← All Of It with Alison Stewart
All Of It with Alison Stewart
Getting the Best Out of Summer Produce in the Kitchen
00:26:05
Melissa Clark, New York Times food reporter and recipe columnist discusses maximizing summer produce the kitchen.
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- [00:00]
Alison Stewart
Foreign. You're listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. It's July, and if you're subscribing to a csa, shopping at a farmer's market, or gathering veggies at your community garden, you know how it goes. One day you're so excited about making a blt, and then you realize you have a lot of tomatoes. The same goes for corn and summer squash and potatoes. The green beans are at their peak. And PS onions are starting to come in. So how do you make the most of all this delightful summer produce? With me now to share ideas, answer your questions and take your calls is New York Times food columnist Melissa Clark. She's the author of so many cookbooks, including Kids in the Kitchen, Dinner in French and Dinner in One. We are so happy to talk to you, Melissa.
- [01:01]
Melissa Clark
So happy to talk to you, Allison.
- [01:03]
Alison Stewart
Listen, listeners, are you swimming in summer produce and you want to share your best recipes? Or if you'd like to ask Melissa Clark some advice on what to do with all of it, you can call us at 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC. You can call in and talk to us or you can text us as well, or you can reach out via social media at of it wnyc. Melissa, before we dive into the recipes, what do you love about cooking in the summer when there's so much produce to work with?
- [01:36]
Melissa Clark
Well, that's exactly what I love about cooking in the summer is that there's so much produce to work with. I love, I mean, I, I don't think a meal is complete unless it has a ton of vegetables. I really like to have, you know, aside from whatever the main course is, I love the vegetable side dishes. I love my salads. And in summer it's, I mean, the only problem is which one am I going to make? Am I going to make the green beans? Am I going to make to make the tomatoes? Am I going to make all of those gorgeous greens, the kale and the Swiss chard? And I usually end up making too much, which is great because then I can eat it all week long. But it's just, it's a pleasure to be able to have the abundance and the choice.
- [02:12]
Alison Stewart
Is there a summer ingredient that you look forward to every year?
- [02:17]
Melissa Clark
I think, you know, I look forward to the progression of how of when the ingredients are available. You know, I mean, as soon as the farmer's market, I mean, really in late spring, as soon as we get those asparagus I'm like, all right, we're off. Know, just sends me off. And then we get the green garlic and we get the green, you know, really nice green onions and then the beautiful spring greens. And then it's summer, right? And then all of a sudden we're like, okay, here come the green beans and tomatoes and corn. Take a little bit longer. I think they're just starting to come in right now. But it's just like, you know, watching it all unfold. Oh, and the peas. Did I mention the peas? The sugar snaps, the regular English peas. Just watching it all unfold and how it changes each time. I go to the farmer's market every single week. So satisfying and fun.
- [03:04]
Caller
This is the big question in New York City, though, counter space is limited. When you see a counter full of tomatoes or piles of zucchini, the big question is, how do you keep big summer hauls from going to waste?
- [03:19]
Melissa Clark
Yeah, I'm so guilty of this. I buy too much. I just can't help it. I really believe I'm going to eat eight tomatoes in, like, four days, which don't usually do. So a couple of things. First of all, I try really hard to actually think about what I want to make before I go to the farmer's market. Usually, you know, just. I just lose my plan and I forget and I'll buy too much. But I try to actually have a plan. Like, all right, this is the week where I am going to have a BLT for dinner, so I will need to buy extra tomatoes for that. Or I really want to make a three bean salad with, you know, fresh beans and canned beans. So I'm going to buy my green beans for that. But if I do buy too much, that's sort of fun, too. It's almost like a little personal challenge. I'm like, okay, how can I do it and use it all up? And so. So that's when I'll start. The thing to do is to cook it. Even if you don't know when you're going to eat it, just cook it the second that it starts to look a little funny. If, like, the tomatoes are getting a little sauce, a little soft, make a homemade fresh marinara sauce. You know, cook them down and just stick it in the freezer. Same thing with your green beans, okay? You don't know when you're going to eat them all, but just blanch them. Because if you blanch them and put them in the fridge, they'll last a little bit longer than if they're already starting to get A little soft at the edges.
