the perfect summer dessert

Summer always makes me eat just a little bit healthier, particularly when it comes to the end of a meal. The rest of the year you can always count on me to choose a chocolate dessert (usually a giant brownie) when I have the option, but when the thermometer starts topping out at 90+ degrees, I switch gears and go for something a tad lighter. Don't get me wrong; I don't want just fruit for dessert--let's not get crazy--but a side of fruit with my ice cream is a nice touch.

There are so many fruit desserts out there: cobblers, pies, crumbles, brown betties, crisps, slumps (yes, that's a thing). Who can keep up? I think I've tasted them all at least once, but I couldn't tell you the difference if I tried. No matter now, though, because I've found the perfect summer dessert. Like most of my favorite recipes, it's infinitely adaptable--replace the pistachios with almonds and the grapes with cherries, or go for peanuts and strawberries--whatever you have around, really. The great thing about roasting fruit is that it actually does better when it's a day or two past its prime, so feel free to make this when you bought one basket of peaches too many and you just can't finish them before they go soft.

If you're in charge of dessert for a 4th of July celebration, I promise people will love this. If they don't, you can complain to me...and please send along the leftovers.

goat cheese tart with roasted grapes & pistachio crust
adapted from food & wine
makes one 9-inch tart, 8-10 servings

ingredients:
1/2 c shelled pistachios
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 c sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
3 c red seedless grapes
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp kosher salt
8 oz soft goat cheese at room temperature
2 1/2 c Greek yogurt (whole milk or 2%)
Juice and zest of one lemon
1/2 c powdered sugar
1/4 c honey
whipped cream to top (optional)

instructions:
Make the pistachio crust: pulse pistachios in a food processor until finely ground. Beat butter and sugar on medium speed until pale, about one minute. Add ground pistachios, almond extract, and salt, and beat until combined. Add flour and beat on low speed until incorporated and the dough is crumbly.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Scrape the dough into a fluted 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. (A pie pan also works fine if that's all you have.) Using the bottom of a glass, press dough into the pan so the bottom and sides are of relatively equal thickness. Prick the dough all over with a fork, then bake until fragrant and golden brown, 40-45 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let cool.

Meanwhile, roast the grapes. Turn your oven up to 400, and toss grapes with olive oil and kosher salt. Roast until grapes are softened and have begun to caramelize, 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let cool.

By now your crust should be relatively cool, so go ahead and make the tart filling. Beat goat cheese, yogurt, and lemon juice and zest in a medium bowl on medium speed until combined. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Scrape the filling into the crust, and top with cooled roasted grapes (make sure you get all of the delicious olive oil-grape juice syrup on there, too!). Refrigerate for at least two hours or as long as overnight.

Just before serving, heat the honey in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until it begins to boil. (Food & Wine recommends getting it to 236 degrees, but I don't think you have to get that particular). Pour the warm honey over the tart and let it soak in for about 5 minutes. Cut into slices and serve.(You'll need a pretty serious knife for this...the crust is pretty substantial.) I topped each slice with a dollop of thyme-infused whipped cream, and it was absolutely perfect.

homemade ginger ale

For a long time I didn't think I liked ginger. I liked ginger ale (which, let's be honest, often tastes nothing like actual ginger), but at our house we never ate anything with ginger in it so I stayed away from it until I went to college. I only found out I liked the "real" taste of ginger when I tried it pickled along with sushi, another food I didn't try until college. (Shockingly, sushi wasn't readily available in Bamberg, South Carolina.)

After discovering I actually liked the taste of ginger I continued to drink, say, Canada Dry, but I also wanted to find a more gingery ginger ale. I tried Blenheim and it certainly tastes like real ginger, but it also has a cough-inducing kick to it that doesn't exactly scream "refreshment." So I went back to the standard supermarket varieties until recently, when I realized I could make my own.

For my birthday this year my sister, who is pretty much the best gift giver on earth, sent me a SodaStream along with a very thoughtful Pinterest board of soda and cocktail recipes to go along with it. For the past few months I've just been making seltzer water, but I'm a big cocktail fan during the summer, and since I'm not in school I have the time to make things like homemade soda. I gave it a shot and the results were well worth the minimal effort.

This recipe for ginger syrup also comes with a nice perk--you end up with candied ginger along with the syrup! Once you've strained the ginger and spices out of the syrup, toss the candied ginger (it's just been boiled in syrup, after all) with sugar and let it sit out for a few hours to dry. Voila--crystallized ginger!

ginger syrup for ginger ale
adapted from FormerChef
makes about 3 cups of syrup, enough for about 9 liters of ginger ale (don't worry, it keeps for awhile!)

ingredients:
1 c brown sugar
1 c white sugar (or raw sugar, if you prefer)
2 c water
2 tsp cardamom pods
1 tsp whole allspice
1 tsp peppercorns
3 star anise pods
4 oz peeled and sliced ginger, about 3/4 c

instructions:
Stir together the brown and white sugars and water in a small pot. Toast the whole spices in a skillet until they begin to brown; remove from heat. Add the spices and ginger to the sugar-water mixture and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once the mixture boils, turn it down to a simmer and let simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let steep until mixture cools. Pour into jars and refrigerate.

To make ginger ale, use about 1.5 tbsp syrup per cup of seltzer. The syrup will keep in the fridge for at least a month, and I've read that if you add a bit of vodka to it it will keep indefinitely.

This will vastly improve any ginger ale-based drink you want to make. The buck, your basic ginger + spirit (e.g., gin buck, whiskey buck, tequila buck) is a good place to start. Here are a few other cocktails to try your new concoction in:

- bourbon & ginger: bourbon + ginger
   ale + peach
- pear haymaker: vodka + ginger ale +
   lemon juice + pear
- the operator: white wine + ginger ale +
   lime juice
- tequila grapefruit splash: grapefruit
   juice + ginger ale + tequila +
   Campari + triple sec

strawberry season!

