle of balsamic / Gruyere, ham and an egg cracked right onto the crepe to cook sunny side up / Smoked salmon, creme fraiche, capers and dill / Brie, fig jam and prosciutto

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Classic Crepe Recipe

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The transition months from Spring to Summer, to me, always meant strawberries. Im a May baby, and as a kid I always had some version of strawberry shortcake for my birthday. The obvious reason was probably my mother’s massive strawberry patch, which took up an entire quarter of the fenced garden on the top of the hill above our home, and produced pounds of delicious fresh fruit each week in the summer.

We’d slice and macerate them in sugar, and then pile them between layers of sheet cake with hand-whipped cream with just a touch vanilla and powdered sugar. Its a nostalgia flavor the brings back my whole childhood, and that feeling of the first taste of summer.

This past weekend I had a dinner out to celebrate a friend’s birthday. We went to Bestia, one of my favorite restaurants in Los Angeles (along with the husband-and-wife team’s other LA resturants- Bavel and Saffy’s). It’s been open for over a decade, which is a credential in itself, and in my opinion it’s one of the most reliably great meals in LA. Our group had already stuffed ourselves on scallop crudo on the half shell with meyer lemon and chili, decadent little ricotta dumplings with pork sausage and shaved truffle, branzino perfumed with basil and fresno chili, and a hedonistic rib eye.

By the time dessert menus came around, we were pretty well stuffed… but we needed something to put a candle in, and the birthday girl loves panna cotta. Bestia has a famous creme fraiche panna cotta that they serve with a rotating seasonal fruit and a blood orange syrup. But I’m not much of a dessert girl so I had actually never had it.

It came in a little unassuming glass jar - a white cream base, and gem-red strawberries macerated in blood orange syrup piled on top. Alongside, a few dense, salty-sweet shortbread cookies. It honestly doesn’t look like all that much, but in one little bite the flavors of my childhood all hit me at once…. condensed, heightened, and shrunk into three perfect components. It’s fresh, light and not-too-sweet… the crème fraîche balancing the sugar, the citrus playing with the strawberry florals, the cookie crunch adding teture and a toasted buttery richness.

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I don’t usually post desserts on TEW, but this being strawberry season - a holy period on the calendar, as far as I’m concerned - I thought I’d share. The recipe is from pastry chef Genevieve Gergis and is included in (my fairly beat up copy of) the Bestia cookbook.

Panna cotta really isn’t hard to make at home, and I’ve made a few alterations to make it a little more user-friendly for the average home cook. Follow the instructions though, and resist the urge to wing it, because working with gelatin is more of a science than an art.

If you’re a fruit nerd and have the option, seeking out fancy farmers market strawberries varietals right now is a worthy splurge - the Gaviota, Mara des Bois, or Bonny Doon if you can find them…. The blood orange syrup does a lot for the berries regardless of where they come from though, so your regular old Driscoll’s works too.

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And we are not making our own shortbread cookies. Pick up a box from the shop, they will be great. This is the brand my father, the cookie connoisseur, loves the most,

What to Drink

There’s a persistent myth about strawberries and Champagne. The problem is that most Champagne is quite dry, and the sharp acidity clashes with the sweet floral notes in a ripe strawberry, bringing out the sour rather than the fruit. What strawberries actually need is a sweet wine to match their natural sugars.

According to our house somm, who is actually just my husband BUT whose last gig was at the French Laundry in Napa Valley, so I think he knows a thing or two… the best thing to sip would be Moscato d’Asti, and specifically the Paolo Saracco, which is the benchmark producer for this style. It’s a lightly sparkling, super aromatic wine with notes of peach, apricot, honeysuckle and orange blossom - basically a mirror of everything already happening in our dessert. At around 6% alcohol it’s a nice light sip to finish a meal with. The Saracco is widely available, inexpensive, and goes beautifully with this little sweet treat.

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A few Other Things Worth Doing with Strawberries Right Now…

Balsamic strawberry sauce spooned over vanilla ice cream. A strawberry galette or crostata, strawberry lemon scones, or a strawberry Aperol spritz or a Lillet spritz with muddled berries, citrus and cucumber a’la’ Gweneth.

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The Recipe….

Crème Fraîche Panna Cotta with Macerated Strawberries Adapted from Genevieve Gergis, Bestia. Serves 4 to 6…..

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I have so appreciated the chance to take a real deep dive into some of my long-standing favorite recipes, and to explore a whole lot of new ones. It’s been a pleasure to wallow in each season’s bounty and dream up all the ways to celebrate what’s in season. And most of all it’s been rewarding to share the work with other burnt-out home cooks who need a little community around cooking.

Also in this past year, my 5 year old son, Ronan started kindergarten and I watched my daughter, Veda Sophia blossom from toddler to full-on three year old. I navigated my mother thr…

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Tulum has a pretty distinct food scene. I’ve been visiting since the late nineties and have watched it only become more itself with every passing year. Because, yes it’s a small town, but it has been drawing people from all over the world for decades, and that has shaped the food there in ways that are pretty fun and interesting to untangle.

There are of course, the ancient Yucatecan traditions of the Maya, featuring cacao, habenero, sour orange, and pit-roasted meats wrapped in banana leaves. Then there are the Mexican dishes that traveled here with people from other parts of the country - birria from Tijuana, ceviches from Jalisco - all made distinct by the bounty of local ingredients to Quintanaroo. There is the wood-fire cooking, rooted in the beach road’s early years when there was no electricity and even the fanciest restaurants ran on generator…

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I have been coming to Tulum for many years, watched it transform many times over, and every version has managed to charm me in new ways while somehow staying true to itself. That too is part of the charm.

It sometimes gets a bad rap. Too crowded, too expensive, too much seaweed. Those complaints are not entirely wrong — but I think anyone who has written it off entirely just hasn’t had the right guide. I’ve always had the luck to find the magical side of this town. And then eight years ago a very close friend set up shop here to design and build a beautiful residential jungle retreat community, and my luck got considerably better.

Meet Maxine - native Mexican, longtime friend…

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I’m writing this note from the departures terminal at LAX, waiting for my delayed flight to board. It’s Mother’s Day, and I’m feeling a little nostalgic, a little melancholy… the way I always do when it comes to anything regarding my mom.

Before Alzheimer’s, my mother was an obsessively curious person. In another life she might have been an archaeologist or anthropologist. She was always absorbed in the relics of bygone civilizations - Celtic and Roman coins, African trade beads, a little basket of the arrowheads she turned up in her vegetable garden in the mountains of Northern California. She took me all over the planet, to whatever place had drawn her in. It was often to see ancient temple complexes - Cambodia, Bali, the jungles of Guatemala, all over Mexico. And wherever she went, she was studying… The history, the origin myths, the art, and the long-ago people who made it.

In the late nineties her fascination turned toward the ancient Maya of Quintana Roo, and when I was fourteen …

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This week brings a lineup of May-appropriate, aspirationly sunny recipes that will hopefully usher in the sunshine they deserve. A salmon salad that belongs on a patio with a glass of wine. A banh mi smash burger that is the perfect prelude to your classic summer burger. And for that day that won’t quite cooperate with the sunshine, a soup from the Yucatan that is perfect for the overcast spring day… and does a little foreshadowing for the newsletter next week.

The final fourth recipe is more of a suggestion for using up odds and ends around the kitchen. This week especially I needed a no-brainer fridge clear-out to end the week.

We are enjoying avocados, relishing their season of perfection. We are deep diving into cilantro, scallions, hot peppers, cucumbers, limes and radish showing up again and again. Rather than overlapping proteins, I’m focusing on the different expressions that the same aromatics, herbs and veggies can give you from recipe to recipe… a couple Southeast Asian, a regional Mexican, and something distinctly Californian.

Next week’s edition will be something a little different. Less meal plan, more dispatch. I’m looking forward to sharing it.

