Good morning. “Sister, I do what I do, and I do it higher than most, and I take some satisfaction in that,” John D. MacDonald wrote in “One Extra Sunday.” (The novel is, I believe, out of print, however accessible at your extra discerning libraries.) “I’m like a really reliable canine. They throw a stick right into a jungle and I can go in there and convey it again.”That’s me with pork shoulders: smoked or sluggish roasted, shredded for tacos, griddled for gyros. I’m perpetually in the hunt for new recipes for that humble, scrumptious reduce of meat. I cook dinner with pork shoulders usually, and higher than many, and it leaves me content material.So I’m thrilled to attempt Ali Slagle’s new recipe for garlic-braised pork shoulder (above), wobbly and aromatic, good for tearing aside and serving over polenta or piling right into a sandwich. Complete heads of caramelized garlic taste the meat and its accompanying braising liquid, which you’ll be able to amp up additional with oregano and thyme.Featured RecipeGarlic-Braised Pork ShoulderView Recipe →To associate with it, I’m considering I may make Kay Chun’s new recipe for a savory fruit salad, which is dependent upon crunchy fennel to counter the delicate, juicy fruit. (Some individuals detest the pairing of fruit with meat. For those who’re one in every of them, this straightforward slaw ought to swimsuit.)Different issues to cook dinner this weekend: the crispy fried tofu sandwiches from Superiority Burger; Vallery Lomas’s blackened fish with fast grits; and the pared-down niçoise that’s David Tanis’s potato and inexperienced bean salad. These are righteous meals.However should you’re fortunate sufficient to have entry to a grill, you may take into account Steven Raichlen’s revelatory recipe for a reverse-seared steak, which I believe goes properly with my recipe for grilled romaine. (Principally, you cook dinner the steak slowly, properly away from the coals, till it reaches an inner temperature of 110 levels. Then you definately relaxation the meat for some time, construct up the hearth and provides it a remaining blast to sizzle the outside and convey the temperature to round 125 levels for uncommon, 135 for medium-rare.)And the way a few Texas sheet cake for dessert? (It’s arising on commencement season. Sheet muffins must be in all places.) Both that or a rhubarb crisp.Many hundreds extra recipes are ready for you on New York Occasions Cooking, no less than you probably have a subscription. Subscriptions make this complete dance doable. I hope, should you don’t have one already, that you simply take one out immediately. Thanks.Please write to us should you run into hassle with our expertise: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Somebody will get again to you. Please write to me should you’re exercised or have one thing good to say: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I can not reply to everybody (I get plenty of mail). However I learn all the things I obtain.Now, it’s nothing to do with the best way to poach an egg or blanch asparagus, however I believe it’s necessary that you simply learn an essay written by my boss, A.G. Sulzberger, within the Columbia Journalism Evaluate. It’s titled: “Journalism’s Important Worth.” That worth is independence, and as A.G. mentioned earlier this week, it’s not simply one in every of our core values. “It’s a promise we make the general public.”I noticed Kyle Dunn’s portray, “Initiation,” on the web site of Harper’s Journal. It made me unhappy to overlook his present at P.P.O.W. in Manhattan. (It closed on the thirteenth.)If an opportunity to see Bellefonte, Pennsylvania presents itself: Do it. I made a pit cease there on an extended drive east from Ohio final week. Bellefonte’s an especially fairly city: charming previous Victorians on the hills rising from the railroad and river, the place trout pool above the low falls in Talleyrand Park.Lastly, right here’s your every day dose of Palestinian hip-hop and electronica: Shabjdeed, Muqata’a and Al Nather, “Bansak.” Play that good and loud and I’ll see you on Sunday.