Although it's not quite time for strawberries in Tennessee yet, in more southerly states the season is in full swing. I really wanted to make a strawberry cake for my birthday party last week (along with strawberry-infused vodka), so I had to make due with CostCo strawberries. Of course a friend from Louisiana brought strawberries picked that morning to the party, but it was too late for the cake so we've just been eating them out of hand (which may be the best way to enjoy them anyway).

Luckily, this cake doesn't rely too heavily on the quality of the strawberries; they mostly provide a little color and some tart texture to round out the airy soft genoise layers and light and creamy mousse filling. This cake requires a bit of time and effort but I think it's worth it, particularly for a special occasion. Having a stand mixer makes the process much easier because you whip the batter for a long time, but it's possible to make it with a handheld mixer.

If you make nothing else, make the cheesecake mousse filling--it's quite easy and probably the best filler/frosting for a cake I've ever made.

P.S. - Speaking of strawberry season, my strawberry-basil breakfast bowl recipe was recently featured on a Whole Foods' cooking blog--check it out! (It's a variation on a blog post I did last summer, the blueberry-basil breakfast bowl.)

vanilla bean genoise filled with cheesecake mousse and strawberries
adapted from Sarabeth Levine and, oddly enough, Worcester Telegram and Gazette
makes one three-layer 9" cake

ingredients:
genoise:
   5 tbsp butter
   5 large eggs + 5 large egg yolks
   1 c sugar
   seeds from 1 vanilla bean, or 1 tsp vanilla extract
   1 c pastry or unbleached cake flour
cheesecake mousse:
   8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
   1/2 c powdered sugar
   seeds from 1 vanilla bean or 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
   1 c chilled heavy cream
+1 pint strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced

instructions:
Make the genoise: Preheat oven to 350. Grease three 9" cake pans (or one or two, if you don't have three and need to bake the layers in batches) and line them with parchment paper. Do not leave out this step; I promise the cake layers will stick to the pans if you do!

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, or in a small heatproof bowl in the microwave. Let cool.

Bring a large saucepan of water to a simmer over high heat. Reduce the heat to low to maintain the simmer. Whisk the eggs, yolks, and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer, or a very large heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over the water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water), and whisk constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture is very warm to the touch, about 1 minute. If you have an instant read thermometer, the mixture should reach 118 degrees.

If you have a stand mixer, attach the bowl to it and fit it with the whisk attachment. Add the vanilla and beat the mixture on high speed until it is almost quadrupled in volume, very pale yellow, and fluffy, about 5 minutes. If you're using a handheld mixer, Sarabeth says this will take at least 6 minutes. She says the right consistency has been reached when, if you lift the whisk attachment a couple of inches above the bowl, the egg mixture creates a thick ribbon that falls back on itself and holds its shape on the surface of the mixture for at least 5 seconds before sinking. I whipped mine for at least 6-7 minutes and didn't quite reach the 5-second mark, but my cake turned out just fine! Whenever you think it's good enough, remove the bowl from the stand mixer.

In four equal additions, sift the flour over the egg mixture, folding in each addition with a whisk. (I'm not much of a sifter, but I think it's important here.) Handle the batter gently to keep it as light and fluffy as possible. Transfer about a quarter of the batter into a medium bowl; add the butter and fold in with a whisk. Pour this mixture back into the remaining batter and gently fold it in with a whisk.

Pour the batter into the cake pans and smooth it over with a spatula. If you don't have three pans to use at once, try to fill the pans you have to about a half-inch thickness; this should make your layers roughly even. Bake until the top of the cake is golden and it springs back when pressed gently with your finger, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely in the pan. (If you need one of the cake pans to make another layer, you can probably get away with letting the layer cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before removing it.)

While the cake layers are cooling, make the mousse: using a handheld or stand mixer (whisk attachment) on medium-high speed, whip together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Whip the heavy cream in another bowl until soft peaks form. Using a spatula, fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture in three additions, and cover and refrigerate until cake layers are cooled and you're ready to assemble the cake.

Assemble the cake: Run a knife around the outside of one cake pan, and flip the cake out onto the plate you want to use for your cake. Remove the parchment paper, and spread a thin layer of mousse over the surface of the cake. Cover this with a layer of sliced strawberries. Repeat this process for the next layer, then top with the third layer and frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining mousse. Top with strawberry halves or more sliced strawberries, if you'd like.

You can store this cake in the refrigerator for a day or two before serving, but make sure to remove it at least an hour before you want to serve it.

sesame-crusted feta and fig sandwiches

When school starts, I consider it fall. No matter that the high reaches 90 degrees most days and I can still get good tomatoes at the farmer's market; I'm ready for it to be sweater weather (and stay that way--I can pass on winter, thank you). Today, Labor Day, marks the "official" end of summer, and it's a bit cooler and rainy and at least it LOOKS like fall outside, so I made a decidedly autumnal sandwich for lunch. And it was one of the best sandwiches I've ever had...which is saying a lot, since anything on bread pretty much qualifies as my favorite food.

This is a bit more labor-intensive than a ham and cheese on wheat, but the extra effort pays off. The nuttiness of sesame seeds plays off the sharp tang of feta, and the figs' already considerable sweetness deepens with a quick toss in a saute pan and a drizzle of honey. The bread is almost secondary, but a nice hearty whole-grain works well (I used Whole Food's Seeduction bread, one of my favorites despite the name). Now that I think of it, though, this recipe might work even better as a salad, on a bed of arugula perhaps.

sesame-crusted feta and fig sandwiches
adapted from serious eats
serves two

ingredients:
4 oz. block feta
1 tbsp butter
4 figs, quartered
1 tbsp olive oil
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tbsp honey
4 slices of hearty bread

instructions:
Slice feta into approximately 1/4" slices and place on a plate in the freezer to harden, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until bubbly, 2-3 minutes. Add figs and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Combine sesame seeds, coriander, and red pepper on a medium plate. Remove feta from freezer, dip each slice in egg and coat all sides evenly with sesame seed mixture.

