cucumber salad and spicy cornbread.

Dear friends, it's summer. Or, more accurately, and with apologies to any of you not on an academic schedule, it's my summer. The field exam is well in the rearview mirror, classes have ended, grades are in, and I have a season of research and writing in front of me. [No, this isn't a picture of my reading list. Those are cucumbers. I can tell the difference - must mean that I've learned something!]


It's also a new cooking season, one that coincides perfectly with two new additions to my cookbook shelf: Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty (a gift from the thoughtful C.) and Super Natural Every Day, by Heidi Swanson of 101Cookbooks. Both are gorgeous and inspiring, and I've been settling down with them as pleasure reading. Total cookbook-love-at-first-sight. Especially as more produce slowly makes its appearance on the farmers' market tables, these will definitely keep me happy and busy all summer.

First up, a cucumber-ginger salad to accompany J.'s feast of lemon-thyme salmon and couscous with chives and peas, topped off with M.'s decadent chocolate layer cake. (We're a well-fed bunch.) This salad was fantastic: light, zingy, and refreshing. Plus, you know how I feel about any opportunity to slice fruits/veggies paper-thin.


I also made this cornbread from smittenkitchen. I'd never made cornbread before - so easy! And so tasty! I searched high and low for the aleppo pepper recommended and couldn't find it, so I substituted a little bit of paprika, cayenne, and red pepper flakes. (The next day, I saw aleppo pepper at Williams-Sonoma - go figure - so eventually I'll invest and give this another shot.)



Cucumber-Ginger Salad
adapted slightly from Plenty

Dressing
3 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. canola oil [*or sunflower oil, which I didn't have on hand]

Salad
1 small red onion, sliced paper-thin
1 1/2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and sliced 1/8" thick
1 tsp. Maldon (or kosher) salt
2 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely sliced
4-6 small cucumbers (~1 1/4 lb.; Kirby cucumbers worked beautifully), peeled in stripes
1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
3 tbsp. chopped parsley

Make dressing: whisk together all ingredients in medium bowl. Add sliced red onion, combine well, and set aside for about an hour.


Place ginger, salt, and garlic in mortar and pound well with pestle (fun!) until crushed but not yet paste-like. Add to bowl with onion and dressing; stir well.


Cut cucumbers into thin - but not paper-thin, about 1/8" - slices. (If your cucumbers are larger, you might want to halve them as well.) Add cucumber to bowl, along with sesame seeds and parsley. Stir and let sit for 10 mins.


Stir again before serving, tipping out a little bit of the extra liquid.



Spicy Cornbread
Adapted slightly from smittenkitchen (original from Red Rooster Harlem)

1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. yellow medium-ground cornmeal
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. paprika [*I tried sweet Hungarian paprika - yum!]
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. fine sea salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 c. sour cream
1/3 c. buttermilk
2 tbsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 400F; butter non-stick loaf pan.

Whisk together dry ingredients (through salt) in large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together wet ingredients.


Stir wet into dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake 25-30 mins., until toothpick in center comes out clean.

onion upside-down pie.

I came across this recipe while flipping through How to Be a Domestic Goddess on my way to the chocolate babycakes and remembered that it's been languishing on my ever-growing mental must-try-this list ever since I received the book as a gift a few years ago. (Thanks, S.!) Determined to make it before summer temperatures cause me to break out in a sweat at the mere prospect of turning on my oven, I decided it would be the perfect reward to end a long day of drafting papers.

I made just a few minor adjustments, like cooking the onions for longer and adding a splash of apple cider vinegar at the end to deglaze the pan. Served with a big green salad, this was simply satisfying. And while my pie did NOT look like the picture in Nigella's book, the pale mauve of the onions was quite pretty. M. and I speculated that the pie might work with different combinations, too, like leeks and blue cheese. Yum!


Supper Onion Pie
from How to Be a Domestic Goddess

Filling/topping:
4 med. red onions
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. butter
3-4 sprigs of thyme, de-stalked
5 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, grated (about a heaping 1/2 c.)

Scone dough:
1 2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1 scant tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
scant 1/2 c. milk
3 tbsp. butter, melted
1 scant tsp. dry English mustard
1 large egg, beaten
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar (*optional; I liked the depth of flavor this gave the onions)

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Peel the onions, halve them, then cut each half into 4 segments. (*I then separated each segment so that the onions would cook evenly.)


2. Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet, then add the onions and cook over med. heat, stirring regularly, for about 45 mins. (*my adjustment; Nigella suggested 30 but I wanted the onions softer). (*Add the vinegar at the end, scraping the pan to get all the yummy browned bits.) Season with salt and pepper to taste, then add thyme.


3. Turn the onions into a 9-in. pie dish and scatter 2 oz. of cheese on top. Let sit while you make the scone dough.

4. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, then add remaining cheese. In a separate bowl, mix the milk, butter, mustard, and egg well, then pour into the flour mixture. Mix to a dough using a fork or a wooden spoon; it should be quite sticky.

5. Tip onto a (*lightly floured) work surface and pat it out into a circle roughly the size of the pie dish. Place it on top of the onions, pressing it down lightly and making sure all the edges touch the dish, to seal it.

6. Bake at 400F for 15 mins., then turn oven down to 350F and give it another 10 mins. (*mine needed about 15), by which time dough should be golden and crisp on top. Let stand for a few minutes, then cover with a large plate and flip over, releasing the pie.