David Ross

One of our favorites in the summer when I was a kid was to get a bucket of "broasted" chicken at a local chicken shack with all the fixings. This was back in the 1960s when KFC was cropping up around the country and the local shop was just like KFC but better. They served a coleslaw with a buttermilk dressing very similar to KFC, but they shredded the cabbage fine rather than chopping it. I adapted this recipe from the KFC recipe you can find online and added some more vegetables. The cabbage should be shredded very thin. It's another great summer salad and of course far better and less expensive than buying coleslaw from a fast food shop or the grocery store. Ingredients 1/2 cup light mayonnaise 2 tbsp. sugar 1/4 cup whole milk 1/4 cup buttermilk 3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice 1 1/2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. black pepper 8 cups shredded cabbage 1 cup shredded carrots 3/4 cup chopped green onions 1 tbsp. chopped chives for garnish In a bowl combine the mayonnaise, sugar, milk, buttermilk, lemon juice, vinegar, salt and pepper and whisk to combine. Add the cabbage, carrots and green onions and toss to combine. Refrigerate the coleslaw at least 3 hours before serving. As the coleslaw chills, the lemon juice and vinegar blend with the buttermilk giving the coleslaw a tangy flavor. Garnish the coleslaw with chopped chives before serving.

A new Huckleberry recipe I created for the season of 2020, Wild Huckleberry Bundt Cake with Candied Lemon Peel. We're having a good huckleberry season in the Northwest, (I'm in Eastern WA and close to North Idaho). June was mild and wet, then three weeks ago summer arrived. The best berries each year are at the higher elevations and will keep ripening through the end of this month.

That looks so delicious and would be good in the next few days as we go back to hot daily temps.

I'm going to make that this week.

This is one of my favorite summer salads. Good with or without the prawns and I use the basil-mint vinaigrette on salads and grilled meat and seafood. Ingredients For the poached prawns- 1 lb. raw, large U12-16 prawns, tail-on 2 tbsp. Old Bay seasoning For the salad- 2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2" chunks 2 cups cubed, seedless watermelon cut the watermelon in cubes or use a melon baller to cut into balls. 8 oz. crumbled feta cheese 20 unpitted Italian Castelvetrano green olives salt and black pepper to taste fresh basil and oregano leaves for garnish For the basil-mint vinaigrette- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil 2 tbsp. sherry vinegar 1 tbsp. finely chopped shallot 1 tbsp. finely chopped fresh basil 1 tbsp. finely chopped fresh mint salt and black pepper to taste Poach the Prawns and Chill- Remove the shells from the prawns, leaving the tails on. Use a small paring knife to score down the back of the prawns and remove the dark sac that runs down the back. Fill a large saucepan with water and heat to the boil. Add 1 tbsp. of the Old Bay seasoning then add the prawns. Turn the heat off and let the prawns poach for 4-5 minutes until they turn pink and are firm. Drain the prawns and place them in a container. Sprinkle with the remaining Old Bay, cover and chill at least 4 hours or overnight. Make the vinaigrette and salad- In a bowl add the olive oil, sherry vinegar, shallot, basil, and mint and whisk to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Assemble the salad by arranging the strawberries, cucumber, watermelon, feta and olives on a large serving plate or platter. Drizzle the salad with the basil-mint vinaigrette and season with salt and pepper. Place the chilled prawns around and one the salad and garnish with fresh basil and oregano leaves.

The rolls I get at the local Asian market are like a mini baguette and just the right size. Of course in that photo above from my Banh Mi some years back, I stuffed it over the top with the ingredients and pork belly. And the liver pate was something I wouldn't normally buy, but a canned product imported from France that the Asian store sells and it's delicious.

