Chili Gumbo, Banana Pancakes and Salty-Sweet Trail Mix
Good morning. It’s chili season where I stay, Gumboville, Stewtown. The days are short, the sky low and foreboding. Even the peregrine falcon in the pine tree out back seems bummed, nestled into the boughs to rest after an early-morning feed of pigeon au road salt. I cook as a form of travel, try to bring a little Texas summer into the kitchen, a taste of Louisiana, something to remind me that life isn’t always frigid New York gray.
My favorite recipe for that, lately? This chili gumbo (above) that Jeremy Chauvin made for his firehouse in Reserve, La., and that won a national chili competition back in 2017. It’s a proper rib-sticker of a meal, best served with loads of grated cheese, sour cream and Fritos. With its roux-thickened beefiness above a holy trinity of bell peppers, onions and celery, it bridges the divide between chili and gumbo beautifully. Make it on Saturday and allow it to cure in the fridge overnight and it’ll be perfect for Sunday dinner, under a scattering of sliced jalapeños.
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Firehouse Chili Gumbo
I’ll make mine early so there’s still plenty of time for me to get up to high jinks for Saturday dinner: one of the dumpling recipes my colleagues delivered this week in honor of the Lunar New Year. I’m partial to Eric Kim’s recipe for napjak mandu, flat dumplings filled with kimchi and sweet potato glass noodles. But Sue Li’s recipe for chile oil wontons is a delight as well, with a sauce I might amp up with a spoonful of peanut butter just because I’m a tinkerer. Chocolate sesame dumplings for dessert? The recipe’s from Genevieve Ko, so I’m game. She’s never led me astray.
Then, on Sunday morning: banana pancakes? Serve those with a fruit salad — whatever citrus you’ve got, chunked into a bowl under a spray of lime juice — and some breakfast sausages or bacon if you have any, and you’ll be set for a long walk out in the cold, the weekend’s best gift.
I’ll set up for a week of lunches, too: a silken roast turkey breast for sandwiches; a black bean soup that I can reheat in the office microwave; some salty-sweet trail mix for snacks. Labor in the kitchen can be as restorative as napping or meditation. It’s how I like to spend my free time.
But if none of these recipes appeal, go take a look at New York Times Cooking and see what you find. You’ll need a subscription to do so. Subscriptions are what make this whole exercise possible. Please, if you haven’t already, would you consider subscribing today? Thanks.
Write to us if you need help with your account: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. Write to me if you have a complaint or a compliment: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I can’t respond to every letter; I’m sorry. But I read each one I get.
Now, it has nothing to do with legumes or lasagna, but you should spend some time with A.O. Scott’s close read of George Oppen’s poem “From a Photograph,” in The Times, particularly if you don’t know the poem, or don’t particularly like poetry. You’ll see.
It’s pretty neat to see Noah Wyle back in a hospital all these years after his run in “ER,” starring in “The Pitt,” on Max. (Vulture’s Kathryn VanArendonk loved the show.)
I ate about a pound of cured meats from La Salumina in Hurleyville, N.Y., the other day and suggest you do the same, should you get the chance. Eleanor Friedman makes incredible salumi.
Finally, we got some terrible news out of New Orleans this week. The great cook, writer, photographer and Cajun raconteur Pableaux Johnson died after suffering a heart attack while photographing a second-line parade in his adopted hometown. He was 59. Kim Severson wrote his obituary for The Times. Make Pableaux’s recipe for red beans and rice and help keep his memory alive. I’ll see you on Sunday.
