Summerin' Succotash!

Summerin' Succotash

Huzzah, it's corn season! This year, we even tried to grow our own, and while we have a few very small ears, they certainly aren't ready for harvesting. Around here, the typical corn varieties we find are Butter and Sugar (alternating kernels of sunflower-yellow and butter colors), and Silver Queen (white-blonde kernels). We love them both and eat as much as we can from late July until the end of September when our local farmstands abound with ears.

A Couple in the Kitchen's own corn patch and Thai pepper plant

Straight off the cob is the perfect way to eat corn, in our estimation. But now and again we buy or cook too many ears and like to experiment with the leftovers. Some recent market finds mingled with our own garden veggies in our latest favorite side dish - succotash. 

Fresh mise en place for Summerin' Succotash

The recipe is simple and the result, summery fresh goodness. From the farmers' market, we shelled whole lima beans and sawed the corn off of two freshly shucked ears. From our own garden, we dug up a couple of shallots, shredded a few basil leaves, and chopped two tiny Thai hot peppers (love how they grow end-up!). We ran across the street and "borrowed" a beautiful red tomato from our neighbor which we diced. A little bacon grease leftover from that morning's breakfast, some time over medium heat, and a dash of seasoning and we had a side dish worthy of the season, perfectly paired with smoked pork chops.

Cooking process - so easy!

Substitution tips: You can use olive oil instead of bacon grease to keep it meat-free. If you can't find fresh lima beans, use about a cup's worth of frozen. Jalapeno would work instead of the Thai pepper as well.

Summerin' Succotash

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon bacon grease

2 shallots, peeled and sliced

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

2 ears corn, shucked, kernels removed

1 quart fresh lima beans, shelled (yielding about a cup) 

1 large tomato, diced

2 Thai peppers, finely diced

kosher salt, to taste

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

13-15 basil leaves, shredded

Heat the bacon grease in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic powder and cook until they start to soften, about two minutes. Stir in the corn and beans and allow to cook until they are warmed through, about five minutes. Add the tomato and peppers and cook another 2-3 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and the cider vinegar. Remove from heat and toss in the basil leaves. Serve warm.

Grilled, smoked pork chop and "summerin' succotash"

Holy Hasselbacks!

For some time now, Amy has been fascinated by Hasselback potatoes. They just look so fancy, so elegant, as if they took several hours, a few expensive gadgets, and a sous chef or two to create, when really all you need is a sharp knife and a steady hand. Careful patience and precise seasoning generates this rather impressive side dish that elevates even the simplest meat with which these potatoes are served.

Hasselback, or "accordion" potatoes, are so named because they were invented, way back in 1700's, at the Hasselbacken restaurant in Sweden. Medium-sized potatoes are sliced only most-of-the-way before being roasted, thus creating the unique look and wonderful texture (crisp on the outside, soft on the inside). 

We've served them drizzled with olive oil or butter and seasoned with only salt and pepper, maybe some garlic. But, this recipe from Serious Eats editor and The Food Lab author J. Kenji Lopez-Alt was recently featured in the New York Times food section, and it really intrigued. He describes it as "sideways potato gratin," and seriously, if those pictures are not food porn, we don't know what is.

Ours was not quite as lovely, and we think it's because we ignored the warning that we might not need all the cheese and cream mixture and threw it all in anyway. 'Cuz that's how we roll. Next time, maybe we'll listen. Maybe not.

Get the recipe here.

M.'s Perfect Pasta Salad

Let it be known that neither of us is a real fan of pasta salad. Which is why we both found ourselves happily surprised when we tried our sister-in-law's version during our annual visit to New Jersey. M.'s colorful rainbow mix of fresh vegetables coupled with a slightly sweetened mayonnaise made this a perfect pasta salad, one we enjoyed enough to make for a potluck the very next weekend. It's fresh, it's easy, and it feeds a crowd. 

Feel free to change your pasta shape - M. uses ditalini, but we prefer the classic elbows. 

M.'s Perfect Pasta Salad

(serves 10-12 as a side dish)

Ingredients:

1 pound pasta

1 red pepper, cleaned and diced

3 carrots, peeled and diced

1 yellow pepper, cleaned and diced

3 stalks celery, diced

1 red onion, diced

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/4 to 1/2 cup mayonnaise, to taste

1-2 tablespoons granulated sugar, to taste

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Boil water and prepare pasta according to package directions; drain and set aside to cool. Mix all vegetables (peppers, carrots, celery, onions) and parsley together in a large bowl, then add cooled pasta. Fold in mayonnaise and sugar, then season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Potato, Leek and Celeriac Gratin

Ah, gratin. You demon of the side dish world. So full of cream and butter. So unapologetically decadent. So tantalizingly indulgent. We can't resist you. We call you "vegetables" but deep inside we know the ugly truth. We'd likely be better off eating a Big Mac. Still, there you are on our table, beside a rotisseried chicken. Welcome back. Be sure to visit again soon. 

PS You look very nice in your beautiful baking dish! (Thanks, K!)

Potato, Leek and Celeriac Gratin

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 large branch fresh rosemary

2-3 garlic cloves, peeled

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 leek, halved lengthwise, then thinly sliced

2 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1 celeriac (celery root), peeled and thinly sliced

4 ounces grated Gruyere cheese

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons herbs de Provence

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the cream, rosemary and garlic bubbles start to form along the sides of the pan. Turn off heat and set aside. Melt butter in a small skillet and sweat the leeks, seasoned with a pinch of kosher salt, taking care not to brown them (about 5-6 minutes); set aside. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray. Layer 1/3 of the potato slices, 1/3 of the celeriac slices, 1/3 of the cooked leeks and 1/3 of the gruyere. Season with salt and pepper and continue the process a second and third time. Strain the cream through a fine mesh sieve and pour it into the dish over the vegetables. Sprinkle top with herbs de Provence. Cover dish tightly with foil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes, until bubbly. Remove foil and continue to bake another 15 minutes, until top is golden brown. 

