Summer recipes

I've been taking advantage of the summer weather to to try out new recipes, including a few from "Smitten Kitchen Every Day," the latest cookbook by Deb Perelman, of Smitten Kitchen blog fame. These days I am usually thinning cookbooks from my bookshelves but leafing through the pages of this one in A Room of One's Own bookstore, I found recipe after recipe that I wanted to try. 

Then the New York times published an interesting sounding recipe for marinated and grilled flank steak, one of my favorite meals. I bought fresh dill at the Farmers' Market for another recipe but used it first with Alliums for a tabletop bouquet. 

This is Smitten Kitchen's "potato and asparagus gribiche" which became my new favorite potato salad at first bite. The gribiche dressing (with the spoon, below) of mustard, hard boiled eggs, capers and cornichons may not be typical but I found it perfect. This dish is a great way to eat asparagus in season and a good way to enjoy it when it's not local. (Note that all her recipe titles are lower case type, so I followed suit).

I make quick cucumber pickles often in the summer, but Perelman turns hers into a bright new idea: "smashed cucumber salad with salted peanuts and wasabi peas." Another recipe where I fell in love immediately upon tasting. 

If you don't cook flank steak, the NYTimes' recipe for "Grilled Flank Steak with Worcertershire Butter" is a good starting point. Plus I froze the leftover Worcestershire butter so now I have a lovely little treat to make any meat special. 

Alas I did not take any photos of Perelman's "whitefish and pickled cucumber salad' which we ate on thick rye crackers along with "Charred Tomato Soup with Coriander and Cilantro" from the NYTimes. Both were great and they were also excellent paired. The Times suggested this was a good soup for gazpacho lovers, which we are. This soup was tasty and complex and much quicker to make than gazpacho. With fabulous tomatoes at my  local farmers' market, this is going to appear on our table a number of times before winter. 

Comments

[Lisa at Greenbow]

Goodness, this post has made me hungry. I must go have breakfast. I will be cooking this morning instead of cereal.

[Barbara H.]

I don't cook much so I won't be making them but they all sound delicious. You've reminded me that I want to start thinning out my cookbooks too, after copying out any recipes that catch my eye.

[Nell]

I've fallen away from cooking since spring, but the great produce is starting to appear at the farmers' market, and I bought the e-version of Perelman's cookbook when it was onsale, so... Thanks for the inspiration!
We started very late this year, so BLTs with homegrown tomatoes are still a month away.

[Kris P]

I don't cook but the potato dish looks yummy.

[Linda Brazill]

We tend to stick with a few easy favorites and I decided I needed to push myself to try some new things. I love BLT's and they are heavenly with fresh tomatoes. May have to do that since we have the tomatoes!

[Kristin]

We have both of Deb's books and enjoy them. Whenever I tell Jim that a recipe he liked was from Smitten Kitchen, he says, "Of course it was." We are camping in the Tetons and just successfully made her frittata in Jim's Dutch oven. I will need to give the recipes you've recommended a try.

[Linda Brazill]

Can't believe you just made a frittata on a camping trip. I love them but have never made one and thought I'd try her recipe.