My family and I have just returned from a weekend in rural Pennsylvania, where we spend every Memorial Day weekend hanging out with good friends, eating enormous platters of grilled meat and veggies, and enjoying the mixed choir of tree frogs and bullfrogs that populate the lake. More reliably than any calendar, that throaty, flirty chorus announces that summer is finally (if unofficially) here.
Back in Brooklyn, there’s a whole other chorale going on: bass-crazy car speakers, anxious sirens, laughter from the neighbor kids as they cover their stoops in chalk art. Hark, summer has arrived here, too!
All of this is nature’s cue to shift into a lighter and more laid-back mode of cooking. Maybe the tomatoes haven’t quite peaked yet, but the farmers’ market already boasts greens in profusion, notably the piles of rainbow chard with their red and yellow stems. I’m excited to put some to good use in Yasmin Fahr’s one-pot chicken meatballs with greens.
Her recipe is fiendishly clever. After browning the meatballs, she smothers them under a mound of greens seasoned with sliced lemons and cumin, and then covers the pot to let it steam. The greens wilt, the meatballs cook through and the lemons release their juice into the savory pan drippings. It’s a colorful, fuss-free meal to rock us into the season.
