Om Nom Nom - Late Summer Food Talk

Allright, here’s a thread for the delights of late summer foods. Talk amongst yourselves here regarding what you love, share recipes, etc.

I suggest, however, that we keep this discussion for food we have ourselves cooked or tried, not for theoretical recipes we don’t know or haven’t proven, no matter how tasty they look. Perhaps we’ll start a separate thread for those, if there’s interest.

For me late summer is about fresh corn on the cob, ripe berries, incredible tomatoes, and grilled everything. Since the spring garlic has started to dry out and gain its punch by now, too, what could go better with all that than a creamy, garlic-loaded side of hummus and some grilled pita?

So I’ll kick off the recipes with my favourite hummus, which is admittedly an inordinate pain in the royal posterior to make, but is always, and I do mean always, worth it if I can find the time and energy to do it. The secret lies in the chemistry of garlic: if you expose it to air, the enzymes create a lot of allicin-based compounds which give garlic some of it’s reported health benefits but a lot of it’s funky stink. If you submit it to acid, though, those enzyme deactivate and you get pure, potent, crisp garlic goodness without (as much of) the rank brute force. Result: you can pack a lot more garlic into a recipe, getting all that tasty flavour and kick, without things starting to reek. This recipe puts that technical consideration into the tahini sauce base, and then combines that with the chickpea mixture blended for texture. The resulting mixture ends up being both perfectly smooth and insanely flavourful: The Best Smooth Hummus Recipe

Good info!

I’ll share my secret spice for delicious grilling: “Santa Maria” seasoning. They sell it at Whole Foods, but probably other places too. Season your steak with just this stuff, and let it sit for 30 mins before cooking. And it’s also really good with grilled shrimp. (Get shrimp with the shells still on, and sprinkle on top before grilling)

So good!

It’s not quite “late summer food,” but I tried a suggestion for rice I saw the other day over… probably on Greer’s blog.

Mix rice in the proper ratio (1.5:1 for the jasmine rice we typically use). Bring to a rolling boil. Shut off the burner and wait half an hour.

Better rice than I’ve made in a long, long while! Fully absorbed and fluffy, vs my normal “slightly wet and really sticky” result.

1 Like

Nice, do you put it in a haybox or just let it cool on the stove that way? I cook brown rice in a Japanese cooker and it comes out fluffier and tastier than most people’s white rice does.

I just left it on the stove to cool - lid on, nothing else. I thought about wrapping it in a towel, but it doesn’t seem to be needed.