Gardening is awesome in autumn, but do you know the best time to plant your favorite crops? Learn about important factors such as the first frost date, days to maturity, soil temperature, and more. This handy guide makes it easy for you to work out the ideal time to sow or transplant your fall garden plants. Read more.

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You can grow green beans to harvest in autumn, and the tips from our guide will improve your odds of success. Fall-grown beans need more time to grow, protection from harsh temperatures, and a carefully-selected planting site. Learn to grow a bumper crop of fresh beans for tailgates and fall festivals in this guide.

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Oftentimes when I’m out in the garden, I’ll pop a cherry tomato or blueberry straight from the bush ... Read More

The post Do I Really Need to Wash That? When, Why, and How to Wash Fruit and Vegetables appeared first on Garden Therapy.

Looking for an easy way to get an early start to the spring season? Why not try planting next year’s seeds in the fall? With minimal effort this autumn, you can get a head start on next season with a healthier, heartier crop. Read on to learn how to pre-seed the vegetable garden this fall for an early spring harvest.

The post How to Pre-Seed your Garden in Fall for an Early Spring Harvest appeared first on Gardener's Path.

Are you wondering what to do with your end-of-season surplus of green and ripe red tomatoes? Some can be kept in boxed storage to continue to ripen and enjoy fresh. But for a bumper harvest, long-term preservation is often needed. Find all the details on how to store your homegrown tomatoes right here. Read more now.

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Rutabagas are a sweet, nutty cross between a turnip and a cabbage. Grown for their large golden roots with purple-tinged skin, they take about 90 days to mature. Give them full sun, loose well-draining soil, and consistent moisture for the best results. Learn how to plant and grow rutabagas in this guide. Read more now.

The post How to Grow Rutabaga: A Cool-Weather Crop Perfect for Fall appeared first on Gardener's Path.

As summer starts to wane and harvest season comes to a close, do you wish you could extend the growing season? Luckily, many cool-weather crops are well-suited for growing in fall gardens. In this guide, we cover 19 of our favorite cold-tolerant crops to keep your garden productive throughout autumn. Read more now.

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If you read this blog and newsletter on a regular basis (and if you don’t, you should!), you’ve entered a carnivoran orgy of steak, brisket, ribs, pork shoulders, and more.

Which may make you wonder, has Steven Raichlen abandoned vegetables entirely?

Absolutely not! And as we roll into August, with summer produce at its peak, my wife and I have been grilling and smoking vegetables like crazy. Grilled corn pudding. Smoked tomato gazpacho. Ember-roasted peppers and eggplants. It’s hard to imagine a vegetable we haven’t put to fire this summer.

So how do you grill a family of foods that ranges from edible thistles (that would be artichokes) to “little pumpkins” (that would be zucchini)? Vegetables vary so much in texture and taste, you’d need a book to know how to grill them all. (Hah! I wrote such a book, appropriately entitled How to Grill Vegetables.)

Well, one easy way to start is to consider which vegetables grow above ground and which grow below ground. The former tend to be soft-fleshed, with a high moisture content. (Think tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, asparagus, and corn.) These vegetables do best when direct grilled quickly over high heat, with a brushing of extra-virgin olive oil and salt and pepper.

Then there are the firm, starchy veggies that grow underground, like potatoes, beets, sunchokes, turnips, and carrots. These vegetables do best when indirect grilled at a more moderate temperature for a longer time (30 to 60 minutes) to soften their firm cellulose and cook their starches slowly. The beauty of this method is that it is easy to add wood chips or chunks to the fire to generate wood smoke.

Speaking of smoke, there are some vegetables that generate their own smoke when grilled, especially using the “caveman” method directly on the embers. This group includes eggplants, which acquire a haunting smoke flavor when you char the skins (this is the secret to great baba ganooj), and bell peppers, which become supernaturally sweet and smoky when ember-roasted.

Here’s our A-to-Z guide to grilling summer vegetables. Use it while the high summer produce season lasts!

Asparagus: Snap off the fibrous bottom ends. Pin the stalks side by side into rafts with toothpicks. Brush with sesame oil or olive oil and direct grill over high heat.

Broccolini: Brush with chili oil or olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Direct grill over medium-high heat until tender (I like to char the ends).

Corn: Strip back the husks and tie them together under the ears to make a handle. Brush the corn with melted butter and season with salt and pepper. Direct grill over high heat until darkly browned. For a Mexican twist, slather grilled corn with mayonnaise and dust with grated cotija cheese.

Delicata squash: Cut into 1/2-inch rings, discarding the seeds. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Direct grill over medium heat until browned and tender.

Eggplant: Cut large eggplants crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick steaks. Brush with olive oil and direct grill over high heat until browned and tender. Roast medium eggplants directly on the embers (caveman style). Puree with garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, and tahini to make the world’s best baba ganooj.

Fennel: Cut off the leafy tops (save them for tossing on the embers when grilling fish). Cut the bulbs from top to bottom into 1/4-inch slices. Brush with olive oil and direct grill until browned and soft. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar for serving.

Green beans: Stem and string. Toss with olive oil and chopped dill or garlic. Grill in a wire mesh grill basket over high heat, or even better, directly on the embers. Top with slivered toasted almonds.

Hatch chiles: Cut in half lengthwise and stuff with sauteed onions, breadcrumbs, and grated cheese. Indirect grill at medium-high heat until soft and the filling is bubbling. Note: This mild to fiery green chile from New Mexico is in peak season in August. One great source is Melissa’s.