But first, a menu for mid-May.

Hi, I’m Miranda.

I’m the one behind The Edible Week, a guide to seasonal, low-stress cooking built around meals that overlap and make sense across a real week. This is a one woman show, I am the cook, recipe researcher and developer, writer, food stylist and photographer.

My background is in art and design, which inevitably shows up in how I cook, thinking not just about flavor, but about how a meal looks and feels, and the small details that make it memorable.

Most weeks I’m less interested in single recipes than in how dinners relate and play off each other, keeping things diverse, interesting, and efficient without feeling repetitive. I started The Edible Week to share that process and hopefully take some of the planning off your shoulders. My hope is that these menus bring a little ease, a little inspiration, and a few new favorites into your kitchen.

If this newsletter is the friend who figured out dinner so you don’t have to, the paid subscription is how you buy her a glass of wine. Recipes, pairings, and shopping list are all below.

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And now for this weeks lineup….

Citrus Salmon with Cucumber and Avocado Salad

It’s avocado season and they are beautiful right now and I’m trying to remember to indulge whenever I can. Look for fruits that are firm to the touch with just the most subtle hint of give under the flesh.

Salmon and avocado is a classic combination for good reason. From hand rolls to poke bowls to avocado toast topped with smoked salmon, it shows up again and again. This presentation is just another iteration of something that works.

I love the broiler for cooking salmon, it’s the easiest way to control the cook temp. But if you like cooking your fish outside you can easily grill your salmon skin-on, and the flesh will separate easily from the skin after cooking. Get yourself a fish spatula to make that job even easier. The smoky flavor will be beautiful set against the cleaner palette of the salad.

We add cucumber and radish for some crunch, and a citrusy gently spiced dressing, and some soft greens. That’s a perfect little light spring dinner. Enjoy it with a chilled glass of white wine and a seat outdoors.

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Bahn Mi Smash Burgers

I love a banh mi, as you may have gathered from previous newsletters. When making them at home I had my little method, and I’ve stuck to it for years.

Somehow the idea of translating the sandwich into a burger format never occurred to me until recently, and now I am mystified as to why I didn’t try this years ago.

A nice soft brioche bun toasted just slightly, all the crunchy fresh and pickled toppings, a good slather of sriracha mayo, that pile of fresh cilantro, and a little squeeze of lime. And as someone who is trying to eat a little less red meat, it’s also kind of cool that this forgoes the beef for ground chicken, ground vegan meat, or in this case, ground pork. The meat gets flavored with all the things that would normally marinate it, plus a little extra this and that because we have the advantage of mixing rather than just marinating. It’s a really fresh way to switch up burger night, and in a way, the perfect burger for spring before tomatoes are at their peak.

I know making a jar of quick pickled veg is sometimes optional, but in this case it must be done. Matchsticked carrots are a must, and while I was at it I put the cucumbers and jalapeños into the brine briefly as well. Start them right before making the patties and by the time you’re done cooking they’ll be ready to go.

Whether you’re cooking indoors or out, use a big cast iron to cook in, it gives you that griddle surface. And for the smashing… you don’t need a smash burger weight (although that doesn’t stop me from wanting one). A firm press from a strong spatula does enough.

Once the burgers are cooked through, pop your buns straight into the pan for a quick toast, then layer your toppings, ending with a big pile of cilantro (more than you think). It’s so fabulous that you might want to double the recipe and have it for lunch the next day. I did.

Recipe, drink pairings, and shopping list below the paywall.

Sopa de Lima

One particularly grey and blustery day, when I couldn’t shake a chill off, I decided to make a soup to warm up with. I wanted something cozy but definitely not anything that took me straight back to wintertime... Something that still felt light and fresh and bright. Looking at my ingredients for the week, sopa de lima seemed like an obvious answer.

A particular soup from the Yucatan, sopa de lima is reminiscent of a tortilla soup but more delicate. It’s got a clean brothy broth that feels both savory and grounding thanks to the chicken, and a touch of warm spice, but the lime juice, cilantro and avocado at the end keeps things bright. And it gives me a little prelude to my travels next week.

The heat level is entirely up to you. You can use poblano alone for a mild soup, add a serrano or jalapeño to bump things up, or go for habanero, which is authentic to the region and to this soup, but quite spicy and need to be handled with care. Removing the seeds will cut back on the heat.

I like cooking the rice separately and adding it when serving, it keeps it from getting too soggy in the broth. But if you don’t want the hassle of another pot, you can add the rice straight to the soup and give it about 20 minutes to cook through. It’s not always included in this recipe but I felt like it gave the soup enough heft to become a proper dinner.

Also optional but pretty lovely are fried tortilla strips, which are a small extra step but worth it if you have the time. Cut fresh corn tortillas into thin strips and toast them in neutral oil until golden and crunchy, sprinkle with salt and let drain on paper towels. Add them on top of the soup after all the other fresh garnishes have gone on, so they stay crispy and hot for the first few bites before they soak into the broth. A little treat.

Have your fresh toppings laid out and ready to go before you serve… avocado, cilantro, a wedge of lime, and perhaps some freshly chopped chile for anyone who wants an extra hit of heat at the table.

Recipe, drink pairings, and shopping list below the paywall.

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A Friday Omelette

By the end of this week you might find yourself with a little cilantro that needs using, a few scallions, lime, chile, and maybe the last of the jar of pickled veggies. It might not look like much, but these are the makings of a little thai omelette.

I’ve shared a version of this omelette on TEW a long time ago, and with a few tweaks we can make a slightly similar version this week. The shrimp and bacon are delicious, but optional. If you had a little leftover ground pork mixture from the burgers you could just brown it and use it in the filling.

The dipping sauce balances all the richer flavors really well- fish sauce, lime juice, a little soy, sugar, sliced chile and a squeeze of sriracha. Things we have in the pantry this week already….

If you’re using bacon, start by rendering 3 to 4 strips in your pan until crisp. Remove, crumble, and set aside, leaving a couple tablespoons of fat in the pan. If you’re skipping the bacon, warm a little neutral oil instead.

For two people, whisk four eggs with a teaspoon of fish sauce, a small splash of oyster sauce if you have it, half a diced jalapeño or serrano, the green tops of a scallion or two, and a pinch of sugar. Set aside.

Warm the pan over medium high heat. Sauté the white parts of the scallions and a couple of thin-sliced garlic cloves until fragrant, just a minute. If you’re using shrimp, add them now and cook briefly until just beginning to turn pink, turning once. Pour in the egg mixture and gently pull the edges inward to let the uncooked egg run underneath, then leave it alone. If using bacon or cooked ground pork from Bahn Mi night, scatter it over the top now. Cover and cook on medium low until just set but still a little glossy on top. Unlike a French omelette, you want the underside to puff and turn golden in the oil… the idea is pillowy, slightly crispy folds around the filling.

Scatter a handful of arugula and some torn cilantro along one half, fold the omelette over and slide onto a plate. Serve alongside your pickled veggies, and toasted rice in sesame oil if you have any leftover from soup night.

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And thats the week. Please email any questions or comments to mh@mirandahope.com or hop into the comments section. If you know anyone who might love TEW, please share it with them and let them know the first week is free to try out. This is how we grow!

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I had houseguests arriving midweek, so the front half of the week kept it simple and restorative. The first dinner sets the tone: a chicken soup so clean and elegant you will want it every Monday going forward. The second takes many of the same ingredients and sends them in a completely different direction. That’s the thing I keep coming back to: how ingredients transcend the applications you thought you knew them for, and how seeing them in a larger global picture gives you a bigger palette to paint from.

Then the week pivots to more of a party. Kefta night- spiced beef skewers, whipped hummus, tzatziki, warm pita, a simple dressed salad. And the following night remixes all of it into something easy to end on. Enjoy a tight little shopping list, and a little jaunt across the globe in these quick and easy dinners. I hope you enjoy them :)

Hi, I’m Miranda.

