Simmons Marie - Fresh & fast : inspired cooking for every season and every day

Photography by Alan Richardson

Houghton Mifflin Company
Boston New York

Copyright 1996 by Marie Simmons

All rights reserved

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

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eBook ISBN: 978-0-547-34719-6

The following recipes first appeared in Bon Apptit in slightly different form: Pureed Carrot, Potato and Ginger Soup (). Courtesy of Bon Apptit.

Library of CongressCataloging-in-Publication Data

Simmons,Marie.
Fresh and fast : inspired cooking for every season and every day / MarieSimmons.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-395-97173-X (pbk.)
ISBN 0-618-44029-1 (pbk.)
1. Cookery. I. Title.
TX714.S576 1996
641.5dc20 96-4351

T HE THEME OF THIS BOOK TOOK HOLD when a friend and colleague, Maria Laghi, called me to say that one of New Jersey's largest newspapers, The Bergen Record, wanted to add a column to their food pages and suggested that I call and talk to them about writing it.

Today, seven years later, "Fresh & Fast" is a syndicated column appearing in 80 newspapers across the United States.

Along the way, I have worked with many wonderful and supportiveeditors: Rosemary Black, Charles Monaghan, Patricia Mack, Russ Parsons,Colleen Bates and Jim Burns. But I especially want to thank Maria forthinking of me when there were so many other talented cooks and foodwriters out there.

I have enjoyed writing this column from the beginning because it was never an assignment, but a blank page, almost a diary, where I could express what I thought about what I just happened to be cooking that week or that day, which was, and still is, both fresh and fast.

Thank you Barry Estabrook, Rux Martin, Cristen Brooks, Judith Weber, Alan Richardson, Anne Disrude, Betty Alfenito and Susan McClellan. Without your brilliance, Fresh & Fast would not exist.

Introduction

Appetizers

Soups

Sandwiches

Pasta

Poultry and Other Meats

Seafood

Grains and Beans

Salads

Vegetables

Desserts

Index

I T'S DINNERTIME, AND MY KITCHEN IS AFRENZY OF ACTIVITY. Seasoned rice simmers on the back of thestove, while I chop some scallions and green peppers to stir in later,along with oil and lemon. Chicken cutlets marinate in garlic, freshthyme, olive oil and lime juice, ready to be pan-seared while the ricecools. In a few minutes, the cooked chicken will be placed on someprewashed salad greens with a spoonful of the rice salad on one side ofthe plate and a few pieces of roasted red pepper on the other. Within 35minutes of stepping inside the door, we're enjoying dinner.

Uncomplicated meals like this onemarinated chicken cutlets and Yellow Confetti Rice Salad ()which I can make effortlessly and share with my family at the end of the day, are an essential part of my busy life. I choose fresh vegetables and fruits, quick-cooking cuts of meat, poultry and seafood, and pasta, rice, beans and grains over ready-made products. Fresh ingredients not only taste better but are more convenient than most packaged "convenience" items.

Red-skinned potatoes, for instance, need no peeling and are perfect quartered and browned in olive oil and seasoned with crushed red pepper, rosemary and garlic. Chicken cutlets, quickly seared, transform a salad into a main dish; in a sandwich, they become a hearty, nearly instant meal. Fresh scallops are nature's gift to the world of fast food, taking only a minute or two to cook in a hot skillet. Nectarines, their tender skins left on, need only to be sliced and placed in a mint sugar syrup to become dessert.

Because I get as much pleasure from eating as I do from cooking, I sometimes choose to devote a little more effort to preparation for the sake of taste. For example, the taste and texture of fresh green beans or fresh broccoli more than compensate for the few extra minutes they take to trim. The juice squeezed from a lemon or lime adds much more sparkle than bottled. I have yet to experience any instant garlic product that can replace the robust flavor of real cloves in their papery wrappings.

Relying on fresh ingredients means that my cooking has variety because it is influenced by the seasons. When the weather is warm and sunny, I turn to cooling foods that complement the day and my mood; bright, robustly flavored dishes like Tomato, Sweet Onion and Fresh Mint Salad ().

Sometimes, it is whatever looks most tempting at my local farmer's market that sets off the chain of events in my kitchen. At other times, I find inspiration in my crowded A&P. A Saint Patrick's Day sale on cabbage may prompt a zesty Cabbage Salad with Lemon and Olive Oil ().

T O MAKE THE PREPARATION EASIER, I always keep enough staples on hand for simple dinners. My cupboards are stocked with nonperishable basics: a selection of pastasditalini, penne, farfalle and spaghettiand a variety of ricesbrown and white Texmati and Italian or medium-grain. Equally essential are yellow onions, garlic and olive oil.

My refrigerator drawers are always stocked with vegetables and fruits that I consider indispensable: carrots, celery, scallions, mushrooms, lemons and limes. I buy fresh herbs and keep them perky by standing them in a glass of water in the refrigerator. On another shelf sits a salad spinner filled with washed salad greens.

As much as I love fresh ingredients, there are some ready-made products that I couldn't get along without. Thawed frozen peas can be stirred uncooked into rice or lentil dishes. Frozen lima beans can be added to soup or served plain with a warm vinaigrette dressing. Canned Italian plum tomatoes make a terrific quick sauce for pasta. Canned chicken broth, especially the relatively new reduced-sodium kind, is a perfectly acceptable substitute for homemade. Canned beans are mainstays in my kitchen. Black beans, drained and rinsed, are delicious in a salad when mixed with diced tomato, cilantro, crunchy corn and a dressing of lime juice and oil (). Cannellini beans are tasty in pasta when mixed with bitter greens or in a salad.

M OST OF THE RECIPES IN THIS BOOK can be made in less than 1 hour. Others take a little longer, because they benefit from chilling, slow simmering or slow baking. Nevertheless, these dishes are sometimes even more convenient than the quicker ones, because you can do other things while they cook. When a recipe does have a step that will involve extra time, such as marinating, or when it calls for another recipe as an ingredient, like roasted red peppers or leftover grilled lamb, I alert you up front so you can plan ahead.

Because I've learned to adjust my menu according to the time and energy I have, dinnertime is the best part of my day. Part of the secret to my enjoyment is that I make only what I feel like eating. From my mother, who is still a wonderful cook at the age of 84, I've learned that good food does not have to be complicated. A fine dish can materialize from four ingredients: spaghetti, melted butter, freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and toasted walnuts (the recipe is on ). Food is too important to be relegated to mere sustenance. Or as I like to say, life is just too short to waste on a bad meal.

FAST

Finger Foods

Soy Almonds

Curried Pecans

Toasted Pita Triangles

Fresh Goat Cheese with Basil and Lemon

Chick-Pea Puree with Lemon and Mint

Smoked Salmon on Black Bread with Sweet Butter

Bagna Cauda

Crostini

Toppings for Crostini

Roasted Eggplant, Olive and Red Pepper Spread

Olivada

Mushrooms with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Herbs