12 AUGUST 2020
EDITOR’SLETTERSubscription Help: foodandwine
.com/myaccount or email us at
[email protected]
or call 1-800-333-6569.I HOPE THIS NOTE FINDS YOU and your people
safe and well. If you’re like me, you’ve been
cooking more consistently these past few
months—maybe cooking more than ever. (So
many dirty dishes!) With the farmers markets
peaking and the weather inviting us outdoors, I find myself seeking out
recipes that tend toward simple, reaching for chef Traci Des Jardins’ salsa
macha, which adds toasty, smoky flavor to just about anything (p. 99), or
Andrae Bopp’s blueberry-adorned cheesecake (p. 74). You’ll find those and
39 more new summer recipes in the pages of this issue. Before you dive
in, I invite you to start with a taste of five keepers from my own summer
kitchen. Fine-tune them to your liking. Keep them in jars in the fridge to
spark a spur-of-the-moment dinner, or carry them along in a cooler for
wherever your cooking adventures take you.FIVE SIMPLE SUMMER RECIPESSimpleSimpleHUNTER LEWIS
@NOTESFROMACOOK
[email protected]A SAUTÉ:
Melted Squash
That squash lazing in your
kitchen isn’t going to cook
itself. Grate it on the large
holes of a box grater and
cook it down into a condi-
ment to use on pizza,
sandwiches, or toast. To
turn it into a pasta sauce,
add some pasta cooking
liquid and grated Parme-
san directly to the skillet.Sauté 4 chopped garlic
cloves and 1 finely
chopped small onion in^1 / 4
cup olive oil. Add a pinch
of crushed red pepper
and 4 small grated
squash or zucchini
(about 2 lb.). Season gen-
erously with kosher salt.
Cook, stirring occasion-
ally, until squash is soft.
Stir in 1 tablespoon each
red wine vinegar, fish
sauce, but ter, and
chopped tender herbs.
Refrigerate up to 4 days.A MARINADE:
My Go-To House
Marinade
Mayonnaise has mythical
powers as a tenderizer
and carrier of flavor—in
this case a marriage of
cilantro, garlic, chile, gin-
ger, and fish sauce that
evokes Southeast Asia.
Slather this on chicken
wings or grouper cooked
over hardwood coals.Puree 2 cups loosely
packed cilantro, 3 garlic
cloves, 1 shallot, 1 (1-inch)
piece peeled fresh ginger,
1 stemmed and seeded
fresh jalapeño chile, 1 / 3
cup mayonnaise, the
juice of 2 limes, 3 table-
spoons fish sauce, and^1 / 2
teaspoon kosher salt in a
blender until mostly
smooth. Add to chicken
or fish in a bowl; toss to
coat. Marinate fish up to
2 hours; marinate
chicken up to 8 hours.CORRECTION
Due to an editing error, Restaurant Editor Khushbu Shah’s byline was not included on our
Best New Restaurants feature (July 2020, pp. 58–69). We deeply regret the omission.A SAUCE:
Tomato Butter
Melting down cherry
tomatoes with aromatics
and wine and then stirring
in cold butter and herbs
creates a rustic sauce for
spooning over grilled fish
or tossing with cooked
pasta or rice.Sauté 1 finely chopped
shallot and 3 minced
garlic cloves in 3 table-
spoons olive oil. Add a
pinch of crushed red pep-
per and 1 pint cherry
tomatoes, halved; sim-
mer until tomatoes begin
to soften. Add^1 / 4 cup
white wine (or 2 table-
spoons vinegar); cook,
mashing from time to
time with a spoon, until
tomatoes are very soft.
Stir in chopped tender
herbs and^1 / 4 cup cubed
cold butter until sauce is
glossy and loosens a little.
Refrigerate up to 6 days.A DRESSING:
Sort-of-Caesar
Dressing
This one’s for my friends
and family, who keep tex-
ting me for the recipe for
my Caesar-esque sum-
mer salad dressing. It’s
my favorite way to get
through the avalanche of
greens I tote home from
the farmers market. It’s
equally good for crunchy,
sturdy kale, cabbage, or
chopped romaine salads.Puree 5 anchovy fillets, 2
garlic cloves, the juice of
2 lemons, 2 tablespoons
mayonnaise, 2 table-
spoons extra-virgin olive
oil, 1 tablespoon capers, 2
teaspoons Dijon mus-
tard, ¼ teaspoon crushed
red pepper, salt, and
freshly ground black pep-
per until smooth. Buzz in(^1) / 4 cup loosely packed
finely grated Parmesan.
Refrigerate up to 7 days.
A DRINK:
Japanese-Style
Shrub
2019 F&W Best New Chef
Mutsuko Soma turned me
on to this recipe after I
bought too many green
plums from the market.
It’s a great way to utilize
any sturdy and unripe
fruit, from peaches to
green tomatoes.
Combine an equal weight
of fruit (score the bot-
toms of fruit to speed up
pickling) and granulated
sugar with 1 tablespoon
kosher salt in a jar. Add
vinegar (I use Filipino
Silver Swan or Datu Puti
cane vinegar; rice vinegar
works, too). Stir until
sugar dissolves. Add pur-
ple shiso leaves for color,
if you like. Refrigerate 3
weeks, stirring every few
days. To make a drink, use
a 4:1 ratio of sparkling
water to shrub mixture.
photography by RAMONA ROSALES