A slice of peach kuchen.

I don’t know how the treat got this name since it is certainly not a cake. It could be that an Alsatian member of my family chose to use the German word for cake (kuchen) as a generic reference to dessert. Alternately the use of kuchen to mean tart may have come from the Pennsylvania Dutch community near my home town. Or maybe the name was simply made up by a distant relative talented in baking.

I have never seen another dessert quite like this so I’m going to keep calling it a kuchen. Maybe you can tell me your theory about what to call it after you eat it!

Peach Kuchen, A Fresh Peach Tart with Shortbread Crust

1 c flour
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking powder
7 T sugar
4 T butter, chilled
2 large ripe peaches
½ tsp cinnamon
1 egg
½ c milk
½ tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 400. Combine flour, salt, baking powder and 1 T sugar in medium bowl. (Set aside remaining 6 T of sugar.) Cut butter into small pieces and add to flour mixture. Using pastry blender, cut butter into flour until remaining lumps are smaller than a pea and the texture of the mixture is sandy. This can also be accomplished with a few quick pulses in a food processor.

Pour butter and flour mixture into a 9 inch glass pie plate. Use heel of hand to press mixture evenly into the bottom of the plate and 2/3 of the way up the side of the plate to form a crust.

Peel peaches and slice into very thin wedges – aim to get about 18-20 wedges from each peach. Arrange peach slices in crust so that they form concentric circles covering the entire bottom of the crust. Place the slices very close together so that they overlap each other.

Peaches arranged in crust with raspberry in center as an accent.

Combine remaining 6 T of sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Evenly pour cinnamon sugar over the peaches in the crust.  Bake the tart in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

While tart bakes, thoroughly beat an egg in a small bowl. Add milk and vanilla to egg and beat until combined.

Once tart has baked for 15 minutes, remove from oven and place on a level surface. Gently pour milk and egg mixture over top of tart so that it covers peaches.

Lower the oven temperature to 350 and bake tart for an additional 30 minutes. Remove tart from oven and allow to cool for at least an hour before serving.

Tart can be wrapped with plastic and held in the fridge for up to 2 days.  The tart is best enjoyed with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Also makes a delicious, if indulgent breakfast treat.

Don’t have peaches? This tart is also good with any ripe stone fruit or fresh blueberries.

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Lots to chop. Having a sous chef is very helpful.

This fruit salad, based on one I saw recently on the Cooking Channel’s Everyday Exotic, is far from flat. In addition to the ginger and cilantro, the original recipe has Thai basil which I replaced with fresh mint, and a red chile, which I replaced with a serrano chile because I had one on hand the first time I made this and really liked it. With its sweet, spicy dressing, this will make a beautiful, healthy side dish at your next BBQ.

Tropical Fruit Salad

You can eat this as soon as you make it, or keep it in the fridge for a few days. It will last a week, but the ginger and serrano will get more pungent over time, so if you’re making extra, consider reducing those ingredients a little bit so they don’t overpower the fruit.

Tropical Fruit Salad
adapted from Everyday Exotic

1 mango, peeled and diced
1/2 pineapple, peeled and diced
1/4 honeydew melon, peeled, seeded and diced
1 serrano chile, very finely diced
2 Tbsp. thinly sliced mint
1 Tbsp. thinly sliced cilantro
1 Tbsp. grated or finely minced ginger
2 Tbsp. honey
Juice of 1 lime
2 Tbsp. black sesame seeds

Mix everything but the sesame seeds in a large bowl. Garnish with sesame seeds.

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It’s hot in Sevilla in the summer. So hot that you’ll cross the street just to walk (slowly) on a sidewalk shaded by buildings and clench a water bottle in a sweaty fist at all times. Hot enough that the streets are watered to control the dust and tamp down the odors that exude from the pores of an old city clogged with layers of grime from ages of everyday human activity.  And summer is when the mid-afternoon siesta becomes essential for survival, rather than an irritating waste of time when the stores are shuttered and dark.

Imagine yourself inside a walled courtyard. Just behind the door is a narrow city street, but here you sit in the shade beside a gurgling fountain, amid flowers hanging from the walls in glazed pots. Relief. Perhaps your lunch includes a bowl of cold gazpacho.

Gazpacho is one of those dishes that gets a lot of playtime during this sweltering season. It uses ingredients at their prime this time of year – tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers – and requires absolutely no cooking, little prep, and lets a blender do all the work.