- [04:34]
Caller
We're getting texts already. This text says, give them to your neighbors or colleagues. You'll make friends for life.
- [04:40]
Melissa Clark
Mean, share them. Share them out. Share the. Share the love.
- [04:45]
Caller
This one says, wow. Melissa Clark in person answering our questions. That's exciting. How about, what's the best way to handle fresh corn on the cob? That is Annie from the Upper west side who's excited about asking you a question.
- [05:00]
Melissa Clark
Oh, I love that. Well, corn. Okay, so corn on the cob. I mean, the best thing to do is just to eat it right off the cob with butter. You know, boil it as soon as you get it home from the market, chuck it and get it all ready. Bring that pot to a boil. And I always like to eat fresh corn as like my post farmer's market lunch with just a bunch of butter on it. Or we have actually some really fun recipes at nyt. Cooking for different toppings on corn on the cob, like Parmesan or the lime juice and Tajin and all different types of seasonings on. So that's like the number one thing. Then take. So you're boiling all of your corn at once, right? You eat one cob for lunch, you take the rest and you just pull the. Just cut all of the kernels right off. Just put them in a container and put them in your fridge, and then they are there. You can make them into corn salads. You can throw them into corn sautes. And if you don't end up using them, that frozen corn goes into a Ziploc bag in your freezer. And in October, you're going to be like, yes, thank you. I July me.
- [06:00]
Caller
This says, what do you do with all those fresh spring green onions?
- [06:07]
Melissa Clark
Oh, God, I love them so much. So the thing about fresh spring green onions is that they are much milder than the regular dried onions, which have been cured. So they've been dried and cured and that you buy in the grocery store all year long. So you're benefiting from a crisp texture. They're very crunchy and they're very mild. And I really like to use them in salads. I will. In fact, I make. I don't put a lot of mature onions in my salads because, you know, they are. They are quite strong. But in summer, I will use them cut into thick pieces on a tomato salad. Oh, this is one of my favorites. Watermelon. We're getting watermelon right now. Cut your watermelon. Cut your tomatoes and your cucumbers into chunks. Chunks are Nice here. Thick pieces of spring onion, some mint, some lime juice, and a lot of olive oil and salt. And I eat this salad. I've been eating this salad every night for the past two weeks. It just makes me so happy.
- [07:00]
Caller
That's so interesting because our next question says, do you have a recipe for including watermelon in gazpacho?
- [07:07]
Melissa Clark
I do have a recipe for. As a matter of fact, I do have a recipe for putting watermelon in gazpacho. It's really a simple substitution and it adds a more pronounced sweetness. You know, tomatoes are already sweet, but they're kind of sweet, savory watermelon just like, makes it like, okay, this has a touch of sweetness, which is really nice, especially when you balance it with a little sherry vinegar, as is traditional in a gazpacho. So just take out, I would say, about a third of the amount of tomatoes. So use 2/3 tomatoes and one third watermelon, either yellow or red, and just blend it and you're going to get this a little bit lighter, a little bit sweeter. And there is a recipe at NYT Cooking for watermelon gazpacho. If you want to follow a recipe, you can find it there. And it's super simple.
- [07:52]
Alison Stewart
Let's talk to Pat, who is calling in from Montclair. Hey, Pat, thanks for making the time to call off of it. You're on with Melissa Clark. Hi. I just read so many different reasons to salt or not salt your eggplant before making eggplant parmesan.
- [08:11]
Melissa Clark
Ah, that is the eternal question. Right. Okay. I think it really depends on two things. First of all, what kind of eggplant you have and how fresh is it. So if you're getting really small, sweet eggplant from the farmer's market and, you know, it's like, really just been picked in the last week or so, I wouldn't salt it. I just don't think it needs it. And it's like. And you know me, I like to not do an extra step if I don't have to. However, if you're getting those big, heavy eggplants from the supermarket, you're not sure how long they've been around. I will salt it in that case, just because what salting does is it condenses. It draws out the moisture. So it makes them a little bit more. It gives them more texture. You know, it condenses their flavor, condenses their texture. And then when you fry them for the parmesan, they have a really nice chewy meatiness. But if I have a nice fresh eggplant that has a very sweet flavor, I really don't want to do much to it. I really want to just leave it as fresh as possible, fry it really lightly or even just bake it or roast it and then do in my put it in my Parmesan. This said, either way will work. So there's not one answer. Is it better to solve? It's really it depends on what you're looking for and what kind of eggplant you have.