EZ Orzo Salad

On Saturday, one of our nieces turned 30. Yes, that makes us feel old, and she's not even the oldest of our 15 nieces and nephews (including a great-nephew and a great-niece) who range in age from 37 years to 6 weeks old. The party Saturday, for K, was a casino night theme, and one of the many activities was to answer questions (there were 30) about the birthday girl in order to win extra bucks. And one of the things we found out about K is that her favorite salad is orzo salad.

Now, we know for a fact that K's orzo salad is delicious because she made it for us once. We foolishly did not ask her for the recipe, but orzo salad was on our minds the next day when we needed to come up with a side dish for a little Labor Day BBQ we were hosting. And so, here is our version of easy orzo salad, inspired by our beautiful niece K. It makes plenty (we fed 8 and still had some left over), and is a great way to use those cherry tomatoes that just keep on growing in our garden! And it went perfectly with our lemon-rosemary rotisserie chickens!

To find the recipe for the roasted tomatoes, go HERE.

Orzo Salad

Ingredients:

1 lb. orzo

1/2 lb. crumbled feta cheese

2 tablespoons boxwood basil

1 tablespoon purple basil

1 cup slow-roasted tomatoes with garlic

1 tablespoon basil oil

Prepare the orzo according to package directions. When it is done, drain it and rinse it well with cold water. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Apple, Raisin and Celery Seed Slaw (Secret Recipe Club)

It's "That Time of Year." We're both teachers in "real" life, so it's cram time  - finishing up curriculum, grading papers, writing and giving exams - not to mention chaperoning and/or attending proms, field trips, end-of-year ceremonies, SATs and graduations after school and on weekends. Add to that all the family stuff, like First Communions, baby showers, birthday parties, and barbecues, graduation parties, etc., and our social calendar is filled to the brim. We haven't been giving the blog enough of our attention already, and then bam! Suddenly we realize it's Secret Recipe Club time!

 

Thank goodness for the wide variety of recipes on our assigned blog for this month, Feast on the Cheap. Feast on the Cheap is a mother-daughter collaboration that offers readers plenty of recipes to choose from, with prices per serving included, figuring in the cost of each ingredient and based on a "well-stocked" pantry (for which they offer suggestions). Their pictures are gorgeous, and their Recipe Index is an excellent source for ideas. We've bookmarked this one, and so should you!

We would have had a very difficult time choosing a recipe, except for the fact that this particular recipe had to suit a purpose. It had to be something that would feed a crowd and would be kid-pleasing, for we were going to take it to the birthday party D and J were throwing for their 3-year-old daughter. And, unfortunately, they had plenty of desserts, so we couldn't go that route.

Which brings us to our choice: Apple, Raisin, and Celery Seed Slaw, which costs a mere $0.85 cents per serving, went well with burgers, and pleased both kids and adults alike. At once both sweet and savory, slightly tart and delightfully crunchy, this slaw was a hit. We followed the recipe exactly, so we'll save the typing and direct you to go HERE, where you can also see a photo of the finished product, which (in our chaotic mindset) we neglected to take. Oops!!!

 

Slow-Cooker Panettone Stuffing

When yet another big cardboard box arrived on our doorstep, Chris was wondering what I had bought now (I may or may not have a little Internet shopping problem...). Fact is, it was more treats from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program. This time, we received not one but two large packages of Bauducco Panettone - one was with Hershey's chocolate chips, and one with Sun-Maid raisins and candied fruits. In case you're not sure what panettone is, it is an Italian bread-like cake that is usually served around the holidays. Once we opened the box, our creative cooking juices started to flow.

A few days later we planned to make a pork loin for dinner. Sick of plain old veggies or potatoes, we wanted a side dish with pizzazz! Something different! That's when it came to us. We'd make stuffing out of the panettone!

It was a brilliant idea, really, and we're quite proud of the results. The basis of the recipe is my grandmother's bread stuffing, but we made a few adaptations. For the bread, we (obviously) used the panettone with raisins and candied fruits. Of course, this had an inherent sweetness that needed some balance. To bring in savory flavors, we added onions, celery, sage leaves, and chicken broth, and we cooked it in a slow-cooker to make life easy.

Yummy, yum, yum! Sweet, savory, moist and nicely browned, this one is a keeper, and may become our go-to holiday stuffing. It paired nicely as a side to our pork and apples that we had browned then braised in white wine, sage and a dash of port. 

Break up panettone

Saute onions, celery and fresh sage in butter

Add chicken broth and allow vegetables to soften

Mix vegetables and panettone together

Allow to cook three hours in a slow-cooker

Slow-Cooker Panettone Stuffing

Ingredients:

1 26.2-ounce package Bauducco Panettone with Sun-Maid Raisins and candied fruits

1 stick unsalted butter

1 medium onion, diced

2 celery stalks, diced

5-6 fresh sage leaves, chopped

1 3/4 cups chicken broth

1 teasoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Break the panettone into 1/2-inch cubes and place in a large bowl. Melt butter in a large skillet. Add onions, celery and sage and cook until softened, about four minutes. Add chicken broth and continue to cook, about three minutes more. Pour broth mixture onto bread pieces and mix well. Rub sides of slow-cooker with butter or cooking spray to avoid sticking, then pour stuffing into slow-cooker. Cook on high for one hour. Stir well, then turn slow-cooker to low. Cook another two hours on low.