For all that Wisconsin withholds in March, in early September it delivers. Everything seems to ripen at once. All of a sudden there are dozens of peppers and eggplants, broccoli and corn, squashes and endless cabbage.
This is all lovely and exciting until you’re lobbing an heirloom tomato the size of a baby’s head into the compost pile because fruit flies got to it first.
Our CSA box lately overflows with Red Dragon Napa cabbage and lion’s mane mushrooms that I am working out how to cook (maybe in crab-ish cakes?). For the rest, I’m inclined to go back to old favorites. I made a big batch of pesto that, after two days on baguette with tomatoes, is already almost gone. I buzzed gazpacho in a blender, ate it at every meal for 18 hours, then made more.
The new things I’ve tried have had varying levels of success. Turns out swapping figs for ripe pears in a ricotta cake can make it sink, but adding dark chocolate helped us forget about it. And I may have settled on a favorite way to use turnips, a veggie that’s always been tough for me to love.
I’ve been pulling from a mix of online recipes and cookbooks lately, so links will be shared when I have them. Happy cooking!
Hakka eggplant from "Myers+Chang at Home" by Joanne Chang and Karen Akunowicz is made with a sauce of hoisin, soy and vinegar. Serve it over jasmine rice.
Baked tofu with peanut sauce and coconut-lime rice — I have been meaning to make this popular dish from Yewande Komolafe in the New York Times for a few weeks now. I minced up a hot chili from Savory Accents (currently at the Dane County Farmers’ Market) to put in the peanut-miso sauce, in addition to baby bell peppers. I also added lots of extra greens. I could eat this for lunch for a week and not get tired of it. (Komolafe is a Nigerian-born chef to follow; check out her great interview on The Sporkful.) cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020530-baked-tofu-with-peanut-sauce-and-coconut-lime-rice
Hakka eggplant from “Myers+Chang at Home” by Joanne Chang and Karen Akunowicz — Whatever vegetable you toss with hakka sauce, a rich, sweet and salty blend of hoisin, vinegar and soy, will taste amazing. I happened to have a trio of lavender Japanese eggplants, which I filled out with a block of pressed tofu and jasmine rice to make a full meal. cbsnews.com/news/the-dish-joanne-chang
Simple sautéed corn with scallions from “Six Seasons” by Joshua McFadden and Martha Holmberg — When my partner brought home four ears of corn from the farm, I immediately stripped them and threw the kernels into a skillet with butter, scallions and chopped bell pepper. Honestly this is barely a recipe. (Similar: iowagirleats.com/summer-sweet-corn-saute)
Use any mix of heirloom and cherry tomatoes in this gazpacho from Samin Nosrat, topped with croutons and basil oil.
Roasted tomato tart with ricotta and pesto by Alexa Weibel in the New York Times — This is maybe the prettiest thing I’ve made all year. I made my own pesto but you don’t have to; plenty of places have it premade. Swap out the ricotta for fresh goat cheese, change up the tomatoes; it’s all glorious and super summery. cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020373-roasted-tomato-tart-with-ricotta-and-pesto
Pesto baked chicken thighs from Food and Wine — If you’re making pesto for the tart, toss a quarter cup of it with bone-in chicken thighs and serve it all together. This is another combo I never tire of. foodandwine.com/recipes/pesto-baked-chicken-thighs
Gazpacho by Samin Nosrat — I started making gazpacho based on an Ina Garten recipe for which I purchased V-8 tomato juice. This one is even easier than that, with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, good olive oil and a slug of sherry vinegar. nytimes.com/2017/06/28/magazine/a-gazpacho-recipe-to-follow-then-discard.html
One-skillet chicken pot pie by Molly Baz in Bon Appetit — I love many (most?) vegetables but with turnips, man, I struggle. This is the single best way I know to use them. I cut the cream by more than half here, as the dish is already pretty rich. I also subbed in fresh carrots for frozen peas and added celeriac, since we had it from the farm. Get a bottle of cheap-ish white wine, like gruner veltliner or vinho verde, to put in this. bonappetit.com/recipe/one-skillet-rotisserie-chicken-pot-pie
Lamb and feta sausage from the Conscious Carnivore are paired with sauteed rainbow chard, mustard seeds and tart apple in this recipe adapted from Melissa Clark in the New York Times.
Sweet and salty grilled steak with cucumber salad by Melissa Clark in the New York Times — We were already in front of the Conscious Carnivore when we realized they were curbside pick-up only, no customers inside the shop, similar to Penzey’s Spices nearby. We watched the Instagram video and then bought a flat iron steak sight unseen, as well as burger patties stuffed with cheese curds (YES), a whole chicken (for the pot pie) and lamb feta sausages. cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015080-sweet-and-salty-grilled-steak-with-cucumber-salad
Sausages with chard and apple adapted from Melissa Clark in the New York Times — Those lamb sausages were a perfect pairing with a bunch of rainbow chard and small tart apples. This takes 20 minutes, start to finish. cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016290-sausage-with-chard-and-rhubarb
Ricotta pear cake adapted from Ina Garten — I sort of overcomplicated this one, adding lemon zest, chopped dark chocolate, pears instead of figs and a tablespoon of brandy. It was, admittedly, a touch mushy in the center? But the flavors were fantastic. Stick to the original figs, or start here and riff: barefootcontessa.com/recipes/fresh-fig-ricotta-cake
