I can’t believe summer is almost over. It seems like just the other day I was writing about my favorite things that summer brings, and now here we are staring fall in the face. Which is not to say I’m not eager for the cooler temperatures, the beautiful changing foliage of the trees, and the crisp air. By all means, bring it on. But still, how did it manage to get here so fast?

With Labor Day weekend officially landing, I’m going to take a wild guess and say there’s a good number of you all with BBQ plans in your immediate future. We’re looking at some fantastic weather ahead of us in my area, despite Hurricane Earl being just off the east coast now.

So on that note I bring you an assortment of some awesome things to take to your BBQ, care of myself and some of my favorite other bloggers. Some are prep at home, some you can just do straight on the grill. All are guaranteed hits.

Drinks

1. Blackberry Tom Collins from the White on Rice Couple.
2. Mint Juleps from Alice at Savory Sweet Life.
3. Peach Coolers, also from the White on Rice Couple.
4. Fresh Blueberry Margaritas from me, MSCK.
5. White Peach Sangria also from MSCK.

Sides

6. Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts from Savory Sweet Life.
7. Caprese Salad from Kim at Rustic Garden Bistro (or also right here at MSCK).
8. Cheese Fritters with Balsamic Sun-Dried Tomato Dipping Sauce from Krysta at evil chef mom.
9. Three Ways to Do Watermelon, also from evil chef mom.
10. Classic Cornbread from Ali at Three Baking Sheets to the Wind.
11. Vegetable Tian from Saint Tigerlily.
12. Roasted Rosemary Nut Mix also from Saint Tigerlily.
13. Crispy Roasted Chickpeas from Jaden at Steamy Kitchen.
14. Homemade Hummus from Alice at Savory Sweet Life.
15. Chorizo Cheese Dip from the White on Rice Couple.
16. Mushroom Pockets from me at MSCK.

Mains

17. Sweet Chili Ribs from Jaden at Steamy Kitchen.
18. Soy Citrus Planked Chicken also from Jaden at Steamy Kitchen.
19. Perfect Burgers, or at least my take on them at MSCK.
20. Thomas Keller’s Ribs from me at MSCK.
21. Filipino Chicken Barbecue from Erika at the Ivory Hut.

Desserts

22. Candied Grapefruit Peels – or – Orangettes from Smitten Kitchen .
23. Grilled Peaches with Ricotta Cheese from Alice at Savory Sweet Life.
24. Lemon Bars from Ali at Three Baking Sheets to the Wind.

Did I miss anything? Do you have a BBQ favorite I forgot? Please share with the class!

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

The Tomato Consommé.

Mythical, magical, wonderful tomato consommé.

I’ve been waiting until the height of the tomato season to give this dish my first attempt, but man if I haven’t read about it everywhere. A consommé is one of the critical skills taught to all first year students at the CIA (that’s the culinary institute, not the intelligence one – although, maybe we’d make a few more friends internationally if we started teaching some of our boys how to make a mean soup). As I read through Michael Ruhlman’s book, The Making of a Chef, it was mentioned countless times. The delicacy of maintaining your raft, the importance of the clarity of your consommé, the power of the flavors of the clarified soup. I was intrigued at the complexity of the dish, at the science behind it.

And then I had my first taste of a tomato consommé at the Slow Food Annual Farm Dinner about a month ago. Heavenly. Incredible. It’s like a soup that takes a short-cut through your taste buds and goes immediately to the receptors in your brain and screams TOMATO! – that’s how powerful the flavor is. But even then it’s not overwhelming. It is amazing.

So I set my sights on Summer Fest 2010 week five – tomatoes. This would be my moment. My first real attempt at a tomato consommé.

At this point I realize you may think I’m getting a bit dramatic, but I assure you it is fully warranted. This is a labor and ingredient intensive dish, and in creating it you *will* be working some serious magic in the kitchen. Though I approached it with a degree of trepidation myself, there is no real reason to be afraid… and your effort will reward you in spades. Assuming that that’s what you want, you know, spades. Personally I’ve never felt a great need for spades, but I’m always getting rewarded with them. Always thought it was kind of weird. Speaking of which, if you need a spade – give me a call. I’m your man.

Anyway. Let’s making some freakin good-ass soup.

I used the Epicurious recipe as my base for this, really only made a couple small substitutions with some herbs and such.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Chill time: 2-3 hours

These are very rough estimates. I made the consommé while I was preparing a dinner so I had a number of other things going, but if you focused on it solely you could get it done in an hour to an hour and a half. It does require your attention, though, so try not to get too crazy.

You will need 1 large stock pot, 1 smaller stock pot or large sauce pan, and a sieve, or a chinois if you’ve got it.

Ingredients…

- 5 lbs fresh, wonderful, luscious tomatoes – the best you can get
- 2 large onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1-2 lbs fresh fennel
- 2 tbsp fresh basil
- 2 tbsp fresh tarragon
- 1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 8 egg whites
- 1/2 cup ice, lightly crushed if cubes are large
- a large handful of cherry or grape tomatoes for garnish, sliced or halved lengthwise
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Sherry vinegar

Yes, that’s a massive amount of egg whites. I know. And the whites aren’t used in the final dish, instead it’s a tool for clarification. I reserved the egg yolks in a mason jar and used them for breakfast the next day to minimize waste. Make sure you know where your eggs are coming from and are aware of the massive egg recall that’s gonig on right now.

