CT Food

Truthfully, it was a little questionable we’d get to this point – that late season deluge of local produce, given the early season situation of 2½ months of rain, drowned cherries, what seemed like the shortest strawberry season on record, and the late blight tomato disaster.

But it turned out all that rain was good for some things. For the guys who had tomatoes, boy did they have tomatoes. There were some instances of emergency pick-your-owns for peaches, which were so dense, tree branches were in danger of breaking. And the blueberry season – well it’s still going.

So we’ve definitely hit deluge and it doesn’t take much to completely overdo it at the farmers’ market. We’ve all been there — suddenly the leftover corn from last week is being crowded out by the dozen new ears you decided looked too good to pass up. Ditto the peaches, beans, squash, peppers, and yes tomatoes.

I’m not a canner so my M.O. is to use what I have some way for immediate consumption. Or freeze something cooked, like a sauce. Or freeze the raw items, which I do mainly with fruit to use over the winter in smoothies, since fruit tends to look pretty wretched when it thaws.

But really I’ve been cooking and baking – and EATING – a lot lately. I’m sorting through a stack of recipes I’ve set aside, figuring out which work and which don’t; going back and tinkering with old ones; and just throwing things together.

So some of my suggestions for all that stuff:

TOMATOES: I’m big on quick sauces. I take all my half-ripe, half-rotting, otherwise screwed up tomatoes – cut out the bad stuff and chop up the rest (including the under-ripe parts, skins, seeds). Into a big saucepan goes:

1. Olive oil

2. Some combination of onions/scallions/leeks (sometimes garlic) plus fresh hot peppers of varying heat (I’m long on jalapeños this year) – all sautéed until just soft.

3. Chopped tomatoes. Simmer the whole thing, seasoned with salt, until tomatoes begin to break down and excess liquid is gone. Depending on amount and size of pan – it’s about 20 minutes or so.

Obviously it can go on pasta, but it’s also a great sauce for fish, like grilled monkfish, swordfish or bass. And for those inveterate meat eaters, you can always start of with finely chopped pancetta. Crisp that up and then proceed.

FRUIT: These are recipes I’ve run into in the last few years. All are from gourmet, but they definitely needed some adjusting. The links will get you to the original recipe.

Peach Blueberry Cake – This is truly a slow cooker, and I’ve made it into a deeper cake so cooking time is closer to 2¼ hours.

For the filling: use 2½ pounds of peaches – 8-9 medium ones; 1½ cups blueberries; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; ¾ cup sugar; 2 tablespoons flour; 2 tablespoons tapioca. Best way to prepare filling is to put all the fruit in a bowl; mix it with lemon juice, followed by sugar, followed by flour and tapioca. There is no need to grind anything but the tapioca.

I recommend a 10-inch springform, with foil under it. Do not skip the foil on top.

You can use raspberries instead of blueberries, but you’ll need to increase the tapioca a bit.

Plum Blackberry Streusel Pie – I’d go for about 2¼ pounds of plums and 1 pound of blackberries. Increase the tapioca to 4 tablespoons, but keep the cornstarch the same. This pie expands – so don’t think you can do without the baking sheet underneath.

Buttermilk Raspberry Cake — 1 cup of raspberries is nowhere near enough. I use 2 cups and the recipe works just fine. Bake at 375; 400 is just too high. It might take an extra 5 minutes or so.

CORN: Grilled is best in my book. For leftovers just scrape it off the ear. Nothing fancy needed other than a big knife. Balance the corn on one end and scrape down all the way around. Flip it over and finish the rest. This cornbread recipe is based on one I saw in The NY Times. But frankly I’ve tinkered with it so much at this point, it’s pretty much my own.

Brown Butter Sage Cornbread With Grilled Corn (and optional cheese)

3/8 cup corn oil

¼ cup chopped fresh sage leaves

1 cup flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1¼ cups buttermilk

2 eggs

3 tablespoons sugar

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1-1½  cups kernels scraped from grilled corn

5-6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled — optional

½ stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Heat oil in a 9-inch cast iron skillet. When hot, add chopped sage and cook until crispy. Scrape oil and sage into a bowl and set aside.

While sage is cooking, in a large bowl, sift together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, oil-sage mixture, eggs, sugar and baking soda. Gently fold wet ingredients into dry ones until just combined. Fold in corn, and optional cheese.

Melt butter in the cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat, tilting pan to coat bottom and sides completely. Cook butter 2 to 3 minutes, until it starts to color and smell nutty. Scrape batter into skillet; smooth surface with a rubber spatula.

Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve.

Note: If you don’t have cast iron, brown the butter in any kind of pan and pour into an 8- or 9-inch square baking pan.

If you’re not a sage fan – use up some of your hot peppers. Chop them up and fold in with the corn. No need to cook them first.

Do you have some special end-of-summer recipes? Send them along.