I’m the one behind The Edible Week, a guide to seasonal, low-stress cooking built around meals that overlap and make sense across a real week. This is a one woman show, I am the cook, recipe researcher and developer, writer, food stylist and photographer.

My background is in art and design, which inevitably shows up in how I cook, thinking not just about flavor, but about how a meal looks and feels, and the small details that make it memorable.

Most weeks I’m less interested in single recipes than in how dinners relate and play off each other, keeping things diverse, interesting, and efficient without feeling repetitive. I started The Edible Week to share that process and hopefully take some of the planning off your shoulders. My hope is that these menus bring a little ease, a little inspiration, and a few new favorites into your kitchen.

If this newsletter is the friend who figured out dinner so you don’t have to, the paid subscription is how you buy her a glass of wine. Recipes, pairings, and shopping list are all below.

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The Kitchen Workhorse

This is a big chopping week. And as fresh produce becomes more central to our cooking this spring and summer, you’ll find yourself making your way through big piles of vegetables and herbs pretty much daily. Here are two tips that will help in this department. This will be old news to some and a revelation for others…

If you don’t own a bench scraper, this is a good week to pick one up. It’s essentially a wide flat blade that swoops up everything you’ve just chopped and moves it wherever it needs to go. This is the job you’ve been trying to do with the edge of your knife, which is never quite large enough for the task.

It’s a tool most traditionally used by bakers to divide dough, and scrape the sticky residue from the work surface. But it’s also a staple for professional chefs for moving big piles of chopped ingredients. They come in metal and plastic (and even wood), take up almost no room, and cost very little.

The other professional kitchen habit worth adopting is the concept of mise en place (getting everything chopped and ready before you start actually cooking). You probably already know you should be doing this but sometimes cheat… A set of small bowls helps you stick to it, or at least a very large cutting board with enough room to pile up each ingredient. It makes for a smoother cooking process, which is ultimately more delicious and more fun, despite a few extra bowls.

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And now for this weeks lineup….

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Poached Chicken and Rice with Cilantro Scallion Sauce

This soup is inspired by a recipe from Molly Baz, but it doesn’t start with her. She’s drawing inspiration from Hainanese chicken rice, a dish that originated with immigrants in Southeast Asia and became one of the most beloved and ubiquitous dishes of Singapore and Malaysia. It’s usually a whole chicken, poached in an aromatic broth, served over rice, with a ginger scallion sauce to drizzle over everything. It may not look like much in photos, and as simple as it sounds, the flavors will embed themselves in your core memory of comfort foods.

I had Korean BBQ last weekend with friends. As always it was so good, and also so salty, so meaty, so smoky. Come Monday my body needed something clean and simple and restorative. This broth, gently infused with ginger, scallion and garlic, was perfect.

Poaching chicken hasn’t really been given its due in the US, where we insist on crackling crisp roasted skin. That style of cooking comes at a cost to the flesh of the bird. Poaching doesnt do much for the skin, but leaves the meat tender and succulent and infused with the flavors of the liquid.

Start with bone-in, skin-on chicken from a good quality bird. Make sure your poaching liquid is well seasoned (salted) and full of aromatics. I’ve added leek here to bump up the supporting flavors. And follow the cooking instructions carefully, chicken texture can get rubbery with too much heat. Here I am again asking you to buy a meat thermometer to help see when you’ve landed at the right point of cooked. Treat it gently and you’ll get the right result.

The broth you’re left with will be lighter and cleaner than a typical bone broth, and really incredible. It might seem like it won’t be flavorful enough, and if you’re truly apprehensive you can use stock in place of water, but for me the bones and skin of the chicken breast did a lot of the work. It wouldn’t be the same with boneless skinless and I wouldn’t recommend the substitute.

The sauce adds the final hit of flavor and is the perfect counterbalance. Additionally, toasted sesame oil and chili oil at the table are a nice touch if you’re into it.

Recipe, drink pairings, and shopping list below the paywall.

Chicken and Chickpea Curry

This dish comes from Punjabi cuisine, one of the great food cultures of the subcontinent, rooted in the region that spans North India and Pakistan. Murgh means chicken, cholay or chole means chickpeas. If you have had chana masala before, this is the same thing but with chicken. It’s a typical and fairly simple dish to make at home for family gatherings.

I wanted to include it this week partly because it’s so approachable for the American home cook. You don’t need to go searching for specialty ingredients… these are mostly spices you already have. But somehow the end result feels much more special than the simple preparation and ingredients.

What I find fun here is how much it shares its bones with Monday’s soup and yet couldn’t be more different. The same ginger, the same garlic, the same green chile heat and rice base… but this time with warm spices bloomed in butter and oil, which takes it somewhere completely different.

This is part of the joy of cooking. Discovering how ingredients transcend the applications you thought you knew them for, and beginning to see them in a larger global picture… all the expressions they lend themselves to across different cuisines and traditions. It gives you a bigger palette to paint from, and a more interesting week of meals.

Curry is also one of those dishes that belongs to every season simultaneously. It’s a good one for this particular moment in the year, when our readership is spread across very different climates. For those of you already in full spring glory and those still feeling a chill around the edges, this dish meets you wherever you are.

Serve it over rice with a spoonful of cool yogurt, fresh cilantro, maybe some thinly sliced red onion or tomato scattered over the top. Lemon wedges on the side. Warm pita if you want to spare some from tomorrow night.

Recipe, drink pairings, and shopping list below the paywall.

Beef Kefta Skewers with Hummus, Tzatziki and Pita

Kefta (also spelled kafta or kofta depending on the region) refers to seasoned ground meat, formed onto skewers or into patties… here all I use beef, though a mix of lamb and beef is traditional and you can go half and half if you prefer. It’s mixed with aromatics, fresh herbs and warm spices, then formed onto skewers or pressed into portions on a sheet pan.

It hails from North Africa and the Middle East, and every region has its own iteration. I happen to live in a part of Los Angeles with a large Armenian population, so I typically enjoy their version rather than making my own.

You can cook these spread and segmented on a sheet pan under the broiler, or formed onto skewers on the grill. I actually find a flat griddle top to be my prefered method but any work.

We’re serving them with hummus and tahini, which you can buy or make. Since we’re already buying chickpeas, greek yogurt and cucumbers this week it seems more practical to just make our own batches of each. Make extra and use them across a few lunches and dinner.

To round out the plate, a quick dressed situation of cucumber, tomato, red onion and olives if you like, a plus a handful of baby greens, and a big warm pita to wrap it all up. I also like some kind of hot sauce too. If a wrap isn’t your speed, make a bowl or a salad out of it.

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The Big Bowl

This is not a recipe so much as an iteration of my use-it-up philosophy.

A handful of greens as the base. A chunk of good feta, a soft boiled egg, or leftover kefta as your protein anchor (or all three). Big scoops of hummus and tzatziki, cucumbers, tomato, red onion, and olives dressed simply with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and salt, left to sit for a few minutes so the vegetables throw off their liquid and create a little dressing of their own. Spoon that over everything. Leftover pita toasted in slices alongside, or torn, drizzled with olive oil, and baked until crispy enough to crumble over the top.

It’s a very satisfying dinner or lunch the next day. Its a satisfyong little fridge clearout that frees up your Friday for better things.

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And thats the week. Please email any questions or comments to mh@mirandahope.com or hop into the comments section. If you know anyone who might love TEW, please share it with them and let them know the first week is free to try out. This is how we grow!

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We have entered Taurus season, which happens just so happens to be my season, and I look forward to it every year. Ruled by Venus, this is the season that asks you to slow down and really enjoy yourself, which I would argue is not a luxury right now but a small and necessary act of resistance to the current state of things.