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Saute feta until golden on both sides, turning carefully with tongs, a minute or two per side. Remove from heat.

Top each slice of bread with feta and figs, season with salt and black pepper, and drizzle with honey.

my favorite potato salad

 I love the word "salad"; it can cover a multitude of sins. Especially in the South, where salads usually involve something creamy--mayonnaise, cream cheese, even cool whip--they are often much less healthy than they sound. I won't say I'm above such mayo-laden delicacies as grape or broccoli salad, but sometimes I want something a little more complex and a little less heart-stopping. Earlier this summer my mom asked me to make some potato salad for dinner at the beach, and based on a recipe I liked and what we had in the fridge, I came up with the recipe below. It's creamy, yes, and I don't know that I would call it health food, but it's more than potatoes+mayo+celery, and it is absolutely delicious warm or cold.

my favorite potato salad
adapted from food52
serves 4-6

ingredients:
10 or so medium red-skinned potatoes (about 1 1/2 lbs), cut in half
Olive oil and kosher salt, for roasting
1/2 c Greek yogurt
1/4 c mayo
2 tbsp sweet pickle relish
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1 green onion or 1/4 large onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
A few shakes Tabasco
1/2 tsp Creole seasoning

instructions:
Preheat oven to 400. Toss potatoes with olive oil and kosher salt, and roast until cooked through and golden brown on the bottom (40-45 minutes). Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl to make the dressing. When potatoes are done and you're ready to serve the salad, cut them into bite-sized pieces and toss with the dressing. Don't do this until you're ready to serve the salad (warm or cold is fine), since the potatoes soak up the dressing pretty quickly.

P.S. - I made a much larger batch of this for a meal we served this week at The Nashville Food Project, alongside pulled pork, maque choux, and banana blueberry cake. It's not up yet, but in the next few days they will have the recipe for maque choux on their website feature Cook for a Crowd. Check it out!

blueberry-basil breakfast bowl

I promise these berries are of the blue variety.

Although recently my blog posts have been few and far between, I have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen. I'm the summer kitchen intern (or Kitchen Intern, if I'm feeling self-important) at this great organization called The Nashville Food Project, and although that means I'm working with food all day most days, I still usually want to cook for myself when I come home. I try to get all my cooking done at night, dinner first, then breakfast and lunch to take with me for the next day. This isn't any different from my school-year routine, but because I have more free time now I'm trying more new recipes than usual, including the one you're about to read!

Most of the time "new" recipes that attract me remind me of something I already like. This is a perfect example. Oatmeal is my default breakfast, but when it's 100+ degrees outside it's hard to get excited about a hot bowl of anything. When I saw The Kitchn's recipe for a breakfast blueberry and grain salad, I knew I had to make it. (This epiphany might have had something to do with the 8 pints of blueberries I had just bought on sale at Whole Foods.) So I did, and I ate it every day for breakfast last week. Tonight I decided to make another batch, but I changed a few things: more berries, fewer nuts, basil instead of nutmeg. I think my version is an improvement on the original, humility be damned.

I know the name I gave this recipe has a lot of "b"s--I was always a sucker for alliteration. And blueberries. And, as you probably already know if you know me, breakfast. This hits all three. You can substitute almost any grains, fruits, spices or herbs, and nuts or seeds you want, but make sure you come up with an equally snappy title for your new version, please.

blueberry-basil breakfast bowl
adapted from the kitchn
makes about 8 servings

ingredients:
1 c steel-cut oats
1 c quinoa
1/2 c millet
3 tbsp olive oil, divided
4 1/2 c water
3/4 tsp salt
2 lemons, zest and juice
1/3 c basil, chopped
1/2 c maple syrup
1 c Greek yogurt
1/2 c pecans, toasted and chopped
3 c blueberries

instructions:
Mix the oats, quinoa, and millet in a fine mesh strainer and rinse for about a minute under running water. Set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the rinsed grains and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until they begin smelling toasted. Pour in 4 1/2 cups water and stir in 3/4 teaspoon salt and the zest of 1 lemon.

Bring to boil, cover, turn down the heat, and simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes, then remove the lid and fluff with a fork. Spread hot grains on a large baking sheet and let cool for at least half an hour.

Spoon the cooled grains into a large bowl. Stir in the basil and the zest of the second lemon.

In a medium bowl whisk the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil with the juice of both lemons until emulsified. Whisk in the maple syrup and yogurt. Pour this into the grains and stir until well-coated. Stir in the toasted pecans and blueberries. Taste and season with additional salt, if necessary.

Refrigerate overnight (or as long as you can stand it). This will keep in the fridge for several days and also freezes well, if you can't eat it all up in a week.

grandma's pickles

About six months ago, I bought a dozen pint-sized jars with the intention of canning something. I made three jars of preserved lemons to give as Christmas gifts and promptly relegated the three-quarters-full box of jars to the back of my pantry, along with my cake decorating supplies and three bags of leftover potato chips from Jason's Deli.

But it's summer now, and high time for preserving any and everything this season has to offer. I thought about making strawberry jam just a little bit too long, and the season passed me by. Cucumbers are starting to come in, though, so I decided to make the cucumber lime pickles my Grandma used to put up. She also made strawberry jam, and peach, too, although the peach often ended up crystallizing in the back of our refrigerator (sorry, Grandma!).

These pickles, though...wow! Besides tasting like my childhood, they are the highlight of any sandwich--sweet and vinegary, crunchy and sharp and stickily delicious. They take some time, 2 or 3 days, but I promise they're worth it. Make them. Make them now.

