Hello from Atlanta, where school started a month ago and we are busy packing lunches, working hard, and trying to ignore the recent courthouse pranks that seem to keep Georgia on everyone’s mind.
We, too, are still mourning our terrible peach season. By some estimates, nearly 95 percent of the crop was lost, largely due to a hard and untimely frost.
I’m on a constant streak of peach beef with friends from New Jersey, California, and Colorado, all parts of the country where I’ve regularly lived or visited family. Your peaches sure are amazing. But we Georgians have forty commercial varieties, all of which ripen to a deep sweet flavor under the hot southern sun. They fill my counter every summer. Usual.
I cherished the few peaches I got, even though they were very expensive and not as sweet or ripe as usual. The brilliant Ligaya Mishan, columnist for DailyExpertNews Magazine, came to my rescue with a recipe for grilling them (above). A little olive oil and some heat turn the pulp into a soft, sugary base for a hint of cream, a few blueberries and dukkah, the spicy, seedy secret weapon you should always keep in your kitchen.
Tuesday
We are a taco tuesday household. We are also a bossam household. Alexa Weibel’s kimchi chicken lettuce wraps are a great mash up and you probably already have everything for the recipe. I had to take a few times to dial in the exact heat to sweet ratio for my folks, but 10/10 recommended.
Wednesday
My friend Eric Kim explains that part of the reason vodka works so well in pasta sauce is that it helps spread the fat more evenly. That makes everything shiny as only a good emulsion can. Share that fact like a professor when you serve up this bean and green alla vodka dish that punches well above its weight. In addition, it tastes better in the fridge and the school lunch problem for Thursday is solved.
Friday
You’ve reached the end of another week. Lucky tov! Mia Leimkuhler, the agile editor of this newsletter, suggests we call it étouffriday and offer readers this really clever vegan mushroom étouffée from Jenné Claiborne, who included it in her 2018 “Sweet Potato Soul” cookbook. Mushrooms replace it of the seafood, and a shake of dulce or another dried seaweed gives it an umami kick. If you like a thicker gravy, hold back from touching the liquid.
We have thousands more where these came from on DailyExpertNews Cooking. Our dear community of readers knows by now that we have spent many staff hours collecting, testing and writing these recipes. To paraphrase Elizabeth Taylor in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” it costs money! Considering subscribing today? Thank you.
This was fun. Sam has returned to the grid with many stories to tell. And I have to get back to reporting all printable food news.
Remember the good times we had and never change. Until the next time someone goes on vacation. …