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I like to make this curry in the summer. It’s not super spicy, although one could make it that way, and the flavors of coconut, fresh curry leaves, and tomatoes simply whisper warm weather to me.

I noticed this recipe on the Boston Globe’s “Dishing” blog last year. I could tell it was going to taste great, what with the coconut and Indian spicing, although I think their version doesn’t include the cayenne. The zucchini is my twist. It’s a good way to slip more veggies into my family’s diet.

You can used canned beans for this; I happen to cook dry beans in bulk with my pressure cooker and freeze them in small containers. Also, I’ve used small white northern beans and kidney beans in this recipe, but earthy black-eyed peas taste best, IMO.

Curried Black-Eyed Peas
Adapted from The Boston Globe

2 tsp. canola oil
1 tbsp. black mustard seeds
12 fresh curry leaves
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. whole cumin seed
1 tsp. ground coriander seed
1/4 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
1 shallot, chopped finely
1 tsp. minced fresh ginger
1 can chopped tomatoes, drained (sometimes I use fresh tomatoes and eyeball the amount, maybe a cup and a half)
1 small zucchini, diced into 1/4″ cubes
1 cup reduced fat coconut milk
1 cup cooked black eyed peas
Salt, to taste

1. In a medium saute pan, heat oil over medium high heat. Add mustard seeds; when they finish popping, about 30 seconds, add curry leaves. They, too, will pop and sizzle. Immediately reduce heat to medium; stir in turmeric, cumin seed, coriander, and cayenne pepper and cook for 30 seconds. Add shallot, stir into spice mixture, and cook for about two minutes until softened. Stir in ginger and cook for another minute.

2. Add tomatoes and zucchini and cook until softened and the tomatoes begin to lose their moisture, about 4 or 5 minutes. Add coconut milk and cook for another five minutes or until sauce has thickened a bit. Stir in black-eyed peas and warm through. Add salt to taste. Serve curry with cooked rice, preferably basmati.

I alluded that we get a lot of greens in our CSA pickup each week, especially at the beginning of the season. And yes, being that I’m in New England, mid-July is still considered early season. Over the next few weeks, the composition of our basket will become less green, and more red and yellow.

And although I love greens, even the bitter ones, it does become tiresome eating them the same old way, which around here is sauteed in either olive oil and garlic, or bacon and onions. So Sunday night I flipped through one of my favorite recent cookbook acquisitions, Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food, and settled on a kale and potato soup. It was perfect because it also happened to use up some pantry items. My walk-in pantry and chest freezer are heaving with food and I really must empty both out this summer to make room for the winter.

Have I mentioned how much I love Alice Waters? I know it’s fashionable in some quarters to make fun of her. Like, “Oh, who do you think you are, Miss Fresh, Local & In Season … Alice Waters?” Screw those folks. Alice rocks. Her recipes are simple, and as long as you use fabulous ingredients — not hard to do in the summer — you’ll be rewarded with a dish that’s flavorful, good, nourishing, and totally non-pretentious, so I don’t know where these anti-Alice people get their ideas.

Alice’s kale and potato soup is one of those recipes. It’s so hearty, a meat lover would enjoy it, and although it contains few ingredients, its taste is complex — definitely more than a sum of its parts. I happened to have two quarts of fantastic homemade chicken stock in my freezer, which elevated the soup flavorwise. It would be just as tasty with a homemade vegetable stock — barring homemade, a good quality packaged chicken or vegetable stock would make a decent base. The other winning flavor component is the real Parmesan Reggiano cheese garnishing the soup. It has a nutty, salty flavor that lacks in domestically produced Parmesans. Were I not to have the $15/lb. cheese on hand, I’d probably skip it and garnish with bread chunks fried in garlic oil.

This soup makes the perfect Sunday night supper, even in July.

