I feel the sun starting to set earlier and earlier as we head into August. I love the height of summer with it’s warm summer nights and late sunsets, but I also love knowing that fall is right around the corner. It reminds me that I should enjoy summer produce while I can.

Tomatoes are the ultimate summer fruit; in the summer they taste like pure sunshine. These tiny slow-roasted tomatoes are like tomato candy: sweet and tart all at the same time. Rich and condensed, each tomato half is an pop of intense tomato flavour. Summertime is the best for tomatoes so enjoy them while you can!

Slow Roasted Tomato Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

cherry tomatoes
un-peeled whole gloves of garlic
olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 225°F. Halve each cherry tomato crosswise and arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet along with the cloves of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, just enough to make the tomatoes glisten. Sprinkle on salt and pepper, but not too much.

Bake the tomatoes in the oven for about three hours. You want the tomatoes to be shriveled and dry, but with a little juice left inside–this could take more or less time depending on the size of your tomatoes.

Enjoy right away or cool and cover with extra olive oil and keep them in the fridge to add to salads, pasta or just as a snack.

Sometimes I feel like I can exist strictly on cold food in the summer, so I tend to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables out of hand. One of my favourites has to be the tomato. Tomatoes in the summertime taste completely different from their wintertime cousins. Sweeter, juicer, more tomatoey, summer is the perfect time for simple tomato salads.

I find that peeled tomatoes taste totally different from un-peeled. They’re more delicate, fresh and less acidic. It might seem like an unnecessary step, but peeling the tomatoes really makes this salad. This is actually a spin off Momofuku’s cherry tomato salad. I changed it by taking out the tofu and shiso and altering the proportions of the dressing.

The most time consuming part of this salad has to be the tomato peeling, but at least for the most part you’ll be cooling off by dunking your hands into an ice cold water bath!

Chilled Tomato Salad Recipe

1 pint of mixed cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
1 teaspoon of sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
2 mint leaves very thinly sliced

Bring a pot of water to boil over high heat. While the water is coming to a boil, make a small X in the bottom of each cherry tomato. In batches, blanch the cherry tomatoes in the boiling water for 10 seconds then immediately scoop the cherry tomatoes out and plunge them into an ice cold bowl of water. Peel the tomatoes and drain them. In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce, sherry vinegar and sesame oil. Drizzle over the tomatoes and toss well to coat. Chill the tomatoes in the fridge until cold. When ready to serve, sprinkle with the thinly sliced mint. Enjoy!

I have a bunch of recipes bookmarked as “must try,” but with my sporadic memory, I hardly every get around to trying any of them. This simple Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce with butter and onions has been floating around the blogosphere for a while now, garnering both rave reviews and people claiming it tastes like tomatoes mashed with butter. With reviews like that I had to give this sauce a try.

I finally remembered to pick up a can of San Marzanos, an essential ingredient for this three ingredient sauce. This sauce is one of the easiest pasta sauces I’ve ever made. An onion is peeled, halved then put in a pot with a can of whole peeled tomatoes and 5 tablespoons of butter. The whole thing is simmered for about 45 minutes and you’re done!

The result is lush, pure and perfect clinging to piping hot pasta. You can really taste the butter in the sauce, which I thought was a good thing. I can see how people think that this sauce isn’t flavourful enough, but I loved that you could taste the individual ingredients playing off each other. Sometimes food should just taste like the ingredients without a bunch of overpowering spices masking flavours.

I’m curious though, have any of you ever tried this sauce? What were your thoughts?

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions as found on Smitten Kitchen

Serves 4 as a main course; makes enough sauce to lightly coat most of a pound of spaghetti

28 ounces whole peeled tomatoes from a can (San Marzano, if you can find them)*
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste

Put the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan (it fit just right in a 3-quart) over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste and keep warm while you prepare your pasta.

Serve with your favourite pasta shape.

I’m always guaranteed two things while eating dinner at my in-law’s. 1) I’ll be stuffed with food, but won’t be able to resist one more bite and 2) I’ll get to hear some awesome anecdotes about my mother and father in-law’s lives back in Vietnam. One of my favourites is about my mother-in-law’s green onion corn stand.

