Recipes

Cathy Barrow · NYT Cooking

Cathy Barrow · NYT Cooking

Chutneys are often made with unripe or dried fruit; they can include vinegar, sugar and spices. This recipe, with ripe fruit, offers a two-toned flavor: sweet and tropical offset by sultry spices and the heat of chilies. It’s welcome in a grilled-cheese sandwich, stirred into mayonnaise or yogurt for a quick dip or spread, or alongside any curry or daal. There are thousands of varieties of mangoes, but two are predominant. The Tommy Atkin is green, blushed with rose, and as large as a softball. The champagne mango, the size of a large peach, is pale gold, with a floral flavor. I prefer the champagne, which tends to be less fibrous and has an impossibly lovely scent, but any mango is a boon. The fruit is full of such promise.

Cathy Barrow · NYT Cooking

With a little knife work and a slow simmer, the pineapple sauce is ready in no time at all. While it shines in a banana split, turning a sundae from typical to tropical, you’ll find many other ways to use it: between the layers of a classic yellow cake, added to yogurt or cottage cheese, or combined with spicy mustard and chopped scallions for a sensational baked chicken.

Cathy Barrow · NYT Cooking

Cathy Barrow · NYT Cooking

Strawberry turns out to be one of the more difficult jams to make. It’s often runny. But if you just add a kiwi, packed with natural pectin, it will make any jam gel. Kiwi’s flavor is subtle, slightly tart and not at all intrusive. I add mint to the mix to bump up the candy-sweet flavor of the berries. Your jam will hold together beautifully, tasting of strawberries and sunshine and nothing more.

Cathy Barrow · NYT Cooking

Cathy Barrow · NYT Cooking

A little work in prime tomato season will help carry bright summer flavors into the cold of January, giving you a base for pasta sauces, gumbo, enchiladas, shakshuka, bouillabaisse — a world of possibility. It’s an afternoon of chopping, puréeing, simmering and canning, the heat of the day reminding you that the cooler nights, spicy pasta all’arrabbiatas and warming chana masalas are just around the corner. You’ll need three quart-sized jars (32 ounces each) or six pint-sized ones (16 ounces each).

Cathy Barrow · NYT Cooking

Preserving a glut of tomatoes at the end of summer is a smart (though messy) move for cooks who want those bright flavors in the depths of January. Roasting the tomatoes before puréeing them adds depth and a subtle smoky flavor — a welcome addition to soups and sauces. Use any kind of tomatoes you like, as long as they are ripe; Brandywines and what are often called Rutgers varieties (Reds, Jersey Reds and Ramapos) work well, as do paste or Roma tomatoes. You’ll need four pint-sized jars (16 ounces each) for purée storage.

Cathy Barrow · NYT Cooking

Preserved summer tomatoes are a sort of pantry insurance policy: you'll have captured a bright tomato flavor to add to your cooking for the remainder of the year. Use these crushed tomatoes as you would the canned kind you buy at the store, in jambalaya (Pierre Franey's shrimp jambalaya recipe is a good start), tomato soup (this unusual version incorporates fresh goat cheese) or pasta sauce (like this spaghetti sauce, Kim Severson's family recipe). You’ll need four or five quart-sized jars (32 ounces each) or eight or 10 pint-sized ones (16 ounces each); when the time comes to use the purée, simply open a jar and use the purée as you would the store-bought stuff.

Jennifer Steinhauer · NYT Cooking

The cookbook author Cathy Barrow always finds creative ways to make use of ingredients. She created this recipe as a savory pie filling for her book “Pie Squared: Irresistibly Easy Sweet & Savory Slab Pies,” but it also makes a good vegetarian supper when served over rice, and a nice side dish too. (Make it vegan by omitting the yogurt to serve.) Pomegranate molasses can be found in Middle Eastern markets and health-food stores and adds bright, tangy sweetness to this hearty dish. Jennifer Steinhauer

Bryan Miller · NYT Cooking

Bryan Miller · NYT Cooking

Bryan Miller · NYT Cooking

Bryan Miller · NYT Cooking

Bryan Miller · NYT Cooking

Bryan Miller · NYT Cooking

Bryan Miller · NYT Cooking

Bryan Miller

Bryan Miller · NYT Cooking

Bryan Miller

Bryan Miller · NYT Cooking

Bryan Miller · NYT Cooking

Bryan Miller

Bryan Miller · NYT Cooking

Bryan Miller · NYT Cooking

Bryan Miller · NYT Cooking

Bryan Miller · NYT Cooking