- [09:29]
Alison Stewart
My guest is Melissa Clark, New York Times food columnist and cookbook author. We're here talking about summer produce. We want to hear some of your favorite summer recipes. Do you shop at the farmer's market? Are you swimming in summer produce? Do you need a little advice? Our phone lines are open. 2124-3396-9221-2433 wnyc I'm gonna dive in on zucchini. We see a lot of zucchini in the summer. This here is zucchini olive bread. Is this a sweet bread, a savory bread? A little bit of both?
- [10:03]
Melissa Clark
No. You know, it's a sweet bread, so it's just your typical zucchini bread. I always make zucchini bread. In the summer. I love zucchini bread. In the winter, I make banana bread. In the summer, I make zucchini bread. And I always think, like, I love banana bread best, and then I'll say, no, I love zucchini bread best. And then in the fall, I'll make pumpkin bread and think that's my favorite. I love all the sweet breads. So it is sweet. Sweet. It's not overly sweet, though. So the recipe, which is at NYT cooking, is very basic. Basic meaning, simple. But it has a complex flavor because instead of regular neutral oil like canola or sunflower, I use olive oil and olive oil. And zucchini, as you know, is a fantastic combination. It's traditional. And olive oil in loaf cakes or quick breads is really nice because it just cuts that sweetness a little bit and adds an extra oomph to it. But it doesn't taste, you know, it's not gonna taste like olives or it's not gonna taste savory. It just tastes a little, like extra, a little more.
- [11:03]
Alison Stewart
Do you have any tips on shredding and measuring zucchini for baking?
- [11:09]
Melissa Clark
Yes. Okay. That's a really good question. So I like to shred my zucchini using the thicker, the larger holes on the grater. I do it in the Food processor, and I find the largest holes. And really, you don't want to let it sit around. So when you grate zucchini, same thing with potatoes or really any vegetables. If you let them sit, they are going to lose a lot of their moisture. You know, you're going to end up with a puddle on the bottom of your bowl. You don't want that. You want to grate it and then get it into your baked good as soon as possible. Unless a recipe calls for squeezing it, which is a whole other thing, in which case, then you really want to take the moisture out of it. In fact, my colleague Ali Slagel has a great recipe, I think, for a pasta where you squeez the zucchini, and that really, you know, helps amplify the flavor. But for a zucchini bread, you are actually relying on that moisture. You want that moisture in the bread because it's part of the liquid. So just grate it and use it pretty quickly and use the coarse, the big holes on the grater.
- [12:09]
Alison Stewart
And you suggest actually serving this with cream cheese. So how does that change the flavor profile?
- [12:16]
Melissa Clark
I mean, think about, like a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.
- [12:19]
Alison Stewart
Yeah, yeah, I get your point.
- [12:21]
Melissa Clark
You know what I mean? It's just so good. Except that, you know, I don't bother making frosting. It's like, a little more savory. Or a date nut sandwich with cream cheese in the middle. Have you ever had that? A date nut bread sandwich? Oh, I love that childhood thing. My grandmother would make slices of date nut bread, cream cheese in the middle.
- [12:36]
Caller
This says, hi, I'm planning on making Melissa's olive oil zucchini bread this afternoon. It's the best.
- [12:43]
Alison Stewart
Can you tell us what you like to do with Swiss chard?
