The Quick Fix: Baby Tomato Recipes

Brace yourself for the onslaught of summer tomatoes. I especially love baby tomatoes. They're versatile, easy to use and as the band Cameo says, "They taste like Can-day." Get them at your local farmers' market now through September. Baby tomatoes come in a vibrant array of varieties, so the more you mix and match, the more colorful, tasty and healthy your meals will be.

Here are some super quick and easy recipes you can make with baby tomatoes throughout the season.

One Recipe, Many Uses
Slice the tomatoes in half and catch their juices in a big bowl. Mix with minced fresh garlic, torn basil leaves, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Let sit for a few minutes to let the flavors meld. Then, toss over:

A piece of fish, chicken or steak hot off the grill.

Hot pasta like farfalle or spaghetti and finish with lots of grated parmesan or pecorino cheese.

Some garlic-rubbed, grilled bread for a great bruschetta appetizer.

Salsa
Slice tomatoes in quarters, catch their juice and mix with chopped red onion, garlic, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice and zest, salt and pepper to taste. Let the flavors meld and use as chunky salsa for chips, over grilled quesadillas, or fish or skirt steak tacos.

Also, check out this 15 minute roasted tomato pasta recipe I wrote last summer.

The Quick Fix: Butter, Radish and Sea Salt Sandwiches

This was my dinner last night. This was also an appetizer I served to friends last week before a big, fried chicken dinner. It's incredibly delish, simple, fast and you will surprise and delight your friends and loved ones when you serve it.

You will find radishes on the scene at your local farmers' market right now. There are different varieties out there; you might want to try one you haven't tried before. They will vary in color, shape, size and flavor. Try French breakfast radishes if you can find them. They're oblong and red with a white tip. They have a crisp texture and more delicate flavor than some other varieties.

You can go about this a few ways: You can slice up a great loaf of bread, slather it with room temperature butter, throw some thinly sliced radishes on top, sprinkle it with sea salt (try Maldon or maybe a chunky, high quality grey salt) and call it a day. For the bread averse (I know you're out there), you can simply dip your trimmed radishes in the butter, sprinkle some sea salt and enjoy it that way. Your call. On a hot summer day, these babies go great with a glass of Rosé.

It goes without saying you'll want to use the best ingredients you can find. Find an artisan loaf of bread. Nope, sorry, Panera, doesn't cut it. Check your farmers' market. Check your food coop. Check smaller gourmet shops and bakeries. Is there someone in your area making gorgeous hearth loaves of bread from scratch? That's the bread you want to buy. In Chicago, we have some great options which include Anne at Crumb, Cook au Vin, and the prolific Pamela Fitzpatrick at Fox & Obel.

There are also local creameries making small-batch butter with sweet cream from cows grazing on pasture! Once you taste pasture butter you will never go back. And ahem, this butter is loaded with good fat! Did you know that milk from pastured cows also contains an ideal ratio of essential fatty acids or EFAs including Omega 3s and 6s? Read it and weep, people! It's healthy for you! Consider yourself unshackled.

The award-winning Nordic Creamery in Wisconsin is selling their Summer Butter right now at Green City Market and at Provenance Food & Wine. You can also buy it online. And it is not simply hyperbole when I say this butter is life changing.

This is butter that killer hostess gifts are made of. Enjoy!

Everywhere A Squash Squash

These days, you can't turn a corner without running into a squash. Their maudlin little autumnal displays seem to be everywhere. Truth be told, they've just never turned me on. They seem to need a lot of foreplay before they give up some love with their impenetrable skins and hour plus roasting times.

I was presented with a reason to try, yet again, to embrace the squash because my friends from Harvest Moon Farms gave me a lovely care package with pasture raised meats, Italian greens, farm-fresh eggs and yes, a box of squash - Acorn and Delicata.

I had to come up with something new because the standard squash-apple soup recipe just leaves me cold. So I searched and tested a few new things to do with roasted squash.

First, Roast The Squash

You need a sharp knife and a good, sturdy cutting board to cut these suckers. Cut the squash in half, use a large spoon to scoop out the seeds and strings. Put in a roasting pan skin side down, throw some butter, chunky sea salt and fresh ground pepper in the little wells where the seeds used to be and cook at 375 for an hour or more until the flesh is soft and caramelized. Let cool and either scoop out large chunks with a spoon or peel away the skin and cut into square chunks. They don't need to look pretty to taste good.

So, these are my riffs on squash. Feel free to add, subtract and improvise to your taste.

