Pasta Crudo For A Hot Day

It's a heat wave here in New Jersey and that means one thing : spaghetti con salsa crudo. This is an easy  and delicious pasta dish that takes advantage of a summer harvest. It's a raw tomato sauce  cooked when it's mixed with hot pasta.

First , get four tomatoes

Cut into quarters

Then mince into smaller pieces. The recipe I followed on line calls for a small red onion. I used half of a yellow one I had in the fridge.

Again it was minced into fine pieces.

Add a quarter cup of good olive oil

Many salsa crudo recipes don't call for garlic but I like it, especially in any tomato sauce. I tossed in two minced cloves.

Basil usually is added but I didn;t have any so I subbed in a good sprinkling of oregano.

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper were liberally sprinkled in too.

As for the pasta, Barella's thick spaghetti is perfect for it.

This was the hardest and hottest step, waiting for the water to boil and then for the pasta to cook.

 

When the pasta is done, place in a bowl and ladle the salsa crudo over it.

It was delicious,along with being the easiest to make during this blasted heat wave.

Store the pasta and salsa crudo separately. You can use the  leftover sauce for bruschetta the next day.(which is my plan)

This is heat wave cooking. Simple, Easy, Delicious. Best of all it's a no sweat recipe.

Eating Raw

Nothing is worse than a hot kitchen during a heat wave. No one wants to cook, broil bake, or even microwave .Yet what do we eat? Eat raw. There's nothing wrong with sticking to fresh veggies or fruit  to survive these scorching days.

Forget the cooked breakfasts. Save those for the cooler days or eating out. Cold cereal with fruit is the way to go. Eat healthy raw however. Think puffed rice or puffed wheat with chilled low fat milk. For a more healthier spin use almond, coconut, or soy milk. Add the harvest of the season for more color and nutrition. Think  of tossing in a few berries or sliced peaches. Another cool breakfast idea is a granola parfait.Layer vanilla flavored Greek yogurt with layers of granola and different fruits. You can also sub in cottage cheese for the yogurt It's a filling, protein packed way to start the day. Granola is another tasty and healthy way to begin a hot summer's day. It's the star of many a farmer's market, with many homemade varieties for sale..It also makes a good snack through the day too. If it's too sweet, then think a fruit cup for breakfast. Combine different types of melon with chopped peaches, plums and strawberries. Most of us can't function without  a cup of coffee or tea. Luckily there are already cold brewed coffees from Starbucks along with packets of teabags that can be brewed in cold water.

Most people turn to sandwiches for both lunch and dinner. The problem is that they get old fast. Look to the south of France for inspiration. One of the best recipes to create during these steamy days is the pan bagnat. It's slicing a French  boule or rounded bread (a baguette also works here) Take out the middle - which you can eat as a snack with peppered olive oil, . Brush the insides and lid with olive oil You can then have the first layer of peppers, then sliced onions followed by basil leaves. Finish with tomato and ham slices. Some pan bagnat recipes allow for tuna fish  instead of the meat You can make it as hearty or as light as you want. Add some flourishes such as sliced black olives or capers. A similar make is the Scandinavian loaf bread. This is taking another round bread (which you can easily purchase at Panera) , slicing it in half and filling it with a hard boiled egg and a mix of cream cheese, cornichons , dill and red onions. It's then adding salmon and sliced beets.Omit the egg if you don't feel like using the stove top.If you're not into sandwiches, then try salsa crudo. This is like bruschetta but poured on freshly cooked pasta.Take four cups of chopped tomatoes and mix with one fourth cup of minced basil.balsamic vinegar garlic  and olive oil. Mix and let stand thirty minutes before pouring on any cooked pasta.

This is the time to keep the kitchen as cool as possible. Eat raw.It's an easy and healthy way of dealing with these ultra sultry days of summer.

The Most Perfect Pop

What's movie night without popcorn, especially popcorn that's been made on a stove top?There's nothing like it, with the fluffy kernels buttered and salted to perfection.Now it can be made even better - if that's at all possible.