- [12:48]
Melissa Clark
Yes, I can. Okay. This is. Swiss chard is one of my favorites because you can really use the stems. Stems in a way that's more satisfying than I think. Kale stems are really not that good. I'm just going to be honest. Like, I love kale, but the stems are a little tough going to incorporate into dishes. You might hear from listeners who might disagree with me, and that's totally fine, but that's just my personal opinion. But Swiss chard stems are so good. So to me, it feels like you're getting a whole other vegetable. You get the greens, but then you also get these succulent stems. So what I like to do is I like to take the. Separate the stems from the greens. I will chop up the stems, and they're beautiful. If you can get, get rainbow chard. It's red and yellow and white. It's really pretty. And you chop them up and then I saute them with onion and garlic. And sometimes I'll put a little jalapeno or chili, any kind of chili in there. Chili flakes are good. Sometimes I'll put anchovy in there and you saute it for like 10 minutes. You really want to get it to be nice and soft. Then I'll add the greens into that same pan. And so you get like, instead of just it being a pan of sauteed greens, you get this texture and the succulents from the stem. So I really think we don't eat enough people for that. Swiss chard stems are edible. We don't eat enough chard, I think, in this country. And so I say all of you, find some chard and try this because it's really good and satisfying.
- [14:08]
Caller
This is going to make you laugh. This text we got, it says, my mom in Ohio says it's critical to lock your car this time of year, especially at church. You'll find it chock full of zucchini, tomatoes and corn when you return.
- [14:21]
Melissa Clark
I wish I lived in Ohio. I wish I had a car.
- [14:25]
Caller
We'll give you some more things you can do with your zucchini, tomato and corn after a quick break. This is all of it.
- [14:45]
Alison Stewart
You are listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest is Melissa Clark. She's New York Times food columnist and a cookbook author. She is here to get us through this plethora of produce. If you have a question for Melissa Clark, our Phone number is 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC. We are talking produce. Okay. It's kind of hot outside. You may not want to bake. Let's talk salad. Green salad with a tomato basil vinaigrette. Walk us through this.
- [15:20]
Melissa Clark
Yeah, this is a really good one. So I really love, you know when you make a tomato salad and you have that liquid on the bottom of the bowl after you've done eaten all the tomatoes, and there's that just salty, vinegary tomato liquid, and you drink it. You do that, right, Allison?
- [15:35]
Alison Stewart
Okay, sure, sure. I drink that.
- [15:37]
Melissa Clark
Yeah. So that's my favorite part of any tomato salad. And I realized that if I could actually use that as the dressing, I can add that flavor to green salad as well. So it's a really simple, simple recipe. You just take your tomatoes, any kind, cut them up and salt them head and add a little vinegar and let them sit and some basil and some garlic. And you just let it sit for a few minutes so that just exudes some of its liquid. And the tomato water is so sweet. And it mixes with the vinegar and the basil and garlic. And then you use that as your dressing. And so you add oil to that mixture and you add all of your lettuce or whatever else you want. I really like to add croutons to this one because it's, it's a very juicy salad. And the croutons are so good for juicy, just, you know, absorbing all of that flavorful tomato juice. So I will make homemade croutons. Although you could buy croutons, but I highly recommend making homemade croutons because they are so good. And so then I will make croutons with. If you have day old bread, it's. That's perfect. It's dried out. You just fry it with some garlic and some olive oil. Or if you have fresh bread, just toast it in your. Just do it in a slow oven for a few minutes, just so it gets a little bit hard. You want dry bread whenever you're making croutons because a drier bread is more able to absorb that garlic oil. And so you want that garlic oil and then you put salt on it. I mean, when I make croutons, I make a ton of them and I put them out on the counter and my kid eats some, like potato chips. You're just so good. And then in the salad with the tomato and the basil and the garlic, it's just a really nice, very substantial summer salad. I could just eat that salad for dinner with some cheese and, you know, call it a day.
- [17:19]
Caller
This is Nick from Greenpoint. It says, melissa is an icon and.
- [17:24]
Alison Stewart
I would do any and every last thing she suggests. Any advice for dealing with an abundance of random CSA produce that isn't a.
- [17:34]
Caller
Salad or doesn't involve firing up the oven? Random produce.
- [17:39]
Alison Stewart
What do I do?