P.S. - I have nine jars, lids, and tops left and am itching to make some kind of jam or preserves, even though it's too late for strawberry. If you have a good canning recipe for an in-season (or soon to be) fruit or vegetable, please share!

"old south" cucumber lime pickles

cukes, pre-pickling

from Mrs. Wages
makes 12-14 pint-sized jars

ingredients:
7 lbs pickling cucumbers, sliced
1 c Mrs. Wages pickling lime
2 gal water
8 c distilled white vinegar, 5% acidity 
8 c sugar
1 tbsp salt (optional)
2 tsp mixed pickling spices (Ball and Mrs. Wages both make these)

special equipment:
sterilized canning jars, lids, and screw-on tops (sterilize the jars and tops by running them through the dishwasher; instructions for the lids to follow)
boiling water bath canner (I just bought this inexpensive one)

instructions:
Stir together pickling lime and water in canner (without rack; that comes much later). Add cucumbers; cover and let soak for at least two hours or overnight.

Remove cucumbers from lime water; discard lime water. Rinse cucumbers three times under running water. Wash canner and put cucumbers back in it; cover with ice water and let soak for three hours.

Remove cucumbers from water; discard water. Combine vinegar, sugar, salt, and pickling spices in canner. Bring to a low boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove syrup from heat and add cucumbers. Soak 5-6 hours or overnight.

Bring cucumbers and syrup to boil in canner and let boil for 35 minutes. Meanwhile, take out sterilized jars and tops, and boil a small pan of water. Once water boils, place lids in it to sterilize them and turn the heat off. After cucumbers and syrup have boiled for 35 minutes, fill jars with cucumbers and syrup, leaving 1/2-inch headspace (you may have to make more syrup to fill the jars). Remove lids from small pot of water, and top and cap each jar.

Place rack in canner and fill with water. Bring water to a boil, then place jars on the canner rack, making sure the jars are completely covered with water. Bring water back to a boil and leave jars in boiling water for 10 minutes (this step is called processing). Remove jars from water and let sit until cool. If done correctly the jars should seal, and when you press down on the lids they should not pop back up. If they do pop up, try turning them upside-down, pushing the lid in, and letting them sit that way for awhile; sometimes this will seal them. Still no dice? Sorry, you'll need to refrigerate those jars. If the lids don't pop back up, though (yay!), the unrefrigerated pickles will keep indefinitely, probably until next cucumber season. Store in a cool, dry, place, and refrigerate before serving. If you want someone to like you, give them a jar.

a trick grandma taught me

the holy grail of southern food

Fried chicken. What tastes more like the South? Okay, so sweet tea, biscuits, collards, peaches, boiled peanuts, and cornbread could all give it a run for its money, but when I think of Sunday dinner (served at noon, after church) I think fried chicken. I grew up in a tiny town in South Carolina, and every Sunday my sister and I went out to eat with our grandmother at one of two places: Frye's (a local meat-and-three buffet) or Pizza Hut. They were the only two restaurants open on Sundays, so we had our choice between fried food and stewed vegetables and faux-Italian. Of course, we often chose Pizza Hut (rutabagas didn't hold quite the same appeal as breadsticks), but when we went to Frye's I always got the fried chicken. I don't think it was actually that great, but my memory of it is. And isn't that all that matters?

I made my own fried chicken for the second time (and the first successful time) last week. On my second try I used the Lee Brothers' recipe, and I endorse it fully. It came out perfectly seasoned with a golden crisp crust--everything fried chicken should be. I followed the recipe to a T, and although it's not difficult it IS messy. From what I could tell, brining and oil temperature are key. The first time I fried chicken my oil was too hot, and the breading burned before the meat could finish cooking. If you keep the oil between 325 and 350 degrees, everything will turn out just fine.

almost done!

sunday fried chicken
adapted from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook, by Matt Lee and Ted Lee
serves 4

ingredients:
1 qt water
1/3 c salt
about 3 c peanut oil, lard, or sunflower oil (what I used)
1 recipe Lee Bros. All-Purpose Fry Dredge (combine the following):
   1/2 c all-purpose flour
   3 tbsp stone-ground cornmeal
   2 tsp salt
   1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 lbs chicken legs and thighs (about 6 legs and 6 bone-in thighs)

instructions:
At least four hours (up to eight hours) before you begin frying, combine the water and salt in a very large bowl, stirring until salt dissolves. Place trimmed chicken pieces in brine, cover the bowl, and refrigerate. Remove from the refrigerator two hours before frying to allow chicken to come to room temperature.

When you are ready to make the chicken, place a large cookie sheet lined with a cooling rack (if you have one) or paper towels in the oven and preheat to 250 degrees.

Pour the oil into a large skillet, to a depth of about 1/2 inch. Heat over medium-high until oil reaches 325 degrees on a candy thermometer.

While the oil is heating, place the fry dredge in a medium bowl. Remove each piece of chicken from the brine and dredge it thoroughly, then place chicken on a plate within easy reach of your skillet.

Once your oil is at 325 and your chicken is dredged, start frying! Place enough chicken pieces (skin-side down) in the skillet to cover the bottom. Cover the skillet if you want (this will make it go faster, but I wanted to watch), and cook until the bottom side is golden brown, about 6 minutes. Make sure you monitor the oil temperature and adjust the heat to keep it between 325 and 350 degrees. Turn chicken and fry the other side until it is golden brown as well. Turn again and fry three minutes, and then once more, a final three minutes.

Use tongs to remove the chicken from the skillet and place it on a rack in the oven to keep warm. Follow the same procedure to fry the rest of the chicken.