When she was a young girl, my mother-in-law would sell corn from a corn stand much like a hot dog stand. Instead of hot dogs, she’d grill corn over charcoal and instead of ketchup and mustard, folks would get to slather on as much green onion oil as they wanted. My father-in-law used to visit her while she was working, but he wasn’t the only one. Lots of boys talked about the cute girl selling corn, but whenever my father-in-law heard, he’d tell them, “Oh, no, not that one, she’s mine. You’d better stay away.”

I guess it worked because they’ve been happily married for over 35 years.

I heard about green onion corn before I ever tasted it, so I really built it up in my head. Even so, when I finally got to try it, it was mind boggling. The sweetness of the corn contrasted with the savoury onionness of the oil was fantastic. As we were eating, my in-laws were commenting on how the corn wasn’t as good as it could be because it was grilled on a propane barbecue. I was too busy stuffing my face to contradict them, but if my mouth was free, I would have told them it was the best barbecued corn I had ever tasted in my life. It was so good that I resolved to try to make it indoors. Two days after first tasting it, I did.

Grilled Corn with Green Onion Oil Recipe

serves 2

2 ears of corn
1/4 cup oil
1 bunch of green onions, thinly sliced
1 red chili, finely diced
2 teaspoons fish sauce

Heat up the oil in a small deep sauce pot over medium high heat until the oil is hot and shimmery. Move the pot off the burner and add the green onions. Be careful! The onions will spit and splatter! Add the chili and stir in the fish sauce. Set aside.

Using a cast iron grill pan, grill the corn over medium to medium high heat until the corn turns deeper yellow and some kernels are toasted. Immediately spoon over the green onion oil to taste while the corn is still hot.

You can enjoy the corn on the cob, or you can cut the kernels off. Just make sure to spoon the oil onto the corn while it’s hot.

I don’t think I’ve ever run across anyone who doesn’t love potatoes. One of the most—if not the most—versatile root vegetables, potatoes are simple, hearty and delicious. If you love roasted potatoes and have a little extra time on your hands, I definitely think you should give these potatoes a try!

The slicing part of this recipe could be considered a little finicky, but no more so than making mashed potatoes. If you’re not big on slicing, you can skip out on the garlic, but I really think the garlic adds a lot.

I love the way the thin slices of garlic bake up between the slices and the way the skin of each slice of potato crisps up and becomes almost chip like. The crunchy edges give way to a meltingly soft and creamy potato inside. I feel like I could eat hundreds of these; they really taste the way potatoes should.

Garlic Hasselback Potato Recipe adapted from seasaltwithfood.com

serves 2 as a snack

9 mini new potatoes (I used Yukon golds)
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter, cut into 9 tiny cubes
sea salt
freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Grab a wooden spoon you’re not too fond of and place the potato in the spoon. Starting from one end of the potato, slice in 3 to 4 mm intervals. If the bowl of the spoon is deep enough, it will stop the knife from slicing all the way through the potato.

Slip several pieces of garlic into each potato and put the potatoes on a baking sheet. Drizzle with the olive oil and top each potato with a cube of butter. Season to taste.

Bake the potatoes for about 40 minutes or until the potato skin look crisp and the flesh feels soft. Enjoy hot!

I love potatoes; they were and continue to be my favourite root vegetable. Once as a child, when asked to draw my favourite food, I drew potatoes – or so I thought. The teacher was confused by the brown lumps on my paper, but when I explained that I couldn’t choose between mashed potatoes or french fries, she burst out laughing.

I haven’t eaten many potato cakes before, but I imagine this is what a pretty darn good potato cake tastes like. The recipe, for Keller, is baby-steps simple: grated potatoes, green onions, a touch of cornstarch to bind, and salt and pepper. The recipe in the book calls for you to make 8 to 9 inch cakes, but I opted for 5 to 6 inch cakes so I would be able to flip them easily.

Because there’s isn’t much of a binder to hold the potatoes together, the key to this recipe is patience. Make sure your cakes have a nice golden brown bottom crust before you attempt to flip.

