Granita is a super-simple summer dessert or appetizer that’s simply a frozen mixture of water, sugar and other flavorings. I planted a lemon verbena in our garden right near our Adirondack chairs simply because I wanted to be bathed in its heady fragrance whenever I was chilling out. And then I made this granita and fell in love with the plant even more. If you don’t have lemon verbena on hand, try lemon thyme or lemongrass, or just add the zest of another lemon.
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The heat of the jalapeno and bite of the red onion play nicely off the subtle sweetness of the peaches in this summery salsa recipe. Serve this peach salsa with just about anything grilled, from pork and chicken to salmon. Or if you’re like me, pop open a cold beer, rip open a bag of tortilla chips, and dig in! I like my salsa caliente, so I leave the seeds and stems in the chile pepper. To tame the heat, discard the stems and seeds.
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“Hola, Lia. I promise you more to come but here is a recipe of a chicken in tomatillo sauce typical of Coban in Guatemala. It is called Pollo en Jocon (pronounced, ho-kon) and is traditionally served over rice, with warm corn tortillas. It is a stew, so you serve it in bowls–the rice in the bottom, then spoon the sauce all over it. I hope you like it. I particularly hope your darling little girl enjoys it.”
~ from Sandra Gutierrez, The Culinary Latinista™, food writer and cooking instructor
20 large tomatillos, cleaned of husks, rinsed and dried
1/2 large yellow onion, sliced into thick slices
2 green onions
1 green bell pepper, quartered
1 plum tomato
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
2 Serrano chiles
1 bunch cilantro (about 3 cups, packed)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 (3-4 pound) chicken, cooked, deboned and shredded (about 7 cups) * [see below for instructions]
1/2 cup reserved chicken broth (from cooking chicken)
Set a dry skillet—preferably cast iron—over high heat. Working in batches, add the tomatillos, yellow onion, green onions, bell pepper and plum tomato, roasting them until they are charred all over. Set them inside a large bowl, as they are readied.
Roast the unpeeled garlic, making sure to char the skins well. Peel the roasted garlic and place the roasted pulp with the other vegetables. Roast the serrano chiles on all sides, remove the seeds and stem, and add the chiles to the vegetables.
Working in batches, puree the roasted vegetables and the cilantro in a blender until smooth, adding enough reserved chicken broth to help you along.
Heat the oil in a large pot on medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the tomatillo sauce and stir well. You should hear a sizzling sound when the sauce comes into contact with the oil—watch out for sputters. Lower the heat and simmer sauce for 2 minutes. Add the cooked chicken and the remaining chicken broth, stir well, and simmer the stew for 15 minutes. Serve over steamed white rice.
Note: the stew can be completely prepared ahead of time, chilled, and re-heated before serving. It also freezes beautifully for up to 2 months.
Serves 6
* Lia’s note on cooking the chicken: Place the chicken in a large pot with two scallions and 2 smashed cloves of garlic, and cover with cold, salted water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat (it will take a while) and skim off any foam that has risen to the surface. Then lower heat to medium-low (it should still be bubbling, but not very vigorously) and cook for 50-60 minutes, the legs and wings should come off easily when grabbed with tongs. Remove the chicken (reserving the liquid), let cool enough so you can handle it, then remove the skin and bones and shred the meat.
I first developed this spicy pesto recipe out of desperation with an abundance of end-of-the-season Thai basil (it freezes wonderfully). Now it’s one of our summer staples … especially now that Noemi loves being in on the action. Get creative with this flavorful pesto recipe. Rub it on chicken and fish, mix it into rice noodles, stir-fry some tofu and spicy greens. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle–or don’t want to use yours–just whip it up in a food processor; drizzle in extra lime juice and a bit of water if you need liquid to process.
3 cloves garlic
3 dried Thai chiles
Sea salt, to taste
1/3 cup peanuts
1 tablespoon sugar
2 packed cups Asian basil leaves
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
In a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic and chiles to a paste with a tiny pinch of salt. Then add peanuts and sugar, and pound to incorporate. Handful by handful, add the basil and pulverize completely in between additions. Stir in fish sauce, peanut oil and lime juice.
Serves 8
Prep Time: 15 minutes
This confetti-colored ceviche definitely has Asian-leanings. In fact, I had green papaya salad mingling with ceviche in my mind when I came up with it. Ceviche is a simple, no-cook way to prepare fresh, sustainable seafood that “cooks” the scallops in acid (in this case, lime juice). For a fun, summer hors d’oeuvre, chop the vegetables into smaller pieces and serve the ceviche with tortilla chips.
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The first time I met Mark Bitterman, co-owner of At the Meadow and author of the upcoming book Salted, we were at a restaurant with a bunch of mutual friends. I’d heard about him and his salt passion, but I was still surprised when he pulled a cluster of pouches out of his bag and mounded salts—from delicate pink to rusty red to steel gray to white—right onto the tablecloth.
“You carry those with you?” I asked.
Mark shrugged, completely unfazed. “I like people to be able to taste how different salts interact with different foods. Here, check this out …” And, just like that, my view of salt changed forever.
Here are Mark’s suggestions for how to use salt.