You can even pretend to hop on the raw food bandwagon with this recipe, should you wish. Super healthy, and it goes down easier than a salad.

Let’s talk tomatoes. The star of this dish, it’s important to use good ones. If you aren’t growing them in your backyard (I’m certainly not, I live in a fog bank June through August), head to the farmer’s market and pick up some of the heirloom variety. Meaty, flavorful and aromatic, they are what make this soup taste really good.

Tomatoes are the main ingredient of legendary dishes from countries like Spain and Italy. The ironic thing is that this flavorful fruit likely originated in prehistoric South America and didn’t arrive to Europe until the 1500s. And then it took another couple hundred years to convince Americans that tomatoes were ok to eat, despite their relation to the “deadly nightshade.”

Back then, those crazy, romantic French dubbed the ruby red sphere pomme d’amour or “love apple” – which is what it first was called in the U.S. and why it’s so easy to fall for this dish.

Gazpacho de Andalucia
Adapted from Cooking in Spain, Janet Mendel
- serves 6 -

2 slices bread (I use French or Italian bread – cut a chunk roughly the size of 2 slices of sandwich bread)
3-4 large, ripe tomatoes (heirloom, if you can get ‘em)
1 green bell pepper
½ cucumber, peeled if waxed
1 c roughly chopped white onion, rinsed
1 large clove garlic
1/8 c good extra-virgin olive oil
¾ t salt
2 t sherry vinegar

Suggested toppings:
Minced green pepper
Minced white onion
Chopped cucumber
Chopped tomato
Chopped hard-boiled egg
Bits of bacon or jamon serrano, cooked
Croutons

Put the bread in a bowl and add water to cover. Leave to soak. Roughly chop the tomatoes, bell pepper, cucumber, onion and mince the garlic. Rinse the chopped onion under cold water. Put tomatoes into the blender first, then follow with the rest (you may have to do in two batches). Give the blender a whir until all is pureed. Strain into a bowl, using a spoon to stir and press the liquid through the sieve. You should be left with just a few tablespoons of vegetable pulp.

Squeeze the water from the bread and add to the blender, along with the olive oil, salt, vinegar and a few tablespoons of the tomato puree (enough so that you can get the blender to engage). Blend until the bread mixture is smooth. Ladle in a bit more tomato puree and blend so that you get a “pourable” consistency. Add bread mixture to the bowl of tomato puree and stir. If it looks/tastes too thick for your preference, add a little water. Taste to correct seasoning.

Chill in the fridge at least 1 hour.

To serve: Pick a few (or all!) of the toppings listed above and either sprinkle on top of bowls of gazpacho before serving, or pass around the table with the soup for people to add themselves.

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First off, I need to apologize for giving you a headache with the photo. I’m sure there’s a Photography 101 class that tells you not to use a busy background for your photo, but use one I did. And it matched the food to boot! There’s a fashion faux pas analogy I could make here, but it’s escaping me at the moment.

Anyway, last week there were a couple of hot days in the Bay Area. Folks on the East Coast who are reading this would likely guffaw if I told you the exact temp and humidity. You might say that “dry heat” isn’t as bad as humid heat or some such. But heat is still hot! On such days I try to find alternatives to firing up the stove, which generally means a sandwich and a salad for dinner. There are only so many mixed baby green salads I can stomach, though, so I was excited to see early girl tomatoes at the farmer’s market the other week.

Early girls might be my favorite variety of tomato. I think it has the perfect proportion of flesh to juicy seeds, and it has a concentrated, sweet tomato-y flavor. Perfect for sandwiches and salads.

If you wanted to go simple, you could just mix chunks of tomato and avocado with a pinch of salt and call it a day. It would be delicious. BUT if you wanted to be a rockstar you would whip up a mustard thyme vinaigrette in 2 more minutes to bind the two together. Your choice.

Tomato Avocado Salad with Mustard Thyme Vinaigrette
– serves 1 as a side -

1 medium tomato, cut into chunks
1 medium avocado, approx the same size as the tomato, cut into similarly sized chunks
2 Tbsp. champagne vinegar
1/2 tsp. honey mustard
extra virgin olive oil
thyme
kosher salt
black pepper

1. Make the vinaigrette by first adding a small pinch of salt to the vinegar and whisking. The salt should take the sharp edge off the vinegar without actually tasting salty. Adjust the amount of salt until you get to this point. Whisk in the honey mustard, and then slowly drizzle in the olive oil while constantly whisking until the vinaigrette is the consistency that you like. Add a pinch or two of fresh thyme and a few grinds of black pepper to taste.

