Summer on a Plate
by Anna Pump and Gen LeRoy
Simon & Schuster, 2008
$23.00, cloth
235 pages
One day you wake up and there is corn, and a vague stirring in your soul and palate draws you to fresh herbs, and sunset colors of peaches, plums, and apricots. It's summer and you want it on your plate.
Anna Pump has been capturing these flavors for her family and her customers at her Hamptons store, Loaves & Fishes for more than 25 years. She knows how to assemble bright flavors quickly and create simple stylish dishes.
All her recipes seem designed to make the most of impeccably fresh ingredients, and to keep the cook in the kitchen only as long as necessary. Her chapter of fresh breads includes breakfast and supper staples: cornbread, biscuits, and popovers, but nothing more complicated than tapenade swirls made with a jar of olive paste and frozen puff pastry. From breakfast to porch party, you're covered.
Pump's vegetable salads are farm stand cornucopias. Potato-Corn Salad is a clever mix of sweet corn with creamy herbed potatoes. Spiky Thai Noodles, with ginger, garlic, and pepper flakes have become a picnic staple, and a Mesclun, Peach, Pecan, and Goat Cheese Salad will serve well for a more formal occasion.
Fresh Corn Soup is a perfect way to use a glut of fresh corn, or perhaps the ears that are a day or so old. Kernels cut off the cobs are quickly simmered with sautéed onions and rice in chicken broth, simply seasoned with salt and pepper, and pureed to serve with a final flourish of heavy cream (hardly necessary) and an inspired squeeze of fresh lime juice.
The recipes are presented summer style, naturally beginning with appetizers, plenty of cold and fruit soups, a simple bread basket, and sandwiches for the beach. Her grill recipes rely on well-calibrated sauces to highlight the food's natural flavors. Grilled chicken is served with plum chutney, pork chops with a fruit salsa, lamb chops with a mint hollandaise, and tuna with asian slaw and wasabi cream.
Pump's desserts include seasonal strawberries, blueberry, rhubarb, and peaches, along with a banana birthday cake for celebrations, and oatmeal coconut cookies sturdy enough to withstand a beach bag.
So at that moment when the sun starts slanting into your kitchen, the farm market is a riot of color, and the backyard beckons, you'll be ready with the flavors of the season.
© 2008 Claudia Kousoulas
