The Bitten Word

Summer Tomato Jam

Fine Cooking (August/September 2014)

 

When we had Margie & Co. over for dinner earlier this summer, she showed up with a whole little goodie bag of food treats: eggs and produce from her own farm, some cured meats, a couple nice cheeses, and some lovely pickles and preserves.  

One of the things she pulled out of her bag of tricks was a small jar of homemade tomato jam. "Actually," she said, "don't ever fool with tomato jam. It's not worth it. It just tastes like sugar."

Margie's cautionary words were ringing in our ears when we decided to try Fine Cooking's recipe for Summer Tomato Jam. We wanted to see for ourselves whether tomato jam would be a good way to make use of the abundant tomatoes in our area right now. So we went to the farmers market, bought a bunch of tomato "seconds" (you know, the ones that are slightly damaged or overripe) for about a buck a pound, and got to work.

 

Bread-and-Butter Zucchini Pickles

Food & Wine (August/September 2014)

We like our cheeseburgers pretty simple:  Ketchup, lettuce, mustard, pickles. Onions if we're feeling fancy.  

And we can't wait to try a cheeseburger topped with these Bread-and-Butter Zucchini Pickles.

For one thing, they combine two of our favorite cheeseburger toppings into one -- and goodness knows we appreciate convenience.

For another thing, these pickles are just plain delicious.

Spicy Asian Cucumbers

Food Network Magazine (July/August 2014)

"In this episode of Hoarders: Fruit and Vegetable Edition, we meet Zach and Clay, who are part of a farm share that gives them seven to ten pounds of vegetables a week. But also, against all common sense, these gentlemen spend an obscene amount of money buying other vegetables at a weekly farmers market. Not to mention the vegetables they are harvesting from their garden. This is their story....."

It is true.

We are obsessively buying vegetables this summer, somehow treating August like a Vegetable Going Out of Business Sale. Our kitchen counter has plates and bowls full of tomatoes (currently there are at least three varieties). Our fridge is packed with eggplant, zucchini, different squash varieties and ears of corn. And let's not talk about the peaches, nectarines and blueberries. Some days, it looks like we're planning to open a farm stand. 

But -- and we hesitate to write this because we fully expect to return home tonight to find that all those vegetables have simultaneously and spontaneously rotted away -- nothing seems to be going to waste. We are cooking the hell out of some vegetables this summer. 

It helps that we've been having even more of our meals than usual at home. It also helps that we've been obsessively packing our lunches every day for work.

But that takes a ton of planning -- more planning, honestly, than we're always able to pull off. So we're constantly making very simple preparations of vegetables (think sliced tomatoes with torn basil, some oil and vinegar, or a side of raw, thinly sliced, salted cucumbers) or finding super spare recipes from our stack of food magazines. 

These Spicy Asian Cucumbers fit both bills: very simple, few ingredients, excellent payoff. 

Vietnamese Pork Chops with Pickled Watermelon

Bon Appétit (August 2014)

Dish. Of. The. Summer. 

There. We said it.

It's not too often that we rave about a recipe. Sure, we recommend something enthusiastically, suggest how you might tweak things that underwhelm, and steer you away when we find one that goes bust. But hearty and emphatic raves are somewhat rare around The Bitten Word.

Not today. After we had whipped up a batch of Pickled Watermelon Rind, we decided to go ahead and made the dish Bon Appétit suggests using it in: Vietnamese Pork Chops with Pickled Watermelon. 

One bite and we couldn't stop ooh-ing, aah-ing and OMG-ing.

Pickled Watermelon Rind: Take Two

Bon Appétit (August 2014)

 

Five years ago this week, we published a recipe for Pickled Watermelon Rind.

If you're not famliar with watermelon pickles, we don't blame you. 

In the expanse of food writing, Pickled Watermelon Rind is widely described as a Southern delicacy. Is it so much that it's a delicacy, or that our Southern grandmamas and great-grandmamas were so poor that they had no choice but to find something to do with watermelon rinds. Delicacy, necessity, maybe a bit of both? 

Our take on the Pickled Watermelon Rind five years ago used cinnamon, cloves, and allspice to flavor a standard pickling liquid (salt, sugar, vinegar, water). We even processed the jars, which meant that we had Pickled Watermelon Rind on hand for years to trot out as a party trick.

A year after we first made the dish, we served our watermelon pickles with a Spicy Pork Loin. Three years later, in 2013, we served what was left of our pickles at a dinner party featuring Momofuku's Bo Ssam. (Nudge: Start planning your autumn Bo Ssam party now. You will be heralded as hero/role model/mythical creature after serving this dish.) 

Well, we're now all out of our original pickled watermelon rind. And this August we've been buying watermelons at the market to nosh on every chance we get. When we saw that  Bon Appétit's latest issue included a recipe for Pickled Watermelon Rind, we figured it was time to get back to pickling. 

What to Cook While We're Away

We've snuck away this week for some much-needed time at the beach with friends. Think books, naps, carbs. 

While we're gone, try something new by picking one of Our Favorite Summer Recipes. They're our collection of the very best summer fare we've made over the last seven years of writing The Bitten Word. Literally something for everyone. 

Never fear: We'll return in a week, slightly more tan, ready to cook, and recharged. 

Happy August and happy cooking.

~ Zach & Clay 

'The Hundred-Foot Journey' Will Make You Hungry

Way back in 2010, we had dinner with our friends Juliet and Mark. (Clay and Juliet used to work together at National Geographic.) The two of us were about to leave for a two-week trip to Argentina, and we made some off-hand comment about needing book recommendations for our vacation.

Juliet leapt up, grabbed a book and virtually threw it at us. "You have to read this!" she said. "It hasn't even been published in the United States yet; this is the Indian version." The book was The Hundred-Foot Journey, by Richard Morais.

Juliet told us she'd first seen the book while visiting a book-agent friend of hers. And she also told us something that night a little more surprising: "We bought the rights to the book and I want to produce the movie."

Flash forward, and that's exactly what Juliet did. She partnered with a couple other producers -- you may know them. Steven Spielberg?  And Oprah Winfrey?  And together, they made a film!

Earlier this week, we got to see The Hundred-Foot Journey at an advance screening here in D.C.

We have two pieces of advice for you.

1. Go see this movie when it opens Aug. 8!
   
   
2. Don't go on an empty stomach.