Melissa Clark tackled this in her A Good Appetite column in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday Food section, She had been making stove top corn the way everyone has for decades, cook them in oil and then coat them in melted butter and salt. That changed when she had Jessica Koslow's recipe.Ms. Koslow is the owner and chef of the trendy Los Angeles eatery, Sqirl, She has a knack for taking the familiar and turning it into the extraordinary. Her toast is what put her on the map. Slices of brioche are toasted until burnt then  slathered with creamy ricotta and served in a puddle of homemade jam. Her tweaks are not for the faint of heart home chef - or family popcorn popper .She uses two to three times the amount of oil for cooking the kernels. Think half a cup of oil for one third of a cup of popcorn kernels.That much oil gives the corn a richness and the fluffy whites a sturdy extra crunchiness, what Chef Koslow calls "potato chip sturdiness"/Her way of seasoning is also different. Toss the kernels in dry ones before cooking. That way the fluffy whites aren't sogged down by the  seasonings .

What kind of popcorn and what kind of oil should be used? Ms. Clark doesn't give suggestions on the first. Some food blogs recommend Amish Country which you can buy on Amazon. An easier buy is Orville Redenbacher .from your local grocery store. As for the oil, Chef Koslow recommends grapeseed for its' high smoke point and clean flavor, but you can use another other oil such as sunflower, safflower, canola and corn. Ghee can also be used.Ms. Clark pops hers in a mixture of oil and butter for a buttery taste without the sogginess. She has also combined oils with low smoke point fats such as duck(!) and bacon (!).If you want flavored corn, then stick with dried seasonings such as ground spices, seeds, chiles, nutritional yeast,seasoned salts and dehydrated herbs. Stay away from anything with a high moisture content such as Parmesan cheese lemon zest and fresh herbs.They'll turn the popped kernels into mush. The recipes included are a spicy Pimenton or smoked paprika, a vegan cheesy one that has nutritional yeast filling in for the real thing, and one that's combines cane sugar with turmeric for a unique take on kettle corn. Any of the three is the perfect snack for movie night or or even as an appetizer at a barbecue.


A good movie deserves good popcorn. Pop them this new way with more oil for the ultimate snack experience. Just remember to make a lot. This flavorful new corn will be more of a hit than the movie.

Cottage Cheese Rethought

Cottage cheese  has always been considered just a diet food, gracing plates with a minimum of veggies or fruit on the side. That's all changing thanks to a new generation seeing it in a different light. They're discovering the rich curds cloaked in creaminess as well as appreciating its' protein richness.It's not just for dieters anymore.

 Kim Severson wrote about it in today's New York Times Food section. Cottage cheese has been around since our Colonial days, when housewives had to find a use for leftover milk from after skimming off the cream. Unfortunately modern Americans go crazy over its'cousin, yogurt ,despite the fact that this milk byproduct has double the amount of protein which makes it the ideal lunch or even quick dinner.(although it does have double the sodium). Most pair the food with the the drudgery of dieting.It's not yogurt with its' variety of cute and fancy packaging nor does it come with yummy add ins. This was not always the case. It stood in for meat during the two world wars along with filling in for ricotta and was the highlight of many a diet plate. It gave gravity to salad bars and was even on President Nixon's daily lunch plate, served with a side of fruit. The 1970's was the heyday of cottage cheese with producers pumping out more than a billion pounds per year. Yogurt was still considered strange, belonging to the diets of Europeans and health fanatics. The Eighties changed all that. Yogurt became sweetened and frozen. In the 2000's Greek yogurt came and knocked cottage cheese off the table.

Serious cheese makers are trying to get it back on the country's plates again. Another reason it fell out of favor was the taste.It became flt tasting thanks to it being massed produced along with being filled with preservative gums and starches. The problem is that cottage cheese cannot be mass produced.It has to be made in small batches. Cheese makers, Sue Conley and Peggy Smith, the founders of Cowgirl Creamery, in Marin County, California have created an artisanal cottage cheese, using fresh skim milk from a local dairy. Next comes a simple starter culture  (home chefs can use vinegar when making it at home) that feeds on milk sugar to create lactic acid.Curds form overnight.In the morning cheese makers cut them into pea size bites. The curds are them cooked for about an hour and a half to release their acidity. The whey is then drained from it and the curds are washed three times.The last step is the dressing, responsible for that creamy mouth feel.This determines both the fat content and flavor. The Cowgirl Creamery uses creme fraiche, ideal for the curds. This new  breed of cottage cheese is even winning awards.At a 2017 competition, cottage cheeses from Spain and Luxembourg took home silver awards while two others from Spain and Austria took home the bronze.