Okay, so first step is to coarsely chop your onions, garlic, and fennel. Reserve a few fronds of fennel for garnish, but toss the rest – along with onions and garlic – into a large stock pot with olive oil, and soften it all up over medium heat for about 12-15 minutes.

While the stock pot is warming up, coarsely chop up your tomatoes and puree in a food processor. Add puree to onion mixture, toss with sea salt and half of your pepper.

Simmer tomato puree in onions, garlic, and fennel on medium heat about 20 minutes.

Next, pour the tomato mixture through a sieve or a chinoise (I want one so bad), into a second pot.

Now that the mixture is in the second pot, you need to let it cool. You can accelerate this by putting it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes or so, or just leave it on the stove for awhile. The reason behind this is that you are soon going to put the egg whites into the mixture and you need them all to heat up together, concurrently, for it to cook properly. If you put the egg whites into a hot tomato mixture they will cook immediately.

So here’s what’s so cool about this dish. When you add the egg whites to the tomato mixture, they are going to sink to the bottom of the pan and slowly start to cook. As they cook, they will rise up through the soup, and as the proteins in the egg whites bind together they will clarify the soup and bring everything but the strong flavor of the tomatoes up to the top of the pot with them. This will then form a raft on the top layer of the soup, while underneath it continues to be clarified as it cooks.

Once the tomato mixture has cooled, put the egg whites into a separate bowl with the crushed ice (don’t use full cubes), herbs, salt, and remaining pepper. Whisk the whites into a bubbly froth, then quickly add to the tomato mixture. Whisk vigorously in the mixture a few times, then let it heat up to a simmer.

Because of the delicacy of the raft, and the importance that it is maintained and doesn’t break apart (if it breaks apart it will all mix up with the soup), you want to bring it up to a simmer very slowly. Keep a close eye on it. Once the raft is substantial, break a little hole in it like in the picture below.

As the consommé simmers, you will see bubbles, foam, come up through your hole. Spoon it out with a ladle and discard. When the bubbles stop coming and the consommé looks clear underneath, then you’re ready to take it out.

Removing the consommé from underneath the raft is a delicate procedure. You want to break as little of the raft as possible, but you have to get underneath it to remove the liquid. I had read recently about a method that Michael Symon uses for his consommé where he takes a length of plastic tubing to siphon it out, thereby making only a very small break in the raft. Well, I tried this. Didn’t work. Couldn’t get a siphon going… I imagine it would have been more successful with a restaurant size stock pot because you’d have more to work with, but with my little sauce pan.. not so much.

Instead, I just enlarged my break a little bit more with a ladle and spooned it all out as gently as I could. Once you’ve removed all of the consommé from the pot, refrigerate it for 2-3 hours and serve chilled with a frond of fennel, and a slice or two of tomato. Discard the raft.

So mine went pretty well. It was still a bit cloudy (I would have clearly failed my CIA Skills exam), but for a first go I felt pretty good about it. And, cloudy or not, it was incredibly, amazingly delicious. Worth every minute of the effort.

I’d be lying if I said I’m going to make this regularly (though I would if I had the time), but for special occasions and guests it is a wonderful dish for the summertime. This has also put the idea of a corn consommé into my head, which – although I’ve never heard of or tasted one – I think could be really spectacular and I’m going to try to attempt it before the summer is out.

So what else is being posted for Summer Fest tomato week?

• Nicole at Pinch My Salt: What to do with slow-roasted tomatoes
• Alison at Food2: Heirloom tomatoes
• The FN Dish: Tyler’s Ultimate Tomato Salads
• The Gilded Fork: Celebrating summer lusciousness with a tomato dossier and recipes
• Diane and Todd at White on Rice Couple: Sun-dried tomatoes (actually made in the sun!)
• Paige at The Sister Project: 3 substantial, healthy, vegetarian tomatoey main dishes
• Liz at the Cooking Channel: Easy Tomato Tart
• Kelly at Just a Taste: Tomato Jam
• Alexis at Food Network UK: The seven deadly tomato sins
• Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: Heirloom Tomato Tart with Parmesan Crust
• Michelle at Healthy Eats: Top 10 Things to Do With Tomatoes
• Marilyn at Simmer Till Done: Cherry Tomato & Maytag Blue Beignets
• Alana at Eating From the Ground Up: Roasted Green Salsa (green zebras and tomatillos), and how late August makes her hurt for New Mexico
• Caron at San Diego Foodstuff: Chunky Garden Gazpacho with Flowered Corn Tortillas and Melissa Clark’s Tomato Tarte Tatin
• Caroline at the Wright Recipes: Savory Tomato Crumble
• Judy of Divina Cucina: Tomatoes the Italian way
• Tigress in a Pickle: Over 50 ways to preserve tomatoes in jars

And if you haven’t already, take a moment to check out this fabulous tomato and corn pie or heirloom tomato stuffed with shrimp.

