Food Odyssey: Summer 2021

My Christian family, we have made it to Fall 2021. The ground hasn’t opened up and swallowed us. Jesus hasn’t cracked the sky. We haven’t melted away in the intense summer sun. We are still in the game folks. Since we’re all still here, we might as well exchange some recipes, right?

Guys and gals, I think I killed it this summer. The spring post only had like two recipes that were really in season. This time I really tried to look for recipes that embodied summer that I had never tried before. I hope you’re inspired…for next summer. Nothing in this post is sponsored. I’m not trying to promote any one thing or person. I am sharing what I like with you. Please feel free to share what you like in the comments. Let’s get started friends.

Let’s talk breakfast-y foods. I would categorize pancakes as a classic American breakfast item. There are so many recipes for them and they all claim to be the “fluffiest”. Fluffy pancakes are nice, but I have also found myself enjoying pancakes that have some crispiness to them. I like the added textural complexity. In the spirit of finding pancakes with a range of textures, I stumbled upon a recipe for blueberry cornmeal pancakes.

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These cornmeal pancakes not only have crispy edges, but the cornmeal adds to the unique mouthfeel. Besides the interesting texture, I think the flavor is nothing more special than any other blueberry pancake recipe. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. Plain pancake batter is not known to be flavorful in the first place, so once you put butter and syrup on it, it satisfies the pancake craving. These were not my favorite pancakes, but I would recommend them if you want to spice up your pancake life one weekend. Of course, you can add other flavorings, fruit, etc. to make these more special.

Alright, enough about pancakes! The true winner is this Belgian waffle. I have tried the small, dense Belgian waffles that you can find pre-packaged in many different stores and I love them. In particular, I tried the Jacquet bakery brand. They are buttery, thick and they have a crunchy sugar inside. I had no idea what their official name was until I happened upon a recipe for them in a blog: Liege waffles.

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There are quite a few recipes for these waffles out there and they are all pretty similar, but with slightly varied amounts of butter and sugar. I’m sure whatever recipe you choose, it will turn out delicious. These are different because the waffle batter requires yeast and a short rising time. It is more like a dough with a bunch of Belgian pearl sugar incorporated into it. The Belgian pearl sugar is magical. As you cook the waffles in your waffle iron, the sugar will melt a bit on the outside and as the waffle cools, it will create a crunchy caramelized coating on the waffle. You don’t really need syrup or extra butter for these. Honestly, I just like eating them plain as a snack. If you like buttery, sugary goodness, y’all need to make this. Don’t even be intimidated by the yeast. Just give yourself an extra 30-45 minutes to make them and you’ll be good. These freeze pretty well too.

Alright, sticking with the breakfast theme, let’s talk another classic: blueberry muffins. This is another food that probably has hundreds or thousands of recipes available for you. I have probably tried ten different blueberry muffin recipes up to this point in my life. This recipe is one of my favorite variations so far.

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You would expect a cookbook titled “Muffins & Biscuits” to have amazing muffin and biscuit recipes, and this particular recipe did not disappoint. I think I ran out of blueberries while making this, so it’s not has berry-licious as it could be, but they were delicious. They were moist, the crumb topping was just right and the flavor was balanced. If you need a reliable blueberry muffin recipe, look no further than this cookbook. I’m not yet sure about their biscuits, but stay tuned.

Ok, we are now kind of veering out of breakfast territory, but I promise to keep up the summer vibes. We have mostly been talking about blueberries, but nothing says summer like s’mores. I tried these s’more flavored granola bars to begin to get rid of my ridiculously large bag of rolled oats from Costco. I’m one person. Why do I keep grabbing these enormous containers of food from Costco?

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Overall, these bars were alright. My oats kind of tasted like cardboard in this recipe, so that took away from the s’mores flavor experience for me. I will say that the taste got better a couple days in. Also, when I think of s’mores, I think of gooey marshmallow and that was kind lacking in this recipe. You could argue that I should just make s’mores and shut up, and that would be a valid argument. Maybe the answer to improving the flavor of these bars for me is to use different oats, but I used what I had. If you decide to make these, let me know what you think.

Ok, let’s consult with our summer flavors checklist. We have down berries and s’mores. Now I think we have to talk peaches. As soon as peaches went on sale early in the summer, I started buying them with no real plan. Luckily, I stumbled upon a recipe for a beautiful peach crisp buttermilk cake.

