Many years ago when I was going to fashion design school in San Francisco, a friend took  me to a cafe near Union Square on a blustery cold day.  I ordered their corn chowder.  It was better than any corn chowder I’d ever had and I have wished many times over the years that I had been paying attention to my food then the way I do now and taken notes.  It was thick, not runny; it was creamy but not too milky; it was spicy without being heavy with heat.  It had cilantro in it.

That cafe has been closed down for at least 15 years.

For some reason I’ve been remembering that bowl of chowder I ate 20 years ago a lot this summer, so I decided it was time to recreate it from distant memory.  After several batches I present to you one of the best things you can make with summer corn.  Chowder sounds like it’s meant to only be eaten in the cold weather but corn is at its best in the summer so if you can still get some at your farmer’s market, give this a try right away, even if it’s still hot where you live.

My friend Chelsea (a major inspiration for starting Stitch and Boots) suggested I make a stock out of the corn cobs and it was brilliant because the soup had a lot more flavor than when I’ve made it in the past.  It really isn’t too much trouble.  Cook the cobs down while you prep the rest of your ingredients and do some other kitchen chores.  It’s well worth the effort make the stock out of the cobs.

Spicy Corn Chowder
serves 4-6

Ingredients:

7-8 ears of corn (5 cups corn kernels)
3 tbsp all purpose flour
3 tbsp butter
2 tsp salt
30 grinds of pepper (or 1/4 tsp)
1 quart corn cob stock
1 tbsp olive oil or butter
1 med. onion diced fine
1 celery stalk sliced thinly
4 med round potatoes diced med/small
1 can evaporated milk (or 1 cup milk)
2-3 jalapenos, roasted, peeled, and finely minced
2 tbsp finely minced cilantro

Sour cream for garnish

Method:

Bring two quarts of water to a boil in a stock pot.  Cut the kernels off the corn and set the kernels aside in a bowl for later.  Break the corn cobs in half and put them in the pot.  Boil the cobs until the stock is reduced to 1 quart (this takes about 40 minutes for me but times may very).

Remove the cobs and set the stock aside.

In a soup pot prepare a roux using the flour, butter, salt, and pepper.  Pour the corn cob stock slowly into the roux whisking briskly to remove any lumps and once all the stock is poured, let the veloute* thicken.

Heat up the olive oil in a medium saute pan and saute the onion and celery until the onion is beginning to brown slightly (this adds more flavor to the chowder).  Remove from the heat and add to the thickened veloute.

Add the potatoes, corn, and jalapenos to the chowder.  Stir frequently to prevent the bottom from burning.  Let the chowder cook until the potatoes are completely done, around 30 minutes.  Turn the heat off and add the milk and the cilantro, stirring them in well.  Let it cool a little before serving.

Top with a couple of tbsp of sour cream and serve!

The first time I tasted an egg strata was at my cousin Christa’s house in Wisconsin.  It’s a great dish to make for brunches because you can assemble it the night before and throw it in the oven 45 minutes before you want to eat it.  It’s filling and offers everything in one dish that you should ideally start your day with (protein, grain, and vegetable).

One thing you need to bear in mind when you make an egg strata is that you must let it sit at least for one hour before baking so that the toast becomes saturated with the egg and milk mixture.   

My recipe calls for a lot of eggs and if that makes you hesitant you need to consider that this recipe generously serves 8 people (or can be cut even smaller if you have other dishes to serve) which means that each serving has just 1 1/2 eggs in it.  That’s not too many eggs to eat for breakfast!

About the bread.  Most strata recipes call for good quality French bread or a brioche loaf.  I used a great local bread called “sesame white” which has good flavor and no gluey factor.  We usually use whole wheat bread and I would wholeheartedly suggest you use wheat if you have it.  However, I buy the sesame white to make croutons with (because they dry nice and light and not hard) and so this is what I had the first time I made it.  I liked it so much that I bought more sesame white.  Bread comes in all shapes and sizes so how much bread you’ll need to toast may vary a little from what I used.  Keep that in mind.  This is a regular sliced sandwich bread size. If you use a french bread the slices may be half the size of what I used.

Egg stratas lend themselves to lots of variations and I encourage you to play with the possibilities!

Tomato and Basil Strata
serves 8

Ingredients
8 slices of good quality bread
1 tbsp butter for greasing your baking dish
12 eggs
2 cups milk
10 large basil leaves (or one small bunch) julienned
1 tsp salt
30 grinds of pepper
6 large tomatoes
2 cups grated jack cheese

Method:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Place the bread slices on baking sheets and toast them until lightly
toasted and dried out.  Be sure to turn them over so they get toasted on
both sides.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs and milk together and then add the basil, salt, and pepper to it and beat a little more to mix well.

