Vacation Chowder

By Lori Powell

All this week, Special Fork bloggers will be sharing recipes for vacation cooking. And to celebrate summer vacations, Special Fork is giving away a beautiful, English-style picnic basket fitted with service for four by Picnic Time. It’s easy to enter the sweepstakes.

Lucky me, I get to spend a couple of weeks each year in Mid-Coast Maine at a house on a cove that I have rented now for the past six years. It is my Northeast Oasis where I fatten myself up with all that Maine has to offer, including all the seafood, berries and great produce that I can consume in that short period of time.

Of course, all of that cooking (yes, I love to cook on vacation with the indigenous ingredients that surround me), eating and then reading need to be combined with a lot of hiking so that I can do more of the first two things.

Maine, to me, screams seafood and Seafood Chowder in all its glorious forms… whether it is lobster, scallops, shrimp or even clams. To me it generally involves some shellfish, vegetables, herbs, sometimes pork and a creamy, slightly thickened base.

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Simple 30-minute Fish Sticks

By David Hu

While it’s easy to buy frozen fish sticks, it really doesn’t take much to make them yourself – just 6 ingredients and about 25 minutes from start to finish. This recipe uses U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish which is a lean fish and an excellent source of protein. And The National Audubon Society, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and Environmental Defense all recommend U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish as a safe environmental choice.

I like to eat these fish sticks either on their own or in a sandwich. To make a sandwich, use a nice crusty baguette, add lettuce and tomato, and use the Asian-inspired tartar sauce recipe for a punch of flavor.

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Potatoes on the side, please

By David Hu

Often when I’m cooking, I get so caught up in the main dish that I run out of time or forget to make a side. There’s no excuse for skipping a side dish with these Parmesan Potato Wedges. The dish is extremely simple so you can work on it in between tasks for the main course. The other great thing is that this dish is cooked in the oven so I don’t have to watch it constantly and it frees up precious space on the stovetop.

Red bell peppers add color and a bit of sweetness and the Parmesan adds a nice cheesy tang.

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Playing With Preserved Lemons

By Katie Barreira

Say preserving in August and the culinary mind jumps to mason jars and piles of late-summer produce. But canning isn’t the only way to preserve, and summer isn’t the only time to do it. This past winter, when citrus was about it for fresh fruit, I decided to preserve some lemons. A staple in Moroccan cooking, preserved lemons are salt cured with spices like black pepper and cinnamon. The result is a soft, entirely edible (though, like a fresh lemon, you wouldn’t want to eat it on it’s own) lemon that adds a rich, pickled lemon flavor to drinks, dinner and even dessert.

Preserved lemons can be found in gourmet food shops; seek them out and add a whole new dimension to your cooking; I did!

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Swiss Chard Stars in this Easy Fettuccine

By David Hu

If you’ve ever wanted to try Swiss chard but weren’t sure what to do with it, this recipe is a good starting point. The chard is easy to cook, the goat cheese adds a nice tang and walnuts add a contrasting crunch. You’ll even learn how to chiffonade!

To get the recipe and shopping list on your smartphone (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android device) or PC, click here.

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