2. Gently mix together the tomato and avocado in a bowl and dress it with the desired amount of vinaigrette. Enjoy!

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I know what you are thinking, why bother making pudding from scratch when I can dump and stir from a packet without any cooking at all?! I’ll tell you why, because stovetop pudding is delicious and the recipe is so easy it is like making hot chocolate with just one more ingredient and a little more stirring. Plus when you make pudding at home you get to exactly what you want – you can cut down on fat or use super premium chocolate, depending on your tastes.  And you get to enjoy pudding skin – my favorite part!

Still cold from the fridge and with pudding skin!

Stovetop Chocolate Pudding, adapted from Cook’s Country

(Serves 4)

3 oz dark chocolate (recommend bittersweet)
3 T cocoa
2 ½ T corn starch
1/3 c + 2 T sugar (up to ½ c if you like really sweet desserts)
Dash of salt
2 ½ c milk (whole or reduced fat – not skim)
2 t vanilla extract or other flavoring

Chop chocolate and melt in a small heat-proof bowl in the microwave, using 30 second intervals and stirring in between. Set aside to cool slightly.

Combine cocoa, cornstarch, sugar and salt in heavy bottomed sauce pan. Add milk and stir to combine.

Cook on medium heat, stirring continuously, until mixture begins to bubble. Add melted chocolate and continue to stir for 2-3 more minutes. Stirring constantly is important and be sure to scrape the corners and bottom of the pan to prevent the pudding from scorching.  Pudding will be done cooking when it coats the back of a spoon and/or has very thick bubbles (like a mud pot).

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla or other flavoring – almond extract, coffee or a favorite liqueur are excellent additions.

Pour pudding into 4 individual cups or ramekins. If you don’t like skin on your pudding then cover each cup with plastic wrap, placing it directly on the surface of the pudding. (I’m a big pudding skin fan, so no wrap for me!) Place pudding cups in fridge and chill for at least 2 hours. Unwrap and enjoy.

To really gild the lily and get a textural contrast, try topping the pudding with jam or whipped cream before serving.

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Getting the fish and grill ready

Cedar plank salmon, before and almost-after

Cedar plank salmon, zucchini, peach, and avocado. Yes, grilled avocado. Try it.

Cedar Plank Salmon
– serves 2 –

1 cedar plank
2 6oz. salmon fillets
1/4 C dijon mustard
1/4 C maple syrup
salt and pepper

1. Soak the cedar plank in water for an hour. While the plank is soaking, heat up your grill. If you’re using charcoal, put the coals on one side only, so you have half the grill with direct high heat, and half with indirect heat. If you’re using gas, turn on half your burners.

2. Season the salmon generously with salt and pepper. Mix the mustard and maple syrup and brush a heavy coat on the salmon.

3. Put the plank over the hot part of the grill for about 2 minutes, just until it starts to smoke.

4. When the plank starts smoking, flip the plank over, and put the salmon directly on the plank, still over the hot part of the grill. Cook for about 5 minutes. The plank should really be smoking now.

5. Baste the salmon again with the mustard-maple glaze. Move the plank over to the cooler part of the grill, then put the cover on the grill. Depending on the thickness of your fish, it will take anywhere from 10-30 minutes to cook through. Check it every 5-10 minutes, basting with the glaze each time, until it’s cooked to your liking. Even if you normally like salmon on the rare side, you might want to give this a few extra minutes to get more of the smoke flavor.

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Why light a field of blueberry bushes on fire?

What I was told, growing up, is that burning the blueberry bushes after they’ve given up their crop at the end of the season makes them healthier and set for new growth in the spring.

Eating blueberries is one of my memories from lazy summers in Machais, Maine. The Machias I know conjures images of swimming in the lake, slamming porch doors, washing and polishing cars by hand, pie eating, walking barefoot, reading on the glider, doing puzzles.

I had no idea it (or rather, its port) was the setting for the first naval battle in the Revolutionary War (if Wikipedia is to be believed!), during which the American patriots, inspired by what had just happened in Lexington and Concord, captured their first British ship.

Cooking with blueberries is appropriate for this time of year, don’t you think?

