Posted by Dorie Greenspan, March 13, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Photograph by Alan Richardson
I’m still in Paris (yay!) and while I saw brilliant yellow forsythia when I was at the Sunday market, and while there are a few cherry blossoms out in the gardens that get full sun, it’s been cold and rainy all week—we even had snow for two seconds and a couple of hail showers—which means I’m still making hearty soups and substantial stews, one of which, a daube of red wine and beef cheeks, is simmering in the oven now. Between the chill outside and the breeze that comes through my ancient window frames, I don’t think my friends will find it unwelcome.
The daube will be familiar to my Parisian pals, but its accompaniment won’t—I’m going to serve the stew with a basketful of corn muffins. Of course, I’ll have to use frozen corn, but I can find really good cornmeal here, so it will be fine. And I might add a few herbs and a little bacon to the mix (the bacon here is fabulous), just to make it more savory and because there’s bacon in the daube. The way I see it, adding bacon to the muffins is like pulling an outfit together by wearing a scarf that picks up the color of your shoes. And besides, what isn’t better with bacon?
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, October 15, 2007 at 4:15 PM
Who knew Whole Foods had such an extensive website? Or that it would have that recipe for Sweet Corn and Black Bean salad that I had just paid $7.99 a pound for the day before. Needless to say, it’s a tad cheaper to make it yourself and only marginally harder.
The key to the salad’s success is the quick vinaigrette that binds all the ingredients together. Instead of being more or less a corn and bean salsa, its a dip that requires no chips. The fork worked fine for me. I also started sprinkling it on other salads, which is probably a leftover habit from the Whole Foods prepared section. I always managed to stuff way too many items into one box, which is probably why I never made it out of there with a salad under $9. This is a great way to atone for those spending fits.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, September 17, 2007 at 4:00 PM
Most of the okra I put down is pickled, which means A) I don’t have it that often and B) I haven’t the slightest idea what to do with it raw.
I know about its powerful thickening properties and that it is used a lot in Southern cooking. So I when I brought home a nice bag of the stuff from the farmers' market, I pulled out my 1985 edition of the Courier-Journal Kentucky Cookbook (it’s a long story), and looked for some recipes for this interesting vegetable.
The one I found is apparently from 1946 and written by a woman (hopefully) named Cissy Gregg. She says: "The combination of okra, tomatoes and corn either charms people to the point where they'll roll their eyes around in their heads at the very thought of it, or it brings forth a grimace." Count me in the former group.
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, August 30, 2007 at 2:45 PM
Okay, this really isn't about baking, but it is about dessert, so I hope you'll cut me some slack. I'm also hoping that once you get a taste of this sundae, you won't care that you didn't turn your oven on this week.
The sundae is a gently tweaked peach Melba, a dessert of peaches, raspberry sauce, and vanilla ice cream, created by world famous chef Auguste d'Escoffier, in honor of the opera singer Nellie Melba. I hadn't made one in years—make that many, many years—but we'd been getting such great peaches this summer that I found myself reprising lots of tucked-away favorite recipes. Of course, once I made this, I made it again and again, reminded of why some dishes become classics: they're just so good.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, August 22, 2007 at 8:30 PM
Speaking of corn, today's Cook the Book recipe makes good use of the vegetable—along with two of the season's other usual suspects, tomatoes and cucumbers. The contrast of colors is as pleasing to the eye as it is to the palate.
The recipe, of course, is from Patricia Wells's Vegetable Harvest
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, August 15, 2007 at 5:15 PM
I haven’t had much luck grilling corn this year. Because it seems like such an easy process, I went in blind and managed to disfigure nearly every cob that’s touched my grill. Too much good Midwestern corn had been sacrificed because of my utter lack of knowledge. It was time to get serious. So I researched, tried a few out, and then finally remembered something I’d seen at the Red Hook Ball Fields in Brooklyn.
This website certainly loves the place, and I’ll continue that adoration. I would have never, ever put this combo together had I not seen it with my own eyes. The vendor grilled the corn with the husks on until they had been scorched. Then he would remove the husks, grill it again until the kernels had blistered, slather it with mayonnaise, sprinkle the whole thing with a crumbly cheese, and then pour hot sauce straight on. The technique works—especially if you soak the corn before grilling it—even if the topping doesn’t sound immediately appetizing. It didn’t sound too promising to me, either. But it works, especially if you can find Cotija cheese at your local Mexican market.
Oh, and that nice young lady in the picture supplied all of the corn from her family farm. For this we thank her.
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Posted by Ed Levine, August 6, 2007 at 1:45 PM
Corn salads are one of my favorite dishes to serve in the summer, when freshly picked corn is readily available just about everywhere. Eric Gower's is particularly full-flavored and zesty, perhaps because of the habanero pepper he throws in. If habaneros scare you, substitute a jalapeño or an ancho chile, which are both much milder. Make sure that, no matter what chile is used, you remove all its seeds—they're where much of the heat is concentrated.
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Posted by SaraBir, September 12, 2006 at 1:19 PM
My friend Bryan asked me for suggestions for utilizing the abundant crop of tomatoes in his backyard (he lives in California, where tomatoes lazily ripen into the early fall). I told him to can them, but not everyone has the energy or equipment to do that. In the meantime, you can always eat lots of fresh tomatoes. It’s your last summer fling.
This pasta dish came about from my last visit to my parents’ house. They had corn on the cob, beautiful beefsteak tomatoes, and fresh basil in dire need of use, so I threw them all together for a simple but flavorful pasta dish. Juicy tomatoes help make the sauce for the pasta, so don’t use plum tomatoes for this. If you don’t have fresh corn, use frozen, which is often superior to out-of-season fresh corn.
Ingredients
(Serves 4)
1/2 pound uncooked pasta (spaghetti, linguine, or fettuccini)
3 to 4 large, ripe tomatoes, cored (the more tomatoes the better)
2 to 3 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (thawed if frozen)
2 cloves garlic, very thinly sliced crosswise
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 bunch (three cups loosely packed) basil, thinly sliced
4 to 6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
Procedure
1. Put a large pot of salted water on to boil and cook the pasta according to package directions.
2. Meanwhile, chop the tomatoes. Place in a large bowl and set aside.
Toast the corn in a heavy, dry medium skillet over medium-high, stirring occasionally, heat until you see charred spots on the corn, 2 to 3 minutes. Add toasted corn to tomatoes.
3. In a small skillet, heat the garlic and olive oil over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is a light golden-brown (do not allow to burn). Pour over corn-tomato mixture. Stir in the basil and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
4. When the pasta is al dente, drain it quickly, allowing some of the cooking water to cling. Add pasta to tomato-corn mixture, toss with the feta cheese, and season to taste with more salt and pepper.
Note: You can substitute Parmesan cheese for the feta, if you wish.
