| Good morning, and happy Saturday to all of you. How did you manage the heat wave this past week? Did you cook, or did you cobble together meals that didn't require heating up your kitchen? Did you cut up wedges of watermelon and eat them out of hand over a sink to cool off? Or maybe you were prepared and batch-prepped a few components to pull out on a moment's notice and throw together a grain bowl of sorts? In the summertime, I love the riches of the farmers markets, longer daylight and watching lightning bugs at night in my garden. But I hate heat and humidity, and have an inverse relationship with cooking as temperatures climb. I want dishes I can quickly pull together and then grab from the fridge for a filling meal. And when we head to our community pool to swim, laze in the shade of leafy trees, and eat two-for-twenty-five-cents Fla-Vor-Ice popsicles from the snack shack, I want something I can pack in the cooler for a delicious and unfussy poolside lunch. That's precisely what Becky Krystal has come up with. (You can thank her when she's back next week.) Her Pizza Pasta Salad channels the flavors of one of the world's most popular foods, is easy to throw together, requires minimal cooking, encourages riffing and customization, and makes a generous batch ideal for sharing or spreading over several days. Becky combines shelf-stable tortellini with fresh mozzarella pearls, diced pepperoni, fresh and sun-dried tomatoes and basil, all dressed in a zesty vinaigrette. In the past two weeks I've made it twice, subbing in spicy soppressata for the pepperoni and omitting sundried tomatoes, which my son won't eat. He liked the salad so much, he took it to camp for lunch for several days. Aaron Hutcherson also had minimal-effort-maximum-payoff on his mind. His Corn and Scallion Fried Rice, adapted from the cookbook "Salt Sugar MSG" by Calvin Eng with Phoebe Melnick, relies on shelf-stable canned corn, scallions and pantry staples, such as salt, sugar, black pepper and often-misunderstood and unfairly maligned MSG, the latter to enhance the umami of the dish. Right before serving, each bowl of the stir-fry gets a pat of butter, which melts into the rice mixture, adding dimension and lusciousness. Another recipe this week with a high ROI (that's return-on-investment, to borrow a term from my past finance life) is Daniela Galarza's Skillet Pork Chops and Peppers. You start by searing bone-in pork shops in a cast-iron pan, and use the flavorful porky bits and rendered fat to cook sliced sweet peppers in the same skillet until charred and smoky. While the recipe is Daniela's ode to Jimmy Nardello peppers, which have a fabulous origin story, if you can't find them, any kind of bell or other sweet pepper will do. Sometimes, it's the little things that take a dish from good to sublime, and such is the case with Ellie Krieger's Warm Shrimp, Chorizo and Spinach Salad, in which a small amount of Spanish dry-cured sausage transforms sautéed shrimp and jammy tomatoes. They are then served atop a baby spinach and onion salad, with the entire dish ready in 20 minutes, start to finish. And last but not least, Joe Yonan wrote about a new-to-me shakshuka preparation. The version common through the Levant features eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce, and it's one of my favorite breakfast (and breakfast-for-dinner) dishes. In Yemeni Shakshuka, which Joe adapted from Hawa Hassan's new cookbook, "Setting a Place for Us," beaten eggs get stirred into a sauce that's seasoned with the heady Yemeni spice blend hawaij, which contains black pepper, cumin, turmeric, cardamom, coriander and clove. The combination of flavors is at once earthy, warm, sweet and gently spicy. I can't wait to make it soon. Not taking any trips this summer? Editorial aide Victoria Caruso put together a roundup of recipes that travel the length of U.S. Route 1, from Maine all the way down to the Florida Keys. Taste the flavors of the East Coast without having to leave your driveway. Need answers on a recipe or a cooking technique? Join recipes editor Becky Krystal and staff writer Aaron Hutcherson for their weekly cooking chat on Wednesday, July 2, at noon Eastern. Submit your questions now, and come back when the chat starts up. Wishing you all a restorative weekend, with as much — or as little — time in the kitchen as you desire. Happy cooking. |
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