A Stormy Night on Cape Cod

Going to Cape Cod in July, you always pack a sweatshirt. The nights are cool and the misty fog is part of the charm. I love it. This summer I spent 5 days in Chatham, and the first night was chillier than usual -- drizzly rain, extra fog, all in preparation for a Nor'easter due that night. To combat the gloom and kick the trip off right, the family made fisherman's stew. Everyone chipped in!

The striped bass was locally caught, extra fresh and "fell off the back of a truck." Or a Volvo. Lobsters, shrimp and littlenecks all came from Nickerson's Fish Market. Add in native corn, parsley from the garden and the most beautiful bread from an artisan bakery and you can't miss!

Nickerson's Fish Market is right on a working pier, where fishing boats unload their daily catch. We were able to see them unloading dogfish sharks and haddock. There were lots of blood and guts. The seals and seagulls were only too happy to gobble up the discards.

Korean Short Ribs in Lettuce Wraps

Have you ever come across Steven Raichlen on PBS? He used to have a show called Barbecue University. The first time I watched, all I could think was "is this guy for real?" It was low budget, a bunch of smokers and grills blazing in the background and the tackiest segue music. However, 5 minutes in, it's apparent that this guy knows what he's talking about.

He's back on PBS, this time with a show called Primal Grill. A recent episode featured how to make Korean-style short ribs. The marinade is simple, but the best part of the episode was the tip he had for butterflying the short rib. Essentially, you take a short rib, cut along the bone almost to the end, but not quite and open up the rib. Then you take the thick part of the meat and cut it in half, opening it up.

We followed the recipe for the marinade and garnished with what we on hand: Bibb lettuce leaves, fresh carrots from the farmer's market, cucumber matchsticks, scallion slivers and cilantro. The chili sauce featured in the photo was not needed -- the lettuce wraps were delicious with perfect flavor without it! Of course, a perfect summer evening in the backyard helped too!

Garlic Scapes?

Somewhere in June, I started seeing blogs and articles raving about garlic scapes. What the heck is a garlic scape? Turns out, it is the stalk of the garlic bulb and contains a flower bud at the top. Farmers cut off the talks to encourage growth in the bulb as opposed to growth in the flower. The stalks can be long and straight or curly and somehow became the "it" thing of the food world this year. Curious, I purchased some at the local farmer's market in June and immediately went home to try them out.



The farmers instructed to use the stalks as a direct substitute for garlic. Bloggers chronicled how they grilled them and served, just like asparagus. I turned mine into the most prevalent method: garlic scape pesto.

I chopped the stalks into smaller pieces (they were surprisingly tough!) and dropped them in the food processor, along with olive oil, pecorino and pine nuts and pureed until smooth-chunky. A quick spoonful showed me that garlic scapes are intense -- this was no mild chive flavor, but total garlic. I backed off my original plans and spread some on a crusty piece of bread and froze the rest. Later, I went back and used some of my saved pesto on stuffed pasta and thinned it out with a little pasta water -- that was much better; less intense and more subtle.

Will they still be in favor come next spring, or will they be replaced by a new "gotta try it" item? Time will tell!

Glimpse Into the Garden

This year, I planted my first real vegetable garden: 1 zucchini plant, 2 heirloom tomatoes, 1 pepper. It's not much, but it's a start (gotta start somewhere, right?).

I had three reasons for planting the zucchini:

1. Zucchini bread. My mother-in-law makes it and it is amazing.
2. Pan-fried zucchini. With parmesean, parsley or mint, this is a favorite at my house.
3. Fried zucchini blossoms. I had them once in a restaurant and want to repeat the experience.

About a week ago, I looked at the window and saw a bright burst of yellow and orange in the garden patch. The first zucchini blossom of the season! This will be the starting point for some good recipe experimentation.