That said, this particular week for me personally was a slog and finding the little pleasures proved challanging. A kid home from school, a jewelry deadline bearing down mid week, some difficult news about my mom… and an inexplicable bone tiredness I couldn’t shake. I did not have it in me for anything super elaborate and I knew it early. So I leaned into something I’ve been wanting to write about for a while, which is the spring braise.

Fall apart tender meat, but make it spring time-y.

Braising has a reputation as a fall and winter technique, and I get why. There’s something about a long slow oven day that feels inherently cozy. But as far as I’m concerned, until it’s genuinely too hot to have the oven on for hours, the braise is always available to you. And depending on what you do with the meat after, it can go anywhere seasonally.

This week is built around a pork shoulder, dry brined overnight, and braised low and slow until fork tender. From that one pot comes two, maybe three dinners that taste nothing like each other. The first night we go Korean, hefting the pork into butter lettuce cups with rice, quick pickled cucumbers, and kimchi alongside. Then enchiladas, with melted Monterey Jack and cold shredded iceberg and radish piled on top. And if there’s any pork left standing at the end of the week, I have one more idea for you.

In between, a deconstructed wedge salad that uses up the rest of the iceberg and gives you a little crunchy vegetable reprieve in a meaty week. I wrote it traditional with bacon but feel free to sub with chicken or go without meat.

It’s certainly a pork heavy week, not something we typically do here at TEW. But on the flip side, this cut is so affordable and so versatile that when it spans three dinners and those dinners feel this different from each other, it’s hard to argue with. Plus a pork shoulder is a pretty affordable cut of meat, and when you treat it right, it feels like a luxury

You might also notice about this week, that we are doing mostly assembly meals. Theres a little cooking up front, but I wanted to show how if you front load that work in the week, it can really cascade into some fairly simple meals of just putting things together.

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Hi, I’m Miranda.

I’m the one behind The Edible Week, a guide to seasonal, low-stress cooking built around meals that overlap and make sense across a real week. This is a one woman show, I am the cook, recipe researcher and developer, writer, food stylist and photographer.

My background is in art and design, which inevitably shows up in how I cook, thinking not just about flavor, but about how a meal looks and feels, and the small details that make it memorable.

Most weeks I’m less interested in single recipes than in how dinners relate and play off each other, keeping things diverse, interesting, and efficient without feeling repetitive. I started The Edible Week to share that process and hopefully take some of the planning off your shoulders. My hope is that these menus bring a little ease, a little inspiration, and a few new favorites into your kitchen.

If this newsletter is the friend who figured out dinner so you don’t have to, the paid subscription is how you buy her a glass of wine. Recipes, pairings, and shopping list are all below.

The Pork

Braise slowly and don’t stop until it looks like this.

Start with a bone-in or boneless pork shoulder, also sold as pork butt. The night before you plan to cook it, rub it all over with kosher salt and a little sugar. No elaborate spice blend, no marinade. You want the meat neutral enough to go in two very different directions later in the week, and this simple combination is about to do more for this cut than you might expect.

The next day it gets patted dry and quickly seared on all sides, then a small amount of liquid goes in the pot, it’s covered and tucked into a low oven for several hours. The meat does the rest, releasing its own liquid and creating a heavenly gravy at the bottom of the pan.

A slow cooker works really well here too and might the more realistic weekday option. I’ve included instructions for both methods in the recipe below for paid subs.

Use the pork straight from the pot on night one, while it’s warm and at its best. Pull the second portion into a container and refrigerate. When enchilada night arrives you’re just warming cold pulled pork in the sauce, which takes a few minutes.

The Next Day The pork keeps in the fridge for five days and freezes well. Pull it out for tacos, a quick hash with eggs, or fried rice.

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And now for this weeks lineup….

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Bo Ssam Inspired Pork with Butter Lettuce and Pickled Cucumbers

Bo ssam is a Korean pork wrap, and the name refers less to a recipe than to a way of eating. Tender pulled pork spooned into cool butter lettuce cups with rice, quick pickled vegetables, and whatever condiments you like alongside. It’s interactive and a little festive but also very casual for a weeknight.

This method is loosely inspired by David Chang’s famous bo ssam, a recipe that changed the way a lot of home cooks approach a pork shoulder. His version is a whole event, a large feast for a table full of people, and it’s great for a dinner party. This is my weeknight interpretation… Stripped back, no glaze, far fewer components, and the pork left to speak for itself.

Serve it the night the pork comes out of the oven. Set everything out on the table and let people build their own. Warm rice, butter lettuce cups, quick pickled cucumbers and chiles that take about ten minutes and cut right through the richness of the meat, and kimchi on the side for anyone who wants it. For sauce, Momofuku ssam sauce is the traditional pairing if you want to seek it out, but the Bachan’s Japanese barbecue sauce we bought last week works too, sriracha is always an option too, or skip the sauce entirely. The pork is that good on its own.

The Next Day Leftover pork and rice keep well separately in the fridge. Warm the pork in a hot pan until the edges crisp up and eat over warmed rice with a fried egg, or just save it for enchilada night later tomorrow.

Recipe, drink pairings, and shopping list below the paywall.

Red Pork Enchiladas

Red enchiladas are a year-round staple in my house and they don’t feel particularly tied to any one season, even when the meat behind them is the result of many hours of low and slow oven.

The sauce made from scratch is a fun weekend project if you want to go there, but during the week a good can is just fine. I used Las Palmas and gave it a little life with some sauteed onion and garlic before the pork goes in. I don’t add cheese to the filling, just scatter it over the top before it goes in the oven. Twenty minutes later it’s bubbling and golden at the edges and the whole kitchen smells incredible.

Serve it straight from the dish and scatter cold shredded iceberg and thinly sliced radish over each plate, dressed with just lime juice and salt. The cold crunch against the hot cheesy pan is the contrast that makes this feel spring-appropriate rather than winter heavy. If you bought sour cream this week, a cold creamy spoonful alongside is very nice.

The Next Day Enchiladas reheat well in a low oven covered with foil. Skip the iceberg on round two, dress only what you’re serving the night of.

Recipe, drink pairings, and shopping list below the paywall.

Wedge Salad with Pepperoncini Blue Cheese Dressing

I cannot leave you with three quarters of a head of iceberg. That would go against everything TEW stands for. And I know I’m not breaking any new ground here, but a wedge salad is just fun and pretty hard to mess up.

The cold crisp lettuce, the funky blue cheese, the salty bacon, the sharp acidic dressing. It’s so simple it barely needs a recipe.

This version skips the single dramatic wedge in favor of something more shareable. Quarter the remaining iceberg into smaller wedges and arrange them on a platter like little pyramids, then scatter everything over and around them. Blue cheese dressing drizzled generously, crispy bacon, thinly sliced radish, a few balsamic marinated cherry tomatoes for a little acid hit, a sprinkle of chives for color. It’s a pretty platter and it comes together in minutes.

One head of iceberg is enough for both the enchilada topping and the wedge, but just barely. Iceberg is cheap and keeps beautifully in the fridge, so if you’d rather not feel rationed just buy two heads. No shame in that.

On the dressing. If you’re already buying sour cream for the enchiladas, it’s worth making the dressing from scratch since you’ll have everything you need. The recipe is below and it takes five minutes. If sour cream isn’t something you’d otherwise use, buy a bottle of blue cheese dressing instead, stir in a few tablespoons of pepperoncini brine and some chopped pepperoncini from the jar, and you’re done. In that case take the sour cream and blue cheese off your shopping list entirely. Both versions are good.

If the thought of bacon stresses you out on this pork heavy week, go for grilled chicken breast or skip the meat altogether.

The Next Day Dress only what you’re serving. Undressed iceberg keeps well wrapped in the fridge. The dressing keeps in a jar all week and is good on almost anything, grains, roasted vegetables, a simple green salad for lunch.