Kale and Potato Soup
Adapted from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 onions, sliced thin
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch of kale, tough center stem removed and leaves sliced into thin shreds
1 lb. Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4″ rounds
2 quarts homemade chicken broth
Kosher salt, to taste
Fresh nutmeg, to taste (optional)
Shaved Parmesan Reggiano cheese, for garnish

1. In a heavy soup pot or enamel cast iron Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, stir to coat with oil, and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until soft and just starting to caramelize. Stir in garlic and cook for another minute. Add kale and potatoes, and stir to coat with oil. Cook for a couple minutes, then add broth. Bring broth to a simmer, reduce heat and cook for 30 minutes, or until potatoes are cooked through.

2. Taste the broth. Does it need salt? I don’t salt my homemade broths, so here I add a teaspoon or two of salt, tasting as I go. Store-bought broths tend to contain lots of salt, so taste first! Serve soup in large bowls, scrape some fresh nutmeg over each dish, and top with shavings of Parmesan cheese.

This was my first try cooking from Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift’s How to Eat Supper. It includes so many recipes I’m dying to try for our family meals. My goal this summer is to empty out our freezer and pantry, so I want to use recipes where I don’t have to go out and buy a lot of stuff, save meat and produce. Of the two recipes I tested last night, one was a winner, the other a dud. But let’s start with the good:

Cabbage Slaw with Orange-Pumpkin Seed Dressing

From the pantry: EVOO, garlic, white wine vinegar, spices/salt/pepper, an orange, and a carrot

Had to buy: napa cabbage, pumpkin seeds

This was a straightforward slaw with napa cabbage and carrots as the starring vegetables, seasoned with a dressing made from roasted pumpkin seeds, orange juice, cumin and coriander. I made this slaw as a side to go with the Tamarind-glazed Pork Chops, and unlike the chops recipe, this turned out well. Surprisingly well, considering I generally detest coleslaw. I liked the quiet flavor of the cabbage with little bursts of sweetness from the carrot. I had screwed up by buying raw unsalted pumpkin seeds — the recipe called for roasted & salted — but all was remedied by pan roasting the seeds and salting by hand. I made the dressing ahead in the food processor, then a few minutes before dinner, I used the slicing attachment to shred the cabbage and carrot directly into the dressing. Kasper and Swift recommend adding smoked tofu or tempeh to the salad, something I’ll do next time — smokiness would have been an excellent addition to this delicious salad.

Next time: Use a finer grained salt in the dressing and shred the cabbage with a knife for a more uniform appearance. Also, the two servings of raw cabbage I devoured gave me terrible heartburn around 2:30 a.m. Ouch!

Tamarind-glazed Pork Chops

From the pantry: Aleppo pepper (yeah, can you believe it?), garlic, fish sauce, sugar, white wine

Had to buy: pork chops, tamarind concentrate

I had high hopes for this recipe since I love the sour flavor of tamarind, but things got off on a bad footing when I discovered my small jar of tamarind concentrate in the ‘fridge had disappeared. I hoofed it over to the local Indian market, got my Tamcon, and came back home to make the glaze ahead of time. I could tell The Oyster wasn’t going to like the 2 tablespoons of ground Aleppo pepper the recipe called for, so I cut it down to a mere 2 teaspoons. The rest of the glaze consisted of the tamarind concentrate, garlic, fish sauce, sugar, dry white wine, and water to thin. When I taste-tested the glaze it was way too sour, so I added an additional 2 teaspoons of sugar on top of the 1 tsp. the recipe called for. It still wasn’t very sweet on the tongue, but I thought maybe the sweetness would come through once grilled.

I used a Caphalon grill pan to cook the chops, then brushed the glaze over them to finish. Unfortunately, the grilling did nothing to heighten the sweetness. Instead, the sour of the tamarind overpowered the chops — not even the salty flavor of the fish sauce or the six garlic cloves could cut through it. However, the heat from the two teaspoons of Aleppo pepper came though — I can’t imagine how strong it would have been with the recommended two tablespoons.

Next time: There won’t be a next time. This one was dudsville.