No-Cook

This drink is best in the summertime, when watermelons are at their sweetest and most flavorful. For cooling off and rehydrating on a hot day, there is simply nothing better. Because watermelons are huge, relatively inexpensive, and have a high water content, they make a good base for drinks. Experiment with using different varieties of tart and sweet apples.

This drink is heavenly in the summer, when fresh blueberries are abundant. The bright flavor of blueberries and the earthy taste of chocolate perfectly complement each other, and both are chock-full of antioxidants. Make this recipe with any kind of milk (my favorite is almond milk—see page 73).

I usually advise people not to compare carob to chocolate because the two tastes are quite distinct. But in this rich pudding, you may find that you like carob even better than chocolate. Originally from the Mediterranean, carob was brought to the United States by Spanish missionaries. It grows in the drier parts of the west, including Arizona and California, so it doesn’t have to make the same long, fuel-guzzling trip to us that its tropical nemesis chocolate does.

Pretty pink grapefruits add zing and color to salads. Supreming citrus fruits (see the pictures on page 97) gives you seed- and rind-free sections that are ready to eat with no fuss, and the process releases a considerable amount of juice, which you’ll use as the base of the dressing. Once you have peeled the celery root, soak it in water with a little bit of lemon juice to keep it from turning brown.

Take a break from cooking and make a satisfying meal from raw fruits and vegetables. This drink takes about twelve minutes to make from start to finish. It’s a great way to get your greens without any work, and I like the slightly fibrous texture the greens impart. The smoothie is good for two days if you want to have it for a few meals. After storing it overnight in the refrigerator, just reblend it for a few seconds. As different fruits come into season, try berries instead of oranges, or a ripe peach instead of the banana. In hot weather, blend in several ice cubes.

Exotic, jewel-like, and demanding considerable labor to penetrate their maze of pulp, pomegranates are a ravishing winter treat. A constant on the Lucid Food cocktail menu during cold weather, this drink pairs well with food but also stands on its own. You can make the sangria the day before, but wait until the day you serve it to add the orange slices, as the pith can cause the drink to turn bitter. Use a cheap red wine; I prefer a rioja or a tempranillo.

This rich drink makes a filling breakfast. For a superb eggnog, add orange zest and rum, brandy, or bourbon. Before buying bananas, read about their production in “Must-Buy Organics,” on page 16. If you like nondairy milk, then blending your own nut milk, as described in this recipe, is much more economical than buying it premade. And unlike store-bought nut milk, it comes without added sugar, preservatives, and hard-to-recycle cartons. Homemade nut milk works beautifully for cereal, smoothies, baking, and simply drinking on its own.

This dish is an easy summer favorite prepared with ingredients that every home in Japan has handy in the fridge and cupboard. You can pull it together in less than 10 minutes. Whenever I serve hiyayako to my American-born friends, the reaction is always the same: “Amazing!” The creamy tofu and aromatic, flavorful garnishes also pair beautifully with fruity sake or a chilled glass of white wine. Make sure you use soft “silken” tofu—the firmer varieties are only for cooking.

Roquefort is a blue-veined, smooth, and creamy French sheep’s milk cheese with a strong smell and very pronounced flavor. It is one of the oldest known cheeses, having been produced in the south of France for almost two thousand years. Only cheeses made according to specific standards of production and matured in caves near the village of Roquefort, France, may be called Roquefort. Similar blue cheeses to try in this dressing include American Maytag Blue, a regional cheese from South Carolina known as Clemson Blue, English Stilton, and Italian Gorgonzola. Try this on green salad, with chicken wings, or with raw or blanched vegetables as a great crudité dip.

I’m not fond of a garlic press—cleaning out all the holes is a chore. I prefer chopping garlic, but finely chopping or mashing large quantities to a paste (see page 72) can be tiresome. Recently I picked up my Microplane, a rasp-type grater, and grated the garlic directly over my saucepan. A couple of swipes back and forth and the garlic had disappeared into the pan below.

A little dab of this hotness on fried fish will set you up! Capsaicin, the chemical compound in chiles that makes them hot, is water repellent. Not only does water not stop the fire, but it also spreads the capsaicin around. However, it easily combines with fats. So, if you’ve had a little too much heat, reach for milk or yogurt instead of water, wine, or beer.

Rémoulade is a cold French sauce made with mayonnaise, mustard, pickles, capers, and various herbs, and is very similar to American-style tartar sauce. It’s important the onions and celery are very finely chopped. It’s a dip, not a salad. To cut the celery, first cut the stalk into even, manageable lengths. Then cut into very thin matchsticks, line them up like little soldiers and slice across in thin cuts to make small perfect dice.