Recipe, drink pairings, and shopping list below the paywall.

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Cuban Sandwiches

I’ll be honest. Three pork dinners in one week is a lot, and I don’t normally do it. I tend to cap the same protein at two meals because by the third night it starts to feel redundant. But this sandwich deserves its own mention, and if you’ve made it this far with pork left in the fridge, this is what you do with it.

A Cuban is a regular in our household even without the braised pork, usually just deli ham and Swiss with mustard and pickles pressed in a buttered pan until golden and the cheese has melted through. With the pulled pork it’s even better. It takes fifteen minutes and it’s one of the great sandwiches.

No recipe needed. Butter your bread generously, layer the pork, ham, Swiss, mustard, and pickles. I like cornichons here for their size and their bite. Press it hard in a hot pan until the outside is golden and the cheese has melted through, cut it diagonally, and serve with chips. This works as dinner or save it for lunch the next day. Either way don’t skip the mustard.

The Next Day This is already the next day meal. But if you somehow have half a sandwich left, it reheats well pressed down again in a buttered pan until the cheese re-melts.

Recipe, drink pairings, and shopping list below the paywall.

And thats the week. Please email any questions or comments to mh@mirandahope.com or hop into the comments section. If you know anyone who might love TEW, please share it with them and let them know the first week is free to try out. This is how we grow!

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This week we have cherry tomatoes, cabbage, red onion, and citrus running through everything. I often layer a Mediterranean night with a Mexican night because of the obvious ingredient overlap, tomatoes and red onion specifically. On the first night they join a cucumber to become a bright lemony sumac salad alongside chicken shawarma and spiced rice. A few nights later they becomes pico de gallo for fish tacos — this time with a serrano, a fistful of cilantro, a squeeze of lime instead of lemon. That last small handful of cherry tomatoes finds a home as a garnish on our final meal of the week. It’s a small thing, but it’s how you avoid buying too much produce that goes to waste, and how you use what you do buy, instead of letting it slowly die in the back of the fridge.

We also crack open a head of purple cabbage for the fish tacos, because how can we not? And the other half finds its home in a very famous Japanese comfort food, okonomiyaki, a more robust cousin to the scallion pancake.

This is the kind of thing I’m always gently nudging toward on The Edible Week. Not meal prep, not leftovers exactly, just a different way of seeing your refrigerator. Once you start seeing it that way, the week stops feeling like a series of separate dinners and starts feeling like a cohesive plan. There is real pleasure in that, I promise, even if you’re not normally a planner. I am the most type-B person I know and I still find it deeply satisfying watching the puzzle pieces fit together, even if I’m just figuring it out as I go. Which, honestly, is how most weeks come together.

This week: a one-pan chicken shawarma that perfumes your whole kitchen, fish tacos with baked spiced fish and an avocado crema, a Japanese okonomiyaki that uses up the rest of the cabbage in the most satisfying way, and a Tuscan-ish white bean and tomato soup for the night you just need something simple and comforting.

Make a jar of pickled red onions on Monday. They’ll show up on three of these dinners.

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Hi, I’m Miranda.

I’m the one behind The Edible Week, a guide to seasonal, low-stress cooking built around meals that overlap and make sense across a real week. This is a one woman show, I am the cook, recipe researcher and developer, writer, food stylist and photographer.

My background is in art and design, which inevitably shows up in how I cook, thinking not just about flavor, but about how a meal looks and feels, and the small details that make it memorable.

Most weeks I’m less interested in single recipes than in how dinners relate and play off each other, keeping things diverse, interesting, and efficient without feeling repetitive. I started The Edible Week to share that process and hopefully take some of the planning off your shoulders. My hope is that these menus bring a little ease, a little inspiration, and a few new favorites into your kitchen.

If this newsletter is the friend who figured out dinner so you don’t have to, the paid subscription is how you buy her a glass of wine. Recipes, pairings, and shopping list are all below.

For the Table: A Flat Top Griddle

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This week we are making okonomiyaki, a Japanese savory pancake, and it got me thinking. In Japan you would typically see them made on a large flat griddle, either in a restaurant or from a vendor at a festival or market, with multiple pancakes going at once. This is the same griddle you would see at a teppanyaki restaurant. This format of cooking is a big part of the culinary tradition there. It’s social and a little theatrical and just the best way to batch cook anything that needs a flat hot surface.

The indoor electric tabletop griddle exists for this reason, but unless you have serious ventilation in your kitchen, the kind you’d find in a professional kitchen, the smoke and steam is going to be a problem. It’s also a giant thing that has to be stored somewhere between uses, and it strikes me as one of those purchases that might not get pulled out often enough to justify itself.

The only way it really makes sense is if you see yourself setting it up outside. If you have a small outdoor table and maybe don’t have room or budget for a full grill, this can be a genuinely fun way to cook outside with friends.

But if you do have a grill, I’d highly recommend a flat top griddle insert instead. The grill is great and all, but with a griddle top the options for cooking outdoors for a group totally expand. And with grilling season just getting started, now is the time to pull the trigger so you get the whole spring and summer out of it.

The flat top insert sits directly over your grill grates and turns your outdoor setup into something close to a restaurant flat top. Wide open surface, direct heat, and the ability to cook things that would fall through ordinary grill grates. This is what you need to achieve smash burgers for a crowd, (something we use ours for often on poker nights). but also ideal for Korean BBQ, large format quesadillas or tlayudas, a big breakfast outside, and of course multiple okonomiyaki going at once so you're not stuck making one at a time while everyone watches and waits.

When you’re not using it, it stores in or under the grill so you hardly notice the space it takes up.

One strong opinion if you do take the plunge: skip anything with a nonstick finish. I’ve seen many sold with a nonstick coating, which isn’t designed to handle high heat and really shouldn’t go over a grill. You want bare cast iron, seasoned with nothing but a thin layer of vegetable oil. It will last forever, it gets better with every use, and you never have to worry about the coating. This one comes from a reputable maker and would do the job.

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And now for this weeks lineup….

Baked Fish Tacos with Avocado Crema, Pico de Gallo, and Cabbage Slaw

As soon as it warms up and feels even a hint summery, I start thinking about fish tacos.

They’re surprisingly easy to make at home and honestly I think they come out better than what I get at a restaurant half the time. That said, I had just deep cleaned my stovetop the day I made these and really didn’t want to engage in a frying project. So we’re baking the fish in a very hot oven this week- less mess, and just as good. The seasoned fish gets a tiny crust from the high heat while the interior stays moist inside.

I used halibut, which has the right amount of succulence to meatiness for fish tacos. It holds together, but is flaky enough to pull apart in pieces over the tortilla. It’s on the expensive side though, so you can absolutely sub another white fish. Cod or something similar. If fish isn’t your thing, shrimp or chicken works too. Use the same spice rub, but cook them in a pan or skewered on the grill.

I prepped the fish first, then made all the other components while the oven preheated (ours is a dinosaur and takes forever). Make sure all the toppings are done, because you want everything ready to go the moment the fish comes out. These tacos should be assembled and eaten immediately, while the tortilla is still warm and the fish is still hot.

The crema is tangy, very creamy, and gives a luscious base to everything. It’s not strictly traditional but it works, and it uses up the last of the yogurt we bought this week.

The pico de gallo is pretty similar to the shawarma salad from earlier in the week- minus the cucumber, plus serrano and fresh cilantro, lime instead of lemon. This is exactly why I like to put a Mediterranean meal in the same week as a Mexican one. They share a lot of the same produce, and the second half of the red onion and cherry tomatoes get a completely new life here in something that tastes nothing like its first use.

I used red cabbage for the slaw this week because it looks so beautiful against the fish and the crema, but green totally works too. Slice it very thin, and keep the slaw simple. Its job is textural: the cold crunch offsetting the softness of everything else.