Driving around the Machias area, you see fields of blueberry bushes – the low “wild” kind, with the small berry that is so hard to find in the grocery store. Which is too bad, because I always thought they had more flavor than the bigger berries from the high bushes. But maybe part of that is nostalgia.

Anyways, when I came across this recipe that combines sweet blueberries with tart buttermilk – and doesn’t require much time in the oven to boot – I knew I had to try it. Contrasting with smooth, creamy buttermilk filling and fresh, pop-in-your-mouth blueberries is a crisp cookie-like crust, studded with bits of almonds.

There are a few steps to it, but most of the time required to make this tart is spent waiting – for the crust to cook, things to cool, and the filling to set in the refrigerator.

Blueberry Buttermilk Tart
- serves 8 -
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living

Crust:
1 stick unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces
¼ c plus 1/3 c sugar
1 cup flour
¼ t salt
1/3 c whole almonds

Filling:
1 t unflavored gelatin
1 T cold water
½ c heavy cream
3 T sugar
1/8 t salt
1 c low-fat buttermilk
1 T fresh lemon juice
3+ c fresh blueberries

To make the crust: In a mixer, beat butter with ¼ c sugar until just combined. Add flour and salt, mix on low speed. Martha’s recipe says the dough should come together in a ball, but mine was more like course dough – like a pie crust before the water is added, but a little moister (if you can mush it together with your hand and form it into a ball, then you’ll be fine).

In a food processor, grind together the almonds and the 1/3 c sugar until finely ground. You can probably toast the almonds first and then cool them – a step I neglected this time around.

Lightly oil/butter your 9” pie plate/tart pan.

Spread half of the almond/sugar mixture onto a clean countertop. Dump your ball of dough on top and flatten the dough with your hands and a rolling pin to roll out the crust to fit a 9” pie plate or tart pan. As  you flatten and roll, sprinkle the top with the remaining sugar/almond mixture.  (I was not able to lift this crust as a whole piece into the pie plate. I’m wondering if it’s because my butter was not cold enough. Anyways, if this happens to you, just pick up pieces and press it into the pie plate or tart pan.)

Refrigerate crust until firm, at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Bake pie crust until golden brown, 30-40 minutes. Every 10 minutes or so, check it to see if you need to flatten/press the pie crust up the sides of the pie plate with the bottom of a glass (the crust gets a little puffy, so tamp it down).  Remove from oven and let cool.

To make the filling: Sprinkle gelatin over 1T cold water in a small bowl and let stand until softened – a few minutes. In a sauce pan, heat the cream, sugar and salt over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar and salt. Add gelatin mixture and whisk it in so you’re sure it has dissolved. Remove from heat and cool. Stir in buttermilk and lemon juice.

To assemble: Spread cooled filling into cooled crust. Put in refrigerator until filling is somewhat set, about 20-25 minutes (longer if your crust/filling isn’t totally cooled off). Top with blueberries and put back into the fridge until the filling is firm, about 2 hours. Cut and serve! (Note: the crust is cookie-like and very crisp so you  may have some trouble getting it out of the pie plate; hopefully the butter/oil makes it easier.)

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The usual reason for the crowds is the fruit. Candycots, pluots, peaches, nectarines, figs, berries, cherries, mmm. Crowd-pleasers for sure, but summer is also the start of tomatillo season and there are a couple of farmers here and there who’ll have a small box of these treasures at the market.

Tomatillos are small, green fruits and are the basis for salsa verde. I grew up in Philadelphia, and I had no idea that salsa was anything other than that canned stuff they sold in the chip aisle until I was 20 years old. Sad, I know.

I came across this recipe in some old recipe book that I can no longer remember the name of. Helpful, no? Anyway, the important thing is that this is the only recipe that I thought delicious enough to commit to memory from that entire book. What I love about it is that it’s a simple, fresh-tasting dish that’s great for weeknights. Every now and then I think I might roast the tomatillos and onions first, but then the laziness sets in and then I don’t. If any of you decide to do it, let me know how it turns out!

Tomatillo Chicken
– 2 generous portions -

1 lb. tomatillos
4 skinless, bone-in chicken thighs, rinsed and patted dry
4 large cloves of garlic, smashed
1 medium onion, sliced
1 jalapeno, sliced
handful of cilantro leaves (optional)
olive or canola oil
salt
pepper

rice for serving

1. Look for firm tomatillos with a bright green color. I generally pull the husk back a smidge to check the color. Prepare the tomatillos by first removing them from the husk. Here’s a photo of a tomatillo with the husk pulled back (isn’t it cute?). To remove it, just give the tomatillo a little twist and the husk will come right off:

2. Next step in the prep is to wash the tomatillos thoroughly. You’ll notice that there’s a sticky residue on the de-husked tomatillo. I generally dump the de-husked tomatillos in a bowl of water and rub the bejeezus out of them in 2 changes of water.

