Make these before the summer produce disappears
Hello, all of you.
Every summer, as I luxuriate in the flood of seasonal produce, I have an internal tug-of-war between the part of me that just wants to eat it all fresh, plain and unadorned, and the part of me that wants to try every rhubarb recipe, every corn recipe, every plum recipe in my archive.
This isn't just about laziness. (Though it does have a lot to do with not wanting to turn on the oven. My house is far better insulated than it is air-conditioned.) When fresh peaches are so delicious on their own, in some ways, it feels like sacrilege to mess with them.
My focus this year was on preserving, and I have the full jars sitting in the corner of the hallway waiting for cupboard space to free up to prove it. I worked my way through a lot of the recipes from Preservation Society, and I highly recommend the book if you have jam-making ambitions of your own. It's the complex recipes that stood out to me, like the Strawberry Margarita jam with its lime, tequila and Triple Sec. My sourdough starter is still going strong, and I predict a lot of toast this winter to brighten up our hibernation.
Here are a few other recipes I've made recently that I enjoyed.
Plum Poppyseed Muffins
These are from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook, though I handily found them online too. I subbed in 25 percent almond flour, which I think goes with the flavour profile.
Kale Salad with Peaches and Pepitas
If you can find any peaches left, make this salad! If you can't, make it anyways. We've tried it with both curly and black kale and we prefer curly, and I like to add a drizzle of maple syrup to offset the tartness of the lemon.
The recipe calls for either walnut or pumpkinseed oil, and I did the latter. Tip: I have been buying both oil and seeds from the purveyors of my favourite protein powder, and their oil is unbelievably good. The seeds they sell and use – a flat, dark green kind – are a variety grown in Central Europe that are my favourite. When I want a quicker kale salad, I've been making just the dressing of this one, without the toppings.
Blistered Shishito Peppers with Miso
Seems like Ontario has had a bumper crop of all kinds of peppers this year thanks to the heat. We've made this easy shishito pepper recipe a bunch of times, served with rice and eggs (or you could do tofu).
Summer Harvest Chowder
This one is from the Rebar Cookbook and I hadn't made it in years. It is truly one of those recipes you have to make this time of year or not at all. The recipe makes a lot, and it's best fresh, though the leftovers are pretty good too.
The cookbook also has a tomatillo corn chowder recipe I'm going to try this week – I've never made it before because fresh tomatillos seem to be here today, gone tomorrow.
If you're a sourdough person, serve it with these biscuits.
Coronation Grape Clafoutis
I made this recipe for the first time a few years ago and it was incredible. Then I made it last week and it was fine. Possibly because I used milk instead of cream and reduced the sugar, but also perhaps because my grapes didn't have a lot of flavour. You want to make this with the grapes that taste like purple versus just tasting like sugar. (Side note: if you are vegan or gluten-free, there are a million "alternative" clafoutis recipes online, just look those up and use grapes.)
Ratatouille
Another Smitten Kitchen winner, this one is oven-baked and uses thinly sliced vegetables. You can just layer it haphazardly if you aren't concerned about your dinner being photogenic.
Enjoy, and see you in squash season!
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