Eat Boutique

Today’s post was written by Jessica Merrill, a new contributor to EatBoutique.com. Jessica is a food and travel writer who has written for some big-time publications - check out the About page for more. Jessica and I are working on some very cool food stuff together. Promise to tell you more once it’s solidified.

As far as I’m concerned, cooking and summer are a bit like god and the devil; you can put the two in a room together but I don’t want to be there. And by cooking I mean pots and pans and a heat-powered indoor appliance, not grilling. I live in an apartment in Brooklyn, so words like “yard” and “garage” aren’t part of my vocabulary, and when the temperature soars past 80, I simply give in. I surrender to summer’s bounty, to the fruits and vegetables practically begging to be lightly dressed, gently touched and eaten at their crispest or ripest.

Stocking up on ingredients and inspiration means hitting the farmer’s market. A few weeks ago, it was a vibrant bunch of pink radishes that caught my attention. Socked in by greenery on all sides, they looked like little gems glinting in the sun. And I sighed. Because the truth is, I’ve never really liked radishes. But these were just lovely, and they reminded me of my grandfather who grew them in his garden and adored them sliced and sprinkled with nothing but a dash of salt. And so inevitably they ended up in my bag on their way home with me. I pickled slices of those little rubies quickly in red wine and sugar, which turned out to be tangy, spicy and delicious, perfectly good alone, but a real hit on salads where they were a yummy mouth-puckering addition.

This week it was baby bok choy. It looked so darling stowed away between lofty leaves of Swiss chard and beet greens. And long story short: it was the bok choy that got me thinking about summer rolls with peanut sauce, the Vietnamese specialty (like spring rolls but not fried). In case it isn’t obvious enough, these are named SUMMER rolls for a reason. They are cool, crisp and refreshing and require almost no cooking at all. It doesn’t matter that bok choy isn’t an ingredient in authentic summer rolls. I’d argue it should be. It’s true, too, you can order them easily enough in Asian restaurants, but I find those versions are too often overstuffed with clumpy vermicelli noodles and not enough shrimp and vegetables. Even the driest ones are delicious, of course, dunked in peanut sauce (really, you could pull leaves from a tree and dip them in peanut sauce and they would be delicious, right?) But I wanted a homemade adaptation crammed with ingredients from the market – including the peppery bok choy, mint, cilantro and cucumbers. I also bought plump shrimp from my seafood market and vermicelli noodles (vowing only to add a few). All these ingredients I tightly wrapped in rice paper and, tah dah, dipped in peanut sauce.

Summer rolls are easy to make, and when you’re done, they look pretty spectacular. I doused the shrimp in olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them for five minutes earlier in the day, before chilling them. When I was ready to eat, I simply chopped a few bok choy leaves, sliced cucumber, and pulled sprigs of mint and cilantro from their stems. The rice vermicelli noodles only take three minutes to cook! To assemble, simply soak a spring roll wrapper in a bowl of room temperature water for about 30 seconds, then gently place it on a work surface. Put about three to four shrimp down first, then layer bok choy, mint, cilantro, cucumbers and a few noodles. Lastly, wrap the rolls like an itty bitty burrito, bundling the goodies inside and tucking the ends under. As for the essential peanut sauce, I make a couple of different versions, but for this, I used a quick recipe from Cooks Illustrated’s “The Best Recipe” cookbook, a version that is packed with flavor and thick enough to make a good dipping sauce.

Spicy Peanut Sauce

• 5 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• ¼ cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger
• 2 medium garlic cloves
• ½ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon curry powder (optional)

Combine the ingredients in a food processor and blend.

My husband loves potatoes. It’s a true love that began when he was a wee one fed piles of the mashed kind by his grandmother and mother at every meal. Every. Single. Meal.

I’ve always been wary of attempting his family’s mashed recipe. I’m equally shy of his family’s potato salad recipe, a dish his aunt always brought to my home for special summer events, sweetly covering for my fear of the notorious creamy potato goodness. I’m not scared of potatoes or mayonnaise. I’m more scared of not getting it right in front of his gigantic Irish-American family.