Be Deliberate
Most of us sprinkle salt—often kosher salt—into foods we’re cooking almost without thinking. But Mark urges us to take a more strategic approach. “The idea is to think about what result you want to achieve and then use the best salt for the job.” In many cases, this will mean sprinkling a certain type of salt on the end dish–more like a condiment than an ingredient. Mark advocates a fundamental shift in our salting technique to use less during cooking and more at the end.
Be Choosy
But Mark’s not talking about shaking on the Morton. He’s talking about the thousands of hand-harvested artisanal salts that come from every corner of the earth. Nutritionally, these salts contain over 12% less sodium chloride than kosher or iodized salt, with the rest of the content being trace minerals. “Those minerals contribute to the roundness of the flavors,” Mark says. “They interact much more gently with the food and have a richer, more balanced taste.”
Mark likes to divide salts into three foundational categories–fleur de sel, sel gris and flake salt–and uses each type different ways.
Fleur de Sel – Fleur de sel and sel gris are what Mark calls “sister salts” in that they’re both types of sea salt formed by salinated water being concentrated down from pond to pond until crystals form within the brine. While the names are French—fleur de sel means “flower of salt” and sel gris means “gray salt”—these types of salt are made all over the world. Fleur de sel are the delicate crystals that blossom on the surface of the pond. “Fleur de sel comingles; it lets a food’s inner light shine forth.” It’s a versatile finishing salt for just about any dish.
Sel Gris – Sel gris are the crystals raked from the brine and the bottom of the pond. It too can be used as a finishing salt; Mark speaks of a “syncopated saltiness” with sel gris where every bite is different. “It’s a very vibrant, lively way to season something.” But Mark also recommends sel gris as an all-purpose cooking salt. “The great thing is that sel gris can be inexpensive, but you’re still using a beautiful hand-harvested artisan product in your daily cooking.”
Flake Salt – Flake salts are salt crystals that have been formed into flakes. “They can be flat, arrowhead shaped or big, fat pyramids.” Where fleur de sel is delicate and dainty, flake salts are “the Lamborghini salts. They’re sort of showy and flashy. They spark and stimulate your palate and then get out of the way and let the food shine through.” Mark finds flake salts exceptional on simple green salads. “There’s a beautiful crisp snap of salt, but then it’s gone and the flavor of the salad shines through; there’s sparkle without it being overpowering.”
Experiment
Salt is made around the world, from Australia to Wales, Bali to Vietnam. But do salts from different places taste different too? “Absolutely,” says Mark. In addition to the terroir element (as in wine, where the elements of the earth and place affect the fruit and, ultimately, what’s in the bottle), there’s also what Mark calls a merroir effect. “The conditions of the ocean affect the salt. French sea salt is minerally and briny, on the Adriatic coast of Italy they’re fruity and sweet. In the Philippines the salts have round, warm flavor.” Play with different types of salt to see which ones you like where (and keep an eye out for Part II of my talk with Mark … an artisanal salt tasting).
Use Salt Mindfully
Aside from the unique flavor and texture that artisanal salts bring to food, and the additional nutritional punch, there’s a soulful aspect too. “When you use these salts—be it a standard sel gris or a rare fleur de sel or flake salt—you’re using a regal ingredient that’s at the core of our culinary traditions. You start to treat it like an important ingredient and use it more mindfully. And in the end, you salt better.”
Mark and his wife, Jennifer, own At The Meadow in Portland, Oregon where they sell artisanal salts, chocolate, wine and flowers. Also add Mark’s book, Salted: A Manifesto on the World’s Most Essential Mineral, to your bookshelf.
This grilled asparagus recipe comes from Savigno, Italy, a hamlet it the hills south of Bologna, by way of my friend Alberto Bettini. Along with being the third generation to run his family’s incredible restaurant and inn, Da Amerigo, Alberto is passionate about preserving traditional foods and recipes. He shared this one with me in much the same manner as it has probably been passed on for centuries (Alberto calls it an ancient recipe): by simply describing it. Like many Italian recipes that have endured the ages, this one is simple in technique and ingredients, yet surprisingly complex in flavor. Serve this asparagus as an appetizer (it’s great as part of an antipasto platter), tossed with pasta, or simply snacking on out of hand.
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I learned about Mississippi caviar, in which black-eyed peas stand in for fish roe, when I lived in the South. Sometimes it’s called Texas caviar, but I’ll leave it to those states to duke it out for naming rights. This zesty, summery side dish comes together in a flash when you use steamed, ready-to-eat blacked-eyed peas, and I’ve added precooked brown rice to introduce a little whole grain to the mix. You can use other beans or legumes, or even canned beans, in place of the peas. Mississippi caviar works as a light supper or as a side dish with grilled fare. Leftovers are even tastier, since the flavors continue to develop with time.
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Beef brisket is a tough cut that lends itself to slowly smoking on the barbecue. Soaking the hardwood is crucial for successful barbecue. As you may have learned while camping, wet wood produces lots of smoke–bad for camp-outs but just what you want for barbecue. For beef brisket and other relatively lean cuts, basting is necessary to keep the meat moist; any kind of high-quality beer will work well in this recipe. Hardwood chunks are ideal, since they burn slowly and produce gentle, consistent smoke.
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This recipe transforms fresh spring veggies into a fragrant, satisfying curry. Serve with purple or red rice for a stunning vegetable curry bowl.
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