Salad Ideas

Arugula, roasted squash, bacon, blue cheese, toasted walnuts, cider vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper

Arugula, prosciutto, roasted squash, pecorino shavings, good balsamic, olive oil, salt and pepper

Rainbow or red chard (I love it as a salad green, cut out the stems and saute them with garlic until soft, let cool and add to the salad), roasted squash, fresh mozzarella, sherry vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper

Grain Salads

Farro, squash, red onion, walnuts, goat cheese, walnut oil, salt and pepper

Couscous, squash, red onion, harissa, cinammon, sultanas (golden raisins plumped in hot water), toasted slivered almonds, walnut oil, salt and pepper

Panini

Griddle this - thinly slice the squash and toss with a touch of sherry vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper; add to sturdy sandwich bread with a thick lick of goat cheese, arugula and bacon.

Squash, I hardly knew thee...

Stuffed Asian Cabbage Rolls

Whenever I get bored with my diet, or when I've had too much dairy, meat and starch (which is often), I always turn to Asian flavors to refresh and satisfy my palate. Hot, salty, sour and sweet combined with fresh aromatics like ginger, garlic, mint, basil, cilantro and lime - it always hits the spot.

My introduction to Asian cooking at home was the Nina Simonds book, Asian Noodles - a simple primer for cooking a variety of Pan-Asian soup, salad and noodle classics.

It was this book that began my habit of storing Asian staples in my pantry so I could satisfy my Asian comfort food cravings whenever I wanted. Now I'll just pick up a protein and whatever vegetables I need and come home and make Cinnamon Beef Noodles, Peanut Noodle Salad or Thai Red Curry soup in a pinch.

Just a few of the pantry essentials I keep around are: soy sauce, red curry paste, canned coconut milk, Mirin, a sweet rice wine used for cooking and Thai fish sauce. The words 'fish' and 'sauce' together seem to scare a lot of people but if you love and eat Thai food, you're already enjoying it without realizing it. Fish sauce in Southeast Asia is like salt in America, they season everything with it.

I picked up a copy of Jamie Oliver's new magazine, the eponymously titled, Jamie at the book store this summer and in it were a couple of great looking cabbage recipes including this one. To the plain eye, cabbage is perhaps the least sexy vegetable sitting in the produce aisle, but what a work horse and I love how quietly it carries all the other ingredients without demanding any credit. Kind of like the supporting cast in all those Jennifer Aniston movies. Ouchie.

Anywho, I finally got around to making them this week. I love this recipe and honestly can't wait to make them again. It required little skill, satisfied my craving for Asian flavors, was (is) incredibly healthy and I responded like an excited child to the perfect little packages that fit right in my hand. I also love anything that requires dipping. That said, I think this would make a great snack or lunch or you can double it as a main for dinner. You could pair it with a bowl of steamed rice with chopped scallions and a simple miso soup. Done.

Stuffed Asian Cabbage Rolls from Issue #2 of Jamie Magazine

You will need a food processor for this recipe.

Ingredients
1 white cabbage
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 fresh red chili, halved and seeded
Small bunch cilantro
Thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled (use the back of a spoon to scrape the skin off, it works like a charm)
2 skinless chicken breasts cut into large chunks
soy sauce
rice vinegar
chili oil (see below) to serve

Instruction

Put a large pan of boiling, salted water on to boil. Peel back the outer leaves on the cabbage. Coax and click off 8 round leaves (it doesn't matter if they tear a little). Core the cabbage, reserving the stalk; chop the cabbage into quarters and set aside.

Drop the 8 leaves into the boiling water for 3 minutes, or until you can pick one up and bend it easily. Remove to a tray to cool down.

Put your garlic, chili, cilantro and ginger into a food processor and whiz for 30 seconds. Ad a pinch of sea salt and the chopped cabbage stalk and pulse for 30 seconds to break it down a bit. Add the chicken and one quarter of the cabbage and pulse it for 30-60 seconds until the flavors combine and you've got a nice coarse chicken mince.

Put a piece of plastic wrap on a board and scoop the mince on to it. Divide it in eight equal amounts.

Grease a large colander or steamer tray (that fits comfortably into a pan) with a bit of chili oil or olive oil. Take a soft cabbage leaf in your hand, scoop one pile of chicken mince in the middle then fold in the sides until you have a closed package. Lay it in the colander with the leaves tucked under. Repeat 7 more times.

Pour a few inches of water into the pan that fits your steamer and put over a medium flame to boil. When the water's boiling, place the colander on top so it fits into the pan and seal with a lid or some foil and steam for about 10 minutes. Do not take the lid off. When time's up, cut one and see if it's cooked through - it will be obvious.

Serve right away with a dipping sauce of equal parts soy sauce and rice vinegar in a little dish. You can also do just soy if that pleases you.

Jamie also suggests a little chili oil which can be bought or made. here's a quick recipe for homemade chili oil:

Buy 2 or 3 different dried chilis at your Asian grocer, remove stems and heat in very hot and dry pan for about 1 minute. Put them in a high powered blender or pulse in the food processor with an inexpensive pint of olive oil and blitz for a minute or two. Keep in a jar in a dark, cool place. Use liberally!

