Summer Recipes. Ten To Elevate Your Game.

By Karen and Erica

We cook in every season, but summer is the most fun. Green markets are overflowing with beautiful fruits and vegetables, and we always buy too much. So we need lots of good recipes. We like these ten:

1. Fish tacos. Neither of us grew up with fish tacos, but now we love them. Any fish will do, we think, though some form of cod seems the usual. Tucked into a warm taco with avocado, corn, tomatoes and some kind of creamy spicy sauce, a fish taco—eaten with fingers—is a perfect summer food.

2. Chicken salad. We did grow up with chicken salad, but nothing like this—jalapeños and limes bring out the richness of poached chicken.

3. Smashburgers. Burgers challenge us, because unless they are perfectly charred on the outside and slightly rare on the inside our guests get cranky. This recipe seems to have a good chance of success.
   We would serve these burgers on rolls, with mustard and pickles and onions. What’s the best roll? Apparently the softest!

4. Epic Summer Salad. Wow. And from the BBC, no less. Black beans, spinach, cucumber, avocado, mango, onions, radishes, mint, basil—and lots more. Epic is the right word. Fantastic!

5. Potato salad. Potato salad is traditional—but there is nothing traditional about this recipe. Basil, parsley, mint, capers, cumin seeds, tahini. Fabulous! We love Ottolenghi’s ideas. Sometimes we do not follow his recipes to the letter, but we always get inspired.

6. Watermelon salad. Nothing says summer like watermelon, and salty feta seems to bring out its sweet juiciness.

7. Ratatouille. When you go really overboard at the market, you need a good ratatouille recipe—one, in our view, that has space for all of that summer produce. This one, for easy French ratatouille, seems to fit the bill. Every summer vegetable gets thrown in—eggplant, onion, squash, tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic. We might add some olives and some olive brine, to round things out. Would that make it less French? No!

8. Fudge brownies. Obviously you will need something chocolatey and gooey for dessert. Brownies work, and when we are baking we always check the King Arthur website.

9. Ice cream sandwiches. Even better when it’s hot. Everyone loves them, and you can make ice cream sandwiches well ahead of time, This recipe seems fabulous—especially as it recommends cheap store-bought ice cream. We have been known to buy the cookies, too. Naughty, for sure. In that regard, we also love to make icebox cake with whipped cream and Famous chocolate wafers, but they have become so hard to find. Do you have a source?

10. Strawberry Rum Coolers. Summer requires cocktails, and strawberries, and rum. This one is a perfect summer concoction.

What are your favorite summer recipes?

Happy Fourth!