I love Green Goddess dressing and in addition to salads, it's delicious with Grilled Chicken. This is a recipe I did last year. I got the Green Goddess dressing recipe from one of my Mother's cookbook from the late 1960s, then combined the dressing with grilled chicken. I think the tarragon, tarragon vinegar and anchovies are what makes it so tasty. For the Grilled Chicken- 4 skin-on, boneless chicken breasts 1 tbsp. Kosher salt toothpicks 1 tbsp. olive oil salt and pepper to taste 3/4 cup crumbled bleu cheese for garnish croutons for garnish 12 cherry tomatoes for garnish 12-16 Kalamata olive for garnish For the Green Goddess Dressing- 5 cloves garlic, crushed 3 tbsp. chopped chives 2 tbsp. fresh tarragon 1/2 cup flat-leaf Italian parsley 1/2 cup chopped green onions 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise 1/2 cup sour cream 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice 1 tbsp. anchovy paste Anchovy filets 2 tbsp. tarragon wine vinegar (substitute apple cider vinegar) salt and black pepper Form the chicken breasts into an oval shape, making sure the skin covers around the meat. Secure the chicken breast bundles with toothpicks. Season the chicken breasts with the Kosher salt and refrigerate to marinate, 1-2 hours, while you prepare the grill and make the dressing. Put the garlic, chives, tarragon, parsley and green onions in a mini-food processor and pulse the herbs to a fine mince. Spoon the herb mixture into a large bowl. Add the mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice, anchovy filets, anchovy paste and tarragon wine vinegar to the herbs and whisk to combine into a creamy dressing. Season the dressing with salt and pepper. Place in a container and cover and refrigerate while you grill the chicken. Grill the chicken breast until done. Bring the chicken off the grill and let it rest on a plate for 5-8 minutes. To serve, spoon some of the Green Goddess dressing on a plate. Cut each chicken breast into thick slices and arrange on top of the dressing. Garnish each chicken breast with bleu cheese and place some croutons, cherry tomatoes and Kalamata olives around the plate.

Last weekend I went to one of our farmer's markets, mainly for huckleberries. There were long lines at some of the stands, but then I spotted one of my favorite stands, (and the one where I get huckleberries), and they had no line. I got huckleberries, lemon cucumbers, yellow wax beans and they had delicious black plums. I'll go back next month when our local peaches and pears start showing up. This was my first venture to the market since last season, so it took a bit of adjusting that I'm not used to, but still the best place to get fresh, seasonal summer fruits.

I did a taste test this morning with two of the salsas that I had frozen. The Roasted Tomatillo Salsa lost a bit of the bright green color, and was just a little diluted from the thawing process, but still tasted just fine. It will still be good to serve in a lot of dishes as an accompaniment, but I for salsa and chips, it's better fresh. The other salsa I tested was the Roasted Tomatillo-Chile Salsa. The deep reddish brown color hadn't changed and the mild spicy level was still there. It was just a little diluted from the thawing, but still is a great salsa for lots of dishes. So a surprise to me that some salsas hold up pretty well when frozen and thawed.

Another interesting piece of family history. My Grandmother's first job out of college in 1919 was a school teacher in Medford, Oregon. She would eventually meet and marry my Grandfather who was a shopkeeper and farmer down there. During summers when she was off teaching she worked in the Harry and David cannery, which of course was a new business in their early days. My Father always talked about the pears and peaches from their orchards down there.

It's surprising to me about the cherries, but I wonder what the source was, as in from their own orchards? They have two different pears. The regular pears to me aren't any different than what I can buy locally in season. The Royal Riviera pears I thought were wonderful.

I miss living in the Willamette Valley in Oregon when I was a kid. This time of year we always had blackberries, but also the delicious loganberry and the berry that was cultivated in the area, the marionberry. We usually just had them in pies as I remember. My Father's favorite summer fruit was something we always had at Grandmothers in the summer, the gooseberry. A very tart berry and the pie had loads of sugar. We went to two different fruit stands in the summers and one in particular had the fresh gooseberries. Mother made a delicious gooseberry pie. Living in Eastern, WA, we have some early peaches coming into season, but the best summer peaches won't be ready for another month or so. Yesterday was the annual summer trek for me to the farmer's market to get my first batch of wild huckleberries, a rite of passage to us in this region of the Pacific Northwest. They grow up on Mount Hood in Oregon, and in upper northeast WA and north Idaho. The man I get them from literally lives up in the forest and forages for wild mushrooms and huckleberries. They are certainly one of our fruits of summer.

Another one of our favorite Summer Cook-Off's and some great recipes and ideas.