It’s Wednesday again, and that means Summer Fest is back for more. This week’s topic is stone fruit, which until very recently was an unknown term to me. I can’t resist a good peach recipe, or even just a good fresh peach, so I quickly knew what I’d be posting about.

First a word about the ingredients. You *need* fresh peaches here. Don’t even bother with the canned stuff. It’s just not worth the time. Amanda and I were on a trip down to the eastern shore recently and I couldn’t resist the myriad local produce stands along the side of the road, so I had stocked up on more fresh peaches than we could probably handle without some clever tactics. This bread pudding calls for three pounds of peaches – which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 7-9 peaches – so it’s a good way to tackle quite a few of them.

As an aside, I had planned to write a post about our little weekend beach trip, but the food experiences there just made me all kinds of stabby and I really didn’t feel I needed to write such a negative post. Suffice it to say, after driving through about 2-3 hours worth of Maryland’s tastiest corn fields, I was not a happy camper to be served canned corn at all the restaurants. Thumbs down.

Anyway, enough of that, who wants some bread pudding?

Prep time: 20-25 minutes
Bake time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients…

- 3 pounds peaches
- 4 cups torn French or Challah bread
- 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
- 3 eggs
- 4 tbsp butter (half-stick)
- 1/2 cup peach nectar
- 1 1/4 cup hot water
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup crushed pecans
- 1/2 cup whole pecans

Ingredients for sauce…

- 1/2 cup peach nectar
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbsp heavy cream

As tends to be the case with baking, there are a lot of big question marks on the food miles chart this time. I’m particularly not really sure about the condensed milk, as I don’t know much about the process behind it at all, and I’m next to certain that it’s not from happy cows. I gave that stuff a mean glare when using it though, so that helped me feel a little better anyway. I’m sure if I could get accurate counts on the mileage many of those products traveled it would put me well over the 5,000 mark. I wish, at the very least, I could source some nuts and spices that were Fair Trade certified, but I can’t even seem to find that much.

And so on to the recipe.

First step is to skin the peaches. This is done by using the same method for skinning tomatoes that we used a little ways back. Make an X with knife on the bottom of the peach, and drop it into water at a rolling boil for about 5 minutes. Remove, and dunk in a bowl full of ice water to stop any carryover cooking. After they have cooled in the bowl, you should be able to take them out and the skin will slide right off.

Once the skins are removed, dice up the peaches. Size of the dice is up to you – if you want big peachy bites, leave them a bit large.

Pour condensed milk and crack the three eggs into a large bowl, mix well.

Tear or cut the bread up into small bite sized pieces, and add to the bowl. Reserve some bread for the topping. Mix well and moisten everything.

Melt the butter in the microwave, and add it to the bowl.

Add diced peaches, vanilla, cinnamon, hot water, peach nectar, and crushed pecans to the bowl.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

After contents of the bowl are well mixed and saturated, pour it out into a 13×9 baking pan. Add some larger pieces of bread and whole pecans to the top, moistening slightly.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 15 minutes, use the toothpick test for doneness.

While the bread pudding is baking, you can make a simple sauce on the stovetop.

Add 1/2 cup peach nectar, honey, cinnamon, vanilla, and heavy cream to a small saucepan over low heat. Mix well, and reduce to desired consistency over heat.

Remove bread pudding from the oven when it’s done, and serve with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, and top the ice cream with your sauce. A little garnish of mint won’t hurt either.

Of course, I was so eager to eat the pudding I forgot to sauce it before the picture. You’ll have to use your imagination.

Peaches have also made another recent appearance here on MSCK – if you missed it, have a look at my peach salsa recipe.

So what else is going on today in the Summer Fest world of stone fruits?

• Sara at Cooking Channel: Savory Stone Fruit recipes.
• Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple: Riesling Poached Pluots.
• Margaret at A Way to Garden: What is stone fruit, anyhow? Plus: Clafoutis batter revisited.
• Caroline at The Wright Recipes: Ginger and Vanilla Poached Peaches.
• The FN Dish: Paula’s Perfect Peach Cobbler.
• Alison at Food2: Peachy Party Foods.
• Kelly at Just a Taste: Peaches & Cream Cupcakes.
• Liz on Healthy Eats: Puttin’ Up Peach Pickles, Compote and More.
• Food Network UK: How to Poach a Peach.
• Judy of Divina Cucina: Chocolate Amaretti Baked Apricots.
• The Gilded Fork: dossier & recipes featuring peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums, cherries, almonds, coconuts.
• Cate at Sweetnicks: Blueberry Peach Smoothies.
• Tara at Tea & Cookies: Making Peach Jam.
• Caron of San Diego Foodstuff: grilled peach parfait and coconut peach gazpacho.
• Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: gluten-free peach-blueberry buckle.
• Paige at The Sister Project: A Summer Fruit Whatchamacallit (not a pie, not a crisp, but delicious).
• Tigress in a Jam: nectarine preserve with summer savory and white pepper.

Coconut-peach gazpacho? Seriously? Yum.

Just for kicks…

Takes you back, huh?

That movie is 30 years old. THIRTY years.

Anyway, today my guest post on steakhouse toasties goes up on Wisconsin Cheese Talk. It’s my first guest post ever, so it’d make me feel all kinds of special if you’d go over and check it out. I’m disabling comments here for this post so if you’d like to leave a comment please head on over to the post on WCT itself to do so.

