It’s hard to believe it’s already September. Even when you’re not a student and/or don’t have school-age kids, September still has that back-to-school feeling, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s just ingrained in us to start buying jeans and sweaters and new notebooks once September hits. Or maybe that’s mass marketing at it’s finest. Either way, September always feels like a little bit of a new start.

So, since I’m feeling the September-vibe as much as I did as an eager high school freshman, and since I have the luxury of being at home for a few more weeks, I’m launching a little health challenge here and on Instagram for the next few weeks. Every day I’ll be eating (and sharing!) some form of “bowl food,” whether it’s a smoothie bowl topped with fruit and coconut or a full-on meat+grain+veg combo like this one.

“Bowl food” seems to be all the rage right now, a trend that places like Sweetgreen and Dig Inn have really been able to capitalize on. Trevor thinks it’s a dumb trend – he argues that any food placed in a bowl becomes “bowl food” – and I see where he’s coming from. But to me a bowl is a distinct culinary thing, a combination of healthy but filling ingredients, placed together in a bowl but each maintaining their own flavors and textures. It’s different than a salad, and I can’t seem to get enough. In a nutshell, it’s going to be healthy around here, and it’s going to be delicious. Follow along on Instagram with #dailybowlchallenge (by the way, most existing permutations of #DailyBowl on Instagram were primarily about pot, which didn’t even cross my mind until I searched it. Sigh.)

This first bowl is one that even Trevor grudgingly acknowledges is delicious (primarily because it contains steak, which can pretty much warm him to any meal). For me, the star of the show is the corn, which is so good at this time of year that I’m always nibbling it off the cob without cooking it. Elote, which is a Mexican street snack of grilled corn topped with mayonnaise, lime juice, chile powder, and grated cheese, is one of our all time favorite things to eat, so converting it into bowl form is a big win. Sweetgreen did offer an Elote Corn Bowl earlier this summer, but it had too many other vegetables and not enough cheese for my taste, so I had to make it my own. And by make it my own I mean add rosemary-and-olive oil grilled steak, barely cooked green beans, nutty farro, and tons of mint and basil. It’s summery and nourishing and a pretty good start to this little challenge, I think.

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Steak and Elote Corn Bowl

Inspired by Sweetgreen and Bon Appetit. Serves 4.

• leaves from 2 sprigs rosemary, roughly chopped
• leaves from 3 sprigs thyme
• 1/3 c. plus 1 TBS olive oil, divided
• 1 tsp coarse sea salt
• 1 1/2 lb. skirt steak
• 2 c. cooked farro
• 1 lb. fresh romano or green beans
• 3 large ears fresh corn
• 3/4 c. grated parmesan or pecorino cheese
• 2 TBS butter
• leaves from 3 sprigs mint, cut into thin strips
• 4 sprigs basil, cut into thin strips
• 1/4 tsp. smoked paprika
• sea salt to taste
• pepper to taste

1. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/3 cup of olive oil, rosemary leaves, thyme leaves, and sea salt. Place steak in a a shallow baking dish, pour marinade over steak, cover dish with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 6-8 hours.
2. About 30 minutes before you are ready to serve, preheat the grill to medium-high. Grill the steak until medium-rare, about 3-5 minutes per side. Remove from the grill and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing on the bias.
3. While you are grilling the steaks, also grill the corn. Place the ears of corn, still in their husks, directly on the grill, and grill for about 15-20 minutes, turning the corn every few minutes to char on all side. When the corn is done, remove it from the grill and let cool for a few minutes before removing and discarding the husks. Use a serrated knife to cut the kernels from the cob. I find that the easiest way to do this is to hold the corn by the cob vertically, with the tapered tip in a bowl, and slice down the length of the corn. Mix the warm corn kernels with the grated cheese, butter, mint, basil, and smoked paprika, stirring to evenly incorporate. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. To assemble the bowls, mix the cooked farro with the remaining 1 TBS of olive oil then divide between four bowls. Top the farro with a handful of green beans on one side of the bowl, and several scoops of the corn mixture on the other side of the bowl. Spread 3-4 pieces of sliced steak on top and serve.

