Grilled Corn and Okra Salad

Okra is one of those vegetables that people either love or hate. One reason is the mucous that comes out when it's cooked, which is especially so when it's included in soups or stews. Popular in Africa and Asia, okra is a traditional ingredient in Southern dishes, like gumbo. But most people, if asked, wouldn't even be able to say what else could be made with okra. Sauteing and grilling are excellent and underutilized methods for cooking it.

Okra can be cooked alone, but it's more interesting when paired with another vegetable, like corn in this recipe. Grilling produces a nice char and smoky taste. The vegetable stays dry and has much less of a tendency to turn gooey. Corn adds a lot of sweetness to the dish to counterbalance the verdant flavor of okra. This recipe is also great for using up leftover grilled corn from a backyard barbecue. Serve it warm or, if you want to save time, make it ahead and enjoy it chilled. But the flavors are best when it's slightly warm off the grill. There's also a variety of okra that's less gooey, perfect for this recipe.



Did you know okra comes in a purple variety? I purchased this okra at Bodhitree Farm at the Union Square Greenmarket. Purple okra is known to be drier than the green kind, so it emits less of the goo when cooked. Unfortunately its pretty color fades to dark green when cooked, so in the end no one will recognize the difference by sight, but they will ask ask "what's your secret to cooking okra?" Pick up some purple okra if you see it at your local farmers' market. You'll be surprised at how much you'll like it.

Grilled Corn and Okra Salad

4 ears corn, cleaned of outer husk and silk
1/2 pound okra, stems trimmed, sliced lengthwise
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Soak corn in water for 30 minutes.

Heat gas grill at medium heat.

Wrap ears in aluminum foil. Grill corn, turning periodically for about 30 minutes. Let corn cool so it's easy to handle. Using a sharp knife cut kernels from cob. Add to a bowl.

Toss okra with oil. Grill okra on a large sheet of aluminum foil or in a grill basket until limp and lightly charred, about 3 to 5 minutes per side. Add to the bowl with corn. Drizzle in just enough oil to coat and season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Serve at room temperature. Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

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Cold Cucumber Soup

When it's incredibly hot outside, like it has been this month, standing by a hot stove is not something anyone wants to do. Grilling outside is another option, but when it's too hot to even do that, what do you do? Why not make a no-cook recipe, like a chilled soup? The cooling qualities of a cold soup are perfect on days where you need a refreshing respite from the sweltering heat. And there's no better way to achieve that than with a cold soup.

The tradition of cold, raw soups comes by way of Spain and their famous gazpachos. Originally, the recipe was made with just bread, garlic, and oil (bread and oil were the thickeners and garlic helped cool the body by way of sweating.) After the New World explorations, tomatoes were added to the recipe, creating what we know of today as the classic gazpacho. Many other nations have cold soups too, just think of borscht. In Hungary cucumber soup is very popular during summer. The pairing of cucumbers and yogurt is one that can be found in Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Indian cuisines. This recipe takes inspiration from all of these.

The soup starts with cooling cucumbers and creamy yogurt. Dill serves as the main herb, lending a piny aroma and citrusy flavor. Dried coriander powder adds a flowery flavor and cumin powder adds that musky earthiness, both spices help round out the flavors. Serve this soup very well-chilled. It's pretty poured into bowls or even drinking or shot glasses for an hors d'oeuvre-style presentation. What a great way to cool down on a hot day!

Cold Cucumber Soup

Note: To cut down on chilling time, start with refrigerated cucumbers.

1-1/2 pound English cucumbers, peeled and diced
1 cup yogurt or sour cream
1/2 cup dill
1 small garlic clove, chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 to 1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
sliced cucumbers and dill sprigs, for garnish

In a blender jar, combine cucumbers, yogurt, dill, garlic, and spices. Blend until pureed. Add water until desired thickness is achieved. Season with salt to taste, starting with about 1/2 teaspoon. Chill for at least 2 hours before serving. Garnish with sliced cucumber and sprigs of dill. Yield: 4 appetizer servings or 8 glass servings.

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Roasted Garlic Hummus and Mediterranean Meze

Hummus and I go way back. I couldn't imagine my college years without the chickpea dip. It was always there for me when I needed an impromptu dorm room dinner or when I had friends over. I love to dip into hummus with soft pita or even tortilla chips, never those awfully hard pita chips, which have the texture of wood chips. Hummus is now so popular that you can find it around the world, but this dish has Arabic origins.

