Feed Your People: Summer Gatherings and Making Up for Lost Time
Photo by Molly DeCoudreaux
Dearest Friends,
Over the past year, my family and I—like so many of you–missed gathering. So much so that, this spring, when we all felt ready, we decided to get together and cook up all of the foods that we had missed. We made gravlax for New Year’s, potato pancakes for Hanukkah, lamb chops for Greek Easter, matzo ball soup for Passover, chocolate cookies for Christmas, and barbecued bacon (because, why not?). Then we gathered around a long picnic table in my parents’ backyard under the shade trees, and we celebrated for all of the missed celebrations. Mainly, we felt deeply grateful to be together.
I’ve always loved bringing people together through food; in fact, that’s precisely what inspired me to dream up Feed Your People, a cookbook featuring big-batch recipes from 65 big-hearted chefs, including Viola Buitoni, Tanya Holland, Preeti Mistry, Bryant Terry, Andrea Nguyen, Alice Waters, and Gonzalo Guzman and so many more. This summer, as the book turns three, I find myself turning back to it again and again. After all, it’s full of dishes to gather over, to enjoy with family and friends. I’m delighted to share some of my summer favorites with you—may they help you create a beautiful gathering of your own.
With so much love,
Leslie
Root Beer Barbecued Spare Ribs with Rick Rodgers
Photo by Molly DeCoudreaux
Nothing evokes summer quite like the sweet, smoky scent of ribs on the grill. Rick Rodgers is something of a master grillmaster; when his family gathers, the cookbook author—who has written many books including the Complete Grilling Cookbook, among others—makes his famous root beer barbecued spareribs. His family will fill out the menu by bringing classic picnic dishes: Caesar salad, beans, potato salad, garlic bread, and chips with back-of-the-box onion dip. Learn to make Rick’s sweet, smoky spare ribs yourself, and you’ll be the grill hero at your group’s kickbacks this summer.
Find recipe here.
Grits with Grilled Vegetables with Bryant Terry
Photo by Molly DeCoudreaux
When Oakland-based chef Bryant Terry fires up the grill, it’s all about the vegetables. And Bryant knows his way around roots, stalks, and leaves: you might call the James Beard award-winning chef and activist the dean of vegetable cooking. Over the past decade, he has authored a slew of veggie-centric cookbooks, most recently Vegetable Kingdom, which was named one of the best cookbooks of 2020 by the New Yorker and the Washington Post. And, coming this October, Black Food, a compendium he’s editing, will hit shelves. (It’s available now for pre-order!) In summer, Bryant particularly loves to make a big pan (or two) of grits, which he’ll thicken with homemade cashew cream, then top off with marinated grilled vegetables. The warm-weather recipe is aptly casual, a perfect canvas for zucchini, summer squash, bell peppers, tomatoes or whatever is freshest at the market.
Find recipe for Bryant Terry’s grits here.
Big Pan Seafood Paella with Brett and Elan Emerson
Photo by Molly DeCoudreaux
Paella, a spicy main which originated on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, is the very definition of abundance. Built on a base of short-grain rice, seasoned with a mixture of tomatoes, garlic, and nora chiles, paella can include all sorts of ingredients, from chicken and rabbit to shrimp and mussels, romano beans and green peas to sunchokes and bell peppers. Brett and Elan Emerson, the husband-wife team behind San Francisco’s late, great Contigo, love paella so much, they built the menu at their new eatery, Barceloneta, around it. Their iteration of the dish, which incorporates white fish, Manila clams, shrimp, squid, and mussels, can feed an army. Even better, it’s designed to be cooked on the grill. Fire up a pan-full for a bountiful, Mediterranean-style meal.
Find the recipe here.
Grand Aioli with Roasted Salmon with Georgeanne Brennan
Photo by Molly DeCoudreaux
The good people of Provence have a unique way of celebrating the season’s bounty: le grand aioli. This wondrous meal, centered around aioli—the region’s famous garlic mayonnaise—is, more than anything, an excuse for a big, jovial gathering over the aioli and a whole table full of accompaniments: steamed potatoes, fish, and garden-fresh green beans, carrots, and beets. James Beard award-winning writer Georgeanne Brennan, author of many books, including My Culinary Journey: The Food and Fetes of Provence, has long owned a house in rural Provence. Inspired by the annual grand aioli celebration in that country town, Georgeanne brought this tradition home to her native California. Whip up her version of the dish—in which she swaps roasted salmon for the more traditional salt cod—and gather your people for a grand aioli of your very own.
Get recipe here.
Blueberry Lemon Trifle with Emily Luchetti
Photo by Molly DeCoudreaux
The trifle typically consists of layers of sponge cake, custard cream, and fruit. Beyond that, the beloved English delicacy is open to interpretation: Some cooks include jelly, others don’t; some soak their sponge cake in sherry, while others opt for brandy, Madeira, or Port, while still others don’t soak their cake at all. As Tim Norfolk, general manager of catering at London’s Fortnum & Mason once told the New York Times: “trifle is in the eye of the beholder, what you like, you put in.” Emily Luchetti, the James Beard award-winning pastry chef who’s devised desserts for Park Tavern, and other iconic San Francisco eateries, likes to adapt her trifle each season to highlight fresh produce. Come summer, she loves to whip up a strawberry peach trifle, featuring jammy layers of strawberry and lightly sugared peaches. Assemble yours in a large glass dish or bowl, and the colorful, layered dessert will be the star of the show.
Find recipe here.
Ice Cream Social with Jen Castle and Blake Spalding
Photo by Molly DeCoudreaux
On a hot summer day, nothing beats the sheer joy of ice cream. And how better to share that joy with your people this summer than by throwing that most classic summer gathering—an ice cream social? Jen Castle and Blake Spalding, the chef-owners of Hell’s Backbone Grill & Farm in Boulder, Utah, know a thing or two about ice cream socials. Every year on the Fourth of July, they throw a free one for everyone in their town. At the social, they’ll serve up scoops of homemade ice cream, along with three delicious toppings they’ve perfected over the years, each one an updated version of a soda fountain classic. There’s cajeta, a traditional Mexican caramel sauce made with condensed goat’s milk; pinon hot fudge sauce, featuring buttery pinon nuts; and almonds candied in cinnamon. Follow Jen and Blake’s lead, and spread some ice creamy joy yourself.
Find recipe here.
For more ideas of ways to cook for a crowd this summer, check out Feed Your People.