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Lately we’ve been making meals where almost every ingredient has come out of our garden, and it’s incredibly satisfying. With the cooler weather, we’ve been able to turn on our oven and stovetop again, saving us from daunting tasks like eating 20 gorgeous heirloom tomatoes raw before they start to mold (a 3 day window) and finding ways to use up pumpkin without the help of a long, slow, caramelizing roast. The first meal where nearly everything was homegrown was a Mediterranean Shepherd’s Pie – we had grown the garlic, the onion, the tomatoes, the eggplant, the zucchini, and the potatoes. Really the only ingredients that we hadn’t grown or made were the cheese and the ground beef. And now, we have this gorgeous yellow curry, packed full of vegetables taken straight from the ground – we even grew the cayenne chilies that give it its kick!

This yellow curry is relatively quick, easy, and deeply nourishing. It’s made from only vegetables, spices, and water, and I was skeptical about how much flavor I’d be able to coax out of such a limited number of ingredients. No rich and creamy coconut milk? No savory chunks of lamb? But the carrot and pumpkin deliver sweetness, the tomatoes acidity, and the potatoes break down into a thick, rich sauce that soaks up all the flavor of the toasted spices. It’s a lovely curry. Of course, I can’t take much credit for it, beyond, perhaps, the addition of the tomatoes, as it’s adapted from Mangoes and Curry Leaves, my Indian cooking bible. I love Indian food and have been attempting it at home since I first started cooking,  but it wasn’t until I took a step back and took time to learn the fundamentals that I started to turn out satisfying Indian dishes. Now my repertoire is slowly building – I love these potato and pea parathas and this chickea pulao, and now I can add this adaptable vegetarian curry to the list as well.

Bangladeshi Yellow Pumpkin Curry

Adapted from Mangoes and Curry Leaves. Serves 4.

• 3 TBS vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/4 tsp fenugreek
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch dice
• 2 c. cubed (1/4 inch dice) Yukon gold potatoes
• 2 c. cubed (1/2 inch dice) pumpkin
• 1 large yellow tomato, cored and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• large handful of green beans, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch lengths
• 1 fresh cayenne chile, sliced into thin rings
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• juice from 1/2 fresh lime

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add all of the spices and bay leaves at once, and stir-fry in the hot oil until the mustard seeds start to pop and sizzle. Add the vegetables in order listed, stir-frying for 1-2 minutes between each addition. If the vegetables begin to stick to the pan as you are cooking, add a few tablespoons of water to the bottom to deglaze any sticky parts of the pan. Add the fresh cayenne chile and cook for 1-2 minutes longer.
2. Once you have added all the vegetables, pour the water into the pan and bring to a rapid simmer. Simmer until all vegetables are tender, potatoes and tomato have broken down, and the sauce is thick and spoonable. This should take about 15 minutes-20 minutes. Add the salt, sugar, and lime juice and taste for seasoning, adjusting as necessary. Remove from the heat and serve over rice.

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The idea for this pasta came to me after reading a post on Not Without Salt that had absolutely nothing to do with green beans, or pasta, or pesto. The post was about apricot pie, and it’s a beautiful post and a beautiful pie, but the sentence that stuck with me was the one about what preceded the pie – “a picnic dinner with steak sandwiches, horseradish butter, pesto laden green beans with capers and an onion-spiked salad of tomatoes and peaches.” A) I was reading this on a plane, and even though I got to fly business class for the first time and the food was quite good, (and I totally took advantage of every single offer of champagne), that picnic meal made me want to run off that plane and drive immediately to an idyllic country house and picnic in a meadow. B) Pesto-laden green beans with capers? What an amazing idea. We’ve had pounds and pounds of beans come out of the garden, and have tried several yummy recipes (we especially liked this one with romesco sauce), but this one sounded like it could top them all.