It's not completely clear which peoples invented hummus, but you can find it throughout the Levantine region: Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Turkey. But you don't have to travel throughout the Middle East to find hummus for yourself. Every market sells it, but making your own is so much more satisfying, because you can flavor it to your personal taste. Plus, with a food processor, it only takes a few minutes to prepare. Start a party with an appetizer platter including hummus.




I like my hummus heavy on the tahini (sesame paste) and with roasted—not raw—garlic. A touch of lemon juice gives it just enough acidity to keep it well balanced. And good-quality olive oil is the key. Don't just serve the hummus alone, make a meze spread, which is a traditional way to start any meal in the Mediterranean. Have pita bread as well as strained yogurt, olives, capers, and my favorite, stuffed grape leaves (dolma). All the flavors are refreshing and the dishes cooling, making it perfect for summer entertaining.

Roasted Garlic Hummus

Note: Roasted chickpeas for the garnish can easily be purchased in the supermarket. Or roast your own: Toss 1 can chickpeas (drained, rinsed, and patted dry) with olive oil on a baking sheet. Roast at 400 degrees F. for 30 to 40 minutes. Sprinkle with salt.

1 head garlic
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1/2 cup olive oil
fine sea salt
rreshly ground black pepper
roasted chickpeas, for garnish

Slice off top 1/2-inch of garlic. Place on a piece of foil, drizzle with a little oil, and crimp into a packet. Roast in a 350-degree F oven for about 30 to 40 minutes. Carefully open packet and let garlic cool slightly. Squeeze garlic out of skin.

Combine the garlic, chickpeas, tahini, and lemon juice in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until mashed. Drizzle in olive oil and puree until emulsified. If too thick, add about 1/4 cup water. Season with salt and pepper. Pulse to combine.

Spoon into serving bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Garnish with roasted chickpeas. Serve with pita bread. Store leftover hummus in an air-tight container with a little oil drizzled on the surface of the hummus to prevent skin from forming. Yield: 3 cups.

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Goat Cheese Cheesecakes with Balsamic Syrup and Sour Cherry Sorbet

I always take inspiration from the restaurants where I dine. It's fascinating to see what chefs create especially when it comes to dessert. Last summer I had the opportunity of visiting a number of D.C. Restaurants thanks to Destination DC. As soon as I visited Birch & Barley, run by husband and wife team Kyle Bailey and Tiffany MacIsaac, I was taken by the great food, but even more so by the baked goods and desserts, expertly created by pastry chef MacIsaac. A goat cheese cheesecake particularly stood out.

Until then I had never thought that goat cheese could even be turned into a dessert, but I was wrong. It was there that I had an amazing goat cheese cheesecake with balsamic syrup and cherry sorbet. It was tangy, just slightly sweet, refreshing, and palate-cleansing—all things I look for in dessert. I'm not much of an "only chocolate is dessert" kind of guy, so I always appreciate something different and unique. I knew then at that moment that I'd make my version of the recipe and here it is.

These mini cheesecakes are drizzled with balsamic syrup and served with my sour cherry sorbet. A simple and classic graham cracker crust serves as the base on which the mini cakes bake. The whole recipe comes together quickly, since the mini size bakes much faster than a large cheesecake. All that needs time is the cooling. This recipe is perfect for a party since the cheesecakes are just about two-bite sized. And if you don't like goat's cheese, no problem, substitute fromage blanc or cream cheese.

Goat Cheese Cheesecakes with Balsamic Syrup and Sour Cherry Sorbet

for the graham cracker crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 10 crackers)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3 tablespoons melted butter

for the filling:
12 ounces goat cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

for serving:
Balsamic Syrup, recipe follows
Sour Cherry Sorbet

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter. Crumbs should clump together like wet sand when squeezed. Fill each mold of a 12-capacity mini muffin tin with removable bottoms with 1 tablespoon crumbs. Tamp using a small bottle or your fingers. Bake for 5 minutes. Let cool.

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together cheese and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Puree until incorporated, scraping down sides. Divide filling among cheesecake molds, filling three-quarters full. Bake until filling is puffed, about 12 minutes. Let cool completely. Chill for at least 2 hours. When ready to serve, run a thin knife around edges and use removable bottom to assist in removal. Serve drizzled over with balsamic syrup and a spoonful of sour cherry sorbet. Yield: 12 servings.

