Hello again! Still here, still trying to fill Sam’s sneakers. (Or tennis shoes? This map of regional terms resurfaced last week, and I’m still processing.)
Neither of us likes food writing that burbles on about how cooking is love, but here’s a fact: There are some things you do for people in the kitchen that they feel in their guts. Bringing a batch of granola to a new parent. Dropping off a soothing pot of tomato risotto for a bereaved pal. Cutting kernels off the cob for a corn-deprived child with braces on her teeth.
That’s what I did last weekend, and I’m here to tell you that everyone at the table will thrill to it. It’s also this Wednesday’s no-recipe recipe. Figure on two cobs per person, and have someone else shuck it. Get out your smallest knife and your largest bowl. Hold a cob upright in the bowl, start at the top and slice down in an authoritative manner, removing about five rows at a time. Don’t saw at it; that makes the kernels fly around the kitchen. Just slice down as if you’re peeling a carrot.
Meanwhile, have a big knob of butter melting in a pot. When all your corn is cut, dump it in the pot and raise the heat. Turn the corn over and over in the pan until the kernels are slicked with butter and heated through. Season with salt, turn off the heat and let settle for five minutes while the corn’s “milk” oozes out. Serve immediately and absolutely plain, or with a sprinkling of herbs; chives are nice, as is basil.
(Here’s something I learned this summer: Each strand of corn silk on a cob is connected to a single corn kernel. As the cob grows on the stalk, the hanging strands collect pollen that falls from the tassel at the top. The silk grabs the pollen and sends it down to its kernel, which is waiting to be fertilized.)
Anyway! That buttered corn with Melissa Clark’s tomato sandwich is definitely dinner. Its simplicity goes nicely with Kay Chun’s quick new recipe for curry-spiced chicken cutlets, chickpeas and spinach. Or serve it alongside a summery casserole that you bake early in the day, like ratatouille pie (above) or cheesy squash gratin (I cannot wait to try the pickled rye bread crumb topping).
Have you read Kim Severson’s masterly profile of Jamie Oliver, the 1990s wunderkind who’s finally been forced to grow up? I like Eric Asimov’s story on the serious vintners in Maine who are making sparkling blueberry wine, which sounds like something you’d serve at a tea party for kindergartners. It isn’t.
If you’re at a loss for dinner tonight or beginning to think about fall cooking, come browse through the thousands of recipes on NYT Cooking. We also have things like a collection of crazy fast dinners, a master recipe for inventing your own sheet pan meals, and a guide to grilling in case you’ve been avoiding it this summer and every summer (as I did, for years).
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