Cottage cheese is not just for dieters anymore. It's becoming trendy again thanks to artesanal creameries creating it. It may even knock yogurt off the table

Hipster Condiments From Home

One of the biggest trends of the artisanal food movements is freshly made condiments. A new generation is discovering what their great -grandparents made on a weekly basis homemade mayos and ketchups, not to mention sauces . Any of these are a great addition to the summer menu, heightening the taste of ordinary meats and salads,

Mayo is always in demand.It gives a creaminess to dry sandwiches and helps with creating tasty dressings. It's also relatively easy to whip up.It's taking one egg and mixing both the yolk and the white with lemon juice,dry mustard and distilled or white vinegar. Some recipes call for minced garlic for more of an aioli taste. After these have been blended it's then adding a steady stream of either canola, vegetable,  or olive oils. I would go for the last , simply for the flavor and richness it gives. You can also add a small dash of paprika or for more color and flavor, dried parsley, tarragon or basil. Can the all time favorite Miracle Whip be duplicated in a home kitchen? Yes and it has a surprising ingredient -powdered sugar!! It 's sort of like mayonnaise however with a thicker, pastier texture. This comes from making a roux out of water, dry mustard,flour and white or distilled vinegar.  It's cooked over a low flame and then added to the mayo mixture. Remember homemade mayo and Miracle Whip contain raw egg which is risky for pregnant women, the elderly and the very young.If you're leery about using the raw egg, then switch in aquafaba or chickpea water.It creates the same density as an egg would and just as easy to make. The only difference is adding a table of rice or maple syrup for more flavor..

Ketchup is another table must have, especially if you cook up a lot of burgers and steaks. It's great to make in the summer thanks to the abundance of tomatoes. Just keep in mind you  will need  A LOT of them - namely five pounds. Thankfully there are plenty of farmer's markets plus farm stands to buy them from.Apple cider vinegar is also called for to give it that tart taste as well as Dijon mustard and a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper. Honey is also added for sweetness along with a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon. Some recipes call for two thirds of a cup of white sugar too, along with celery salt. Ketchup does require a slow cooker and it's usually a four to six hour cook.Once you've made ketchup it's an easy leap to making barbecue sauce. Ketchup is the main ingredient in any barbecue sauce. It also requires apple cider vinegar for that distinctive bite along with light brown sugar, dried mustard and Worcestershire sauce, Some recipes do call for molasses but you could sub in dark honey instead for a less intense sweetness..Lemon juice and onion powder are also added to the mix and the entire sauce is cooked in a slow cooker for six to eight hours.If you want to add zing then, pour in a cup of Tennessee bourbon or whiskey. Bourbon barbecue sauce  is good slathered on beef ribs, or even pulled pork.

Look to artisanal condiments to give your backyard grilling some oomph. this season. They're easy to make, without any fuss.It's a great way of bringing the hip and the old fashioned back to family cook outs.

Your Barbecue To Do List

We're a week away from the start of the summer grilling season  and now is the time to  assess what 's needed and not needed.A new grill may be needed or one or two ingredients for the perfect sauce. Get the backyard ready for weeks of tasty outdoor dining.

The star of any cookout is the grill. Many home chefs and grillers are so attached to theirs , that there's usually a big scene when it does have to be retired. How long does one last? That depends on the care. An uncovered Weber grill can only survive two to three years .By the third year, it's usually covered in rust and not really good for use. At the end of the season , make sure you have a good sturdy cover for yours.Ceramic cookers like the Kamado egg can last as long as twenty or thirty years and that's without any protection. If you feel like you need a new one, buy it now. There may even be discounts with it. This is also the time to clean the grill, especially if you haven't used it already ( or if you have  and you just want it clean for cooking). The grates need to be cleaned first, Spray soapy water on them , scrub, then rinse clean. The same applies to the exterior of the grill too.Check the fuel lines and ignition too. The last thing you need is a fiery disaster at a summer party. Also make sure that the implements are OK too.Keep the brush used for slathering on sauce clean along with making sure you have enough skewers for kebobs and holders for corn. This is also a good time to check inventory with your outdoor plates and cutlery. Will you have enough for a large party or just enough for a small family dinner of four? Stores such as Target ,Wal-Mart, and K-Mart sell outdoor melanine plates and sturdy plastic knives and forks for outdoor dining.