Balsamic Syrup

1 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Combine vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook until reduced to about 1/3 cup. A wooden spoon should leave a trail in the bottom of the pan. Let cool before using.

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Gooseberry Pie

The gooseberry is little known here in the States, but it's a specialty throughout Europe. My first memory of gooseberries was picking them in the garden of a dear family friend in Connecticut. I remember the berries had a very unique sweet-tart flavor, much like their cousin the currant. It was many, many years later that I would taste them again—at the farmers' market in New York. I was so excited to rediscover them.

Every summer I buy a pint to enjoy just for eating. I hardly ever make recipes out of berries—they're just so good fresh. Gooseberries, though, can be turned into everything from jam to pickles. In Hungarian cooking, gooseberries are often used in savory recipes. (You can make a very good sauce to go over pork.) In England they make gooseberry pies and cobblers. This season I decided to make a gooseberry pie with beautiful purple gooseberries.



The berries are round and plump, containing small seeds. Besides purple, they also come in red and pale green. They grow on a low bush in singles and in pairs. The bloom end, which should be trimmed for this recipe, stays attached to the berry. For the pie, prepare the filling much like a jam, so that baking time is cut in half. Though just a warning: this isn't the kind of pie that makes a perfectly formed slice. You might need to scoop out servings with a spoon. Even so, it's such an enjoyable treat especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Gooseberry Pie

1-1/2 pounds gooseberries, ends trimmed
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup potato or tapioca starch
Pie Crust, recipe follows

Combine the gooseberries and sugar in a saucepan set over medium-high heat. Cook until sugar has dissolved and gooseberries have released most of their liquid, about 5 minutes. Stir in starch and continue to cook until thickened, about 5 minutes. Let cool.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Roll out one disc of pie dough to about 11 inches to fit a 9-inch pie plate. Fit into the pie plate. Roll out the second disc and use a decorative pastry cutter to score 3/4-inch strips. Refrigerate pie plate and dough strips until ready to use.

Pour gooseberry mixture into dough-lined pie plate, spreading evenly. Onto the pie, lay half the strips in one direction a 1/2-inch apart. Lay the remaining strips in the opposite direction. Tuck and press the edges together securely. Cut off any overhanging strips. Crimp the edge of the pie using your thumbs and forefingers. Place pie plate on a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.

Bake pie for 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 375 degrees F. and continue to bake for 30 to 40 minutes. The crust should be golden brown and the filling bubbling. If the crust starts to brown too quickly, cover with aluminum foil. Cool the pie completely before slicing and serving. Yield: 8 slices.

Pie Crust

Note: For the perfect pie crust, the dough should clump when squeezed together. In humid weather 1/4 cup ice water should do, but in normal conditions, a 1/2 cup is needed. Still if it is too dry, add water, or if too moist, add flour.

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Pulse to aerate instead of sifting.

Add butter and pulse for ten seconds or until mixture resembles course meal.

With the food processor running, stream in water. Process until the dough comes together.

Divide the dough into two parts and wrap in plastic wrap, forming discs. Chill for at least one hour before rolling.

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Sour Cherry Sorbet

During summer, I take every opportunity to make ice cream or sorbet. (If you look in my freezer, you'll find a reserved space for the ice cream maker container.) There really is no better time to make frozen treats than on the hottest summer days. And who wants to bake anyway? (Though I still bake summer pies and cakes.) Sorbets are my favorite because they're easy to make and full of fruit flavor. And you can pretty much make sorbet out of any fruit. There's no custard to cook as with ice cream, and in most cases the fruit goes in raw—keeping the best fresh flavor.

Since sour cherries are in season right now, I couldn't help not making a sorbet out of them. I love it when sorbets are more like palate-cleansers than overly sweet icy desserts. And what fruit could do the duty better than sour cherries? Only one cup of sugar goes into taming the sour cherries' tartness, ensuring a little tang lingers. A little bit of lemon juice in the mix helps keep the color bright more than making the sorbet sour. This dessert has everything going for it flavor-wise—you really taste the cherries. It's not laden with any unpronounceable ingredients. It's just pure and natural.

Sour Cherry Sorbet

Note: For the best results, make sure to look for the ripest sour cherries you can find—the darker, the riper. You can also use sweet bing cherries.

