By David Harbilas

Corn and tomatoes are quintessential summer ingredients, and here they get a very simple treatment for a rich appetizer.

The fondue is little more than a tomato cream sauce with goat cheese melted in towards the end, while the fritters are a simple batter into which corn if folded, then deep fried.

A slightly more labor intensive preparation, this would make a perfect first course for a special occasion.

Serves 4

• 2 ears of corn, still in the husks
• 2 vine ripe tomatoes
• ½ cup heavy cream
• ½ cup goat cheese
• olive oil Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

Gardening for me is a combination of luck, good genes, and scientific inquiry that starts with extension publications.

I seem to be a collector of these publications and love to read about the newest research being conducted in plant science.

One of the most useful publications I have ever found was one on mulch.

Mulch in recent years has become a generic term that includes leaves, grass clippings, landscape cloth, wood chips, and plastic.

But while all these mulches serve a purpose the plastic mulch is the most unique. Colored plastic, in recent years, has been showing up all over gardening catalogs and home improvement centers. The principle behind the colored plastic Read the rest of this entry »

By David Harbilas

If Perrier is the French version of club soda, then crème fraiche is the French version of sour cream.

Yet we rarely think of using sour cream with anything other than baked potatoes, so here is something hopefully a little different and appetizing.

Smoked trout can be a little tricky to make for the home cook, but luckily a number of supermarkets are now carrying good quality ones now.

A small food processor or blender is all that is needed to make this sauce.

Serves 2 as an appetizer

• 2 smoked trout filets
• 1 cup sour cream or crème fraiche, if available
• 2 plum tomatoes, roasted Read the rest of this entry »

By David Harbilas

Tomatoes and lemons are a natural pairing, though they aren’t seen together very often.

The trick is in using lemon as a seasoning to the tomato, rather than risk having the acid of the lemon overwhelm the tomato, which has acidity of its own.

How do you do this?

By using the rind. Here I’ve decided to use preserved lemon rather than grating raw zest into the salsa. The result is something saltier (since the lemons are preserved in salt) and stronger in lemon flavor than if one used raw zest instead.

Serves two

• 2 cod filets, about 7 ounces each
• ¼ cup diced red onion
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
• ¼ cup preserved lemon, diced Read the rest of this entry »

By David Harbilas

Braising cuts of lamb are virtually unknown to most people, which is unfortunate considering that they are among the most flavorful preparations of lamb available.

Greeks have long been cooking lamb in tomato sauce, but often it is a bland, canned sauce that has little to no flavor.

Making a simple roasted tomato sauce elevates this from a simple dish to an elegant summer dinner.

Serves 4

• 4 lamb shoulder chops
• 12 plum tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
• 1 large onion, roughly shopped
• 4 large garlic cloves Read the rest of this entry »

By David Harbilas

Cherry tomatoes are among the first tomatoes to become available each year, and they are also some of the sweetest, which makes them a natural choice for raw preparations.

Here, the tomatoes are tossed with little more than some lemon juice, diced red tomatoes and chopped herbs.

Allowing them to sit in the “marinade” transforms them to something more akin to a sauce than a mere mixture of vegetables.

This salsa can also be served with fish, chicken, or pork.

Serves 2

• 4 lamb kidney chops
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes, quartered
• ½ cup diced red onion
• Juice of ½ lemon Read the rest of this entry »