Stephanie Klose

This Brazilian fish stew, moqueca, was absolutely delicious:  tomatoes, peppers, coconut milk, onion, and citrus. The fish is marinated in lime juice before being cooked and I remember thinking that was strange, since it would be ceviche-ified before it was cooked, but it ended up making perfect sense; “cooking” it a little beforehand helped keep it from falling apart in the liquid.

I used salmon instead of a white fish, since I had some nice wild salmon in my freezer, and doubled all of the vegetables so the final product was more stew-like than the original. It’s actually been a while since I made this, but I do remember it being extraordinarily easy, since all of the ingredients are coarsely chopped, layered in a pan, then left alone until everything cooks through.

 Everything layered in the pan.

The somewhat lurid finished product. Recommended.

It’s getting a little past prime grilling season, but these salt and vinegar grilled potatoes could be done on a grill pan or under the broiler easily enough.

You take some potatoes, cut them lengthwise, simmer them in white vinegar until almost done, and grill them. I thought that cooking them in straight vinegar would be a little much of a muchness and used half water/half vinegar for the cooking liquid, but they really were milder than I would have liked. Original recipe here.

And, finally, a recipe that’s going to see a lot of play this fall and winter for its ease of preparation, inexpensive ingredients, reasonably healthful qualities, and general deliciousness: Kenji’s Pasta e Fagioli.

I’ve been eating a lot of watermelon this summer. It’s never really blown my skirt up in years past, but for some reason I just can’t get enough of it now. Cold, sweet, juicy watermelon is exactly what I want on these hot, sticky days.

Going through a watermelon a week or so piles up a lot of rind and I figured I’d try my hand at pickling it. I’d had watermelon rind pickles before and though they look more or less like squares of snot, I really like the sweet-spicy tang of them and the odd, gelatinous-crisp texture. I’ve been using this recipe from Epicurious, though I’ll probably try a few others and see if the technique or proportions are any different. It takes a few days to make a batch, but it’s all pretty hands off.

For what it’s worth, a roll of painter’s tape and a Sharpie are two of the most useful tools in my kitchen, a tip I think I picked up from an interview with one of the kitchen guys at Per Se. They cut the edge of the tape very precisely to 90-degree angles and had rules about where on the container the tape had to be placed, but I have my limits.

This is not, admittedly, beautiful food. It is, however, spicy and delicious and comforting and filling and has been appearing in my kitchen on a fairly regular basis over the last few months. The original recipe is here, but I’ve posted my version with some tweaks below. I followed the recipe pretty exactly the first time I made it, and it was way too Bowl o’ Meat for my tastes. But bulking it out a bit with some brown rice and carrots, plus extra broth, made it more of a one-dish meal and somewhat closer to nutritionally sound. Other vegetables would be good too–I can see zucchini, red pepper, maybe some greens. The trick is just making sure to chop them finely; the soup cooks for a relatively short period of time, so the vegetables need to be small to avoid staying too crunchy.

Green Chili With Pork

• 1 medium onion, quartered
• 2 (3- to 4-inch) fresh jalapeño chiles, stemmed and quartered, including seeds
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• 4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 medium carrots, minced
• 1 lb ground pork
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 (14- to 15-oz) can white hominy (also called pozole), rinsed and drained
• 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

Accompaniments: toasted hulled (green) pumpkin seeds; crumbled queso fresco or ricotta salata, sour cream, brown rice

Purée onion, chiles, and garlic with 1/2 cup chicken broth in a blender. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 4-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown pork, stirring and breaking up clumps with a fork, just until no longer pink, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from pot. Add remaining 3 tablespoons oil to pot and heat over moderately high heat until hot, then carefully add purée (it will spatter), cumin, and salt. Add carrots to the pot. Cook, stirring frequently, until mixture is thickened and most of liquid is evaporated, about 10 minutes. Add pork, hominy, cilantro, and remaining broth and simmer gently, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes. Serve chili over brown rice, sprinkled with pumpkin seeds, sour cream, and/or cheese.