Bacon, Corn and Cheddar Gougeres (cheese puffs)

This recipe has become a staple on our holiday and major
 celebration menus. The kids love them A LOT - adults devour them too.

 

6 slices flavorful bacon (hickory smoked or applewood)
2 ears of fresh corn
1 cup water
1 stick butter (1/4 pound) - if unsalted, add 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
5 large eggs
1 1/2 cups grated extra sharp Cheddar
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
2 tablespoons chopped chives

1. Cook bacon, cool, chop into very small inch pieces.
2. Scrape kernels from corn and sauté in a small amount of leftover bacon fat until slightly browned. For the best technique on cutting corn, see the article here,
3. Preheat over to 375 degrees.
4. In a large sauce pan combine water and butter, heat until butter melts.
5. Remove pan from heat and add flour, mix until thoroughly combined. Let cool for about 10 minutes.
6.  Add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating each egg into the batter before adding the next. Helpful tip: use a fork to mix the egg into the batter. A whisk is too flexible and a wooden spoon doesn't incorporate the egg into the mixture fast enough.
7. Add bacon, cheeses, chives and a generous grinding of fresh black pepper.
8. Use two teaspoons to place small mounds of the mixture onto 2 baking pans lined with a silicon mats. The batter yields about 40 pieces.
9. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until gougeres are lightly browned on the bottom and golden atop.

Alternately, you can put the batter into a gallon sized ziplock bag. The dough holds well for a day or two in the fridge. Snip a corner of the zip lock bag and squeeze batter out the tip, like a pastry bag.

Tips:

• Use a fork for mixing the dough.
• Use high quality, extra sharp cheddar. This recipe will be bland if you don't.
• Use high quality Parmigiano. Same thing - it will be bland otherwise.
• Frozen corn can be substituted for fresh with minimal loss of flavor.

It's Too Hot To Cook Outside

Houston temps have been hovering in the high 90's for months, with 'feels like' temps over 100. For months! Most quick trips to the grill result in a shower and fresh shirt - even if you're cooking just one quick item, such as the huge slab of salmon stuffed with fennel we cooked last night.

Indoor versions of summery foods can be accomplished under a broiler when your patio seems like a sauna. My method for roasting red, yellow or orange peppers in large strips under a broiler is easier than the time consuming process of roasting and turning a whole pepper on a burner or grill. Of course the technique  works on an outdoor grill too.

The indoor dishes we've enjoyed lately all rely on the chopping, carmelizing and roasting techniques that I've described over the last few weeks.

• Sweet and Sour Roasted Pepper Strips with Sesame Oil. This dish is nothing more than roasted peppers with 1/2 a teaspoon each of sugar and rice wine vinegar, with a pinch of salt and a couple drops of sesame oil.

• Roasted Corn, Edamame and Tomato Salad with Mint and Basil

• Italian Sausage, Roasted Peppers and Carmelized Onions - though hearty, this dish is GREAT at room temperature. 

To my friends in NY, Chicago and DC who have been complaining about the heat.....In Houston our heat stays for 5 months and always has the humidity. But we do get to grill in December. And don't be makin' fun of me for staying inside sometimes.

Fresh Corn with Red Peppers and Cumin

We've enjoyed a summery dish of fresh corn with red peppers for many years. We cut corn off the cob, sauté it with scallions and chopped red peppers, seasoned with cumin and garlic. Oddly, the southwestern-style flavorings for this dish were passed on to me in the cookbook Cuisine Rapide, by Pierre Franey, a classically trained French chef. In the 80's and 90's Franey published a weekly column in the New York Times called The 60 Minute Gourmet, which was a precursor to what Bittman writes today. These two men share a lot of common ground. They believe that people should cook at home more often; they make home cooking more accessible and less intimidating than most people take it to be, and they strongly promote the use of simple fresh ingredients and a small number of flavorings to create a wonderful dish. In his cookbook Franey calls for a slightly different proportion of ingredients than I recommend. Here's my version: 3 ears fresh corn, shucked, cut in half cross-wise, then cut kernels off lengthwise with a large knife 1 large red pepper, chopped 1/3 cup green onions, chopped 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon butter ¼ teaspoon ground cumin 1 clove garlic, chopped Salt and fresh ground pepper ----- Heat oil and butter in large skillet over medium-high heat ----- Add all ingredients to the pan and sauté about 3 minutes, until slightly softened.