Mike and I enjoyed these hot, out of the pan without anything, but I think they’d taste amazing with sour cream. I’m sure Keller didn’t intend this, but I might just have to make this my go-to recipe for hash browns!

Scallion Potato Cake Recipe adapted from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home

1 large russet potato
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
canola oil
salt and freshly ground pepper

Peel and grate potatoes by hand or if you have a food processor, with the coarse shredding blade. Transfer the shredded potatoes to a large bowl of cold water and swirl and rinse the potatoes. Lift them from the water and dry in a salad spinner and transfer to a large dry bowl. Sprinkle the cornstarch around the sides of the bowl and toss the potatoes to coat.

Heat some canola oil in a non-sticke frying pan (I used cast-iron) over medium-high heat until the oil is shimmering. Turn down the heat to medium. Add enough potatoes to spread into a 5 to 6 inch circle. Do not press down on the potatoes; you want to keep the cake light and airy. Sprinkle a generous amount of green onions on the cake, season with salt and pepper and top with more potatoes. Cook for 6-7 minutes to brown the bottom. If needed, add a bit of canola oil to the pan; you want to hear the potatoes sizzling. Carefully turn the pancake to brown the second side and cook until it is browned and crisp. Enjoy hot!

When I’m looking for refreshing, summertime food, I tend to lean towards meals of salads and fresh fruits. This Vietnamese chicken salad is perfect in summertime: fresh, herby, full of chicken and best of all, cold.

My mother-in-law makes her salad without the cabbage, making it more of a hearty dish, but feel free to play around with the ratios of the ingredients to find a mix you like best.

Vietnamese Chicken Salad Recipe

2 cups cooked shredded chicken, cold
1/2 head of a small cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
1/2 cup rau ram (Vietnamese cilantro), roughly chopped
1/2 cup Thai basil, roughly chopped
3/4-1 cup fish sauce
juice of two limes

Mix the fish sauce and lime juice together and toss all the ingredients. Taste and season with more fish sauce is needed. Enjoy cold!

Nothing says summer more to me than corn. The first time I went corn picking I was 10. My family drove out to a u-pick farm in late August on a muggy, hot afternoon. Driving up, the rows and rows of corn seemed endless. The cornstalks were well above my head and even though it would have been so easy to get lost, I wasn’t worried. It was cooler in the rows of corn.

We must have picked over 50 ears of corn and before we left, the farmer told us we should try it raw, so we did. Raw corn fresh off the cob is the sweetest, freshest corn you’ll ever taste. Back then, Thomas Keller’s creamed corn recipe didn’t exist, but if it did, I’m sure we would have used some of those 50 ears to create his dish.

Creamy, sweet, with the freshness of limes and the merest hint of heat thanks to cayenne, this creamed corn is so much more than what you imagine. It would be perfect as a side dish for a barbecue, which is what I’ll be doing today to celebrate Canada’s birthday. Happy Canada Day!

Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home Creamed Summer Corn Recipe

serves 2, generously

2 ears of supersweet corn, shucked
1 large lime
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
salt
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons heavy cream
pinch of cayenne
3/4 tablespoon finely chopped chives

With a sharp knife, cut vertically down each ear of corn to slice off the kernels. Put the kernels in a large bowl, then hold each cob over the bowl and use a spoon or the back of a knife to scrape any remaining corn and the milk from the cob.
Grate the zest of the lime and set aside. Cut the lime in half.
Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the corn, squeeze about 1 tablespoon of the lime juice, or to taste, over the corn, and season with salt.
Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until all of the liquid has evaporated, concentrating the flavour, and the corn is beginning to sizzle, 15 to 17 minutes.
Stir in the cream, the cayenne, and lime zest. Continue to cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the cream is absorbed by the corn. Add salt to taste, stir in the chives and enjoy hot.

Notes: I used key limes instead of a regular lime and substituted green onions for the chives and this dish still turned out wonderful. For the corn sizzling, it only took from 5-8 minutes, probably because I used less corn. Ditto with the cream absorbing time, so adjust accordingly.

This creamed summer corn is by far the easiest and least finicky Keller recipe I have ever made, and one of the best.