This is my first batch of pesto this summer – sadly, our basil plants never really took off this year. I usually make pesto by throwing the five ingredients – pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, olive oil, and basil – into the food processor all at once, blending, then tasting, usually adding more cheese, and blending again. The thing is, I’m never quite happy with the results – it’s inconsistent, and it’s never as good as my mom’s pesto. So this time, I did a little research into “best pesto” recipes, and take a more methodical approach. Two recipe caught my eye – this one, by The Best Remedy for A Cup of Jo, and this classic Marcella Hazan recipe. The two recipes aren’t so different from one another, so I followed the Marcella Hazan recipe and borrowed The Best Remedy’s idea of toasting the pine nuts first. The extra steps – grating the cheese by hand and stirring it in at the end, pre-chopping the garlic, and the little bit of butter added to the final product – made a huge difference. It really was perfect pesto. Tossed with the quickly blanched green beans, a few spoonfuls of capers, lightly toasted almonds, and hot pasta, it was a perfect and light summer lunch. And a really good way to use up some green beans.

Green Bean Farfalle with Pesto, Capers, and Almonds

Pesto recipe adapted from Marcella Hazan. Green Beans inspired by Not Without Salt. Serves 4.

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, tightly packed
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 3 TBS pine nuts
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• salt
• 1/2 c. finely grated parmesan cheese
• 3 TBS butter at room temperature
• 2 lbs. green beans, ends trimmed, sliced in half on the diagonal
• 1 lb. farfalle
• 1/3 c. almonds, roughly chopped
• 1/3 c. capers

1. Wash the basil gently, then pat completely dry with a paper towel.
2. Toast the pine nuts until they are fragrant in a dry skillet over medium heat. Stir frequently to prevent them from burning.
3. Finely chop the garlic by hand.
4. Add the basil, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic, and a pinch of salt to a food processor. Blend until smooth and creamy. Stir in the parmesan cheese by hand, then stir in the butter.
5. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the green beans until bright green, then remove with a slotted spoon and set in a large bowl. Add the farfalle to the boiling water and cook according to package directions, then drain.
6. Lightly toast the chopped almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat until they are golden brown and fragrant. Stir frequently to prevent them from burning.
7. Toss together the green beans, pesto, farfalle, capers, and almonds, until everything is equally coated. Serve hot.

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I can’t believe it’s been so long since I wrote a review! This summer is turning out to be extremely busy, mostly in a good way, but the times I find myself in the kitchen recently have been few and far between. Despite that, I have had some wonderful new cookbooks lying around, waiting for me to pause long enough to give them a good read. On the top of the pile is Le Pain Quotidien, the new book from the originally Belgian, now global restaurant chain of the same name.

I have never been to a Le Pain Quotidien, although there are a handful of locations scattered along the East Coast and in California. If the recipes included in this cookbook are any indication, I think I would love the restaurant. It’s the kind of food I’d like to serve at a cafe of my own someday – interesting, produce-forward soups and sandwiches, and baked goods with a punch of flavor from salty cheeses, olives, and cured meats. For the most part, it’s rustic, country-style food, without fancy plating or instructions, but the combinations – such as carrots with olives, soba noodles with blood orange, and coffee with capers – are novel and bright. Similar to Vegetarian Everyday, you’ll find healthy choices for every type of eater. Raw, paleo, gluten-free, and vegan palettes will all find something to interest them here. Then again, if you’re like me, you’ll also appreciate the occasional meaty, bready, cheese-smothered dish that’s included.

Given the overall amount of cooking I’ve been doing, you could actually say that I have been cooking a fair bit from this book. This delicious curried leek and zucchini soup was adapted from it, and I also tried my hand at a homemade five grain fruit bread, which was tasty but a little bit tricky and didn’t come out quite right, as is often the case with homemade bread. This weekend, I made the hearty Liegeoise Salad you see here, as well as a spicy, summery tartine that I’ll share on Monday. I’m looking forward to continuing to work on the bread baking, but I’m also intrigued by the recipes for Sausage with Lentils, Cabbage, and Chestnuts; Onion Broth with Thyme and Feta, and Speculoos Tiramisu. I’m guessing that one or more of those dishes will show up on my dinner table before too long.

I really enjoyed the Liegeoise salad I made for today’s post – it was somehow everything I needed in a meal after a hectic week. It was simple, but still flavorful, and fresh, but still filling. I cleaned my bowl the minute I put the camera down. It’s also a little nifty because you make the vinaigrette right in the pan in which you fry the bacon – no messy olive oil and vinegar jar shaking! That’s my kind of salad. As an aside, I loved that I could get almost everything I needed for this at the farmer’s market – tiny new potatoes, long skinny green beans, still crisp lettuce, even the eggs and the bacon could have been purchased at the market (although those two I already had at home). Only the endives (and the onion, I suppose) were nowhere to be found, and those are really hard to grow anyway. But knowing that almost everything had just been picked made the meal feel truly seasonal.