Corn or flour tortillas both work here. I used small soft flour ones and got a touch of char on them, either directly over the flame or in a hot dry cast iron skillet.

The pickled red onions go on top of everything.

The Next Day You should probably enjoy all the fish for dinner. But the crema makes a great dip with whatever vegetables or chips you have around. The pico keeps well and is good on eggs the next morning.

Recipe, drink pairings, and shopping list below the paywall.

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Chicken Shawarma with Turmeric Rice and Garlic Yogurt Sauce

I usually make chicken shawarma on the grill. But the beauty of this version is that it’s done in one pan, and that pan becomes the secret weapon of the dish. The fragrant, spice-laden oils from the chicken rendering stay right there, and when you cook the rice and onions in them, all of that flavor gets absorbed. A small dollop of roasted chicken Better Than Bouillon stirred into the rice water really boosts things… just a pinch of salt works too though.

While the chicken cooks, throw together a quick sumac salad. It’s more or less a shepherd’s salad, a Greek salad- it goes by many names and has a few tweaks depending on where it’s coming from. This version uses sumac, a tangy dried berry that amplifies the tartness of the dressing. If you don’t want to buy a bottle, you can skip it, but it’s a fun seasoning to experiment with on vegetables and grains alike and worth having in the pantry.

The garlic yogurt sauce is the final element. Our version has a little mayo in it. You can leave it out if you object, but either way don’t skip the sauce.

A handful of fresh parsley and cilantro, chopped and scattered over the top, is the finishing touch.

The next day

Store the leftover salad and sauce together, the chicken and rice in a separate container. To reheat, toss sliced chicken and rice in a hot skillet until warmed through and a little crispy at the edges. Pile into a bowl or a warm pita with the salad and sauce on top, a few pickled red onions, a little more fresh parsley and cilantro. Lunch is done.

Recipe, drink pairings, and shopping list below the paywall.

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OKONOMIYAKI WITH BACON

I debated whether fish taco night could go without cabbage and I just couldn’t sacrifice it. Which left me with the same conundrum as last week, what to do with the other half of the head. Oddly enough the internet has declared 2026 the year of the cabbage, so there’s no shortage of trendy inspiration right now. But ironically the dish I landed on isn’t trendy at all. It’s a very old, very traditional Japanese dish that has been a household mainstay for generations because it’s delicious, easy, and essentially a fridge clean-out meal.

If you’ve ever been to Japan or even just watched a food show about the country, you probably know okonomiyaki. These are typically served at small, casual places dedicated specifically to the dish, with a flat iron griddle either built into each table or behind a counter where you watch the cook work.

The dish itself is like a thicker version of a scallion pancake, but with cabbage. A savory fried pancake made from whatever you have in the fridge plus some pantry staples. The name grants you permission -okonomi means "what you like" and yaki means "grilled." It's had a long and changing past, shaped in part by wartime scarcity, when cooks made do with whatever ingredients were available and American pantry staples began working their way into Japanese home cooking. Different regions have their own versions, most famously Osaka and Hiroshima, where it's basically the soul food of the city.

Ever since a trip to Japan in 2019, where I learned how simple it was to make, I’ve been cooking them at home as an easy last minute meal to use up bits and pieces in the fridge.

If I’m really going out of my way, I’ll source the traditional ingredients… the sticky mountain yam, nagaimo, that gives the batter its glutinous starch and holds everything together, pickled ginger with its bright pink color and distinct flavor, and tempura flakes to add a little heft to the batter. But this is a weeknight-friendly version with easy substitutes that should work for everyone.

I’ll give you some options, because if this sounds like something you might make again, and I think you will, because everyone loves this dish, it’s worth seeking out some of the harder to find ingredients. But if you just want to dip a toe in, it’s very doable with simple swaps.

Worth buying: Okonomiyaki sauce and Kewpie mayo. These are the topping condiments and are pretty integral to the whole experience. You can make okonomiyaki sauce easily enough from pantry staples, I've included a recipe, or buy a bottle online. Or you can use Bachan’s Japanese Barbecue Sauce, which is sold pretty much everywhere. Shoutout to the Gill family, who I grew up with in Sebastopol - this is their family recipe going back generations.

Kewpie mayo is also in most grocery stores now and it’s just better than Western mayo- lighter, more umami, a little sweet.

Nice to have: Bonito flakes, which you can buy pre-shaved in single-serve packets. Sprinkle them over the finished pancake and they dance and wiggle in the heat, which is very fun if you are serving this to kids. Dashi is the traditional Japanese broth, made from kombu seaweed and bonito, and you can buy it essentially as a box of teabags, easy to find online and worth having around. That said, any broth works here, chicken stock, vegetable stock, or even just hot water is completely fine.

Easy skips or swaps: Pickled ginger is sort of perfect here, and the sushi ginger you find next to the wasabi at most grocery stores works great. But if you can’t find it, our pickled red onions with a little extra sugar stirred in get you pretty close. Something needs to play the role of that pickled, tangy, sweet garnish, so do use one or the other. For the protein, I use bacon because even a few strips over the top do a lot. But frozen shrimp is a nice substitute… I’m a fan of the red Argentine from Trader Joe’s.

A note on the cabbage: Purple cabbage turns a surprising and beautiful blue inside the pancake when cooked, staining the batter like a confetti cake. It’s stunning and a little wild. Green cabbage is more understated if that feels like too much, and works just as well in the fish taco slaw. We used red this week and thought it was a beautiful surprise.

If you are trying to make multiple without a griddle, get a few cast iron pans going at once so everyone can sit down and eat at the same time.

The Next Day Save any leftover batter in the fridge, it keeps well overnight. Switch up the toppings, a couple of fried eggs, or throw on a few shrimp. This is a dish whose name literally means "cook what you like", and the second day is where that really comes into its own.

Recipe, drink pairings, and shopping list below the paywall.

TUSCAN WHITE BEAN AND TOMATO SOUP

After a week of slightly more involved dinners, this is the night to take it easy. A pot of white beans, canned tomatoes, some other panty supplies…. thirty minutes and just one pot to wash after its all said and done.

I woke up one morning this week to surprise thunderstorms and a midday downpour that had me postponing my grocery run. Plus my husband was under the weather and requesting something that felt like a hug. As luck would have it, I had everything I needed for this Tuscan-style white bean and tomato soup… the perfect thing for a cold, wet day.

I like butter beans here for their size. There’s something satisfying about a big creamy bean in a tomato broth, and if you mash a few against the side of the pot it thickens the soup without any pulling out a blender (which you could do if you like). Butter beans can be elusive in grocery stores, I finally just ordered a flat online after getting frustrated. Cannellini work perfectly well in their place.

This is written as a vegetarian dish, but if you have a strip or two of bacon left, chop and render it in the pot before you add the onion and garlic. And a pat of butter or a generous drizzle of olive oil stirred in at the end adds a nice richness. If you are the type, grate a little parm over the top or scatter some fresh chopped cherry tomato soaked in a little balsamic and salt as a garnish if you have just a few left. Lemon zest could also be nice. A sprig of basil is essential.

And finally, a small baguette for dipping wouldn’t hurt. Especially if it happened to be garlic bread.

The Next Day Reheat gently on the stove with a splash of broth or water, taste for salt, finish again with olive oil. Toast some bread, done. Could also be blended this time around for a creamier texture if you want something different.

Recipe, drink pairings, and shopping list below the paywall.

And thats the week. Please email any questions or comments to mh@mirandahope.com or hop into the comments section. If you know anyone who might love TEW, please share it with them and let them know the first week is free to try out. This is how we grow!

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Share The Edible Week

Recipes, drink pairings and the shopping list are below the paywall. Subscribe to get access.

