Fine Cooking In Season Your Guide to Choosing and Preparing the Season's Best

324 Pages·2011·13.84 MB·English

by  Editors of Fine Cooking

In Season
Your Guide to
Choosing & PreParing
the Season’s Best
Editors & Contributors of Fine Cooking
photographs by matthew benson
U.S. $22.95
there’s nothing more exciting to a cook than
discovering a new ingredient or finding an inter-
esting new way to use an old favorite. In Fine
Cooking, the editors share shopping hints and
buying advice, storage information, and prepara-
tion tips on everything from apricots to nopales
and tomatillos. Fine Cooking In Season is a com-
prehensive collection of that culinary advice,
featuring over 85 different types of produce orga-
nized by season, because cooking with foods
at their seasonal peak is the best possible way
to ensure real flavor. Accompanied by mouth-
watering photos and recipes that highlight peak
produce in unique and delicious ways, this collec-
tion will inspire cooks to explore farmer’s markets
and supermarkets in new, adventurous ways.
With over 250 recipes for every meal of
the day—plus hundreds of other recipe ideas—
Fine Cooking In Season will be the only guide you
need to cooking in any season.
In Season
Your Guide to
Choosing & PreParing
the Season’s Best
Editors & Contributors of Fine Cooking
S
Text © 2011 by The Taunton Press, Inc.
Photographs © 2011 by Matthew Benson, except as noted
All rights reserved.
Pp
The Taunton Press, Inc.
63 South Main Street
PO Box 5506,
Newtown, CT 06470-5506
email: [email protected]
Editor: Martha Holmberg
Copy editor: Li Agen
Indexer: Heidi Blough
Jacket/cover design: Chalkley Calderwood
Interior design: Chalkley Calderwood
Photographers: Matthew Benson except pp. 294–305, 306 (right),
307–309 Scott Phillips © The Taunton Press, Inc.; p. 306 (left) Steve Hunter © The Taunton Press, Inc.
Fine Cooking® is a trademark of The Taunton Press, Inc.,
registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Special thanks to Melissa's and Stonegate Farm for supplying produce for use in the photography.
The following names/manufacturers appearing in Fine Cooking In Season
are trademarks: Best Foods®, Carr’s®, Coleman’s®, Droste®, Eagle®,
Fruit-Fresh®, Grand Marnier®, Hellmann’s®, Lee Kum Kee®, Maytag®,
Ortega®, Pepperidge Farm®, Pyrex®, Sugar in the Raw®, Tabasco®
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fine cooking in season : your guide to choosing and preparing the season's best / editors and
contributors of Fine cooking.
p. cm.
Includes index.
E-Book ISBN 978-1-63186-126-0
1. Seasonal cooking. 2. Cookbooks. I. Taunton Press. II. Taunton's fine cooking.
TX714.F5644 2011
641.5'64--dc22
2010047357
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

C
Early
Spring Summer
o
4 44
n

t

e

n

t

s 6 Asparagus 46 Apricots
8 Fava Beans 48 Artichokes
10 Fiddleheads 50 Blueberries
2 Introduction 12 Garlic and Garlic Scapes 54 Broccoli
16 Peas 58 Cauliflower
294 Prepping Produce 20 Radishes 62 Cherries
310 Freezer Know-How 22 Ramps 66 Cucumbers
311 Metric Equivalents 24 Rhubarb 68 Edamame
312 Contributors 28 Salad Greens/Lettuces 70 Fennel
314 Index 34 Sorrel 72 Herbs
36 Spinach 80 Leeks
38 Stinging Nettles 82 Nopales/Prickly Pears
40 Strawberries 84 Okra
86 Onions
92 Scallions
94 Shallots
96 String Beans
Late
Summer Fall Winter
100 168 254
102 Blackberries 170 Apples 256 Avocados
104 Chiles 176 Beets 258 Bananas
110 Corn 180 Belgian Endive 262 Bean Sprouts
112 Eggplant 182 Brussels Sprouts 264 Ginger
116 Figs 184 Cabbage 266 Grapefruit
118 Grapes 188 Carrots 268 Kiwi
122 Melons 190 Celeriac 270 Lemons
126 Olives 192 Chicories 274 Limes
130 Peaches and 196 Collard Greens 278 Mangos
Nectarines
198 Cranberries 280 Oranges and
136 Plums Mandarins
202 Jícamas
142 Raspberries 286 Passionfruit
204 Kale
146 Shell Beans 288 Pineapple
208 Kohlrabi
148 Summer Squash 290 Pomegranates
210 Mushrooms
154 Sweet Peppers 292 Sunchokes
216 Nuts
160 Tomatillos
222 Parsnips
162 Tomatoes
224 Pears
230 Persimmons
232 Potatoes
238 Quinces
240 Rutabagas
242 Sweet Potatoes
244 Swiss Chard
246 Turnips
248 Winter Squash
Introduction
At Fine Cooking, we shop almost every day. We shop for the Fine Cooking Test Kitchen, where
we test every recipe that runs in the magazine, and we shop for ourselves and our families. For
us, food shopping isn’t a chore but a pleasure, even an adventure—one that can consume the
better part of the weekend. It’s not unusual for us to make trips to the grocery store, a farmer’s
market, maybe an ethnic market, possibly a big-box store, and occasionally a specialty foods
shop over the course of those couple of days. We’re tireless when it comes to finding the best
ingredients to cook with, and we’re devoted to cooking with the best of what’s in season.
Of course, we’re not the only ones with a passion for tomato up against one pulled from the vine in late
seasonal produce: Our readers are just as crazy as we summer). And when you try to keep your shopping
are about fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables. both seasonal and local, you’ve done both yourself
They come to us for shopping hints and buying advice, and the planet a favor, since locally grown produce
storing information, and preparation tips. And they doesn’t need to be transported from one side of the
come to us for recipes that make the most of the country to the other.
season, highlighting peak produce in unique and Our story begins in spring and continues through
delicious ways. the summer months and into winter. As the produce
Which is how this book came about. With more than changes, so do the recipes and the many ideas for
106 issues of the magazine under our collective belts, what to do with your farmer’s market finds. We’ve
we’ve gathered and researched reams of information got recipes for every meal of the day, from breakfast
about every kind of fruit and vegetable, from apricots (Blueberry Muffins with Cinnamon Crumble, p. 51) to
to winter squash, edamame to tomatillos. For us, dessert (Rhubarb-Raspberry Galette, p. 27). And we’ve
this book was an opportunity to share the most got tips on how to choose the best produce and how
interesting things we’ve learned about more than to keep it fresh. In addition, you’ll find information on
90 different kinds of produce, along with our favorite preserving a variety of fruits and vegetables, along
fruit- and vegetable-centric recipes from more than with some new ways of thinking about what goes
16 years' worth of seasonal cooking. And we’ve with what (think apricots with Mediterranean herbs
organized all this information by season because like rosemary and lavender). All in all, this may well be
cooking with foods at their seasonal peak is the best the only guide you’ll need to cooking in season.
possible way to ensure real flavor (by way of example,
consider the weak and watery taste of a February —Laurie Buckle
Editor, Fine Cooking
2