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 quart sour cherries (about 1-1/2 to 2 pounds)
1 cup Simple Syrup, recipe follows
1/4 cup lemon juice (about 1 lemon)

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer until syrup is clear, about 5 minutes. Let cool and chill.

Using an immersion blender, purée sour cherries. Force mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. There should be about 2 cups liquid. Combine with simple syrup and lemon juice. Chill for 4 hours or overnight.

Transfer mixture to ice cream maker and churn for about 40 minutes, depending on the machine. Transfer to a large container, such as a loaf pan, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until hard, about 12 hours or overnight. Yield: 1-1/2 quarts.

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Sour Cherry Cake

Sour cherries are revered for their tart taste, aroma, and flavor. They're a special fruit with lots of versatility in both sweet and savory recipes. In Hungary, sour cherries are king in early summer. They're too tart to enjoy fresh, though some people do eat them that way. Sour cherries are much better in recipes: tarts, pies, cakes, compotes, brandied cherries—these are some popular recipes. Here in the States sour cherries are pretty rare and hard to find, and their season is short, but they are in season now. If you look hard enough you'll find these red jewels in farmers' markets, especially on the East coast.

I love sour cherries in every which way, especially in sweet recipes, like pie and even soup. When I was a kid my mom would make sour cherry cakes and tarts, but she almost always used canned or jarred cherries, because it was difficult to find fresh ones. Luckily for me, I picked up two quarts of sour cherries at Cheerful Cherry Farm at the Union Square Greenmarket this past week. Immediately all the possibilities of what to make swirled in my mind. But I knew that making a sour cherry cake like my mom's would be the perfect choice.

This recipe starts with a simple spongecake-like base that's light and fluffy. It's just right for encasing the sour cherries, which get scattered on top before baking. Since the cake batter is somewhat denser than typical spongecakes, the cherries don't migrate to the bottom, but stay mostly on the surface. Dusting the cherries in flour also helps keep them from sinking.

This cake is ideal with coffee or tea, for breakfast or an afternoon delight. Serve it dusted with a little powdered sugar, which helps tame some of the tartness. After making this recipe, you'll know how special sour cherries are.

Sour Cherry Cake

1 cup all purpose flour, plus 2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups stemmed and pitted sour cherries
confectioners sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 9-by-9-by-2-inch baking pan, line with parchment paper, and butter again. Sift together dry ingredients: 1 cup flour, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip egg whites until stiff peaks form.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg yolks and mix until combined. Add dry ingredients, a little at a time, and mix until incorporated. By hand fold in egg whites. Spread batter into prepared pan, smoothing top.

Toss sour cherries with 2 tablespoons flour and scatter over batter, pressing a few down into the batter. Bake until golden brown, about 30 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 15 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool completely. Slice into squares and serve dusted with confectioners sugar. Yield: 9 squares.

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Sautéed Peas with Mint

Peas with mint bring back so many fond memories of my travels in England. No matter where I went I always found peas with mint or mushy peas on every menu. A side of peas was always an accompaniment to fish and chips or roast beef. My love for peas as well as English food grew infinitely during my time there. It's funny, because as a kid I despised peas. Luckily as I grew older my tastes matured and now peas are one of my favorites.

Once again I'm growing peas this summer. Peas are so easy to grow. You just start from seed and watch them climb up a fence. There's really no maintenance involved. I have two varieties: shelling peas and sugar snap peas, which can be eaten whole—pod and all. After picking six quarts of peas, I know I've got a lot of cooking to do to use up my haul. Some of my favorite recipes for peas include this creamy soup and this sugar snap pea stir-fry.


I love to serve a vegetable sauté with dinner, because it's quick and easy to prepare. With only five ingredients, this side dish of peas is perfect. Mint is a traditional herb with peas because it adds a fresh flavor. Don't be afraid to use it—a little goes a long way. Instead of cooking the peas in water, I like to use pea stock, made from the pods. It adds even more pea flavor. You could also use chicken stock if you want a more robust flavor. If you come across some beautiful fresh peas at the farmers' market this summer, buy some and make this recipe. It's so much better than frozen peas—your taste buds will agree.

Sautéed Peas with Mint

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 spring onion, sliced
2 cups shelled peas
1/2 cup pea stock or water
6 mint leaves, torn
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Warm oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté for 2 minutes. Add peas. Pour in enough stock to cover peas. Bring to a boil. Add mint. Lower to a simmer and cook peas until tender and almost all liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Yield: 2 servings.

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