Today we’re gonna talk about braising.

Braising is a cooking technique that uses two different kinds of heat – moist heat and dry heat.

Braising is typically a pretty long process and is often used for what are generally considered the ‘lesser’ cuts of meat (on account of higher collagen and connective tissue which is very tough if not thoroughly cooked) – such as shoulder or top blade, brisket, shanks, ribs, etc.

Braising meats with high collagen is a wonderful solution to what are sometimes otherwise considered ‘junk’ meats, because the long extended heat of a braise breaks the collagen down into gelatin, which then mixes with the liquids that you’re braising your meat in and gives it a nice body so you can use it to create the perfect sauce for your meal.

Pressure cooking and slow cooking are also forms of braising, but for this particular dish we’re going to use a 13×9 oven-proof pan.

This recipe is from Alice Water’s 2007 cookbook – The Art of Simple Food. It’s a great book and I use it for all kinds of things – I highly recommend checking it out.

The recipe as written calls for dried ancho and chipotle chiles. Since I didn’t have any on hand, I substituted fresh jalapeños and some hot black peppers from my garden and it still turned out great. If I had used the ancho and chipotle it probably would have given the shoulder a more smoky flavor overall – an ancho chile is nothing more than a dried and smoked poblano, and a chipotle a dried and smoked jalapeño. To get them a little closer to the appropriate flavor, I roasted my peppers for a little while first.

Prep time: at least 1 hour, plus time for the meat to temper
Cook time: 2 hours 15 minutes

(This is not your 30 minute week night meal).

Ingredients…

- one ~4 pound pork shoulder

Dry rub:

- 1 tbsp fresh oregano or marjoram
- 1 tsp ground ancho chile (or 1 minced roasted black hot pepper)
- salt, pepper

Braise:

- 2 onions
- 1 carrot
- 3 dried ancho chiles (or 3 roasted jalapeños)
- 1 dried chipotle chile (or 2 roasted black hot peppers)
- 1 head of garlic
- a few black peppercorns
- a few fresh marjoram or oregano sprigs
- 2 cups chicken stock or water

I don’t suspect that many people will have the exact same black hot peppers as I do – you can really sub in any kind of pepper you want, just bear in mind how much desired heat vs. desired sweetness you want in the final product.

First step is to let your meat temper – tempering meat is such a crucial step in cooking and yet it tends to be one of the most overlooked steps. Tempering just means letting your meat get to room temperature before cooking, so that it will all cook evenly once you put it to heat. Tempering and resting are probably the two most easily fixed common mistakes when it comes to any kind of home cooking.

If your pork shoulder is frozen, you can temper it the day before and add the dry rub then, and then refrigerate overnight. This was my process. It’s also great if you can add the dry rub the day before. But, if you’re pressed for time, you can add the dry rub the day of and leave it on the counter for a few hours. Then again, if you’re pressed for time, this is maybe not the best recipe for you.

Once tempered and rubbed, go ahead and nest it in your pan surrounded by the aromats. You should peel and chop all your vegetables, but you don’t need to do much more than a coarse chop for anything – including the garlic – because you will be sending it through a food processor after the braising.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and pour the chicken stock into the pan. Do your best to use homemade stock any time you can, but if you have to get the store bought stuff then make sure it’s low sodium so you can control the salting yourself.

The liquid should come about 1/4 of the way up the meat – add more if needed.

Cook in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes, then turn the roast over and cook for another 30 minutes. Finally, turn one last time and cook for another 30 minutes.

Check the liquid throughout the process, if it gets too low you can always add more stock.

Remove the pan from the oven.

Remove the meat from the pan and let rest for 10-15 minutes. Don’t worry about your meat getting cold, as it will continue cooking for some time after being removed from heat thanks to carryover cooking.

Skim the fat off the liquid in the pan, and then take everything from the pan – garlic, onions, carrot, sauce, everything – and pass it through a food processor. Careful with the warm liquid in the processor. Strain thoroughly – I recommend straining at least 2 or 3 times for the best texture. You can check consistency by dipping a spoon and watching the liquid roll off the back of it – it should be a little slow to do so. If you want to thicken it up a bit more than it is, you can add a roux, or perhaps just some heavy cream. If you want to thin it out, just add water or more chicken stock.

Carve the pork shoulder and arrange on a warm platter or dinner plate, with sauce served over top or in a separate sauceboat.

If you can get some nice local pork shoulder to make this dish with, the end result will be absolutely heavenly.

Okay, so it’s about time. I have been mentioning this creamed corn dish on here so many times over that I’m sure you’re just dying to see it and get the recipe (and if not then can you at least just play along and indulge me in this little fantasy? Thanks). I figured it was finally time to post it, and what better opportunity than coinciding with the Summer Fest 2010 week for corn.

Summer Fest is a cross-blog event celebrating peak harvest season and the crops it brings to us. This is the third year of Summer Fest and my first year participating. Each Wednesday for the rest of the summer, or perhaps a bit longer, a group of bloggers will post on a theme ingredient, rounding out the theme by posting their tips, recipes, or stories about the ingredient in question. Each blogger who has then participated will be listed in the posts along with a link to their own posts so if a reader is looking for more on that particular week’s theme, they can find it easily at their fingertips.

