Chef Johnny Gnall is luxuriating in summer produce. Today he shares new ways to use old favorites. If you have questions or suggestions for tips, email Chef Johnny.

In case the massive heat wave didn’t clue you in, summer is at full force right now. If you don’t enjoy the heat, you can still take joy in the bounty of seasonal produce. From the sweet nectar of stone fruits to the spectacular reds, yellows, oranges and greens of heirloom tomatoes, summer means something extra-special to food lovers.

If you’re not sure what is at its very best, take a look at the list below for the must-grab fruits and vegetables, as well as a couple of fresh ideas for serving them. Whether you get them at your corner grocery or a destination farmers market, these foods are at their tastiest and most inexpensive in July and August. So stock up and stuff yourself until you can eat no more; this sun-soaked bounty won’t be around forever!

Add berries to savory dishes, like roast meats. Photo courtesy GiantFresh.com.

Blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries…the berry bounty is extensive in the summer months. While they are superb in jams, pies or parfaits, berries like to dip their toes into the savory side of cooking as well.

 
MELONS

Summer melons are one of those foods so perfect that you really don’t want to do much to mask their flavor. But you can, literally, spice things up:

 
CORN

Arguably the most popular of all the summer treats, you can’t help but devour a sweet, juicy cob, typewriter-style, paying no heed to flying kernels and buttery cheeks!

For your next barbeque, set up a DIY corn on the cob bar for your guests. Start with husked ears stacked on a platter, a roll of aluminum foil and a bowl of melted butter with a small pastry brush.

Assorted eggplants. Photo by Alistair
Williamson | SXC.

EGGPLANT

Here’s my absolute favorite way to prepare eggplant. If seasoned just right it can end up almost tasting like pork belly in its umami, as well as its texture: crispy outside, buttery and tender inside.

 
Bonus: “vegan pork belly,” cholesterol-free.

Tomorrow: Part 2: four more delicious ideas.

Watermelon salad is so delicious and easy, we wonder why we never see it on restaurant menus. We eat it daily during the hot weather. The watermelon is so juicy and hydrating, we can’t get enough of it.

We adapted this recipe from Mozzarella Company, one of the greatest American cheese makers and a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week. They use their delectable mozzarella. But feta or fresh goat cheese are equally delicious—even more so to those who like tangy cheese.

Enjoy it as a light luncheon salad or as a first course at dinner.

WATERMELON & YELLOW TOMATO SALAD WITH
FETA, GOAT CHEESE OR MOZZARELLA

Ingredients

A delicious watermelon and feta salad with basil, mint and pistachio nuts. Photo by Lulu Durand | IST.

Preparation

1. Toss the watermelon, tomatoes, mozzarella, salt, pepper, olive oil and half of each of the mint and basil leaves together.

2. Top with the remaining mint and basil leaves.

3. Makes 4 servings. Consider making a double batch—you’ll be wanting more!

VARIATIONS

You can add layers of sophistication to this already-yummy salad by adding any of the following ingredients:

 
The history of watermelon plus more watermelon recipes.

Think outside the box when combining ingredients. That’s what Executive Chef Leo Forneas of Silk Rd Tavern did, topping a crispy fish fillet with julienned apples. He chose red-skinned apples to add a touch of color.

You can use raw apples or lightly sauté the strips in butter or oil. You can cook the apples in advance so as soon as the fish comes off the grill/out of the pan, you’re ready to roll. You can also add a bit of allspice, cinnamon or nutmeg to the apples for another layer of flavor.

While the crunchy apples nicely accessorize the crispy skin of the fish, you can use them to garnish any grilled or sautéed fish.

You can also build on the idea, adding slivered almonds, blueberries or raisins/dried berries.
 
 
Julienne Vs. Baton

Fish with apples: It makes you smart while keeping the doctor away. Photo courtesy Photo courtesy Silk Rd Tavern.

Julienne strips resemble small matchsticks, typically 1/16-1/18 inch wide and 1 to 2 inches long. To cut julienne strips, first cut the vegetable into 1/16 or 1/8-inch-thick slices, then stack the slices and cut them into 1/16 or 1/8-inch-wide strips that are of the desired length.

Batons (sometimes called batonnets) are larger matchsticks, typically 1/4 x 1/4 x 2 to 2 1/2 inches long. Use the same method as with julienne strips.

Find more of our favorite fish recipes.

We didn’t buy quite this many, but it sure
seemed like it! Photo by Alessandro Paiva |
SXC.

We were overly enthusiastic when we purchased a very large bunch of bananas at an excellent price. But of course, it’s no bargain if half of them spoil.

