The Best, Easiest Dinner Party of Your Life
The New York Times
Spicy cucumbers, peppery sea scallops and coconut tapioca fill out this David Tanis menu.
There ought to be quite a few warm days between now and Thanksgiving — or so one hopes. So take advantage of them, I say, with a lighter approach to dinner (or even lunch) and save the deep, dark savory autumnal dishes for chillier days.
Spicy cucumbers with mint, scallions and crushed peanuts is my (admittedly inauthentic) take on a favorite found in variations all over Southeast Asia. More like a fresh pickle or condiment than a salad, the dish is moderately hot in Vietnam, while a Thai version could be extremely fiery.
It would be a shame to take away the spiciness from these cucumbers, so don’t skip the chiles. Instead, choose varieties that match your preference: Thai chiles pack a lot of heat; serrano chiles are strong, but less so; red Fresno chiles have sweet undertones and are the mildest among the commonly available chiles. Or use a mixture, as I do in this recipe. (To me, it tastes most refreshing at its spiciest.)
Keep cucumbers in mind when preparing the salad: The better they are, the better your salad will be. Once dressed, they’ll keep for a few days in the fridge, but will gradually lose crispness.
This particular dish is wonderful alongside an easy, elegant main course, like peppered sea scallops on a bed of curried spinach, best made in fall or winter, when fresh sea scallops are in season. The idea is to coat the scallops quite heavily with coarsely ground black pepper, then sizzle them in butter. A bit of lemon zest and a squeeze of lemon juice finishes the dish, and, when combined with the pepper, accentuates the scallops’ inherent sweetness. Substitute pan-seared fish or shrimp if scallops aren’t your thing.
A simple-to-make curried spinach leans in an Indian direction, fully flavored with ginger, garlic and aromatics, but restrained. The quickly cooked spinach is blitzed into a luscious purée that functions as a savory green resting place for the plump scallops. Steamed rice is a natural choice to serve alongside.