Well, as I always do about this time of year, it's wild huckleberry season in the upper reaches of the Pacific Northwest. Got my first batch of berries at the farmers market this morning. These are picked in the mountains above Priest Lake, ID in the northern part of the state, just about 1 hour from my home in the Spokane area. I buy them from a fellow who is also a wild mushroom forager, so he does pretty well. Wild huckleberries and morels and chanterelles get a high price when they're shipped out. But as a local I was very lucky this morning as a one gallon bag was only $31, normally a gallon bag runs anywhere from $45-$60. This is a recipe from last year for Huckleberry Shortbread Bar Cookies, blueberries are an ok substitute. I have some new huckleberry recipes on the way this season. Ingredients Shortbread Crust- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2/3 cup powdered sugar 12 tbsp. melted butter reserved shortbread dough Huckleberry Filling- 1 cup fresh wild huckleberries substitute fresh blueberries substitute fresh blueberries 4 tbsp. melted butter 1/4 cup sugar 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour 2 tsp. cornstarch dash nutmeg dash cinnamon Instructions Pre-heat the oven to 350. Spray a 8" x 8" square metal baking pan with non-stick spray. In a bowl combine the flour, powdered sugar and melted butter and stir to combine until the mixture forms a soft dough ball. Take 2/3 of the dough and press it into the bottom of the baking pan. Reserve the remaining 1/3 of the shortbread dough to use as the crumb topping. In another bowl, combine the huckleberries, melted butter, sugar, flour cornstarch and dash of nutmeg and cinnamon. Gently toss the mixture until thoroughly combined with the huckleberries. Spoon the huckleberry filling on top of the shortbread crust. Crumble the reserved shortbread pastry on top of the filling and place in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes until the filling is set and the topping starts to brown. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature. Cut the shortbread into 12 squares.

Ok I'm just going to have to make that one too, and those are perfect green beans.

How delicious this is and I am just dreaming about all the little bits in the bottom of the skillet. I love paella but surprisingly have never made it.

That's a good idea for a summer salad and one of our local Asian markets sometimes has banana blossoms so I'll see what I can come up with for using them in a salad.

Sounds delicious and I'm glad you mentioned hearts of palm, a reminder that I need to have some.

Another one of our Cook-Off's that's up for another round of discussions this summer. This morning I started making one of my favorite summer salads, small baby red potatoes with green beans, roasted red bell pepper, Kalamata olives and capers tossed in a freshly made mayonnaise with fresh oregano from the garden. The mayonnaise is chilling in the fridge right now. Any new summer salads you'll be trying this year?

I would probably pair it with chicken. I think it would be delicious with a poached chicken breast, chilled, then served as a sort of salad with the salsa.

Yes, it was delicious and I think it could go lighter on the oregano but I didn't think it overpowered the salsa. I'd add more heat next time.

My next salsa was quite the experiment but it turned out delicious. I started with a recipe for Salsa de Chile Piquin Seco y Persimo or Dried Piquin Chile and Persimmon Salsa. I knew I couldn't find fresh persimmons this time of year, but thought I might find some dried. To no avail, but then I remembered canned guava and mango paste at the local Mexican market. The guava paste comes in a wide round can. I was leery of using the piquin chiles as they are rated very hot and my palate is fairly timid. They look so innocent in the package, like tiny little red candies and about the size of peas. So I turned it into a Guava and Dried Pasilla Chile Salsa. Sweet, thick, smoky and mild. It probably could have used one or two of the little dried piquin chiles for heat or maybe a little fresh jalapeno. It's thick kind of like the texture of Asian oyster sauce. I served the salsa with shredded duck using a pre-cooked duck I get at the supermarket and then just heat up. Grilled some corn street tacos, then the salsa, duck, some Mexican crema, cilantro and the salted onions from the above post. Delicious and introduced me to a new style of salsa. 3/4 cup guava paste 4 cloves garlic, charred 1/2 yellow onion, charred 1 dried pasilla chile 1 tbsp. Mexican oregano hot water to thin the salsa Reconstitute the dried chile in boiling water, then drain and place in a blender with the guava paste, garlic, onion and Mexican oregano. Grill corn tortillas to heat them up and soften, then add a layer of the salsa, shredded duck, drizzle on some crema and garnish with cilantro and pickled red onions.

We have delicious peaches, but the wait is really hard for local peaches. We have to wait until the end of August and into September.

I did a taste test between my recipe for pickled red onions and the recipe suggested by @TicTac. The Bayless recipes tastes more of the vinegar and less of the onion, (on the left). I still like it on some Mexican dishes and to accompany salsa on a street taco, but I have to say I prefer the recipe from @TicTac (on the right), much more onion flavor, a deeper pinkish-red color, and I like the extra salty kick over a more vinegary flavor of the recipe I've been using. I'll still change out the pickled red onions, but my next dish is a fruit-based salsa with duck, and I think the "salted" onions might go well with the sweet salsa.

Interesting. The recipe from Bayless is a "quick pickled red onion" so maybe that's why it's different. In the Bayless cookbooks I have there are recipes for the method you mentioned. I'll try that and see if I can taste any difference.