This is the second week of Summer Fest (I missed the first, in typical me fashion). The first week was cukes and zukes and you can see the roundup by following my link.

This week, of course, is corn.

So with that, we’re going to do Keller’s creamed corn from the ad hoc at home recipe book that I do love so dearly.

Let’s start with choosing fresh corn. How can you pick a good ear from a not-so-good? The key, as is often the case, is the smell. Take a fresh ear of corn and peel back just a little bit of the shuck from the top, and take a good whiff. It should smell fresh, but not vegetal. It should smell, very literally, like corn – not like leaves, or plant-matter, or growth. It seems a subtle distinction as I type the words here on a page, but when you have two of the varying ears of corn in front of you the difference is actually quite stark.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients…

- 5-6 ears of fresh corn
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 3 oz unsalted butter
- 2 fresh limes
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tbsp fresh chives

First step is to shuck the corn and remove it from the cob.

My method for this is to break the ears in half once they have been shucked – this way, when you cut the corn off the cob it won’t have as fall to far and will tend not to bounce all over the counter and the floor quite as much.

Zest the limes and set zest aside. Roll them on the countertop and squeeze the juice out into a small bowl.

Melt the butter in large saucepan over medium heat, and add the corn, cayenne pepper, and lime juice (you should have at least 1 tbsp of lime juice).

A trick from the Keller book – before cooking your corn, put it into a large bowl and put a small bowl of water next to it. Dip your fingertips in the bowl of water, then swish it around in the large bowl of corn and it will attract all the stray pieces of silk out of the corn. Repeat as necessary. Using this method, you should be able to remove about 99% of all the silk from your chopped corn.

Cook for 15-20 minutes over medium heat until liquid has reduced and the corn has started to sizzle just a little bit. You want to make sure your pan is big enough for every kernel to be evenly cooked, it will give the creamed corn a much more uniform flavor in the end.

Add 3/4 cup heavy cream (you can increase or decrease this as you prefer based on consistency) and cook for another 6-8 minutes until it has reduced to your liking.

Add fresh chives and 1 tbsp of lime zest.

Remove from heat and serve.

This is easily the best creamed corn I have ever had in my life. I make it for us far too often, it is getting dangerous. It is so ridiculously delicious though, you’ll soon understand why.

Easy riffing options: swap the heavy cream for coconut milk, and the chives for coconut flakes. And/or swap the cayenne pepper for a minced jalapeño. It’s not better, per se, just different. Don’t ever let Keller know you changed his recipe.

Summer Fest 2010 Participants:

• Nicole at Pinch My Salt: Creamed Corn with Bacon and Rosemary
• Margaret at A Way to Garden: Vintage corn Americana slideshow, and no-frills creamed corn
• The FN Dish: Creamed Corn-Off: Battle of the Southern Cooks
• Alison at Food2: Freezing Corn
• Toby at Healthy Eats: Candied Corn and 4 other recipes
• Michelle at Cooking Channel: Browsing Corn Porn
• Judy/Tuscan Diva: Fried Polenta Crostini with Porcini Ragu
• Jennifer of Gilded Fork: Corn: Sweet Versatility (history, uses & recipes from cocktails to cornbread
• Chef Mark: Gettin’ Corny! (Musings from childhood, tips & fresh-corn recipes)
• Caron of SanDiegoFoodstuff: Chino Corn Risotto with Chanterelles and Burrata
• Caroline at The Wright Recipes: Pickled Corn with Summer Onion and Basil
• White on Rice Couple: BBQ Chicken and Corn Pizza
• Shauna at Gluten Free Girl: a sweet corn risotto (and how to make corn stock with husks and mirepoix)
• Tigress in a Jam: Cream Corn Scones (the perfect way to use up left over roasted or boiled corn):
• Alana at Eating from the Ground Up: Corn on the Kabob (invented by her artist husband):
• Cate O’Malley at Sweetnicks: Corn and Spinach Stuffed Portobello Mushroom Caps
• Kelly at Just a Taste: Caramel Corn (plus pics of corn in its various popping stages)
• Paige Orloff of The Sister Project: Life-Changing Corn Pancakes
• Tara at Tea and Cookies: Farro Corn Salad with Tomatoes and Herbs
• Food Network UK blog: Talking Corn

If you’d like to participate in Summer Fest, it’s easy and you are welcome to. Margaret at A Way to Garden is happy to explain.

I just may get the hang of this baking thing yet, cause this one turned out pretty damn good. Baking has never really been my strong suit, as I tend to cook in a more fly-by-night, who-needs-a-recipe style that permits for a little more riffing than is usually appropriate for baking.

But I’m learning.

I have Saint Tigerlily and Gourmet.com to thank for this one – so, thank you for bringing this awesome Summer dish into my life.

Yet another way to deal with an abundance of tomatoes, this pie is seriously delicious. It also gives a great opportunity to use some of the wonderful Silver Queen corn being harvested now in our area, and on top of that you even get a chance to flex your new mayonnaise knowledge.