Slice the tomatoes in rounds (somewhere between 1/4″ and 3/8″ thick is good).

Grease a 9×13″ baking dish with butter.  When the toast is ready layer
the bottom of the baking dish with them.  It was helpful with the shape
of my bread to break the slices up a bit to fit them in well.

Cover the toast with a layer of sliced tomatoes.  Make a second layer of
toast and beat the eggs again before
pouring evenly over the whole dish. Place a second layer of tomatoes on the top, cover the baking dish, and let it sit
for at least an hour.

Twenty minutes before it’s ready to be baked, turn your oven on to 350
degrees.  The strata will take 45 minutes to cook.  I don’t put
the grated cheese on the top until it’s been in for a half an hour. 
After it’s cooked for 40 minutes at 350 I put the broiler on and let the
cheese get bubbly and slightly browned, which in my oven takes about 5
minutes.

These are some of the most beautiful tomatoes I’ve ever seen!  The first layer were all red ones.  I liked the mix a lot.

Recipe Notes:  You can use whatever kind of cheese you like that melts well.  Jack is one of my very favorite cheeses for covering casseroles with but a gruyere would also be really nice.  My mom thought I should have used more basil but I didn’t want the herb flavor to overpower the flavor of the tomatoes which were at their peak of flavor.  I nearly always use a 2% milk but you can use whole milk or skim if you prefer.  I know some recipes even call for cream.  

This is a very simple dish to make.  I always make my own ricotta but you can very satisfactorily use store bought which makes this dish also fast to put together.  If you have the time though, I highly recommend trying homemade ricotta as it has a sweeter fresher flavor than store bought.

I use this ricotta blend for stuffing other things as well, including lasagna.  The secret ingredient is nutmeg.  My mother, who lived in Rome for two years when she was a kid, taught me to put nutmeg in ricotta and though it seems strange- it is delicious!  If you hate nutmeg, leave it out.   

Ricotta Stuffed Tomatoes
serves 9

Ingredients:

9 medium summer tomatoes (firm)
15 ounces ricotta
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 egg
12 big basil leaves, julienned
3/4 tsp salt
3 shakes nutmeg
15 grinds fresh pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the top of the tomatoes off and hollow them out being careful not to rip them up (you can see in the picture that I ripped a couple of mine).

In a big bowl mix all the remaining ingredients using a fork so that the egg gets broken and mixed in well.

Place the tomatoes in a pie dish and fill each one up with the ricotta mixture making sure to heap it up at the top a little.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.  Then turn your oven broiler on and broil them until the tops turn golden (in my oven this is less than five minutes). 

These make a great side dish or you can eat them as your main dish with a salad for a light dinner.  You can eat the leftovers for lunch.   

If you don’t have fresh local tomatoes grown outside in the sunshine, don’t bother making this recipe.  I’m not being a tomato snob, I’m really not.  With recipes where you roast or cook tomatoes you can coax more flavor out of less than stellar fruits, but when making recipes with fresh tomatoes you need the very best. 

I learned to make this fresh tomato salsa from my friend Norman’s good friend Margie, about 19 years ago.   

Fresh Tomato Salsa
yields one big bowl of salsa

Ingredients:

6 ripe slicing tomatoes
1 small red onion
2 Serrano chilies
1 bunch cilantro, minced
1 lime
1/2 tsp salt

Method:

Cut the tomatoes width-wise, exposing the pockets of seeds, and over the sink or your compost squeeze the seeds out.  After removing the core, dice them into 1/2″ pieces, put in a large bowl. 

Dice the red onion fine, and add it to the bowl with the tomatoes.    

Roast the Serrano chilies by pushing onto a skewer (metal or wood, doesn’t matter) and hold over an open flame.  Turn the chilies around so all of the skin is charred.  Once the peppers are blackened and cooled enough not to give you a second degree burn from handling, rinse them in cold water, peeling the charred skin off.  Mince them into very fine bits and add them to the bowl.

Mince the cilantro very fine and add to the bowl with everything else.

Quarter the lime and squeeze it into the bowl.

Add the salt.

Now stir it up really well and eat it right away.

One of my favorite beans is the navy bean.  I make a lot of bean salads with them because there is no vegetable and no herb that don’t pair well with them.  Unlike many other beans they have a mild presence which I find charming. 

I nearly always add feta to my bean salads but this one is so good just as it is, so tangy and flavorful, that I didn’t miss the cheese for a second.  Considering that I think life without cheese isn’t worth living, that’s saying a lot.

Summer White Bean and Basil Salad Recipe

Ingredients:

1 pound green beans
6 cups cooked navy beans
1/2 cup fresh basil dressing
1/2 red onion (sliced very thinly in 1″ long pieces)