Today, with his family no where in sight, I wanted potato salad, damn it, so I decided to make up my own recipe. As I boiled and chopped and mixed, my husband inquired as to the whereabouts of the mayonnaise. I reassured him, “No mayo. No problem. You’ll love it.” He buried his head in his coffee mug and muttered something about his grandmother, but I simply said, “I can’t hear any mumbling right now!” He shuffled out to the barn and left me to my mission.

I created this recipe on the fly and really adore it. I can actually taste potato, two kinds, red and purple. I lick my lips to the lemony flavor absorbed into the salad due to loads of lemon zest and juice. The chopped vidalia onions are soft and sweet, while the chopped garlic scapes provide a snappy crunch. After much internal debate about basil or cilantro, I decided my tomato bruschetta would swim in basil, so these potatoes deserved some of that fresh cilantro.

You can really mix these ingredients together to your taste. I’ve provided some guidelines and what I did, but it’s fun to add and taste as you go along.

My husband enjoyed this side dish very much. He easily got past the no-mayo thing. Alas, he couldn’t get past why I wouldn’t think to add crumbled bacon to the dish. He’s right; I bet that would taste great. But while bacon is pleasing even to many vegetarians I know, the sort coming to dinner today were “real” vegetarians who couldn’t be bothered with pork products. He feels there’s something intrinsically wrong with anyone who won’t eat bacon, but that’s another post for another day.

Try this dish; it’s delicious.

Lemon Cilantro Potato Salad

• 3-4 lbs potatoes, both purple and red
• 4 garlic scapes, chopped
• 1 large vidalia onion, finely chopped
• 1 small bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
• Lemon zest, from 2 lemons
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon, dijon mustard
• 6 pours, olive oil (about 6 tablespoons)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Place the potatoes in a pot of cold water. Bring to a boil and cook until tender to a fork. These took different times as the purple potatoes were much smaller. In general, the potatoes were fork-tender within 15-25 minutes. Drain the potatoes in a colander. As they cool, make the vinagrette.

Put the lemon juice, dijon mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper in a little jar that has a lid. I used about 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper. Put the lid on the jar and shake until well combined.

Chop or slice the potatoes into your desired shape. I cut them into quarters. In a large bowl, place the potatoes, scapes, onion, cilantro and lemon zest. Pour the vinaigrette over the top and watch as the warm potatoes suck up the tangy dressing. Toss everything very well and leave to marinate at room temperature until the rest of your meal is ready to be served. Taste just before serving and re-season, as needed, with salt and pepper.

Happy Independence Day! I love today. I love waking up early to get to work, in the kitchen. At 8am, I practically ran to the kitchen, hitched on an apron and started boiling, cutting and marinating. Today’s menu was short but fresh and well-seasoned.

We enjoyed:

• Tomato Bruschetta
• Blue-cheese All-Natural Burgers with Balsamic Onions
• Lime-marinated Colossal Shrimp
• Lemon Cilantro Potato Salad
• Butter Lettuce Salad (from my garden!)
• Ginger-Chili-Thyme Smoked Pork Butt (for pulled pork sandwiches tomorrow!)

Recipes for all of these items to come shortly. For now, get a lick of my tomato bruschetta. I used two types of basil and two types of tomatoes, along with finely chopped garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Tomato Bruschetta

• 8 plum tomatoes, chopped into small chunks
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 handful of genovese basil, cut into thick strips
• 1 sprinkle of micro-basil
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 4 tablespoons, lemon juice
• 4 glugs, olive oil (about 5-6 tablespoons)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 french baguette, sliced into rounds

The tomatoes didn’t taste quite like August yet, so I let them sit with some sea salt for a couple hours to pull out the juicy sweetness. I added both basils - the micro-basil came from my backyard pots. (I can’t recall the name of the baby basil, but it’s yummy and slightly thai in aroma.) I also added the garlic, lemon, olive oil and salt and pepper. I never put the mixture into the fridge, letting it sit in a pretty white bowl on the table all morning. I prefer tomatoes at room temperature; they actually taste like tomatoes!