There were far more bananas than we could eat. It’s been too hot to turn on the oven to bake banana bread. And our overstuffed freezer precluded making banana ice cream (one of our favorites!).

Fortunately, we received our weekly email from Care2.com—one of our favorite e-newsletters—promising 15 ways to use bananas.

Written by Katie Waldeck, we repeat most of them here in edited form. Here’s the original article.

We haven’t tried them (except for the banana soft serve), so let us know what you think.

10 USED FOR BANANAS

Beauty

1. Condition Your Hair. Use Dr. Oz’s banana hair treatment.

2. Whiten Your Teeth. Don’t throw away the peel: Rub the inner side on your teeth for about two minutes before brushing. The magnesium, manganese and potassium in the peel will help to whiten your teeth naturally.

3. Make A Facial Mask. An anti-aging mask made from mashed bananas, heavy cream, honey and oat flour? Sounds like banana pudding! Here’s the recipe. Don’t let the dog get too close.

4. Make A Sugar Scrub. Whip up a scrub to exfoliate your skin. Here’s a recipe. Make a double batch and bring some to a friend (keep it in the fridge until ready to use, and use it within a few days).

Health

5. Insect Bite. If you don’t have any cortisone cream or other medication, rub the inner banana peel on the bite to alleviate the itch.

6. Splinter. Press the inside of the banana peel onto the splinter. The fruit’s natural enzymes are said to raise the splinter so you can remove it more easily.

House & Garden

7. Polish Leather & Silver. Rub the banana peel on the item and buff with a cloth. Hmm…test it on older shoes before trying it with the Louboutins.

8. Fertilize Plants. Instead of tossing the banana peels, dry them and grind them into an excellent mulch for seedlings and young plants. Some say that the peels can also fight off aphids. But as one member of a gardening forum added to the conversation thread, “About the only way a banana peel would eliminate aphids would be if you placed the aphids on a flat surface and beat them with it.”

Bananas growing on the tree. Photo by Sergio Roberto | SXC.

In The Kitchen

9. Dog Treat. Bananas are a perfectly safe, and perfectly healthy, treat for your beloved pooch!

10. Make “Soft Serve.” Turn those extra bananas into a healthful and lower calorie approximation of soft serve ice cream. Make as much as you plan to eat at one time.

 
BANANA TRIVIA

The banana “tree” is actually a jumbo perennial herb with huge leaves. The word “banana” is derived from the Arab word for finger, “banan,” referring to the fact that the bananas in a bunch look like fingers.

Enjoy more banana trivia and the history of bananas.

Our Mac consultant introduced us to cold brew coffee several years ago. He lived next to a coffee bean shop and got the recommendation for the Toddy Cold Brew System from the shop’s owner.

The system turns a pound of your favorite ground coffee into a coffee concentrate via a slow, cold water drip. The coffee goes into the plastic brewing container, set atop a glass carafe. You add cold water, steep for 8-12 hours, and then let the concentrate filter into the carafe.

The carafe of concentrate goes into the fridge, where it stays fresh for three weeks. You add 1 part concentrate to 3 parts hot or cold water to make hot or iced coffee.

In the winter, we loved microwaving a cup of fresh-brewed-tasting coffee in 60 seconds. In the warm weather, we could easily create many cups of iced coffee.

You have to try it to believe how good the coffee is. Photo courtesy Toddy Products.

There are several reasons to love the Toddy Cold Brew System.

 
You can run out and pick one up for Mother’s Day or order it online from Amazon for $34.95 plus free Super Saver Shipping.

Santé Pecans. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE
NIBBLE.

Santé Nuts sent us packages of snack nuts in nine varieties:

 
Even the savory flavors have a touch of sweetness. The nuts are gluten-free and certified kosher by Star-K.

The line was developed by necessity: Sara Tidhar was a single mom in need of an income. Her son urged her to sell the roasted, seasoned nuts she made for the family and she soon found herself with thousands of orders.

Santé, the French word for health, denotes a better-for-you snack. We really like the one-ounce, grab-and-go packages of nutritious nuts as a substitute for candy and cookie snacks. They’re all-natural, very crunchy and fresh-tasting, with just enough cane sugar to satisfy a sweet tooth.

Hand-roasted in small batches, the nuts are made with less oil (canola oil, a monounsaturated, healthy fat), as well. Try them with a fruity wine or beer.

Santé Nuts can be purchased on Amazon.com and on the company website, SanteNuts.com. One-ounce packages are $1.99, four-ounce packages are $5.99.

Toss Into Recipes

The nuts add interest to a salad—green salad, chicken salad, tuna salad, spinach-and-blue-cheese salad—sweet potato casserole, stuffing, whatever. Here are two lively salad recipes to try:

The gourmet version of Raisinets, from Lake
Champlain Chocolates (certified kosher).