Before any cookout , write a list of what you're not only going to make but what you'd like to make. Do you want to go the simple  route of just hot dogs and  hamburgers? Or go more in depth with steaks and ribs?If it's the first then, it's just buying buns and making sure you have enough condiments. A simple salad, whether lettuce or macaroni based will suffice. If you're planning on a bigger do , then make sure you have the ingredients for a marinade and enough room in the fridge to hold a pan of marinating steaks and ribs. This begs the question of buying a bottle of barbecue sauce or creating your own. Home made sauces require a lot of ingredients such as ketchup, brown sugar, and molasses. It's a lot of cooking but well worth it. Another must have for barbecue season is macaroni and beans. Both are used as the base of many salads. To change it up a bit buy a box or two of the tricolored rotelli along with cans of various types of beans. Chickpeas are versatile, both as a base and as an extra in other salads.Other products to stock up on are oil and vinegar for salads and marinades.Desserts are usually simple but it does pay to have popsicle trays handy for making quick and easy treats. Also have a few boxes of instant pudding   around for ice box cakes and easy cream pies.

A to do list is invaluable when planning your next barbecue.That way there will be no disasters or shortages to deal with in the middle of a cook out. It'll make your barbecue sunny and bright.

Summer Seafood

One of the joys of the summer season is the abundance of seafood. There's nothing like grilled scallops or a chowder made with clams and fresh vegetables. Take advantage of the sea's abundance.

Most home chefs  love working with shrimp and scallops. There's very little work, save for the shrimp deveining and they're versatile for both cooking on the grill and on the stovetop. David Tanis  had  a recipe for Thai curried shrimp in his A City Kitchen column in Wednesday's New York Times.They are marinated in a fiery rub of cumin and  coriander to spike it along with turmeric, garlic and grated ginger for ten minutes. The shrimp are then added to a sauce of coconut milk and curry leaves. That sound good but how amazing would they be if they were grilled and served on fire toasted naan? Cajun shrimp is another barbecue treat.Marinate them in a blend of olive oil, honey, paprika, sand soy sauce. Herbs such as thyme, oregano and parsley add to the complexity while cayenne pepper gives it a sharp bite. Scallops can also be grilled. Again, like shrimp , they're amenable to a variety of different spices and herbs.Unlike shrimp, they have a sweet,briny flavor that can be  enhanced with just a squeeze of lemon and lime. Think of brushing them with a lemon butter before tossing on the grill. You can even alternate them with shrimp on skewers too.

Clam, too,are big during the warmer months.Of  course there is both Manhattan and New England clam chowder. Nothing beat the Manhattan, especially if it's made with the harvests of the season. Fresh picked tomatoes are perfect for this thick soup. Celery , onions and potatoes give it its' heartiness. Make sure that it's rich with thyme, which give the chowder its' distinctive taste. You can also make the  denser New England style (although it's better during the wintry months).It's a creamy blend of clams  and potatoes, flavored with celery and onions. Whole cream is added for that thick potage mouth feel. Another summer  shellfish to enjoy  is  crab. This is the time to go crabbing in many states, especially New Jersey. It can be grilled  and served with melted butter. Just remember to pull off the tough , outer shell and clean out the insides. This will make for better tasting meat. If you have many of them , think about a crab roll sandwich which is a take on the classic lobster roll one. Mix the cooled crab meat with mayonnaise and chopped scallions. You can add a squeeze of lemon to cu the intense flavor if wanted. Pile on a hot dog bun and serve with a side. potato chips.

Summer is here and with it comes an abundance of seafood. Enjoy the ocean's harvest, whether grilled, or turned into soups and salads. They''ll make  warm weather eating that much more delicious. delicious.