- [17:41]
Melissa Clark
Random produce, no oven go. And not a salad. Okay, so now we're talking the skillet. That's all we got left. Right? So I would take, I would actually make. You know, you can saute pretty much any summer produce, whether it's greens, zucchini, you know, winter produce. You get a lot of roots, which are harder to saute properly. You know, you need a long time and I prefer roasting them. But summer produce, random summer produce, throw it in your skillet. And the trick for cooking pretty much any produce is you just need to add it into the pan in the order, starting with the slowest cooking thing first. So take your zucchini, your random. What other. Let's see, what other things might you have? You might have some tender beets, actually, or some little radishes. You might have. You might have some random corn, in which case you take the kernels off the cob, start it in your pan, and then you add your greens last. And so everything is cooking. You know, you've got your things that take a longer time, and then you add your greens, which cook more quickly. And you want to. No matter what you put in that pan, you want to make sure it's adequately seasoned because, you know, you have the sweetness of all the summer produce. But you really need to add the spice because that's what's going to get you to keep eating it. Right? And I love. I mean, I love chilies. If you have random chilies, throw them in there. But chili flakes work well. And you know what else is really good? Chili crisp. That jar of chili crisp in your fridge. That is like the perfect partner because it tastes good with all produce. It tastes good pretty much with everything. And so, so saute everything, get it nice and soft. Maybe it's like a sort of easy ratatouille. You know, maybe it's more of like a greens thing. And at the very end, just make a quick little sauce with your chili crisp. Maybe some olive oil, maybe some crushed garlic that's fresh so it has that brightness. Throw it right in there. And that, to me, is an excellent dinner. If you have tofu, you can add it to that also. And then you have. Or shrimp. Then you have a complete dinner in a skillet.
- [19:39]
Alison Stewart
All right, I have a confession, Melissa. I own many of your cookbooks, but the one that I spend the most time with is kids in the kitchen.
- [19:47]
Melissa Clark
I love that even when my kid's.
- [19:49]
Alison Stewart
Not in the kitchen, when it's just me.
- [19:51]
Melissa Clark
Because you're a kid at heart. I am, too.
- [19:54]
Alison Stewart
Can you give me a recipe using produce from kids in the kitchen or a kid adjacent recipe?
- [20:01]
Melissa Clark
Yeah. Well, I mean, can we. Can we do salad? Since I couldn't do salad for the last one, Sure. I love. I mean, I. First of all, I think it's a myth that kids don't like salads. I don't know. How about your kids? I mean.
- [20:12]
Alison Stewart
No, sometimes he does.
- [20:13]
Melissa Clark
Yeah, exactly. So it's like it just has to be. I think the way to get a kid to like a salad is to have them help make it and they can put all their favorite things in it. So one of my favorites is a kale baby kale, because baby kale is very cute and it's very tender. And with avocado, because avocado is so creamy and it's so easy to eat. So this baby kale avocado salad is a huge, huge hit with my kid. And what I do to make it is I like to have a creamy dressing. And I always have yogurt in the fridge. But you could do buttermilk, but you want to add a little bit of mayonnaise, because mayonnaise just makes. It's like this instant emulsification. It just you put it in with your dairy product, either plain yogurt or buttermilk, a little bit of chopped herbs. And I personally love garlic and everything. So optional grated garlic clove, but you don't have to. Or scallion, a little bit of lemon juice. And it just makes this really bright, almost like ranch, like dressing. And everybody loves ranch. Right on top of your kale with your avocado, toss it with your hands, especially if you're with your kid, because what kid doesn't love to plunge their hands into a bowl of salad?
- [21:19]
Alison Stewart
Or radio host who doesn't like to?
- [21:21]
Melissa Clark
Or cooks like myself.
- [21:24]
Alison Stewart
This says, I've been making mixed berry and cherry compote, no sugar needed. Just add a few tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange and lemon juice and a dash of cardamom, and cooked down for about 30 minutes. So delicious. Thank you for that text. We should talk about fruit a little bit. You have a recipe here for summer berry buckle recipe.