When all the chicken is done, serve immediately--preferably with cornbread or biscuits and three vegetables, one of which should be macaroni and cheese (my other two were coleslaw and roasted summer squash).

fried chicken leads to happiness.

summer across the south

I've lived in Nashville for just over a week now, and I have discovered that although it differs from Charleston in a number of ways, the two cities share at least one thing in common: they have awesome summer produce. High-quality, inexpensive fruits and vegetables are hard to find, so as soon as I decided to move to Nashville I began scouring the internet for places to buy produce here. Luckily, I almost immediately found Green Door Gourmet, a local "farm to fork venture" that offers weekly CSA boxes for $20, with no seasonal commitment. I ordered my first box on Friday and picked it up on Saturday; I was not disappointed. Corn, heirloom tomatoes, peppers, squash, basil, cucumbers, and okra filled my rather large box to the brim, and they even threw in a free bag of locally sourced cornmeal for good measure.

But what to do with all of it? I'm only one person, and this was a LOT of vegetables. Nostalgia kicked in soon enough, and I decided to combine some of my okra, tomatoes, and corn with black-eyed peas for the quintessential southern summer dish.

I'm not even going to feign humility here; this turned out damn good. (Unfortunately, the pictures did not, so you'll have to trust me on this one.) One thing I love about food is that it can make me feel at home no matter where I am, and as I create a new home in a new city I find this quality especially important. It's nice to know that even though I'm nine hours away from Charleston, at any moment I could be eating the very same variety of tomato I would find at the farmer's market on Marion Square.

black-eyed peas with summer vegetables
makes about 6 servings as a side dish, 4 as a main
nutrition: it's healthy except for the butter...no time to calculate 
   nutrition facts now that i'm actually busy!

ingredients:
1 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 c diced bell pepper (about 1/2 medium)
1 c okra (about 8 large pods), sliced into disks
1 c corn kernels (from about 1 large ear)
1 medium tomato, chopped
2 cans black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained, OR
   1 c. dried, prepared from package directions
1 c water
1 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp salt, or more or less to taste

instructions:
Melt butter in large cast iron (preferred) or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and bell pepper and cook until lightly browned, a minute or so.

Add okra, corn, and tomatoes, and cook until slightly softened and blackened in spots, 5-7 minutes or more. Add black-eyed peas, water, molasses, vinegar, thyme, and red pepper, and stir to combine. Let cook down until little liquid remains. Add salt to taste (and more molasses, vinegar, thyme, or red pepper, if you want) and serve.

a unique rice salad

 The idea of making a rice salad had never occurred to me until I read this post on America's Test Kitchen's new website. For some reason I disassociate rice from other grains, so while a barley or quinoa salad recipe wouldn't seem odd to me, rice salad did. Anyone else feel that way? No? Just me?

Regardless, I'm glad I came across the post, because the slightly adjusted version of the salad I made was absolutely delicious, and perfect for summer. The combination of flavors--sweet mango and coconut, cool mint, and sour lime--was refreshing and completely different from anything I've had before. I liked the whole thing so much that I made it again for a group of friends two days later.

I mostly stuck to ATK's recipe but substituted brown rice for white, added fresh mango, and adjusted the amounts of a few ingredients. I also omitted the shrimp and served mine with seared tuna. (Okay, so maybe I changed it a lot.) This version is perfect for a summer picnic or cookout, or if you just want to try something a little different. You won't be disappointed.

a unique rice salad
adapted from America's Test Kitchen
4 main-course servings or 8 side dish servings
per large serving:  380.4 cal, 18.2g fat, 48.9g carb, 8.1g fiber, 7.2g protein, 10+ weight watchers

ingredients:
1/2 c mango chutney
1/4 c fresh mango, mashed
2 tbsp lime juice, about one lime's worth
1/4 c olive or grapeseed oil
2 c cooked and cooled brown rice (I recommend this method of cooking
   brown rice--it turns out perfect every time!)
2 c fresh or frozen green peas (thawed if frozen)
4 scallions, minced
1/3 c chopped fresh mint
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 c toasted coconut

instructions:
Whisk together mango chutney, fresh mango, lime juice, and oil to make dressing. Toss with rice, peas, scallions, and mint. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and top with toasted coconut.

grilled pizza, my new obsession

 

Although I've expanded my culinary horizons quite a bit since I was a child, I remain the same as my ten-year-old self in one respect:  pizza is still my favorite food. It's bread, cheese, vegetables, and (usually salty and fatty) protein all rolled into one--so how could I have found anything better in the last 15 years?

For most of my life, my pizza intake was limited to what I could find in restaurants and the freezer aisle of the grocery store. Eventually I graduated to baking homemade pizzas in the oven, adding better-quality ingredients along the way--a little whole-milk mozzarella here, some fresh basil there, perhaps a dash of Italian red pepper flakes to top it off. But I always baked my pizzas in the oven, partly because that's all I had and have, and partly because no other method occurred to me.

Then three weeks ago, my life changed. I grilled pizza for the first time.

Okay, so maybe "life-changing" is a bit of an overstatement, and maybe it wasn't the first time I had thought of grilling pizza, but for some reason I had never gotten around to trying it. Over the 4th of July weekend, the perfect opportunity presented itself:  I was at the beach with a giant gas grill, my dad to man it, and two impulse-bought balls of pizza dough from Whole Foods.

I was amazed at how easy it was; the whole thing went off without a hitch. I liked it so much that despite not having a grill of my own, I have found ways to grill pizza two more times in the two weeks since.

So if you have a grill, have a friend who has a grill, or can afford to buy a grill, you should try this. As long as you're prepared when you actually start grilling, it takes very little effort. The only special equipment you need is something to brush the crust with oil and tongs to flip the pies. Make sure to have your ingredients and equipment ready and waiting when you put the dough on the grill. The pizza cooks amazingly fast, so you won't have a lot of time to get everything on there.

Yep, that's my foot.