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I’ll be honest with you all. I had some reservations about making this recipe because it called for six peaches. Sometimes when you put that much fruit in a cake this size, things get soggy and disgusting real quick. I think I put about four in instead, but I wish I had tried putting in all six. The cake batter is pretty thick and I think it can handle it. Either way, this cake was very good and perfectly moist. The crumble has pecans in it, which is one of my favorite nuts to bake with, so that gave it bonus points for me. There is a layer of peaches in the middle and on top of the cake just to make sure you aren’t missing any of that bright fruity flavor. I recommend this recipe for all you peach lovers out there. The cake freezes very well and is delicious with a scoop of ice cream (dairy or nondairy).

I have another peach dessert to share with you all. If you read my last blog post, you know that I have recently become a Chip and Joanna Gaines fan and I told you there was more to come from Jo’s cookbooks. The oatmeal cream pie cookies were average. This peach almond tart was amazing.

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The peaches were poached in a simple lemon sugar syrup before being sliced and arranged on the tart. The almond filling was perfect because the almond flavor was not too overpowering. The crust was super simple, but very flaky and buttery. I did not show the tart with the whipped mascarpone on top because I overwhipped mine and it was not cute, but it did help balance the sweetness. The dessert was a nice celebration and highlight of the peach. I highly recommend this recipe as well. It was a hit at the potluck I took it to. Well done, Joanna.

Besides the peach tart, I think I am most proud of making these Portuguese custard tarts because this is the first laminated pastry that I made successfully.

You will find many different variations of Portuguese custard tarts with different types of crust, but if you are willing to put in the effort, make this one. It even has this pretty swirled layered effect at the bottom of the tart which I tried to capture in the second picture. The butter is at room temperature, so you don’t have all the same concerns as you would with croissant dough. The dough is very sticky and rolled out thin, so it is tricky to handle, but I have found it to be very forgiving if you happen to have a tear and the butter starts oozing out a bit. These pastries are baked at your highest oven temperature (~550 F) to give you a crispy pastry and signature brown spots of caramelization on the custard. I have found it a bit difficult to determine if the custard is set enough to take out of the oven, especially if your oven bakes unevenly. You will find some that are done and some that still need time. If you experiment with them a little bit, I think you will find what baking times work best for you and your oven. These are sooo good and worth the effort. I finished them off with some powdered sugar and cinnamon. If you don’t like cinnamon, you don’t lose anything by not using it in my opinion.

Sticking with the international theme here, I also tried Thai black sticky rice pudding.

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This sticky rice pudding is not like the white rice pudding you are probably used to in the US. The white rice pudding is a lot richer and creamier than this one. In this recipe, you use white and black glutinous rice (does not actual contain gluten) and coconut milk, so it’s dairy free. You must soak the black rice for several hours before using it so that it cooks all the way through. This recipe also uses pandan leaves, which I believe is traditional, but I could not find them after travelling to three different Asian markets. That’s just what happens when you live in a smaller Midwest city. Even without the addition of pandan leaves, I still enjoyed this dessert. The recipe also calls for palm sugar, but if you can’t find it, you can sub brown sugar. Honestly, I might sub in brown sugar the next time anyway because I did not enjoy grating palm sugar. The finished rice pudding paired really well with mango, but you can use a fruit of your preference. I would recommend trying this dessert. It’s a different rice pudding experience, but it has a nice tropical flavor profile that is nice for the summer.

Speaking of tropical, what’s more tropical than a Hawaiian recipe for butter mochi? I had never heard of butter mochi until I was watching a YouTuber do a Trader Joe’s haul and she mentioned it was super popular and flying off the shelves. The next time I went to Trader Joe’s, I bought some butter mochi mix and made it. It was an interesting, delicious and unique dessert experience. Thankfully, you don’t have to wait for Trader Joe’s to restock their mochi mix. You can make it right at home and it’s ridiculously easy.

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You will need some mochiko rice flour for this dessert. You should be able to find it at your local Asian market or easily online. This recipe had a shredded coconut topping which gave the butter mochi a nice crunch on the same day it was made. I’m sure you can also leave it out if you don’t care for the texture of coconut. If you are a fan of mochi, the texture of this cake will not surprise you very much. If you have never had mochi or a rice cake, this will be more of an experience for you. The recipe is very rich with butter and coconut milk while having a chewy rice texture. If you’re curious and/or like mochi and coconut, I recommend this one. If you know what this is and just haven’t found the right recipe, give this one a try and let me know what you think.

I know you all think that berries and peaches are behind us now, but I have one more recipe to add to our collection: a summer fruit and honey whipped ricotta crostata.