A Meal For The Uninspired

I'm going to be honest. I've been feeling completely uninspired. I haven't been cooking at all. I've been living on grilled cheese and salad, pretzels, tzatziki and beer, an occasional Italian sub sandwich from Bari Foods, sauteed kale and smoothies. My house is also a sty. My house is never a sty. I may as well have farm animals roaming around in here, it's that bad. And the piece d'resistance? I haven't showered in days. There you go; more than you ever wanted to know about me. It happens, right? I'm not perfect.

I'm learning how NOT to be such a control freak. I've had to put all my energy into one thing and let a few other things go. That one thing happens to be my new Pantry Essentials Guide that I'll be offering on this very site in the coming week and it's taken a lot out of me. That's why no post last week, I apologize. It's paying off, though. It's comprehensive and well-designed and I'm very proud of it.

What I've been discovering about myself this year is that I'm a master improviser. I'm not ready for Iron Chef, but I can usually make a great meal out of whatever I have around.

This was my breakfast. It would also make a great lunch or dinner. It's a corn tortilla with melted cheddar, softly scrambled eggs, chopped avocado, a mess of cilantro and a pinch of sea salt. I made three of these and they were incredibly satisfying and took 5 minutes to prepare.

Here's how I did it:

I heated a touch of canola oil in a skillet, sliced some local cheddar on a tortilla and popped it in the skillet until the tortilla got a little crispy and the cheese began to melt. While that cooked, I scrambled some eggs and then tossed them into the tortilla. In addition to the avocado and cilantro, I added some Greek yogurt (porque, no sour cream aquí) and a dab of salsa.

Kids would love these, too. What's not to love?

TIP:
I keep cilantro in my kitchen almost all the time. For me, it's an essential and very flavorful addition to both Mexican and Asian dishes such as tacos and quesadillas or coconut curries and cucumber salads. I cut the stems, remove any rubber bands and put it in a glass of water covered loosely with a plastic produce bag in the fridge. It lasts quite a while this way.

Homemade Creamed Corn: The Jewbilly Strikes Again

Yes, I am a Jewbilly. A proud and noble Jewbilly. My grandfather was a Russian Jew from Kiev, my grandmother a Southerner from Cowan; a tiny town in the hills of South Central Tennessee. I spent many childhood summers there, riding horses and enjoying long, hot, slow southern days. My grandmother's sister, my Aunt Punk, was a great southern cook and one of my favorite human beings of all time. She introduced me to persimmons and paw paws and she made the best fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, slaw and creamed corn I'll probably ever encounter. I was too young to think to ask her for her recipes which were probably never written down, but instead stored in her muscle memory as she made her signature dishes over and over for most of her life as many great, home cooks do. In hindsight, I only wish I'd paid more attention.

Food for thought: It occurs to me that the tradition of passing down recipes from one generation to the next has been lost in our culture because we've become more reliant on processed foods and cook less. I think that's something we desperately need to bring back.

As a little girl, I was addicted to her creamed corn. She'd make huge batches in the summer and freeze it so she always had surplus. I've always wanted to try to re-create it.

As fate would have it, I recently discovered The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook and I have to say, it's my new favorite. It's engagingly written, and contains both classic and updated southern recipes emphasizing fresh ingredients that are very easy and incredibly satisfying. The Lee Brothers also have a catalog business selling southern specialties such as boiled peanuts, hominy and chow chows. So, if you're a Southerner living in Alaska or abroad, and you're homesick for your favorite foods, it might be a great resource for you.

If you've only ever had creamed corn out of a can you're in for a surprise. How can you go wrong with fresh sweet corn, butter, cream, salt and pepper? After I made it, I realized it wasn't my Aunt Punk's recipe (I'm pretty sure she used lard and flour in hers) but it's a damn fine substitute.

I think it'd be great layered over a big bowl of mashed potatoes (starch on starch!), or if you're a Veg, instead of soup and salad try a warm bowl of creamed corn paired with a beautiful vinegary salad. Or serve it aside grilled pork chops or fried chicken.

In classic Jewbilly style, I'll be having mine with a side of brisket. Très treyf.

Creamed Corn
From The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-be Southerners
enough for 6
Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

8 ears of fresh corn
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons half & half, whole milk, skim milk, or heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (I used 2 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper or white pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon sugar (I would only use sugar if your corn isn't sweet - use it sparingly, to taste)

Instruction

Cut the corn from the cob and scrape the cobs with the edge of a spoon to extract as much of the juice and material as possible. You should have about 5 1/4 cups of corn.

In a skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat until it's frothy. Add the corn and stir constantly for 1 minute.

Pour in the half and half and add the salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to low to a bubbly simmer and stir vigilantly until the liquid has thickened to a dense, yellowish sauce, about 12 minutes.

Turn off the heat and let steam for 2 minutes. Serve immediately, making sure to pool some of the sauce around each serving.