You can top your pizza with whatever you like, but here are a few of my favorite combinations:
-olive oil base with mozzarella, feta, tomatoes, bacon, & basil
-tomato sauce base with mozzarella, sausage, mushrooms, & spinach
-barbecue sauce base with mozzarella, blue cheese, chicken, caramelized onions, &
  cilantro
-olive oil base with brie, pear, brown sugar, and arugula

grilled pizza
inspired by The Kitchn and Serious Eats

ingredients
pizza dough (I've made my own using Peter Reinhart's recipe, but Whole Foods has
  very good white, wheat, and multigrain versions)
olive oil (nothing fancy, although I like to infuse mine with garlic)
toppings of your choice

instructions
Preheat the grill. Depending on whether you go with charcoal (better flavor) or gas (more precise), the specifics of this step vary.

If you're making more than one pizza (which you should), preheat your oven to 200 degrees to keep the first pizzas you make warm while you grill the others.

Prepare the dough by stretching or rolling it into thinnish circles. You don't want to dough to tear when you put it on the grill or flip it, so you might want to make it a little thicker than normal. Since I've been making a few pizzas at a time, I stack my rounds of dough on a cookie sheet with foil in between, making sure to brush each layer with oil so they don't stick to the foil or to the grill!

Prepare your toppings and put them all together, so you can put them on the pizza quickly. Also have a small bowl of oil to brush the pizza with if it looks dry when grilling or sticks at all.

When the grill is preheated, use the foil to pick up a round of dough, and flip it onto the grill. Cook until the bottom looks done and begins to char just a little, anywhere from 2-8 minutes, depending on how hot your grill is.

Using your tongs, flip the dough over, then arrange (or throw, depending on how much time you have) your toppings on the cooked side. If your grill has a cover, cover the pizza during this part so the cheese melts more thoroughly.

Once the bottom is done, slide the pizza off the grill and onto a cookie sheet. If you have more to go, keep your already-made pizzas in the oven until ready to serve.

1402 palmetto shrimp & grits

  

First, a confession:  although I've lived in the Carolinas my whole life, until this weekend I had never made shrimp and grits. (I still haven't been to a NASCAR race or seen Gone with the Wind...I have a long way to go.)

Although I grew up in the South, my mom was an Air Force kid so we didn't eat your typical southern cuisine. We called our evening meal "supper," but it was more likely to be Chinese stir fry than chicken-fried steak.

If you know southern cooking, you probably know the Lee Bros...and if, like me, you have just started to get acquainted with it, their Southern Cookbook is a great introduction.

My recently wed sister and brother-in-law used this as a guestbook at their wedding this spring, and lucky for me they also gave copies as bridesmaid gifts. This is the kind of cookbook you can actually read, with stories to go along with every recipe and pictures that make you want to jump in and eat what's on the page.

I'm making my way through the recipes slowly but surely, and I thought I'd start with an essentially Charleston dish: shrimp & grits. My family changed it up a little to suit our tastes and what we had on hand, so for now, in honor of our beach house, I'm calling it 1402 Palmetto Shrimp & Grits.

 

1402 palmetto shrimp & grits 
adapted from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook (83 East Bay Street Shrimp & Grits) 
4 servings

ingredients:
shrimp stock
   1 1/2 lbs headless large shrimp
   3 c water
   1/2 tsp peppercorns
   1/2 tsp celery seeds
   1 bay leaf, in pieces
   1 tsp kosher salt
   1 tsp ground red pepper (if you like things spicy) 
grits
   1 1/2 c stone-ground grits (recommended:  Anson Mills)
   1 1/2 c whole milk
   3 c water
   kosher salt and black pepper to taste

   kernels from 3 ears of sweet corn 

gravy
   1 lb tomatoes (about 3 medium tomatoes)
   1 tbsp olive oil
   1/4 lb andouille sausage, diced
   1 small green bell pepper, chopped
   1 small yellow onion, chopped
   1 tbsp plus 1 tsp all-purpose flour
   kosher salt and black pepper to taste
   handful chopped chives, to garnish (optional)

 
instructions:
Peel shrimp, reserving the shells. In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil over high heat. Add shells and rest of stock ingredients. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain the stock and reserve. Discard shells.


While stock simmers, stir grits into a bowl of cold water and allow to settle. Corn hulls may float to the surface. Skim off hulls and drain grits. In a medium saucepan, bring milk and 3 c water to a boil over high heat. Add grits, stirring to prevent lumps from forming. Reduce heat to medium, add salt and cook, stirring occasionally

Once grits thicken (about 10 minutes), reduce the heat and cook, stirring frequently and adding water if grits become too stiff. Cook until grits are fluffy and creamy, 35 to 45 minutes. Just before serving, season with salt and pepper and stir in corn kernels.

While grits cook, place tomatoes in a medium roasting pan or cast-iron skillet. Broil them about 3 inches from the flame or heating element, turning as their skins blacken, until they’re blackened all over, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer tomatoes to a food processor or blender and pulse to a soupy liquid, about three 1-second pulses. Press the liquid through a food mill or coarse strainer into a medium bowl.

Pour olive oil in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet or sauté pan set over medium-high heat. Add sausage, and with a slotted spoon move the pieces around until they are browned, about 3 minutes. Add bell pepper and onion and sauté until they just begin to soften, about 2 minutes.

Pour 2 tablespoons of the shrimp stock into a small bowl, add the flour and whisk until it becomes a smooth paste. Pour remaining shrimp stock into the skillet with the sausage, pepper, and onion. When the mixture reaches a simmer, reduce heat to medium and cook at a vigorous simmer until vegetables have softened.

Add flour paste to pan, whisking vigorously to distribute flour evenly. Add sieved tomato mixture to skillet, stirring, and return to a simmer. Cook until the mixture turns into a gravy thick enough to coat the back of a spoon heavily, 10 to 12 minutes more.

