Recipes

Many different Middle Eastern cultures claim to have invented the kebab.

In Iraq, Laying Claim To The Kebab

9:54pm August 13, 2013

by Kelly McEvers

The Iraqis, among many other Middle Easterners, believe they invented the kebab. The skewered meat dish appears as early as the 9th century in a book from the southern city of Basra called The Book of Misers.

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Baker Kim Boyce's hand pies can be filled with a variety of fruits, from apricots to blackberries. The fruit's natural sugars and juices caramelize while baking, concentrating the summer flavors.

Arts

Pack A Pie For Your Picnic, Right In Your Hot Little Hand

7:43am August 11, 2013

by Deena Prichep

Serving an entire fruit pie in the park can be a little messy. So forget the plates and forks and bake up a few hand pies instead. Baker Kim Boyce sells these picnic-friendly turnovers, filled with summer plums, peaches and berries, every day in her Portland, Ore., bakery.

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Mike Odette, chef and co-owner of Sycamore Restaurant, finds beets and turnips that will make tasty refrigerator pickles at the Columbia, Mo., farmers market.

Arts

Pickling Up Your Next Summer Picnic

5:55pm August 03, 2013

by Abbie Fentress Swanson

Heat is no friend to mayonnaise. The perfect way to preserve produce for hot summer picnics is by pickling — not just cucumbers, but cherries, green tomatoes, okra, kohlrabi — all kinds of seasonal produce.

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Zwetschgendatschi is the Bavarian word for plum cake. The dessert uses Damson plums, which are only in season for a few weeks each year.

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Zwetschgendatschi, A Mouthful That Captures The Perfect Plum

5:48pm August 01, 2013

by NPR Staff

Bavarian plum cake reminds Gesine Bullock-Prado of her mother and childhood split between Germany and the U.S. The dessert uses Damson plums, which are only in season for a short time each summer.

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Jack Bishop of America's Test Kitchen says the trick to grilling peaches is using fruit that's ripe but firm.

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'America's Test Kitchen' On Grilling Peaches, Tofu And Burgers

1:26pm August 01, 2013

Bridget Lancaster and Jack Bishop advise using ripe fruit, extra-firm tofu and poking your hamburgers so they don't puff up like tennis balls.

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Some NPR staff members taste recipes from the contest finalists.

And The Winning Taste Of Summer Is ...

12:01pm July 29, 2013

by Melissa Gray

After careful consideration, gnashing of teeth and cleansing of palates, we have a winner in the Found Recipes Taste of Summer contest. Listeners wrote in, and NPR staff sampled recipes from the three finalists.

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Arts

Fizz And Fireworks: Make A Patriotic Homemade Soda For The Fourth

12:38pm July 09, 2013

by Serri Graslie

Homemade sodas are hot these days: Americans bought more than 1.2 million home carbonators last year. For the Fourth of July, we asked mixologist Gina Chersevani to help us tap into the trend with a soda float inspired by Independence Day.

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Hard crabs, like these blue crabs, are used in Bill Smith's Crab Stew recipe.

Arts

Hard Crab Stew, No Longer Hard (Or Messy)

12:38pm July 09, 2013

by NPR Staff

Some of the greatest summer food experiences take you outside — from shucking corn and barbecuing to spitting watermelon seeds. Chef Bill Smith says his favorite summer memories took place at picnic tables over messy bowls of his grandmother's crab stew.

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Punjabi Lamb Kebabs, like many tandoor dishes, can also be made on gas or charcoal grills.

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Taking High-Heat Tandoor Techniques To The Backyard Grill

7:24am July 02, 2013

by NPR Staff

It's not easy to set up a tandoor oven in the backyard. But chef and writer Madhur Jaffrey says cooking at high heat does something magical to meat, which makes it worthwhile to adapt her tandoor recipes for gas or charcoal grills.

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For the sweetest, smoothest strawberry jam, author Kevin West suggests staying as far away as possible from what he calls "Pamela Anderson fruit": the big strawberries found in regular supermarkets. He prefers picking small, red berries from farm stands,

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Preserving The Season's Fruits With A Canning Evangelist

3:44pm June 29, 2013

by Jessica Naudziunas

Kevin West, author and blogger, takes NPR's Lynn Neary to a farmers market to choose the summer's best produce for canning. "You take this experience ... and you put it in the jar. And six months from now we will re-experience that moment," West says.

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