Some home cooking
As bounty of the season continues, autumn can wait
The time is ripe to savor the flavors of summer with food that definitely feels good to eat on warm summer evenings.
When my son Elliot was just a tiny nugget wrapped tightly in a blanket, I took him to a regular checkup and the doc said something unexpected that’s stayed with me for 17 years. He told me that Elliot would be a baby for a long, long time. Enjoy him, he said. It was so different from what people usually said about babies — you know, that childhood goes so fast, you blink an eye and it’s gone, that kind of stuff.
I think about that exchange quite often and how it can apply to most anything, really, that you want to savor. Babyhood, for sure, but also: summer.
Here we are, at a time when many people seem all but finished with summer. There are school supplies in the stores and even, horribly, Halloween candy (look away!). But hold on: There’s still time. From the time these words appear in print until the first official day of fall, I count 34 days. That’s almost five weeks of warm mornings and dinners eaten while it’s still light outside, of tomato breakfasts, sweet corn on the cob each and every night, berries eaten straight from the container while strolling the farmers market. I’ll take every one of these summer days, enjoyed slowly, savored and held on to.
Here are a few recipes that feel a whole lot like summer (because we’re still celebrating summer, right?). This is food that definitely feels good to eat on warm, late summer evenings.
Ceviche is a quintessential summer dish. It’s made from fresh seafood, crunchy vegetables and lots of herbs. This dish is Peruvian, though other countries have adopted it. Here, raw fish is marinated in an acid bath of orange, lemon and lime juices. The acid in the juices does something similar to what heat does to flesh: After marinating for a few hours, the fish turns opaque and firm, “cooked,” if you will. A note: The marinade doesn’t kill bacteria like heat does, so buy the best and freshest seafood you can find,
and use it right away.
This recipe for ceviche eats like a salad. I threw in a nectarine because my husband Paul bought more than we could eat in the time it takes for them to ripen, so it’s been nectarines in oatmeal, nectarines in salad, nectarine this and nectarine that. And still, we’re neither tired of them nor finished with them. In ceviche, a sweet, firm-fleshed piece of fruit goes well alongside tender, citrusy scallops, and a poblano pepper adds heat — just a touch — and plenty of crunch. Rather than the cilantro ceviche traditionally calls for, I stirred in fresh basil, giving it tons of flavor from an herb I think of as an ambassador for summer.
Ceviche makes for a good light supper or a lunch on a lazy Saturday afternoon. I
think it’s great food to serve to guests. If you are squeamish about raw seafood,
then gently poach the scallops before tossing them with the remaining ingredients, adding a few splashes of the citrus juices and olive oil to make a dressing. Don’t marinate already cooked fish, or it’ll get mushy.
Risotto is a blank canvas. Come fall, it’s perfect with butternut squash, Parmesan cheese and fresh sage leaves. In spring, bright green asparagus stalks are right at home nestling into its creamy goodness. And you can stir in other seasonal produce at any time of year, like tomatoes, peas and sweet onions. Here, risotto is mixed with griddled yellow squash, a classic summer vegetable that’s brown and crisp around the edges.
Risotto is really quite simple, but it has
a reputation for fussiness. It’s made from arborio rice, which is a short grain. It’s cooked in a pan with shallots and wine until it releases its starch, making it rich, creamy and flavorful. Most recipes call for heating stock and stirring, stirring and stirring. Here’s a secret: You don’t need to stir all that much, and you don’t need to heat the stock, either. Keep a quart of unsalted chicken broth close by, set the timer, and stir the broth in four turns. When the rice is tender, stir in the goat cheese, add some salt and herbs, and you’ve got beautiful risotto, which I like to think of as grown-up macaroni and cheese. The goat cheese is a change from the usual Parmesan; it’s lighter and has a gentle tang. Too much cheese can make risotto gloppy. There’s no gloppiness here, but if it is too thick when the rice has completely cooked, add about a third of a cup of broth before stirring in the goat cheese.
Lastly, a summertime dessert meant to please a crowd. There are still loads of local berries and fruits to be eaten right now, and we intend to eat, bake and otherwise get into our mouths as many as possible before they’re gone and summer is truly over. In this skillet bake, pints of blackberries and two ripe peaches are mixed with a sprinkling of sugar and then topped with warm, sweet and lemony biscuit dough. You can use whichever seasonal fruits are available to satisfy your craving. There’s something about baking in a cast-iron skillet that’s a little magical: Whatever goes in, always turns out right. The heavy pan is good at evenly distributing heat, turning out both the soft, juicy fruit and the crisp, sweet biscuit layered on top.
I do love fall for its flavor and color, and when it arrives late next month, I’ll be ready for it. But for now, hold off on that pumpkin-spice latte, and I’ll wait on baking with apples and butternut squash till it’s really fall. It’s still summer around here, and will be for a long, long time.