Bittman - How to Cook Everything: summer

Summer Meals Are a Breeze

More than any other season, summer is the time to embrace a casual, flexible approach to cooking and eating. As you gravitate toward fresh produce and outdoor living, many pots and pans never see the light of day. Pantry staples remain virtually untouched. Even entertaining a crowd is no big deal.

Still, the choices for what to buy and prepare can be daunting, especially when youre busy having fun. Thats where this How to Cook Everything ebook comes in: Here is a portable kitchen reference that celebrates the abundance of delicious seasonal food, and inspires you to eat something for dinner tonight besides an ice cream cone. The idea is to capture my relaxed approach to summer meals in 20 dishesplus lots of variations, including a global approach to varying flavors, improvising sandwiches from leftovers, and moreprovide some guidance for all-purpose grilling, and offer enough basic ingredient and condiment information that everything from a is a breeze.

Summertime cooking rewards laziness. With so many fruits, vegetables, and herbs at your fingertips, its easy to eat well with minimal effort. About a third of the recipes in this ebook involve little more than chopping. Add the heat of a grill, and youve got another third. This time of year, I could practically live on ripe peaches, especially when theyre so easy to turn into , and you have a simple repertoire to take grilled meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables in bold directions that offset even the hottest weather.

Another pleasure of summer cooking is spontaneity. Since youre probably taking advantage of whatever looks best at farmstands and outdoor marketsor from your gardenthe recipes, variations, and sidebars are designed for improvisation. Most dishes are adaptable enough that you can swap main ingredients easily, and let serendipity decide whats for dinner. Try new things: whether its a yellow cucumber or a bunch of purple basil. You know tomatoes make lovely salsa, so next time why not try ?

Using these recipes as your guide, you can also prepare favorite foods in new ways: Put watermelon slices on the .

With warm weather comes the urge to enjoy mealtime outdoors, often in good company, which means you wont want to be stuck in the kitchen. No problem. Most of the dishes here can be made ahead or served at roomor patiotemperature. (In other words, you have permission to take another dip after the chickens off the grill. Just remember to put raw perishable food away quickly, refrigerate food you cook after an hour or two, and always avoid putting cooked food on the same surfaces you used to prep or store raw food.) Going to a picnic or potluck? See .

Wherever your summer takes you, I hope you dip into this collection frequently for food that makes the season memorable. More than that, I hope youll use it as a springboard for your own summertime creations. Hot-weather meals should be fun, relaxing, and easy. So eat what you like best and enjoy the taste of summer while it lasts.

Cooking Out of Your Element

Whether youre away at a weekend cottage or roughing it in the great outdoors, all intrepid cooks need their creature comforts. This list of tools will help you sort out the must-haves from the can-do-withouts to make sure youre always right at home in any summer kitchen.

Serrated knife: If youre going to travel with one piece of kitchen equipment, it should be a good knife, and this is the most versatile. Six inches is okay; 8 is even better.

A 9- x 13-inch rimmed baking sheet: (Or two.) Lightweight and easy to pack. Good for prep in a pinch (and wont hurt the serrated knife much), transporting things to the grill, and serving.

Heavy 12-inch skillet: Stainless is lighter and more versatile than cast iron. Make sure its deep enough so you can use it for tomato sauces.

A big pot: A gallon is usually a good size for the summer, though twice that big can never hurt. Youll use it mostly for pasta and hard boiling eggs. But dont forget that barely-boiled vegetables, shocked in ice water to stop the cooking, is an ideal technique for capturing the best flavor of all your farmers market finds.

A vegetable peeler: Unless you take along a paring knife and dont mind working with that instead.

Tongs: The longer the better; I prefer spring loaded, like they use in restaurants.

Metal spatula : Blueberry pancakes, anyone?

Spoons: Assorted wooden shapes and sizes for cooking and serving.

Salad spinner: The inside basket doubles as a colander, and you can use it to transport the gadgets and towels on this list.

Kitchen towels: You can use simple cotton towels for everything from napkins to oven mitts. And a pile of them is lightweight and inexpensive. Paper towels are undeniably handy, too.

Blender or food processor: A bit of a luxury and a pain to pack, but useful; the former can also mix frozen drinks.

A grill: Charcoal or gas, though a fire pit on the beach is also fun (as long as its legal!). A chimney starter is handy and lightweight (though undeniably bulky). And a grill brushor crumbled piece of foilused to periodically clean the grates helps food turn easily.

Skewers for kebabs: Wooden ones must be soaked in warm water for 20 minutes before being used so they dont burn, but they're disposable; metal ones get hot, so use tongs.

Bottle opener and corkscrew: Its no fun to reach your destination and realize youve forgotten these!

Guide to Recipe Icons

There are three icons that appear with some recipes in this ebook:

means fast: the recipe takes 30 minutes or less to prepare.

indicates that the dish can be made aheadeither in full or to a certain pointand stored for finishing or serving later (these are excellent dishes for entertaining).

means vegetarian: no meat, chicken, or fish in the recipe (though there may be some options that add nonvegetarian ingredients).

You can find all the .

Sauces and Seasonings

Fresh Tomato or Fruit Salsa

MAKES: About 2 cups

TIME: 15 minutes

Hands down, this is the simplest and most versatile summertime condiment. Salsa fresca (also known as pico de gallo or, in Mexico, salsa mexicana ) is fast, tasty, and useful. Its fantastic with chips or grilled meat or fish but also simply cooked grains, eggs, and veggies. And if you double the recipe, you can serve this like a chunky gazpacho and eat it with a spoon.

The basic formula works with many fruits and vegetables, so use whatever looks freshest and ripest. See the variations for standard and unusual options. Other good fruits to try include cherries, berries, and grapes in the summer and pineapple, mangoes, and orange or grapefruit segments the rest of the year.

2 large ripe fresh tomatoes, cored and chopped (about 112 cups)

12 large white onion or 3 or 4 scallions, chopped

1 teaspoon minced garlic, or to taste

Minced fresh hot chile (like jalapeo, Thai, or less of habanero) or hot red pepper flakes or cayenne, to taste

12 cup chopped fresh cilantro or parsley leaves

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice or 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine everything but the salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then taste and adjust the seasoning.

If possible, let the flavors develop for 15 minutes or so before serving, but by all means serve within a couple of hours.