Add shrimp to gravy and continue cooking until they are pink and cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, divide grits among 4 plates and ladle the shrimp and gravy on top. Garnish with chives.

summer brunch (& happy father's day)

We're wrapping up another Father's Day, and I have an announcement to make:  I have the best dad in the world. I know, I know, many of you probably thought your father or husband held that title, and I'm sure those men are all perfectly lovely human beings. To me, though (and I speak for my sister here as well), my dad wins.

So, what do you make for the best dad in the world on Father's Day? Brunch, obviously.

Brunch is an institution in Charleston, and there are a ton of great places to go (a few of my favorites:  High Cotton for food, Triangle for mimosas, Fuel for everything). But I was visiting my parents at Edisto Beach, and homemade brunch holds a special place in my heart anyway...not least because it means I can crawl back to my bed after the inevitable food coma that comes along with two meals in one.

We had a small group today, just my mom, my dad, and me, but the good thing about small groups is you can make a lot of different dishes without too much trouble. Our menu included light blueberry muffins, not-so-light cheddar and cream strata, fresh tomatoes and watermelon, mimosas, and the star of every show, bacon.

And now I'm really sad I didn't bring any leftovers home with me. But hey, at least I have pictures.


summer brunch menu
blueberry crunch muffins (recipe follows)
cheddar & cream strata (recipe follows)
sliced tomatoes 
sliced watermelon
mimosas
bacon



blueberry crunch muffins
adapted from america's test kitchen 
makes a dozen
per muffin:  199.7 cal, 2.1g fat, 45.8g carb, 1.0g fiber, 4.5g protein, 6+ weight watchers

ingredients:
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c cake flour

1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 c packed light brown
   sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c plain nonfat Greek
   yogurt
1 1/2 c blueberries

instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin tin or line it with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together all-purpose and cake flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and 1/2 cup of brown sugar.

In a small bowl, melt 1 tbsp of the butter. Add 1/4 cup of the flour mixture, remaining brown sugar, and cinnamon, and mix together with a fork to make a crumbly topping. Set aside.

In another medium bowl, use a mixer on medium-high speed to beat remaining butter with granulated sugar until thoroughly combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

Using a mixer on low speed, alternatingly add flour mixture and yogurt to butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Gently fold in blueberries.

Fill each muffin cup with about 1/2 cup batter, then sprinkle crumb topping over them all. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out with a few crumbs attached.

overnight cheddar and cream strata
adapted from america's test kitchen
serves 4
per serving:  353.6 cal, 21.4g fat, 22.3g carb, 1.6g fiber, 18.3g protein, 9+ weight watchers

ingredients:

does this look like a US state to anyone else?

1 tbsp unsalted butter,
   softened
a few slices dense white
   bread (I used sections of
   an epi I had left over)
4 oz sharp cheddar, grated
3/4 c whole milk
1/4 c heavy cream
4 large eggs
1 shallot, minced
handful of parsley, chopped
dollop of dijon mustard
1/4 tsp hot sauce
salt and pepper, to taste

instructions:
Grease a small casserole and line bottom with bread. Butter tops of bread and sprinkle with half of cheddar.

Whisk together milk, cream, eggs, shallot, parsley, mustard, and hot sauce. Pour over bread and top with remaining cheddar. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap dish and bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes. You can also speed up the browning process by broiling for a couple minutes at the end.

my dad ate all the bacon before i could get a picture of it (who am i kidding? i ate most of it.)

really, really easy lime bars

           

I can't help myself. Whenever I'm invited to any event that includes food, I immediately volunteer to bring dessert. Even when I have one free hour between the time I volunteer and the event.

Last night was one of those times. As I always do, I considered making brownies, but since it's summer and all, I thought something cool and citrusy would be better-suited to the weather. I found a few lemon/lime bar/pie recipes that looked interesting, but in the end I pretty much made up my own based on what I had in my apartment and what was easy. (In this case, "easy" meant only one cooking method [oven] and no pastry blender required for the crust.)

Overall, I was very pleased with the results. The bars' only less-than-appealing feature was their 1970s avocado green color, which resulted from my addition of two drops of green food coloring. So, I recommend skipping the food coloring, and if you want to give the bars a little color just top each of them with a small twist of lime.

really, really easy lime bars
makes 16 bars
per bar:  188.9 cal, 7.3g fat, 27.0g carb, 0.4g fiber, 3.8g  protein, 5+ weight watchers

ingredients:

1/2 c butter, softened

1/3 c sugar

1 c all-purpose flour

1/3 c old-fashioned oats

1 14-oz can fat-free sweetened condensed milk

5 large egg yolks

1/2 c lime juice (fresh preferred, but I used bottled)

Powdered sugar, for serving

instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter an 8 x 8" baking pan.. In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar using a mixer on medium speed. Add flour and oats and mix on medium speed until thoroughly combined. Press mixture into pan, and place in oven (once it is preheated, of course). Bake crust for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in another medium bowl (or the same one, if you feel like washing it first), combine condensed milk, egg yolks, and lime juice. Mix on medium speed until combined. Pour over partially baked crust and bake for 20-25 minutes more or until center is set and edges are lightly browned.

Cool on counter for half an hour, then move to refrigerator to chill. When ready to serve, sift powdered sugar on top and cut into squares.

Farmers market stir-fry

One of my favorite things about living near my office is coming home for lunch every day. It only takes me about five minutes to walk to my apartment from work, so I have 50 minutes of preparation + eating time at my disposal each day. Yes, I know...I am the luckiest person in the world.

Unfortunately, I often underestimate the amount of time it will take me to prepare a dish (tip:  do not lug out your food processor on your lunch break). I have found one method, though, that never takes me over my time limit:  stir-frying. It's quick, can be made healthy quite easily, and is a suitable cooking method for almost any food. Case-in-point: this particular stir-fry took me all of 40 minutes to prepare, photograph, and eat. And it was delicious!