I used to hate eggplant. As a child, the slimy texture made me want to squeal, and not with joy. I just couldn’t wrap my head around why people would eat eggplant and like it. Something must have happened from then to now, because now I’d say I’m a eggplant lover. I guess it could have been that I had badly cooked eggplant as a child, but more likely, I just grew out of my weird childhood finickiness.

When cooked right, eggplant has a melty dreamy texture that I just can’t get enough of. Add to that a sweet miso caramelized top and you have the perfect food for scooping up and eating with plain white rice.

I first discovered nasu dengaku or miso glazed eggplant at a friendly neighbourhood sushi joint. Everyone told me I had to get the eggplant: two unassuming halves of an Japanese eggplant nestled in tinfoil. Upon closer inspection, the eggplant was scored and covered in a sticky sauce that had been broiled to the point of caramelization. The presentation was underwhelming, but the taste was definitely mind blowing.

If you can imagine a vegetable based, salty-sweet creme brulee, this is it. The salty-sweet sticky topping isn’t as crackly as a cream brulee, but underneath the miso-glaze, the eggplant is creamy and delicious.

Nasu Dengaku/Miso Glazed Eggplant Recipe adapted from fatfreevegan.com

1 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoons sake
2 tablespoons shiro miso
3 tablespoons sugar
2 Japanese eggplants, cut in half lengthwise*
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
sliced green onions, for garnish

Place the mirin and sake in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer for about 2 minutes to allow some of the alcohol to cook off. Then add the miso and stir until smooth. Stir in the sugar, reduce the heat to very low, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, while you broil the eggplants:

Brush the cut sides of the eggplants with the sesame oil. Put the eggplants cut-side down on a baking sheet and place under the broiler of your oven for about 3 minutes, checking often to make sure that they do not burn. Turn them over, and cook for another 3 minutes or until the tops are a light to medium brown. Do not burn! (If your eggplant still isn’t tender all the way through, turn the broil function to bake at 375˚ for a few more minutes; then proceed with the recipe.)

When the eggplants are tender, top each one with the miso sauce and put them back under the broiler until the sauce bubbles up–this should take less than a minute, so watch them closely. Enjoy hot, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and green onions.

* I used a regular eggplant, but the thinness of Japanese eggplants work better with this dish because they roast faster. Also, if you score the eggplants, they’ll cook faster and the sauce will flavour even more of the eggplant.

Now that we’re in the thick of barbecue season – though you wouldn’t know it in cloudy Vancouver – all my favourite summertime recipes are making a comeback. There’s nothing better than potato salad with sticky pieces of barbecue right off the grill.

Potato salad screams summer to me, even though it’s ingredients aren’t necessarily summer produce. Still, I find the nugget potatoes in the summer creamier, sweeter and more full of flavour.

The potatoes are the star in this recipe, but I also toss in a bit of chopped bacon. The bacon just helps add a bit of extra, well, bacon-iness. This recipe will make quite a bit of potato salad, which is good if you’re heading to a big barbecue, but bad if you’re just by yourself. Feel free to scale the recipe.

Summery Potato-Bacon Salad Recipe

2 lbs nugget potatoes, skin on and scrubbed (I used Yukon Gold nuggets)
3 eggs
6 slices of bacon
1 1/2 cups of diced celery
1 bunch green onions, sliced
5 tablespoons mayonnaise or to taste
3 tablespoons whole grain mustard or to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Hard-boil the eggs, peel, cool, dice and set aside. Chop the bacon into and cook over medium to medium high heat until the fat is rendered out and the bacon is crispy. Drain on paper towels. While the bacon is cooking, boil the potatoes in a large pot of water with a sprinkling of salt. When they are just tender, drain. If you like, cool the potatoes in cold water and peel off the skins. If you like potato skins, skip this step. Quarter the potatoes.

One all the ingredients are cool, combine the quartered potatoes, diced eggs, bacon, celery and green onions in a bowl. Add the mayonnaise and whole grain mustard. Mix well. Taste and add more mayonnaise or mustard if necessary. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until chilled then enjoy!