Sweet 'n Spicy Summer Saute

So you think I haven't cooked or baked anything for a month, do you?

Or you think I've been too busy enjoying lazy summer days to blog? Or perhaps you think I've been cooking and baking a moderate amount (hey, we all need to eat, right?), but that I've been too busy packing and driving and moving to Seattle to update in here. If you chose option 3, you're right! The cooking has gone on; it's just the text that is backlogged, which means that you're in for a minor slew (minor slew?) of updates about Summer produce... Just in time for Autumn.

So let's get to it.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love honey, and I've been looking for fun new ways to incorporate it into pretty much anything I eat. Hence, my honey-spiced corn succotash:


Ingredients:

- Corn (duh): About 1 ear per person, if served as a side.
- Cherry tomatoes, quartered: About 1/4 cup per person (1 cup for 4 servings).
- Onion: As much as you want
- Green beans (or wax beans) chopped.
- Butter.
- Honey.
- Cayenne Pepper.
- Salt and pepper.



Just to pretend I actually measure my ingredients out when I cook, let's say that I made 4 servings, which would be: 4 ears of corn, 1 cup cherry tomatoes, half an onion, about 20-25 wax beans (how do you measure these?), 1 tbsp. butter, 2-3 tbsp. honey, 1/2 tsp. Cayenne, and salt and pepper to taste.

As per usual, this is an easy one-pan dish; however, it takes two rounds of sauteing. The beans go first, in their own round: You can cook them with butter or a little olive oil over medium heat for about 7 or 8 minutes with a little salt and pepper, and then remove and set aside. Warning, as with bell peppers, pretty purple wax beans begin to turn green as you cook them; don't buy for their drama unless you plan to serve them raw.



The second round begins with some onions sauteed in butter over medium heat (2-5 minutes). Then add the corn and tomatoes and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.



Add the honey. Or, to be fancy, drizzle it.

Add (or sprinkle) the Cayenne.



Stir in the green/wax beans. Continue to cook over medium for another 5-10 minutes to allow flavors to blend. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve it up: Sweet with a kick!

Perfect Summer Asparagus

Winter may bring the rain that waters our grass and keeps the golden hills green, but for my money, there are no greens as vibrant as summer peas, green beans, and asparagus.

And while asparagus can be a finikey food (bitter, easily overcooked, undercooked), there's no better time to give it a shot than right now, with this simple palate-pleasing side dish!

ASPARAGUS with PESTO, PARMESAN and TOMATOES:


All of the ingredients are in the title, and it's a recipe without any real measurements, as you can add however much you want of any ingredient. I usually just cook a bunch of asparagus and then add toppings to taste.

I've made this dish several times, and I used to boil the asparagus: Add to a pot of boiling water and cook for 5 minutes, drain, and return to pot. Cover with a tablespoon of olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste.

However, now I prefer to grill it, even if only on a stove-top grill pan (though outside grills give a great flavor too): Heat pan over medium-high flame, toss asparagus with 1 tablespoon olive oil and grill about 5 minutes, rotating to get marks on both sides. Turn off heat and season with salt and pepper.


On the side, prepare a bowl of pesto and tomatoes. I typically use store-bought pesto and cherry tomatoes (sliced in half), but this most recent time was a fresh pesto and chopped heirlooms from the farmer's market. If the pesto does not have cheese in the ingredients, add a few handfuls of freshly-grated Parmesan and stir together. Mix together with the chopped tomatoes.


Serve asparagus either on one central platter or individual plates. Top with a dollop of pesto tomatoes, and finish with another pinch of freshly-grated Parmesan.

Serve with a favorite meal. For instance, alongside baked cod and fingerling potatoes...mmmyum!

Summer Salad

I am taking a break from Spain updates (though check back later to read about delicious Andalucia!) in order to celebrate the wonderful bounty of Summer produce. There's nothing I don't love about Summer: it has berries and grilling and vacations and warm, dusky evenings (if not in San Francsico, at least somewhere)... Some like to say that California has no seasons, but if that's true, then why can't it be like this all year long?

Steve and I have begun going to the Ferry Building farmer's market semi-regularly on Saturdays to buy produce, enjoy free samples, and indulge in a late-morning glass of wine. And that is where these beautiful, beautiful heirloom tomatoes came from.


I know that tomato salads have the simplest recipe in the world: Slice tomatoes. Slice mozzarella. Put on plate. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic. Salt to taste. But for this one, I tried to implement a few tips from Jamie Oliver's repetoir, beginning with mildly dehydrating the tomatoes. That is, after the tomatoes are sliced or chopped, put them into a colander and salt generously. This adds the nice salty finish that you'll eventually want on the salad anyway, and it draws out the extra water, resulting in a more concentrated and intense tomato flavor.


I also diced and added in one mild chile pepper (the red ones I wanted were out of season; thus, I went with green), most of which was tossed with some olive oil and chopped basil and into the tomatoes. Some of the diced pepper was kept aside to garnish the mozzarella rounds.


Dish up and drizzle with balsamic... The prettiest summer salad you've ever seen!