This is a pretty multi-purpose pie. You can serve it for brunch, lunch, dinner, whatever. It can serve as a vegetarian meal in and of itself, or as a side or appetizer. Makes a great snack, can be served warm or cold, and it re-heats pretty well too.

The crust is one of the best parts about this dish, it’s not a typical pie crust but rather a biscuit crust – so, you definitely want to make the crust from scratch along with the recipe rather than using any store bought stuff. It’s pretty easy though, so let’s get to it.

Prep time: 30 minutes
Bake time: 35 minutes
Cooling time: 5-10 minutes

Ingredients…

- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 3/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 stick unsalted butter, cold
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1 3/4 lb tomatoes (large, preferably)
- 1/3 cup mayonnaise (1 egg yolk, 3/4 cup olive oil, 1 tsp dijon mustard, 1 tsp lemon juice)
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 3 ears worth of corn, cut from the cob
- 2 tbsp fresh chopped basil
- 1 tbsp fresh chopped chives
- 1/4 tsp black pepper, fresh
- 1 1/2 cup cheddar cheese

You will need a 9-inch pie dish, a stock pot, a large mixing bowl, and some wax or parchment paper.

First thing to do is assemble the dough.

Mix together the flour, baking soda, and 3/4 tsp salt in a large bowl. Add the butter, chopped into small 1-inch square cubes for better dispersion.

Having washed your hands thoroughly before we even started, go ahead and plunge them right into the dough mix and work your fingers through it until it resembles coarse meal.

Slowly add the milk while continuing to work the dough. You can do this in a pastry blender too, if you have one, but hands-on is more fun.

Split the dough in half and roll it up into two large balls. Then, roll one ball out in between two pieces of wax or parchment paper, until it is about an 11-12 inch circle.

I have seen tons of recipes suggesting to use plastic wrap for this step, including this one from Gourmet. I don’t get this. Plastic wrap is a serious struggle, and usually turns your dough into an awful mess and you lose a lot of it to the plastic itself. Saint Tigerlily and I both recommend wax paper instead.

Use the first 12-inch circle in the bottom of the pie dish.

Repeat the same process with the second ball of dough, and set aside.

Next, set the oven to pre-heat at 400 degrees F, and start boiling 4 cups of water in the stock pot. We’re going to peel the tomatoes using the same method we learned in the recent post about stuffing tomatoes with shrimp. Follow that process, peel the tomatoes, then slice length-wise at your desired thickness.

In a small bowl, whisk together 1 egg yolk, 3/4 cup olive oil, and 1 tsp lemon juice to make mayonnaise from scratch. This should only take about 5 minutes or so, but if you absolutely HAVE to, you can sub in store bought stuff. Once the mayonnaise is finished, whisk in another 2 tbsp of lemon juice.

Shuck corn and cut down the sides of the cob. The best method I have found for this is to break the ears in half, so that the corn doesn’t fall off while you’re cutting it and go all over the counter and floor. Then, put the corn in a bowl after it’s cut from the cob, and set a small bowl next to it filled with water. Dip your hand in the water, then run it through the corn lightly to break up the corn chunks and to catch the strands of corn… hair… string… I don’t know what you call that stuff. Anyway, it will stick to your hand, then you can put your hand in the water and repeat until you have removed it all from the corn.

Chop up your fresh basil and chives and you’re ready to start assembling the pie.

Start with a layer of tomatoes, overlapping, and sprinkle with half the corn, half the basil and chives, some salt and some pepper.

It’s so festive, no?

Repeat for a second layer and add half of the cheese on top.

Pour a layer of all the mayonnaise down, top with the rest of the cheese, and cover with the second dough circle (previously set aside). Make a couple vents in the top of the crust, brush the crust all over with melted butter, and it’s ready to go in the oven.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 30-35 minutes, or until crust is a golden brown. Let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Your pie is now ready to be devoured.

You can vegan-ize this dish easily by leaving the cheese out and using a mayonnaise substitute, and a butter substitute in the crust.

What’s your favorite type of pie? Bonus points for fruits or veggies.

This dish was inspired:

My CSA has inundated me lately with absolutely gorgeous and delicious tomatoes. I’ve been trying to keep up with them all, and frankly, haven’t been too upset at including tomatoes in some shape or form in all my recent meals.

But this one monster tomato, well, I had to do something special with it. So.. I stuffed it.

Looking for a chance to try out some home made mayonnaise? Here it is.

Serves 2. Easily doubled. This is a pretty low calorie meal, but there’s a decent amount of fat in those calories from the bacon and the mayonnaise, so bear that in mind.

Prep time – 20 minutes
Cook time – 20 minutes

Ingredients…

- 1/2 lb. raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined
- 2 huge or 4 large fresh tomatoes
- 2 celery stalks
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 jalapeño (optional)
- 1/2 cup homemade mayonnaise
- 3-4 strips of bacon

You’ll need three burners – one for a stock pot full of water, one for a pan full of bacon, and one more for either a skillet or a pot.

First, get the things on the oven going. The dish will be served cold, or cool at least, so you want to go ahead and get your cooking started right off.

Poach or sauté the shrimp in your favorite seafood spices, make sure to include some lemon juice. Remember that shrimp really doesn’t need a lot of time to cook, and it will keep cooking for a few minutes after you’ve removed it from the heat.