Here’s a view of the two types of basil:

I sliced up the baguette and drizzled a little of garlic oil on top of each slide. The broiler was set and I popped them baguette slices onto a baking sheet and put them fairly close to the flame, leaving my oven open for the few minutes it took to toast. Serve a generous scoop of bruschetta on each slice of baguette, along with your favorite white wine. What do you do with your tomatoes?

My organic farm share included the most beautiful radishes last week. They were a vibrant rosy red with a winter white center. Their stems were crisp and green, fresh and sturdy, just too lovely to slice off and forget.

On a beautiful white plate, these radishes looked quite at home. I served them as a last minute hors d’oeuvre along with a shallow plate of my favorite fruity olive oil and a spoon of sea salt. Guests dipped the radish in oil and then into the spoon of salt before chomping on them between sips of either Champagne or my husband’s ultimate Cosmopolitan (which I promise to write about soon).

Gourmands typically serve their radishes with butter and salt. Sometimes they pile them on a slice of bread, as fabulous food blogger Cook Eat Fret does here. I have tried to omit butter from my daily life, saving it for special occasions and my rare serving of fluffy pancakes. Olive oil is a great substitution - not as rich, but light and delicious.

I’m the type of girl who loves filling her garden with loads of chic plants that are equally farm-style and modern. I love the juxtaposition of country-style hostas alongside sharp, dark (almost black) coleus leaves. I have several gardens - one filled with bright chartreuse, deep green and touches of pink, the other filled with greens, burgundies, purples and blues. I fell very much into color-blocking during my time at Winston Flowers and try to stick to my palettes in everything I do, especially in the garden.

For a girl who loves gardening, I’m so anti-dirt. I hate when those little particles dig under my nails and melt into my knees while wedding or planting. Don’t misunderstand. I love what dirt does. I realize its value. I mix loam and peat moss and compost to make delicious homes for my little specimens. I just have to do it all with rubber gloves. (The cloth or leather kind don’t give my fingers the right access to the soil.)

In addition to wearing rubber in the yard, I garden a tad differently than some as well. While some keep a vegetable garden separate from most or all of their flowers and textures, I blend the two, seamlessly, into all my gardens. I find it beautiful to have lettuce grow alongside hostas, rosemary and sedums. I’ve created several gardens lined with farm-style rocks (rocks that have existed in our back yard for decades, perhaps since the origination of our home more than 100 years ago).

In these gardens, I grow lettuces, herbs, beautiful textures and all sorts of vegetables including eggplant, squash, tomatoes, peppers and corn. Even with my vegetables, I focus on color-blocking - putting purple eggplant with purple flowers and textures - never neglecting popping in some chartreuse or black or deep green to add interest.

And, while others load up their containers with seasonal flowers, I opt to keep my tomatoes off the ground, where little creatures can nibble, and assemble cool heights and textures of various tomatoes, peppers, squash, basils and lettuces. They’re tiny in this photo, but have already shot up 5-6 inches in the mere two weeks since planted. Some have sticks and frames ready for their final heights, while I let others grown down or wide to let nature do as it will.

I don’t always have a firm plan when I get started. This year’s incarnation grew from 4-6 hours of fun time spent with a friend who happens to be multi-talented. She’s a floral designer by trade and the daughter of organic farmers in France. She understood my desire to create beautiful gardens yet still use the land to provide produce for us all summer long. She agrees that there’s a happy medium between beauty and harvest, and we’re hoping we found it.

It wasn’t all hard-work though. We did permit ourselves to have a little fun and she created a beautiful little fence to hold my cat mint at bay. We used old branches from the holidays (I never throw anything away) to create a structure around the unruly plants.

I’m so excited for this season of plant growth. I get to enjoy the beauty of all these colors and textures while waiting for the supplements to my farm share to ripen. I’ll enjoy every moment, fitted with my skin-tight rubber gloves.