Many of the store-bought Creole seasonings are mostly salt, sometimes with added chemical preservatives and anticaking agents. This simple seasoning blend is a mixture of salt, pepper, and dried herbs and spices. How’s this for anticaking: shake the jar.

The secret to a creamy, emulsified dressing or vinaigrette is mustard. You’ve probably noticed that when you combine oil and vinegar in a bowl they form separate layers. If you whisk the mixture it will combine only for a brief period, then separate out again. Mustard helps thicken liquid sauces by absorbing some of the liquid and allows the suspension of one liquid in another. Try this savory-sweet combination over crisp salad greens or buttercup lettuce or as a dipping sauce for the Oven-fried Chicken Breasts with Pecan Crust (page 102). If Vidalias are unavailable, use another sweet onion, such as Walla Walla or Texas Sweet.

Mayonnaise is a subject of much debate in the South. I’ve even heard rumors about a veritable barroom-type brawl between chefs at the Southern Foodways Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi, that rose out of a discussion of Duke’s versus Hellmann’s. I grew up on Duke’s mayonnaise and strongly believe that if it’s not homemade, it’s got to be Duke’s! This recipe uses raw eggs. Pregnant women, young children, the elderly, or anyone whose health or immune system is compromised should not consume raw eggs. Otherwise, for healthy adults, homemade mayonnaise is fine.

Use this flavorful compound butter, known in French cuisine as beurre maître d’hôtel, on toasts, to saute vegetables, to toss with pasta-—the possibilities are endless. Vary the herbs as well. For example, try basil, garlic, and Parmigiano-Reggiano for an Italian flavor.

Pistou is the French version of pesto. As in Italy, it’s used with pasta or dolloped on soups or stews for additional flavoring. Make this sauce when herbs are plentiful, and freeze some for later. I like to freeze it in ice-cube trays; once the cubes are frozen solid, I transfer them to a sealable freezer bag or an airtight container and freeze for up to 1 month. Pine nuts are traditional, and walnuts are a good choice for a delicious hint of bitterness. But pecans give the sauce a rich, buttery flavor. Try it also with other herbs—parsley, cilantro, or even nasturtium leaves for a little spicy kick.

Gazpacho is essentially a liquid salad. It’s best prepared at the height of summer, using fresh, local ingredients—I always use Georgia-grown vegetables when I make this gazpacho. The key is to use the proper amount of salt to draw out the moisture and flavor of the vegetables. There is nothing so simple, yet so vitally essential to cooking, as salt. Without salt even the most elaborate dish would be lifeless and dull. I remember staring incredulously as my chef in culinary school would toss what seemed to be handfuls of salt into food. Now I giggle when my students stare at me when I do the same!

I made this soup for Mama when I was in junior high. She had been going through a tough time and one day when she came home for lunch I had prepared a chilled cantaloupe soup out of Southern Living magazine. Even though I had always enjoyed cooking, I think that this slightly unusual soup caught her off guard. I wanted to make her feel better, and as it often does, homemade food made with love can make a dark day seem brighter.

In Atlanta, people ask you, “What’s your business?” In Augusta, they ask, “What’s your mother’s maiden name?” In Macon, they ask, “Where do you go to church?” In Savannah, they ask, “What would you like to drink?” That generous hospitality and sense of fun is typical of Savannah style; this dish is very likely to be served at one of Savannah’s legendary cocktail parties. As Georgia’s most valuable seafood crop, between 4 1/2 million and 9 1/2 million pounds of heads-on shrimp are harvested annually by a fleet of more than five hundred boats, the majority owner-operated and based within an hour or so of Savannah. It is common to find fishermen whose families have fished the same grounds for generations. Preserving and pickling seafood in citrus juice, vinegar, and brine is a technique used all over the world—in Spanish ceviche, for example. This combination of ingredients acts as a cooking agent, denaturing the proteins and rendering the raw seafood cooked. Many recipes state shrimp pickled by this technique may be stored for up to ten days, tightly covered in the refrigerator, but I disagree. Even if you weren’t concerned about food-borne illness, why bother? The acid would continue working and you’d wind up with bouncy balls of shrimp-flavored pink rubber. Up to two days in the refrigerator is fine. Serve on a bed of lettuce for a nice cold salad, or as a delightful nibble on a buffet.