Cook the bacon to your preferred doneness.

While these are going, blanch, skin, and core your tomatoes. I had never actually done this before, so if you’re like me you’ll need a bit of an explanation.

To skin and core tomatoes, you want to blanch them like you would any other vegetable. Prepare a bowl of ice water deep enough to fully submerge your tomato. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water up to gentle boil – make sure there’s enough water to cover the tomato.

Submerge the tomato in the boiling water for 30-45 seconds, and then immediately shock it in the ice bath to stop the cooking. Let it cool in the ice bath, and then remove.

It’s easier to core the tomato before removing the skin, as the skin will help you from destroying the thing in the process. Cut a sizable hole around the top of the tomato and slightly inward. Twist core and remove, and dig out as much seed from the inside as possible.

If you’ve done it well, this will leave you with a pretty beautiful little vegetable to build your dish on.

By now, the bacon and the shrimp are probably about done.

Remove the bacon from the skillet and place on a paper towel to drain grease. Remove the shrimp from the pot or skillet. Allow both to cool at room temperature.

Vegetable dicing time. Chop up the celery and pepper(s) into fine cuts while the rest of the food is cooking.

In a bowl, mix the mayonnaise with the diced vegetables. If you’re using a plain mayonnaise, chop up some fresh parsley or basil to include for some interest.

Add cooled shrimp to the mayonnaise mixture.

Carefully spoon the mix into the skinned and cored tomatoes. Leave some shrimp hangin’ out for a nice garnish.

Crumble the bacon into pieces in a fresh paper towel, and for your last touch – sprinkle it over the top of your stuffed tomatoes.

This is really a great way to use up a *lot* of tomato all at once. If you wanted to get really crazy, you could even dice some up and include that in the mayo mix, but it might be a bit overwhelming.

I paired mine with Thomas Keller’s creamed corn (recipe from Ad Hoc at Home) – which I can not seem to get enough of – and a biscuit.

What’s your favorite way of dealing with a tomato rush?

So yes – Colorado! And to a lesser extent, Utah. I have to admit, I never thought I’d actually be spending vacation time in… Utah. But yes, I did. It was dry. Hot. Lots of rocks.

Let’s go back a bit first, get a little backstory to fill in the why of this trip. About 29 years – give or take. Early 1980’s. My mother’s father, Alfred, owns and operates a farm in Grand Junction, Colorado. He’s getting up in age at this point and doesn’t have a particularly extensive catalog of farmed products. A few various things here and there, some hay, chickens, a turkey. Occasionally grazing the neighbors cows on his fields. That sort of thing.

This farm in Grand Junction was the central hub of the universe that is my maternal family for many, many years. Spread out across the Western United States, this was where we all gathered every Summer to be together.

I’d love to say that I got a real farmer’s education from this place, but my memories (being the age I was) extend only to feeding chickens, running away from the turkey (his name was George but we called him Monster), collecting eggs, picking cherries and fresh peaches, and floating boats and rubber balls in a race through the irrigation ditches. Very little time was spent in a kitchen, I was too busy playing in the treehouse.

I hadn’t been to this place since I was 13. 16 years ago now – my grandfather passed away in 1994. At that point in my life, I had been coming to the farm every Summer – so it was admittedly a bit difficult to see it all go away like that. There had been plans to sell the farm and move him closer to my parents, but whether a change like that happens abruptly or with anticipation – it’s always a bit difficult.

So last year, my oldest brother Sean, proposes a reunion here. My nieces and a nephew, the next generation, should see the places that meant something to us out there. It had been close to two decades since we visited each other in Grand Junction.

The following is a story of ten days in hot, dry, crazy places, in altogether too close quarters with my family. Don’t worry, it’s primarily a picture tour. I’ll leave out the gory bits. And yes, Thomas Keller’s Rib recipe is coming. It’s ridiculously awesome, I promise it’s worth the wait.

The first three days there were spent at a B&B that our family took over. I mean, we booked every single room in a giant house. There was family there from Virginia, Maryland, Idaho, Washington (state), Montana, Colorado, Louisiana, and Hawai’i. The number fluctuated from 13 to 22, depending on the day.

The bulk of the trip revolved around this hub at Grand Junction (really a nearby town called Fruita, but there’s no real need for the distinction here).

While there, we visited the Colorado National Monument, and a particular trail called the Devil’s Kitchen – a very well known place from my childhood.

We also visited my grandfather’s old property, which had been sold to new owners. They tore down the farm house and built a new home – a shame but the new home was pretty beautiful – and have converted the place into a sod farm.

Not terribly exciting, I have to admit. But sod is a far sight more profitable than anything my grandfather ever did with the property, so there you go. There used to be a beautiful little cherry tree grove about halfway down the field there.

Back at the house, I made Thomas Keller’s pork spare ribs one night, along with some creamed corn. Every time I made food on this trip it felt a little like something out of Kitchen Impossible – I had no idea what ingredients I’d have access to, I’d be working in a strange kitchen that may or may not have the equipment I need, and I’d be cooking for 15-20 people or so. This time it was 20 – I made 4 racks of ribs so I tripled the amount of dry rub I made.

