Ice pops are among the easiest things you can make with your kids, and are a perfect treat to enjoy during these dog days of summer. They are also incredibly versatile, offering those with a creative bent ample opportunity to design a custom pop of just about any flavor combination you can imagine. Muppet and I had fun the other night making these pops with ingredients we had on-hand, but all the while she was dreaming up a kiwi-strawberry combo that we'll be making next.
Chocolate Ice Cream
Those of you who have been hanging around here for a while know I am loathe to call any recipe "the best". There are plenty of great recipes out there, and certainly lots of lousy ones too. Here at Oui, Chef we try to bring you tons of the former and none of the latter, but the best of anything? You've never heard me say that a recipe you find here is the best that you'll find anywhere, and you never will. That's because as much as I love all the dishes we share with you, there is always room for improvement and reinterpretation, and in fact, one of the things I like most about writing this blog is hearing from all of you and learning how you've made our recipes work better for your tastes.
Sweet Corn Soup
This dish is one that Grid and I worked on the other day for submission to a Food52 contest for their best "Corn Off the Cob" recipe. At first, I thought of submitting a succotash, which is a favorite summer dish of mine, but I've always wanted to work up a recipe for a creamy sweet corn soup, and this contest provided a perfect excuse to do just that.
Peach and Blueberry Crumble with Tarragon
I found some delicious, locally grown peaches at the market the other day, and they looked so good in their cute little wooden box that I had to buy them. There were about 12 of them in the crate and were still a bit hard when I bought them so I left them on the counter to continue ripening for a couple of days. When they seemed to have softened enough, my wife and I cut into one for a lunchtime dessert and were thrilled with how great they were, so juicy and very sweet.
Of course, the problem with peaches (and most fresh fruit for that matter) is that once they attain their peak of freshness, they begin a quick downhill sprint to the land of rot. If we only had one or two to snarf down in a hurry I wouldn't have worried much, but with a ten or so peaches left, and most of our clan off at various camps this week, I was afraid we'd lose all the lovelies to our ever present summer battalion of fruit flies, before we had a chance to enjoy them.
Vanilla Brined Pork Chops
With grilling season in full swing, I wanted to toss out a quick-brine, dry rub combo to keep you and your grill on your toes. This dish was inspired by a recipe I saw recently in Fine Cooking magazine, and with just a few tweaks to the brine and rub, we've come up with a dish that we've made twice already in the last few weeks.
Cod with Roasted Tomatoes, Beans and Green Olive Broth
This meal came together on the fly the other night in an effort to rid our fridge of some produce before we left town for a week. We had some purple romano beans (did you know they turn green when you cook them?…neither did I), some baby potatoes, half a box of organic chicken stock, and a green olive pesto that had been in residence so long that it was practically part of the family.
Green Tomato Chutney
This is a recipe I found last fall when I had an abundance of green tomatoes from my garden, and found a lot more at my local farmer's market that were practically being given away. At about the same time I made my batch of chutney, my friend Winnie at Healthy Green Kitchen posted a version of this very same chutney (what is it they say about great minds?), so I decided to hold mine back for a later date. When I saw a farmer selling a bunch of green tomatoes at Thursday's farmer's market (many farmers don't just sell green tomatoes at the end of the season), I was reminded of this tasty treat and wanted to get the recipe out to you.
Winnie adapted her awesome chutney by altering the spices and sugar some, mine is just as Tom Colicchio wrote the recipe in his great cookbook, Think Like a Chef . Try either recipe, or play doctor and come up with your own spin. Either way you go, you'll end up with a dead-simple recipe that will yield a delicious condiment that will enhance anything you serve it alongside. Really, this is good with beef, pork, lamb, poultry, seafood…you name it.
Enjoy – Steve
Basil-Vodka Gimlet
This is not a recipe I make with my kids, and no, I'm not encouraging you to whip up a pitcher of this elixer with your ankle biters either.
Let's be honest, our kids are going to try their hands at mixology soon enough, at ages we will likely find horrifying, they won't need any help from us here.
As a blog dedicated to sharing family friendly recipes you can make with your own young ones, we are not in the habit of posting tasty alcoholic treats, but if its half as hot where you are today as it is here, then you could probably use a refreshing adult beverage.
Aren't you glad you know me?
Kale Chips
I know, I'm about two years behind the craze with this dish.
I'm hoping though, because I'm SO late to the kale chip party, that by sharing them with you today I'll actually be introducing them to all you food blog readers who like me, missed the first wave of excitement over them when they were foodie's darlings a few years back.
I've seen so many recipes for these on-line that its clear there was a bit of a kale chip craze at one point, much like the "macaron" frenzy that seems to be in constant force on food blogs.
Now, having eaten more than my fair share of fabulous macarons during my time in France, I get how they can fuel a never ending obsession among foodies the world over.
But kale chips…..are you kidding me?