The bottom line: Le Pain Quotidien is a book full of simple but lovely food. The soups, salads, breads, and desserts included are rustic but feature intriguing flavor combinations. For the most part, the recipes are very healthful and full of fresh produce, with many choices for gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, and even raw diets. Recommended to anyone looking for a few fresh, healthy ideas for lunchtime fare.

Liegeoise Salad

Recipe adapted slightly from Le Pain Quotidien. Serves 4.

• 1 lb small new potatoes, halved (or quartered, if large)
• 1 lb. green beans
• 6 slices smoked bacon
• 1 onion, sliced
• 3 TBS vinegar
•  black pepper
• salt
• 2 heads of Belgian endive
• 2 c. mache (lamb’s lettuce) or butter lettuce pieces
• 4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the potatoes, and cook until just tender, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon, drain briefly, and transfer to a bowl. Add the green beans to the water and blanch for 2 minutes, then drain and add the green beans to the bowl with the potatoes.
2. Cook the bacon over medium-low heat, flipping once, until crispy on both sides. Remove the bacon and place on a paper-towel lined plate. Let cool, then roughly chop.
3. Turn down the heat on the bacon pan to low, and let the grease cool for 2 minutes. Then, carefully add the diced onion and return the heat to medium-low. Cook the onion, stirring frequently, until translucent and softened, about 3-5 minutes. Add the vinegar to the pan and deglaze, scraping the bottom of the pan. Add the potatoes and green beans to the pan and stir to coat the veggies with the vinegar mixture. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.
4. Trim the ends off the Belgian endive and discard the ends. Discard the outer leaves. Separate the inner leaves and place, cup-side up, on a platter. Spread lettuce pieces on top of the endive. Top with the potato and green bean mixture, then crumble the egg and the chopped bacon on top. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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At 902 pages, I think that Gran Cocina Latina may be the only cookbook I own that can truly be referred to as a tome. It’s massive, exhaustive, focused – and incredibly exciting.

I won’t lie, I’ve been a little bit daunted by this cookbook. It sat on my bedside table for a few weeks, teasing me, during which time I opened it four or five times, flipped through it, drooled  a little bit, and then got nervous. I’ll save it for when I have more time, I kept telling myself, for this is a cookbook that clearly needs time. When I received my copy of Home Made Winter, I spent a lovely sunny Saturday morning in bed with it, drinking coffee and taking notes. Three hours later, I felt like I really knew the cookbook – I had bookmarked all the recipes I wanted to make, read every word Yvette had written, and absorbed the style and message of the book. I was satisfied. This book would take 3 dedicated weeks, if not more, to feel the same way. But I don’t want to scare you off! This book deserves the time. And besides, it’s the kind of cookbook you’ll have on your kitchen shelf for the next 20 years, so you don’t have to rush things.

Maricel Presilla is not your average cookbook author – she’s a scholar. And so, this book is not your average cookbook. It’s not about pretty pictures and glossy pages – it’s about learning. Learning how to cook truly authentic Latin American cuisine from the ground up. It’s literally packed with information – from how to select and prepare quintessential Latin ingredients such as plantains, yuca, and passionfruit, to the difference between avocado varieties, to deconstructing the infamous mole type sauces in order to master the technique for making them. Beyond the kitchen, there are legends and histories of the various countries as Maricel takes you from country to country, from the past to now. As a testament to the thoroughness of the education that this book will give you: the first 200 pages of the book barely make it through the flavor-building essential sauces and condiments that authentic cooking requires; every recipe is given a thorough head note, is broken down into manageable steps, and is clearly written; when an ingredient may be unfamiliar or a technique difficult to explain, simple black and white sketches serve to illustrate the process. Clearly, this book has been a long time in the making, and it shows.