Many people don't realize that corn is very widely grown throughout China. In fact, you'll see field upon field of corn, often  in proximity to enormous rice paddies. Something that really surprised me on a trip to the Sichuan province a few years ago, was to find virtually this same preparation of corn and peppers on the menu at a local restaurant. No cumin, but otherwise identical. A recipe is included in the one truly authentic Sichuan cookbook, Land of Plenty, by Fuscia Dunlop. In the Sichuan version, the corn and peppers are simply cooked in peanut oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Technique: Chopping Summer Vegetables

It's summer. You'll be making salads, grilling vegetables, and maybe even harvesting some homegrown ingredients from your backyard garden. The farmer's markets are beginning to go really wild.

In short, you'll be chopping some vegetables sometime soon.

There's ONE thing you really need to know - it's all about the knife.

Eventually, if you chop enough vegetables you'll get faster and more precise. Given enough different vegetable related dishes, you'll learn different ways of tackling the same vegetable, depending on how it is to be used (think sliced vs. chopped tomatoes). But no matter what, if you don't have a good, sharpened knife, it will be more laborious and potentially painful in more ways than one.

For what it's worth, I recommend an inexpensive but durable chef's knife - the Victorinox 8" Chef's Knife.  Even if you splurge on or already own an expensive knife, all that's really going to matter after the first 6-12 months is how sharp you keep the blade. In fact, in some professional kitchens, knife sharpness is more than a matter of pride - it becomes a competition among chefs.

Except for cutting bread and boning meats/fish, I use my large chef's knife for 98% of my chopping. Maybe 99%. Literally. And I even know what that word means.

Enough already - here are some handy tips for summer vegetable chopping (with a large chef's knife):

• Cut fresh corn in half, then stand the cut ends on your cutting board like a tower. Run your knife from top to bottom to cut off the kernels. You'll need exactly FIVE vertical cuts to remove all the kernels - no more, no less. 
• The fastest way to chop tomatoes is to cut them in half end to end, then again into quarters. At this point it's easy to push the seeds/juices out of each quarter. You may need to trim the whitish core and the stem pit (or whatever that dark thing is called that holds the tomato to the vine). After seeding the quarter, cut big chunks, or more vertical, thin slices, which can be chopped crosswise into little 1/4" cubes. 
• Cucumbers - trim each end, cut in half, place the fat middle end on the cutting board, like suggested for the corn. With just a little practice you can trim the peel off from top to bottom, not taking off much, if any flesh. So - no need for a peeler. After trimming, slices or quarters are easily obtained. 
• Snozzcumbers - you're on your own. I can't recommend a viable approach. Hopefully the BFG is not reading this note. 

Toss cucumbers, zucchini or squashes into a colander with a generous sprinkling of kosher or sea salt. Let them sit for about 20 minutes - and they'll lose a lot of the water that would otherwise end up watering down your dish. 

• Chop the stem portion of a bell pepper, as if beheading it (the stem is the head). After slicing this top open, you can trim vertically, four times around the core and seeds, to create big flat pieces of pepper.  When you trim this way, run the knife edge right along the inside of the white spines - you don 't want that part - it's bitter. 
• A similar technique works well horizontally for small peppers, usually needing just three cuts.  
• After cutting large heads in half or quarters, I like to cut broccoli and cauliflower from the stem end toward the "leaves", making small cuts that allow the "trees" to fall apart. The bigger trees get more of the same treatment. 

When chopping anything into tiny pieces, keep the tip of your knife anchored on the cutting board rock/press the broad end (nearest the handle) down to chop through. Steady the food with your non-cutting hand. Yes, you can and should tuck your fingertips "under" (curl them back a bit) for safety. Also, pretend in your mind that you're a professional chef (you already have a very sharp knife, right) and your in chopping competition with the dude/dudette next to you. It doesn't take too long to get fast, faster and fastest. But do watch those fingertips. 

• Last, for now, smash garlic with the flat knife blade and the skin will fall off. Lay the knife blade over one clove, holding the handle, and with your other fist, pound once down against the blade. It is SO easy. 

Grilled Vegetables
Don't overgrill - you'd eat most any of these veggies raw anyway.
Add some oil, S&P and balsamic vinegar.