Ingredients…

- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp sweet pimenton/Spanish paprika (regular paprika will work in a pinch)
- 2 tsp cayenne
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 1 tsp red papper flakes

Mix all the above in a bowl for the dry rub. Thaw rib racks, and cut into 2-3 rib pieces. Cover ribs thoroughly with dry rub, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 2-6 hours for the flavors to set.

While the ribs are sitting in the fridge the rub will draw juices out of the meat, so you should make sure to put them on a plate or expect a bit of a mess.

Next, take the ribs out of the fridge and sear them on a grill over high heat – about 2 minutes each side. Alternate them at 7 o’clock and 11 o’clock for a nice cross-hatch pattern.

Remove ribs from grill, and bake in an oven for 2 hours at 250 degrees F. Remove from oven, let rest 5-10 minutes, and serve.

A word of caution – if you double or triple this recipe like I did, you may want to be conservative with the cayenne and red pepper flakes. My tripled recipe turned out seriously HOT. Not that that’s always a bad thing, but it should be kept in mind.

Next up, we drove from Grand Junction down to Moab in Utah, and stayed in some cabins for two nights. Moab is basically the middle of the desert. There’s really not much there at all, except for some serious mountains, a *lot* of bats, and of course Arches National Park.

Arches was very surreal. Like other-planet surreal. The magnitude of this scenery doesn’t translate well through photograph; it was all pretty intense.

We did a few hikes in the park here, and played some music in the cabins. Then we moved on.

Another 3 hour drive later and we were back in Colorado, in a little town called Mancos. Another house taken over by the family. This location was chosen for it’s proximity to Mesa Verde, another national park with all kinds of ancestral Puebloan structure.

Stayed two nights in Mancos. Finally, we drove back up north to Grand Junction again, through the San Juan mountains. We passed through Silverton, near Telluride, an old mining town known for it’s brothels.

While in Silverton, we overheard some cheering down the street and went to go check it out. Turns out it was the finish line for the Hardrock Hundred – a 100 mile foot race through the mountains. The elevation at Silverton is about 10,000 feet, and we got winded just sitting in a car. These people ran 100 miles over an equivalent elevation change to running up Mt. Everest – and back. And the first place runner did the thing in 27 hours, straight through. So about 15 minutes per mile.

So crazy. And inspiring. I can’t even imagine.

So anyway, there it is. 10 days out west. Really more of a tour than a vacation as there wasn’t too much time to spare for relaxing, but we saw some great things. And it was good to spend the time with family.

This post concludes guest week here at MSCK. All posts this week were provided by Hyun, and the photos by Bryan Johns (flickr link). We hope you have all enjoyed the recipes!

-Liam

For the longest time, I had this horrible fear of bread making. Two reasons why:

1. I have issues with failure, and frankly, EVERYONE will fail at one point when making bread.
2. I hate wasting food. To go through all those ingredients for it to fail is such a waste of time, money, and supplies.

Don’t close the screen. There is hope.

In the end, it’s worth it. All the failures I have encountered in bread making have only taught me where I went wrong. Eventually, I got it right and I love it.

My friend Christian is the one who encouraged me to start making bread. I usually consult him with all my baking issues and questions. He’s an amazing chef, a good friend, and someone who will definitely become big in the culinary world.

Christian sent me this recipe from Naturally Ella (it has since disappeared from the site though). It’s simple and straightforward enough, but I did make a slight modification. I replaced the 1/4 cup of sugar with a 1/4 cup of honey and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Honey is the way to go – the natural sweetness of it only adds to the flavors of the challah.

These directions apply to the use of a stand mixer; however you can do this by hand – if you do this by hand, you will have great arms.

Prep time -

Active: 30 minutes
Inactive: 1 hour 30 minutes – 2 hours

Bake time: 25 – 30 minutes

Yields 1 large loaf

Ingredients…

- 3/4 cup warm water (110 – 115 degrees F)
- 3/4 tbsp yeast
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 tbsp salt
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 3 whole eggs
- 4 cups flour

In a bowl, combine water, yeast, and 1 tablespoon of sugar in stand mixer bowl. Let sit for 5-10 minutes until yeast activates (foam will appear at the top)

Whisk in 2 eggs, oil, honey and the remaining sugar to the mixture. Once combined, attach it to the stand mixer. Use the dough hook and start mixing while slowly adding flour.

Once all the flour is in, continue to knead the dough in the mixer, about 10 minutes (timing it is highly recommended).

Once dough is kneaded, place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot. Give it about an hour to rise (until double in size).

I usually put the oven on warm, crack the door open and put the dough right by there. Another option is getting a heating pad, put it on low, cover with towel and put the bowl over it. Room temperature plays a huge role in the dough rising.

After first rise, remove dough from bowl. Divide and braid the dough.

If you’re not sure how to braid bread, there are video tutorials on YouTube – here’s a good one.

Place loaf on a lightly oiled or silicone lined tray/cookie sheet. Whisk last egg and brush the bread. Place the dough in a warm spot, cover and let it rise for about 30-45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Before putting the dough in the oven, brush one last time with the egg.

Optional: you can put poppy seeds or sesame seeds on top.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes – until top is golden brown.

What are some of your most disastrous baking failures?