3. After the tomatillos are washed and clean, slice in half and set aside.

4. Heat about 1 tbsp of oil a saucepan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the chicken and lightly brown on both sides. You’re looking for more of a light golden color than a brown color here.

5. When the chicken is browned, add the garlic and stir for about 30 seconds, until fragrant. Then add the onions, jalapenos, and the tomatillos. Give it a stir to mix it all up. Turn the heat down to low and cover. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. The tomatillos will break down as they’re cooking and give up their juice to form your sauce.

6. After 20 minutes, remove the cover and raise the heat to medium. Reduce the sauce to your desired level of consistency, for me that’s usually about 2-3 minutes.

7. Check your seasoning and add salt and pepper as necessary. Stir in the cilantro and serve over rice. Enjoy!

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For grilled pizza you’ll need to make a special kind of dough that can stand up to the high heat and also not fall through the grill grates.  The version below is adapted from Cook’s Illustrated – it’s tender and chewy and contains a hearty amount of olive oil to keep it from sticking to the grill.

Top the pizza with just about anything you want – except a traditional tomato sauce.  I don’t recommend a wet sauce as it will make the crust soggy.  Instead try some chopped tomatoes, pesto or roasted pepper puree.

Grilled Pizza Dough

2 ½ c bread flour
2 t sugar
1 t salt
1 t instant yeast
1 c water, room temp
3-4 T extra virgin olive oil

Combine first four ingredients in food processor or bowl of standing mixer.  With machine running slowly pour in water, then olive oil.  Process or mix until dough forms into a ball.

Grease a large mixing bowl with additional olive oil and add dough to bowl, tossing to coat with oil.  Allow dough to rise until doubled in size, approximately 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Gently press dough to deflate, then divide into 4 equal balls of dough.  Press each dough ball into a disk.  Spray 4 pieces of plastic wrap with nonstick spray and then loosely wrap each dough disk in wrap.  Allow dough disks to rise for an additional 20-30 minutes or until small bubbles form.

Preheat grill to 350-400 degrees.  Stretch dough disks into 9-12 inch pizzas rounds.  Don’t worry if the pizzas don’t come out perfectly round – they will taste great no matter what they look like.  Place two pizzas on the grill and at a time and cook until top is bubbly and bottom has dark grill marks, approximately 3-5 minutes.   Remove from grill and place on a platter grilled side up.

Brush grilled side of pizzas with olive oil and then top with cheese, meat and veggies of your choice.  Return pizzas to grill (uncooked side down) and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes until bottom is well browned and cheese on top is bubbling.

Remove from grill and sprinkle with fresh herbs (basil or oregano or parsley.)  Cook remaining 2 pizzas by following instructions above.

Let pizzas rest for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

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They’re a healthy snack. They can be used to great effect in either savory or sweet dishes. Mmm… carrot cake. And carrots make great pickles.

Jar of Spicy Pickled Carrots

The canned jalapeños come with carrots. They're not as good as mine.

Spicy Pickled Carrot Sticks

1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into sticks
4-5 whole pickled jalapeño peppers*
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1 1/4 C water
3/4 C white vinegar
1/4 C apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup white sugar
3 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 Tbsp salt

1. Toast the cumin seeds in a dry skillet, over medium heat, for about 3 minutes.

2. Add the cumin seeds, water, white vinegar, cider vinegar, sugar, garlic, bay leaves, and salt to a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, uncovered. Simmer for about two minutes.

3. Put the carrots and jalapeños in a glass or metal bowl and pour the hot brine over them. Cool, uncovered, to room temperature. If you’re planning to keep the carrots in a glass jar, you can do this right in the jar. An empty pickle jar is handy for this project, but far from necessary.

4. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. They’re ready to eat after one day.

* Is it cheating to use pickled jalapeños? Maybe. You could certainly use fresh peppers. Or just about any other veggies. But I like the flavor of the pre-pickled ones in the can. And if I’m short a little brine when I put everything in the jar, I’ll top it off with brine from the can.

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