- [21:47]
Melissa Clark
Yeah. It's so good. So a buckle. Isn't it a great word to say a summer berry buckle? It's an old American dessert. It's been, you know, in cookbooks since the 19th century. And it changes definition. A buckle is like one of those things, like a crisp crisp or a cobbler, you know, or there's another recipe called a grunt. These are all fruity desserts with. With a batter that just have fun names. Or a Betty is another one of them. I've heard of Betty. Yep, a Betty. And they're all kind of interchangeable. But so the way that I interpreted buckle is I make a very fruity coffee cake. It's like, it's almost as much fruit as batter. So you have all of your favorite berries. You know, your cherries. Cherries are amazing right now. Go to. If you're in New York, go to the farmer's market and buy Cherries, because they are just so good. So put all your fruit into the pan, and it's a very easy, very light batter. And what's so great about it is that you can season it any way you want. You know, if you love nutmeg or lemon zest, you can put it in. If you love vanilla or a dash of bourbon, you can put it in. And it's a light. It's a light brown sugar based recipe to use. It has a caramelly flavor and it's super easy. You just mix everything up. You've got your butter, simple batter, pour it over the fruit, and you'll see that there's as much fruit as batter. Bake it, and it's just this lovely, light, fruity coffee cake. I. I actually like it for breakfast. To me, a slice of buckle is a perfect breakfast.
- [23:14]
Caller
That does sound like a perfect breakfast. Another recipe you have for someone who's.
- [23:19]
Alison Stewart
Feeling a little fancy is from your dinner in French cookbook, roasted tomatoes with anchovy crumb.
- [23:28]
Melissa Clark
Yeah. Am I talking too much about anchovies on your program, Allison? I apologize. Never, never, never. I'm so happy that we're kindred spirits. And peaches, too. I know we both love peaches. So this recipe is. So you've got your tomatoes. This is a great thing to do with tomatoes. When you bought too many tomatoes and they're on your counter and you're like, you don't want to make marinara sauce, maybe make roasted tomatoes, because they can be a little soft and they're going to roast up just fine and they really get concentrated and they just get so sweet. So you take your tomatoes, cut them into chunks, put them in a pan with some olive oil, and the flavor comes from the garlicky anchovy breadcrumbs. And it's so easy to make. You just mince some garlic, you mince some anchovies, you've got your. I love panko breadcrumbs because they're very light and fluffy and a little bit you can. I love parmesan cheese in that and some olive oil. And you just sprinkle it on top. Pop it into the oven. Some lemon zest is good in that too, if you like. And it's such an easy recipe, you do have to turn your oven on. But I also will make a small, you know, I'll do a little small version of it for just myself and my husband, and we'll. I'll just put it in the toaster oven. And it just works really well. And it won't heat up your kitchen. So this is a great side dish. Again, this is the kind of thing if you have that and you have a loaf of really good bread and some cheese, it's such a nice summer dinner.
- [24:49]
Caller
And I forgot to mention cucumbers. One cucumber recipe that someone can do in five minutes.
- [24:56]
Melissa Clark
Okay. I love smashed cucumbers. We're gonna go back to that chili crisp. Take your cucumber, smash them up. This is really fun, too, because you get to smash your cucumbers. Instead of cutting them just whole cucumbers, trim them, smash them with a rolling pin until they crack open. Super fun, right? Throw them in a bowl. Salt, break them up with your hands. Sesame oil, chili crisp, a little bit of soy sauce and a little touch of oil. And then you just let them sit for a few minutes. And they are so good, they are impossible to stop eating.
- [25:25]
Caller
Melissa Clark is a New York Times food columnist and a cookbook author and a friend of this show. Thank you so much for helping us walk through summer produce.
- [25:35]
Melissa Clark
Thanks for having me.
- [25:37]
Caller
Coming up, you know, Up Barrow has some great farmers market Staten Island. We'll head there on tomorrow's show to talk about the things to do in the southernmost borough. It's part of our Summer in the City series. Call in and share your favorite things about Staten Island. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening and I appreciate you. I'll meet you back here tomorrow.
- [26:05]
Ira Flatow
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