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I cook dinner almost every night of the week. Sometimes it’s fun, and sometimes I’m just not feeling it. The burnout always seems to hit hardest during this winter-into-spring transition, when the novelty of cozy cooking has worn off but the really good summer stuff is still in the distance. Here are a handful of tips I use to help me fall back in love with cooking again, or at least find the energy to pick my next meal.

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The Edible Week lands in your inbox every Friday with four dinners and a shopping list built for the week ahead. We love seasonal, produce-forward, globally inspired meals planned well so that we use up everything we buy.

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I’m back from a weekend with friends out in Malibu.. It was very loud and chaotic and beautiful, and not really relaxing, which is just always the case with small kids in a home that isn’t your own. We made a little egg hunt on the path that lead down to the beach, swam in the pool, explored the coast a bit, and tried to cook a few meals….

The kitchen was one of those Airbnbs that just isn't set up for cooking. Thankfully I had packed my rice cooker, and bought some beautiful sushi-grade fish - bluefin, salmon and hamachi - and we had a handroll sushi night. No real cooking, no real cleanup. The right call for a group of exhausted parents who just want something delicious and easy with minimal cleanup. Fish, cucumber and avocado, laid out on a board with fresh nori and seasoned sushi rice. Soy, wasabi and ponzu in little individual dipping bowls (also packed from home), and everyone just built their own rolls à la minute.

Being out of my own kitchen for a few days is always a good way to rekindle my interest in cooking, and by the time I was back I had this week menu built in my head.

We have some nice threads running through the week… a head of cabbage, citrus and fresh herbs, and a pot of mashed potato that stretches across two nights. It’s mostly casual food that is fun to cook and eat, with just one night that feels a touch fancy.

Avocados show up a couple of times, and since we have entered California’s avocado season, I dropped you a little guide on how to pick a good one at the grocery store. Nothing more depressing than spending $2 on a brown spotty fruit.

And in case you missed it, I put together a little spring hosting menu. Great for a casual backyard gathering with a group, or you could just pull just a few things for a smaller lunch with friends: the cherry burrata flatbreads, a spring asparagus, radish and snap pea salad, and some marinated skewers make a great little spread. It’s here if you need it and won’t go out of season for a few months.

If you like TEW and want to support us - hit that little ❤️ or re-stack button to let others find this article.

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This Week’s Menu

The drink pairings, shopping list, and all four recipes are below for paid subscribers. But first, a little on each one…

1. Coconut Miso Salmon Curry

A riff on a recipe by Kay Chun, with some adaptations to fit this weeks grocery list. I usually like salmon cooked over high enough heat to give the exterior a little crust and keep the inside soft and medium rare. But there’s another good way to cook salmon that I use less often… a slow moist heat keeps the fish silky. It’s easier to control and you are less likely to overcook the fish, plus the flavors really have time to integrate.

We start by building a coconut-miso broth, caramelizing the miso for a few minutes before the liquids go in. And I like to add long slices of ginger rather than mincing it… you can remove them later or eat around them, but you don’t get little fibrous bits disrupting the smooth texture of the broth. The fish is essentially poached in this coconut-miso curry, then finish with a handful of greens wilted into the broth and served over rice with lots of fresh herbs and lime over the top.

I always add the lime at the end, over each bowl, after the heat is off. The vibrancy of citrus gets dulled by heat.

Cook a little extra rice tonight. The leftovers are toasted up for the salad later in the week, and stale rice actually works best.

2. Chicken Cutlet with Lemon Caper Pan Sauce and Sour Cream Mashed Potato

The most seemingly straightforward dinner of the week is actually the one with the most moving parts. And I don’t actually cook like this that often, your standard main and two sides situation, for exactly this reason. More pots, more moving parts, more cooking temps to keep track of. But there is something alluring about a nice classic square meal like this… comforting and familiar.

Since I am not actually a “real” chef and i get overwhelmed pretty easily, I already know I’m going to be a little annoyed at how many pans I have going. So I try to have a plan in place to reduce dishes and steps where possible. I make sure one element can be made slightly ahead, and another is incredibly simple. In this case you start with the mashed potato and let them sit, and the asparagus is done quickly and simply at the very end. That way the most time-sensitive thing, in this case the chicken and its pan sauce, an have my full attention.

Pan sauces are easy and make a meal feel a little extra in a very good way. It’s basically entails deglazing all the nice browned bits on the bottom of the pan after cooking a piece of meat, and then adding a little flavoring and fat to make a sauce. Often you’d use wine or broth. We use a splash of chicken broth, and this is a perfect use for Better Than Bouillon because you can just mix up exactly the quantity you need.

This would be the time to splurge on lemons. If you can find meyers or another fragrant lemon with darker yellow skin… They really add something extra. To bump up the lemon flavor, I use a ribbon of the lemon peel. Just peel with a sharp knife, shooting for as little white pith as possible, just the yellow with all the fragrant oils. You get the lemon flavor infused into the sauce without little pieces of zest disrupting the texture. The ribbon comes out before you serve.

Asparagus could be swapped for broccolini, broccoli, or whatever. You could even do a quick sauté of spinach if you have some left over from the curry. But asparagus dipped into lemon butter sauce is pretty perfect. After the chicken is plated, wipe the pan and get it back on high. A little olive oil, then the asparagus over high heat until the stalks turn bright green with just a touch of char, but still snappy. They’ll soften a little more on the plate and asparagus is nicest with some bite left in it. Flaky sea salt is all it needs.

The mashed potato takes advantage of the sour cream we buy this week and is actually my preference for mashed potatoes- tangier, silkier, and lighter than cream. Warming the milk is the secret, but not the sour cream which should be mixed in after the heat is off.

Tonight I’m asking you to double the quantity of boiled potato and pull half after mashing but before the milk and sour cream go in, setting it aside in the fridge tacos in a couple nights.

3. Crying Tiger Steak Salad with Crispy Rice

This is a play on the Thai dish suea rong hai - "crying tiger" - which comes from the Isaan region in the north, where flavors are tangy, spicy and bright. Supposedly the name comes from the spice level, this salad should be spicey enough to make a tiger cry. The beauty of making it at home is that you get to decide how hot it is.

It’s one of my top five steak salads of all time and something we come back to constantly in my house. It hits every note-sweet, salty, spicy, tangy, rich- with crunchy cabbage and chewy-crispy rice against soft avocado and mango. I use green cabbage which holds up under the dressing and gives the whole thing a satisfying crunch. You might as well thinly slice the whole head of cabbage and use 3/4 tonight and store the rest for taco filling.

The crispy rice gets started first, from the extra rice we intentionally made earlier this week.Toss the rice with oil and toast on a sheet pan in the oven or in a hot pan until golden around the edges of the rice clusters. Some chunks might still be a little chewy which is ok too. Let it cool slightly before it goes on the salad or it’ll wilt everything underneath.

I grill the steak with the lid open to get real char on the outside without overcooking the inside, and I pull it a good 5 degrees before my target temperature since it keeps cooking as it rests.

• Rare: pull between 115-120°F

• Medium rare: pull at 120-125°F

• Medium: pull at 130°F

The dressing includes a few Thai ingredients that you generally can find in most grocery stores- sweet chili sauce, fish sauce, and lemongrass stalk or paste. If you can’t find the chili paste, add equal parts sriracha and honey, fish sauce can be subbed with a mix of soy and a dash of Worcestershire, and lemongrass doesn’t have a good sub but it can be skipped in a pinch.

4. Crispy Potato Tacos (Tacos Dorados de Papa)

Tonight will be pretty easy. The potatoes are already cooked, the cabbage is shredded. All you need to do is season your mash, stuff it into warm tortillas with queso fresco, and fry them until crispy and golden. Then comes the garnishes, a quick crema made from sour cream and lime juice, the shredded cabbage tossed with chopped cilantro and a little lime, hot sauce (I like Tapatío or Cholula), and optional slices of avocado. If you have cherry tomatoes leftover, you could throw together a fast pico de gallo, but I found it was just one thing too many inside the taco.