Today is National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day. In the form of Raisinets, the dried-fruit-in-a-candy-shell is a movie theater staple and the third-largest selling candy in U.S. history.

To make the candy, raisins are coated with oil and spun in a hot drum with milk or dark chocolate. They’re then polished to a shine.

Raisinets are the earliest brand on record, introduced by the Blumenthal Brothers Chocolate Company of Philadelphia in 1927 (the brand was acquired by Nestlé in 1984).

We don’t know that the Blumenthals originated the concept. Hard chocolate was invented in 1847, enabling confectioners to develop all types of chocolate candies (the history of chocolate). No doubt, chocolate-dipped fruit was in the repertoire.

See all the food holidays.

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Our Nana made stewed rhubarb every spring: as a dessert served plain, with whipped cream or ice cream. Then, there were rhubarb tarts and pies, including strawberry-rhubarb. Rhubarb, sometimes called “the pie plant,” makes exquisite desserts.

Since Nana stopped cooking, we rarely come across a rhubarb dish, even in locavore-based restaurants. We always see it in the store, and as time permits, make some stewed rhubarb.

But, says Kim Ode, rhubarb has a place in appetizers, breads, salads, side dishes, entrées and more.

She celebrates the vegetable in her new cookbook, Rhubarb Renaissance.

Ms. Ode has crafted some 50 sophisticated recipes, savory and sweet, showcasing the vegetable:* Rhubarb Corn Fritters, Turkey Tenderloins with RhubarBQ Sauce, Spiced Couscous with Rhubarb and Figs and Chop-Chop Sweet and Sour Stir-Fry are a few examples.

The new rhubarb cookbook, Rhubarb Renaissance. Photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society Press.

Updating Nana’s strawberry-rhubarb pie, Ms. Ode presents Salted Caramel Rhubapple Pie and Zucchini-Rhubarb Bread.

Nana would approve.

In the U.S., rhubarb is one of the first food plants to be harvested each spring; April/May is the peak season, and it grows until September (rhubarb from the Southern Hemisphere is available in October/November).

The new rhubarb cookbook is a great gift for people who like new and different ingredients—even though rhubarb has been cultivated for thousands of years in China, and grows wild on the banks of the Volga River in Russia.

In fact, the name “rhubarb” is a combination of the Ancient Latin rha, which referred to the Volga River, and barbarum, foreign; rha barbarum evolved to the Medieval Latin reubarbarum in the 15th century.

Take a bite of some rhubarb trivia.
 
*Yes, rhubarb is a vegetable. It looks like celery, but the two plants come from different botanical families. The difference between fruits and vegetables.

A rainbow of fruits and veggies.
Photo courtesy Stephanie Suchat.

In elementary school we learned how to remember the order of the colors of the rainbow: ROYGBIV—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Now, nutritionists advise us to “eat the rainbow.” The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics made this year’s theme “Eat Right with Color,” to focus on improving eating habits, simply by eating a rainbow of colors.

Since March is National Nutrition Month, we share their recommendations.

So see how many of these colors you can work into daily meals. Make a game of it and get other family members to recommend their favorite foods—as long as they’re ROYGBIV. The following suggestions recommend just one food per color, but through the power of the Internet, you can find many more.

Succulent dried peaches are just as
satisfying as processed sweet snacks (candy,
cookies and the like). Photo by Katharine
Pollak | THE NIBBLE.

We enjoy a snack of dried fruit, but our eyes opened wide when we tasted the succulent, moist fruits from Goldenvale Snacks.

Luscious fruits are grown without pesticides in sunny California. The majority of the bounty is shipped to appreciative audiences in Asia. Asian markets in California also carry the resealable packages of dried apples, apricots, blueberries, kiwi fruit, nectarines, peaches (the last two in both white and yellow), plums, persimmons, pears, plums and raisins in a handsome, tri-color medley.

The biggest challenge for those who want the best dried fruit is finding the individual grab-and-go bags elsewhere in the U.S.

A couple of varieties are sold on Amazon (a bulk-size four pounds of white peaches, for example), along with a full line of Goldenvale’s gift selections in baskets. The company will fill consumer orders directly as it works to expand its retail distribution.

Take a look at what’s available online (search for Goldenvale Snacks).

Then, ask your grocer to contact ArchFoods.com and bring in the luscious line—so good, we grew to prefer it to candy and the often-bland fresh fruits in our local markets.

Check out our full review of Goldenvale dried fruit.

Find more of our favorite fruits in our Gourmet Fruits section.