The recipes themselves run the gamut, from the simplest of the simple, such as Simple Boiled Quinoa, to well-known classics, like Tres Leches Cake, to exotic and enticing recipes that would be a reach in difficulty for even a seasoned home cook, like Quinoa and Broccoli Rabe-Stuffed Calamari with Panca Pepper and Pisco Sauce. You’ll find almost every country and island on the continent well represented – Peruvian Purple Corn Punch, Brazilian Feijoada, Argentinian Beef Empanadas, Ecuadorian Shrimp Cebiche with Peanuts, even Puerto Rican Salt Cod Fritters. You could easily cook your way up and down the continent several times over, and probably find several new favorite meals along the way.

To get over my intimidation of this book, I opened it to the middle, read through 20 pages of recipes, and started cooking the recipe that inspired me the most. (Please note, this is extremely unorthodox for me. I like list-making and being methodical. Don’t expect such brash behavior from me in the future.) The recipe? Rice with Corn, Chickpeas, Green Beans, and Chorizo. Yes, I kind of just picked a recipe with five ingredients that I love in the name. This recipe also happened to be a two-fer, since you had to prepare the Green Beans with Bacon recipe separately to be included in the rice dish. Two done, 998 to go. (I made that up, but I wouldn’t be surprised…). Both recipes were solid – well-balanced flavors (and nutritional profiles), simple techniques, easy to execute quickly and well. The kind of things I’d make on a weeknight when I wanted something warm and filling and delicious but without any fuss. And these two are just a start… I can’t wait to cook my way through the rest of this book.

The bottom line: Gran Cocina Latina is an authoritative, exhaustive, and incredibly educational cookbook – think of it as The Joy of Cooking for Latin America. If you enjoy cooking or eating Latin food, this is a book that will likely be close at hand in your kitchen for the next 20 years. Typically I recommend cookbooks I like to a particular audience I think will enjoy them. This book is an exception – if you cook at all, do yourself a favor and buy this book. It’s a great resource for any level of cook and the information and recipes you’ll find within are more than worth the $25 you’ll pay on Amazon.

Disclaimer: W.W. Norton provided me with a review copy of this book free of charge, but as usual, all opinions are my own!

Rice with Corn, Chickpeas, Green Beans, and Chorizo

Recipe from Gran Cocina Latina. Serves 6-8 as a side.

• 2 c. long grain rice
• 3 TBS achiote-infused olive oil [I subbed regular olive oil this time around]
• 6 oz. Spanish chorizo, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, deveined, and finely chopped
• 4 medium plum tomatoes, fresh or canned, peeled if fresh, drained if canned, and finely chopped either way
• 1 c. fresh or frozen corn kernels
• 1 15 oz. can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed, or 2 c. plain cooked chickpeas
• 4 oz. Green Beans with Bacon [see below]
• 3 1/2 c. chicken broth

1. Rinse the rice in cold water, swirl with your hand, then drain in a sieve. Repeat several times, until water runs clear. Set rice aside.
2. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the chorizo and saute until golden brown, about  5 minutes. Then add the onion, green peppers, and garlic, and saute until the onion is translucent, another 5 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes, corn, chickpeas, green beans, rice, and broth and bring to a boil over high heat. Once the mixture is boiling, reduce the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, until the liquid is mostly absorbed. At this point, fluff the rice gently, cover, lower the heat, and cook on the lowest possible setting for an additional 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit, still covered, for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and fluff the rice again before serving.

Green Beans with Bacon

Recipe from Gran Cocina Latina. Serves 4 as a side.

• 3 tsp salt
• 1 lb green beans, trimmed and sliced on a bias into 1 inch lengths
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 8 oz. bacon, cut into 1/4 inch dice
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 small yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 medium plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped [I used drained canned whole San Marzano tomatoes with good results]
• 1 TBS minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1. Add 2 tsp of the salt to a large pot of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the green beans and blanch for 2-3 minutes, until bright green. Drain, and immediately place the green beans in ice water to stop the cooking process.
2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the bacon and cook until golden brown and crispy. Add the onion and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, parsley, pepper, and nutmeg, and cook for a few minutes just to meld the flavors. Stir in the green beans, then season with remaining tsp of salt. Serve immediately, or use in other recipes as required.

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