A note on how to serve: fry the tacos first with just the potato filling inside, then add the cold, crunchy garnishes after. For a family dinner I go ahead and fill each one and plate them so they arrive ready to eat… For a bigger group, line the crispy tacos up on a sheet pan, set out all the garnishes, and let people do their own. It spreads the work around, lets everyone decide what they want inside, and involves less touching of other people’s food.

One more thing worth saying about this dish: there is a pretty wide range of opinions on how to make tacos de papa dorados, because this is essentially an abuela dish- something made at home, according to family preference, passed down without much of a written recipe. It has also been absorbed into Tex-Mex, which has its own entirely Americanized counterpoint. I’m keeping this closer to the way you’d find them in Mexico. But it’s worth knowing that you can absolutely treat these like an elevated hard shell taco, with taco seasoning in the potato, shredded cheddar, etc.

We have also thrown a little chorizo into the tacos along with the potato and thats been quite delicious as well. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure. If you’re following my recipe and shopping list, we’re going the straightforward route.

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Tomorrow’s issue of TEW features avocados in a couple of nights of cooking, and in honor of the beginning of avocado season (I am based in LA after all) I’m dropping a quick guide on how not to mess it up at the grocery store.

Look, these suckers are expensive, and there’s a lot of pressure to guesstimate how long until this avocado will be ripe on the exact day I need it this week. So to save you from avocado-related stress (perhaps the best source of stress given the options lately) we are deep diving on how to properly pick one.

First of all, when even is avocado season? Given its massive importation and ubiquitous presence on the shelf year-round, most people probably haven’t even really thought about it. And while it’s true that we do have decent avocados available all year, the fruit of course has a growing cycle. As a Southern California resident, I’ve become more aware over…

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The Edible Week lands in your inbox every Friday with four dinners and a shopping list built for the week ahead. We love seasonal, produce-forward, globally inspired meals planned so that we use up what we buy.

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The flavors I kept coming back to this week were lemon, feta, and dill. There’s something about that combination that feels like springtime and easter- a little briny, a little bright, a little floral. We have them popping up all over the place this week. If you have a strong aversion to dill you could sub basil instead. Different vibe but it’ll work.

This week I was planning on hosting a little Easter lunch and egg hunt. But it turned out this weekend is also my husband sailing exam in the Bay Area. I scrapped the lunch plan, but shared the menu I WOULD have made with you, in case it inspires any last minutes ideas.

As luck would have it, some good friends from up north have rented a beach house in Malibu and invited me and the kids to join them. So instead of hosting, I’ll be a guest (a guest with groceries of course).

Which brings me to next week, because I’ll be cooking from Malibu for a few nights, and I think that’ll show up in our next menu. It always helps to have a little jumping off point for the menus, and I’m looking forward to some beachy inspiration.

And for an easier way to support TEW- Hit that little ❤️ or re-stack button to let others find this article.

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For the Table- Spring Tulips

As much as I love flowers, I am a novice… I’m usually just snipping a few homegrown buds from the garden and popping them into an old wine bottle on the table. But I’m always trying to improve my game, and for this reason I follow a lot of florist accounts.

I’ve got two tulip tips (🤪) that feel relevant to share this week, one of which I’ve been employing for a while, and one thats new to me. Both feel weird to do to a flower, but I promise the results are good.

One of the most frustrating things about tulips is that they seemed to droop almost immediately, folding completely over themselves like they’d given up entirely. It turns out tulip stems are hollow, and as soon as you put them in water, air bubbles travel up the stem and block water from reaching the bloom. But if you poke a pin or needle through the stem about an inch below the bloom, the hole gives the air bubble an exit, keeping the stem clear so water can actually reach the flower head. Crazy but it works.

The second thing, which took me a while to adopt because I was genuinely afraid of hurting the flower, is opening the petals a little by hand. Just gently pressing them back with my thumb and pointer to coax them into a more open, relaxed shape. It gives the whole bunch more variety and movement, and makes a six dollar bunch look like something way nicer.

If you enjoy wholesome florist accounts, heres one to add to the repertoire.

I’m taking small pleasures where I can lately, and a beautiful piece of nature on the kitchen counter is one of them.

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This Week’s Menu

The drink pairings, shopping list, and all four recipes are below for paid subscribers. But first, a little on each one…

1. Lemony Chicken Meatball Soup with Feta, Orzo and Spinach

A brothy, lemony soup that feels right for April, whatever your weather happens to be. I add orzo for substance, but any pasta or grain works here. I always cook it separately so it doesn’t drink up all the broth… yes, it’s an extra pot, but it’s annoying to do all that work and have the liquid vanish into the pasta.

To serve, scoop your pasta/grain into the bowl along with a big handful of raw spinach, then ladle the hot soup over both. The heat wilts the spinach without turning it to mush, which happens too quickly if you add it directly to the pot. Finish each bowl with crumbled feta, fresh herbs, more diced onion if you like, and a good squeeze of lemon.

If you end up with more meatball mixture than you need, freeze the rest. The method that works best for me is to freeze the mixture rather than fully shaped meatballs, less exposed surface area means less chance of freezer burn, and less moisture loss when you thaw. Defrost completely, shape, and cook. A little less convenient, but the best results.

One more note: extra meatballs are pretty versatile. Brown them in a dutch oven for soups and sauces, or bake them in the oven and use them in salads and grain bowls.

2. Sticky Cilantro Chicken Bowl

This is a fast and easy little sheet pan night. Chicken thighs get marinated in a sticky soy-honey-cilantro sauce that caramelizes as it cooks. The key is cutting the chicken into peices so it cooks through before the marinade starts to burn. You also want to lift the chicken out of the marinade and lay it onto the sheet pan rather than dumping extra marinade onto the pan, the liquid burnt liquid will be bitter.

Serve over rice with a good squeeze of lime over everything, sliced cucumber, and a pile of fresh cilantro and scallion.

3. Potato Crust Quiche with Feta, Lemon, Dill and Spinach

I had to try this, because you know I love an egg dish for dinner. The concept of a potato crust was intriguing to me, and there have been a bunch of versions circling my feed lately.

You could put whatever you like in the filling, but I kept the scallion, feta, dill and lemon thread running through this week’s menu. I threw in some cilantro too, which might be a controversial move, but I liked it.

Cottage cheese has had a big moment over the last couple of years, I assume driven by everyone’s obsession with protein. That said, it doesn’t feel like a gimmick here. It adds body and a little creaminess. And it lightens the egg custard in a way that works well with the potato crust, which is already fairly substantial. It just happens to also be high protein, and so I’ll take it.

It’s as good at room temperature as it is warm. I don’t think this one works as well cold due to the potato, so pop it back in a low oven if you’re reheating leftovers from the fridge

4. Puttanesca Inspired White Bean and Chickpeas

This week I’m giving you two versions of the same dish, which I don’t usually do… but I genuinely couldn’t choose.

I was drawn to the concept of using the flavors of pasta puttanesca with beans in place of pasta… both a cold bean salad and a true puttanesca sauce with beans standing in for pasta. So I tested both ideas and I felt I could make a case for each, and I didn’t see any reason to make you choose either.

The cold version is packable and travel-friendly, which suited my plans well… I knew a jar of this with some corn chips would be my beach snack the next day.

The warm version scratches a completely different itch. Beans braised in a puttanesca sauce is to me, even better and more nutritious than the pasta version

The ingredients are only slightly different between the two. One leans into tomato sauce, one into the cold dressed bean salad world. You’re shopping for essentially the same pantry either way.

Beans puttanesca, in one form or another. Or both. There’s a place for each.

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If this newsletter is the friend who figured out dinner so you don’t have to, the paid subscription is how you buy her a glass of wine. Recipes, pairings, and shopping list are all below.

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— M

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