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I figured out quickly that this is a dessert best enjoyed the day you make it. I recommend bringing this out for the fam or when you have friends over. The crust is made out of phyllo dough. You layer the phyllo dough and use melted butter as your adhesive to keep them together. The recipe calls for half a cup of honey, but I found that amount of honey made my ricotta filling super runny. I had to add more ricotta to thicken it up. I would say to gradually add the honey until you reach your desired filling thickness and level of sweetness. I am sure you can also use whatever fruit you desire. This was a simple, light dessert that is perfect for the summer. It’s nothing spectacular, but I think it would fit in nicely after a heavier meal.

Let’s move on to some recipes on the savory side. This is the second year I am doing a CSA box from the same farm and starting in the mid-summer we are bombarded with a ridiculous amount of tomatoes, corn and cucumbers. In an effort to use up all of the beautiful tomatoes I have been getting, I made two different tomato tarts.

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Honestly fam, I would make this tart every summer. The filling is ricotta cheese mixed with sauteed onion and garlic, grated parmesan and fresh basil. The galette crust is flaky and buttery. All of the flavors complement the tomatoes so well. I have nothing but good things to say about this tart.

This second tart is from America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) and it mostly differs in the crust.

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Instead of a buttery crust, the crust is made with olive oil and has parmesan baked onto it. It is still quite flaky, but it’s not as rich as the tomato galette. If you’re looking for something a little less rich, use this recipe. I like both of these recipes a lot, but if I had to choose one, I would choose the galette.

Our adventure with tomatoes is not over yet, my friends. We still need a solution for the cherry tomatoes. I got you covered with this summery tomato, zesty olive and onion focaccia bread.

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One of the nice things about this focaccia is that it does not need to sit overnight in your fridge. It still takes time, but you don’t have to start it the day before. As far as toppings go, I am not a big fan of olives, but these are one of times I did not mind them because they brought a pleasant saltiness to the bread. If you absolutely hate olives, don’t use them because you can definitely taste them. This bread is probably best consumed the day it’s baked. The cherry tomatoes will start making the top of the bread unpleasantly mushy fairly quickly. If I were to make this again, I would try drying out the cherry tomatoes a bit first so this bread lasts longer.

Now we can move on from tomatoes and talk about corn. I have never eaten so much corn in my life. It comes every week and I am forced to get creative. One thing I tried this summer was corn fritters.

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I don’t know why I have not tried these sooner. They are delicious! I used fresh corn, but I believe the recipe is flexible, so you can use fresh, canned or frozen corn. Green onions, sour cream, bacon, cheese – what else could you ask for in comfort food? I made the bacon to crumble on top before frying the corn fritters, so I ended up frying the corn fritters in the bacon grease. Is that too much? Perhaps. But it was delicious. If you’re being inundated with corn or you just love corn, make these. You can make so many different variations of this.

Last, but definitely not least, I made one of my favorite Korean dishes: bibimbap (비빔밥). In my freshman year of college, I took my roommate to a Korean restaurant close to our dorm and had her try this dish. Immediately she said, “Oh my gosh! What is the beautiful medley of flavors?!” From that day on, whenever we went to get Korean food, she would order the bibimbap. It’s that good.

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It looks like a simple dish and it is. It’s my favorite way to get in my vegetables. I only have carrots, cucumbers, spinach and soybean sprouts in the picture I am showing you, but you can add much more. Maangchi’s recipe also does not use ground beef, but that’s what I had in my freezer, so I tried it. It worked out surprisingly well. Just make sure you let all the moisture cook out of the beef and let it start to caramelize before you take it off the heat. Although this dish looks simple, it does take a bit of time to chop all the veggies, add the appropriate seasoning and cook everything, but don’t be deterred. Just make sure you don’t make it at the last minute. To serve this meal, you put the beef (or protein of your choice), veggies and egg (fried or scrambled) on top of a bed of rice, then you mix everything together really well with bibimbap sauce. Don’t you dare break out the sriracha! The bibimbap sauce is just a perfect balance of vinegar, sweet and spicy for this dish. You can either buy bibimbap sauce at your Asian market (usually is in a medium sized, opaque, red bottle) or find a good recipe. I haven’t experimented enough with making it to recommend a recipe to you yet, but I’m sure you can find some decent options if you do a quick google search. Apply the sauce generously and enjoy a beautiful medley of flavors.

That is all I have you wonderful children of God. Thank you for joining me on my summer food adventure. I am really excited to start getting into fall flavors. Feel free to leave your comments down below. On your way down to the comment section, please enjoy this picture of Hunter at the park. God bless!

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