My farmers market loot from last weekend

This recipe incorporates almost all the vegetables I bought at Charleston's farmers market last weekend. You can use any produce that's in season and whatever protein you want. If at all possible, don't omit the pickled vegetables; their sweet acidity contributes an important layer of flavor to the dish. I originally made them as part of this banh mi recipe, which I highly recommend.

farmers market stir-fry
serves one
per serving (as written):  283.6 cal, 7.3g fat, 46.7g carb, 7.4g fiber, 13.5g protein, 8+ weight watchers (unless you enter each ingredient separately...then it's only 6!)

ingredients:

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 sliver fresh ginger, minced

kernels from 1 ear of corn

2 radishes, sliced

1 carrot, sliced

1 scallion, sliced

8 medium shrimp

about 1 tsp soy sauce

about 1 tbsp rice vinegar

sriracha to taste

diced fresh jalapeno to taste

about 1/4 c pickled carrots and radishes (recipe below)

instructions:
Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add ingredients from garlic to white part of scallion. If you're using a slower-cooking protein then shrimp, add that as well. Cook 5-10 minutes, stirring and tossing with abandon (that's the fun part, until you toss a little too enthusiastically and send corn kernels flying all over the place).

Add shrimp if using. Add soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sriracha, and stir to coat mixture evenly. Cook a minute or two longer, until all liquid has dissolved. Empty into a large bowl, cover with rest of sliced scallions, jalapenos, and pickled vegetables. Enjoy your lunch (or dinner, or late-night snack, or maybe even breakfast)!

pickled carrots and radishes
adapted from food52
makes about 1.5 c

ingredients:
1/4 lb carrots, julienned
1/4 lb radishes, sliced thin
1/2 c water
1 c apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp sugar

instructions:
Mix all ingredients together. Let sit in refrigerator for at least an hour or as long as overnight. I used mine up in about three days, but they would have kept longer.

tropical pudding

Ah, summer. With the exception of the last few days' unseasonably cool weather (75! And windy!), summer has definitely fallen upon Charleston. This makes me want to eat as many cold, fruity things as possible...sorbet, yogurt, popsicles, pudding.

That's right, pudding. Despite--or perhaps because of--Jell-O's best efforts, when many of us think of pudding, we don't think of a refreshing warm weather treat, we think of a weak substitute for ice cream or something that comes out of a mold. We certainly don't think, "Pudding...refreshing!" I mean, besides Jell-O, the other brand of pudding I see most often in my grocery store is called Kozy Shack; this doesn't exactly conjure up images of sandy beaches and the ocean lapping at your feet.

But if you add coconut and mango...voila! You're transported to a cruise ship with a lei around your neck and ukelele music lulling you to sleep. So that's what I'm going for here. This is pudding, but it's pudding with a tropical twist. I think it's the perfect transitional dessert for springing into summer. 

tropical pudding
makes six 1/2-cup servings of pudding + 1/4 cup fruit
per serving (pudding only):  180.5 cal, 7.6g fat, 24.9g carb, 0.3g fiber, 2.0g protein, 5+ weight watchers 

ingredients:
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c light coconut milk
1 1/2 c plain almond milk
4 egg yolks
1 1/2 c mango or other fruit of your choice
Zest of one lime (optional) 

instructions:
Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Add milks a little at a time (the order doesn't matter), whisking as you go and making sure there aren't lumps of cornstarch. Whisk in egg yolks.

Cook mixture over medium heat, whisking frequently, until it thickens and begins to form large, lazy-looking bubbles. Remove from heat and pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least three hours.

Serve with fruit of your choice; I prefer mango, but pineapple or blueberries would also be delicious. A squeeze of lime juice and a sprinkling of zest perks it up a bit, too.

sweet skillet cornbread

Cornbread. Maybe it's the southerner in me, but I don't think there's another bread out there that can beat it with a stick. (I don't use that phrase often, so it really means something.)

Only recently did I discover the existence of a dividing line, approximate to the Mason-Dixon, that separates northern cornbread from southern. Many say the sweet, cake-like cornbread baked in a casserole hails from the north, while its savory, cast iron skillet-cooked cousin originates the south. Perhaps because I have both New England and southern roots, I prefer a hybrid of the two--enough sugar to make me feel like I'm eating a little dessert with my dinner, but a nice crust around the edges to give the bread some oomph.

So, I sort of hijacked this recipe from The Pioneer Woman, whom I love (or should I say, whose website I love). I substitute butter for shortening and add a little honey plus a lot of fresh sweet corn. I also halve it since there's just me to eat it, and that could be dangerous. (Plus, I accidentally bought a 6-inch cast iron skillet on eBay...you can't make a whole batch of anything in that.) Hence, this recipe can easily be doubled and cooked in a 10- or 12-inch skillet. 

sweet skillet cornbread 
adapted from The Pioneer Woman 
makes 4 (generous) servings
per serving:  162 cal, 4.1g fat, 28.3g carb, 1.9g fiber, 5.1g protein, 5+ weight watchers

ingredients:
1/2 c yellow cornmeal
1/4 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c buttermilk
1 egg white
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp butter, melted and divided
kernels from 1 ear of corn (about 1/2 c) 

instructions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

Whisk together buttermilk, egg white, and honey. Add buttermilk mixture to cornmeal mixture, and stir to combine. Fold in corn kernels and 1 tbsp melted butter, stirring just until incorporated. Batter will be very thick.

Pour rest of butter into a 6-inch cast iron skillet; set over medium heat. Once skillet is hot, swirl butter to coat it and pour (or rather push) batter into skillet.

Cook on stovetop for about one minute, then transfer to oven and bake for 15-20 minutes more, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.