Iceberg lettuce: Cut into quarters. Brush with oil and sear the flat faces over a hot fire. Then let cool and top with your favorite ranch dressing.

Jerusalem artichokes (aka sunchokes): Scrub well and dry. Place in a foil pan with butter, salt, pepper, and unpeeled garlic cloves. Indirect grill at medium-high heat until crisp on the outside and tender inside (45 minutes). Extra points if you add wood chips to the fire to generate smoke.

Kale (especially lacinato kale): Brush each leaf on both sides with sesame oil and soy sauce. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and direct grill over medium-high heat until browned and crisp on both sides.

Leeks: Split and wash well to remove any grit. Brush with olive oil and direct grill over medium heat. Top with vinaigrette.

Mushrooms: Great for grilling. Stem and wipe clean with a damp cloth. Brush with garlic parsley butter and direct grill over a medium-hot fire, slathering with more garlic parsley butter as they cook.

Napa cabbage: Cut crosswise into 1-inch steaks, which you secure with bamboo skewers. Brush with sesame oil, soy sauce, and minced garlic. Direct grill over high heat.

Okra: One of my favorite surprise veggies to grill. Skewer into rafts (like asparagus). Brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Direct grill until sizzling and browned. Sprinkle with freshly grated Parmigiano.

Plantains: Let ripen until black, then peel and cut on the diagonal into 3/4-inch-thick slices. Brush with melted butter and caramelize on a hot griddle or direct grill.

Quaresima peppers (aka sweet Italian peppers): Place in a grill basket and blister over a hot fire or directly on the coals. Grill shishito peppers the same way.

Radicchio: Cut into wedges and secure with toothpicks. Brush with olive oil and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Direct grill over a hot fire.

Sweet potatoes: Indirect grill over medium-high heat until the skins are crisp and the flesh is soft (pierce with a fork). Open and serve with maple syrup and butter.

Tomatoes: Cut in half widthwise. Smoke at low temperature in your smoker or on your grill. While you’re at it, smoke cucumbers, sweet bell peppers, sweet onions, and a garlic clove or two. Blend with olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper to make the world’s best gazpacho.

Ube (purple yam): Scrub the outside and indirect grill it. Enjoy like a sweet potato.

Vidalia onions: Peel and cut out the stem end in a cone-shaped plug. Stuff with crumbled bacon and barbecue sauce. Smoke-roast (indirect grill) at medium heat until soft and tender, 40 to 60 minutes.

Winter squash: Halve and seed acorn squash, then indirect grill it cut-side down on a preheated salt slab until tender.

Xoconostle: I bet you thought I’d be stumped here! This is the Nahuatl term for a sour prickly pear. Mexicans char it over a hot fire and grind it to make salsas.

Yellow squash: Cut in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Stuff with chorizo or Italian sausage. Indirect grill over medium-high heat.

Zucchini: Cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and dried mint. Direct grill over high heat and drizzle with Greek yogurt or tzatziki.

Related Reads

• Corn on the Grill: Three Ways to Do It Right
• For Flavor-Packed Produce, Ember-Roast Your Veggies
• From Garden to Grill: A Guide to Grilling Vegetables

The post Veggies Hit the Grill: An A-to-Z Guide to Best Ever Summer Produce appeared first on Barbecuebible.com.

Carrots, and cabbage, and collards, oh my! Fall is here and it’s time to head back to the garden to plant your autumn vegetable crops. For a bountiful harvest from your fall veggie patch, there are a few tips and tricks you’ll need before you sow your seeds and transplant your seedlings. Ready to learn more? Read on!

The post How to Plant an Autumn Vegetable Garden appeared first on Gardener's Path.

It wins no competitions. It joins no halls of fame. But without it, a grill session would be short of an essential element. And barbecue—whether the backyard variety or the kind served at your favorite smokehouse—would seem downright incomplete.
I speak, of course, of potato salad. If you make it from scratch, good for you. I’m going to tell you how to make it better. And if you’ve never made potato salad from scratch, it’s time to start.

Some of the world’s great grill cultures back me up on this. What would German Spiessbraten—onion-stuffed pork shoulder spit-roasted over blazing birchwood—be without Kartoffelsalat, the warm, vinegary, bacony potato salad served alongside it? Or Peruvian anticuchos—grilled beef-heart kebabs—without papas a la huancaína, potatoes dressed with a piquant Andean chile-cheese sauce?

Closer to home, there’s the potato salad at your neighborhood barbecue joint, or even at temples of smoke and fire like Franklin Barbecue in Austin and Lewis Barbecue in Charleston. The style may change, but the message does not: don’t stage a grill session without it.

What Makes a Great Potato Salad?

First, there’s the potato. Then the dressing. Then the embellishments, flavorings, and garnishes. Even temperature enters the picture, because some potato salads taste best cold, while others are at their finest warm or at room temperature. Here are the decisions that separate an ordinary potato salad from a great one.

1. Choose the Right Potato

Tradition often calls for waxy potatoes, such as fingerlings, red potatoes, and Yukon Golds. They’re lower in starch than baking potatoes, so they hold their shape when cooked and tossed with dressing. That makes them ideal for warm German-style salads and any version in which you want distinct pieces of potato rather than a softer, creamier texture.
But don’t overlook baking potatoes. They’re higher in starch and become light and fluffy when baked. Start with a fully baked potato, chill it, then dice it. One of the best potato salads I’ve ever tasted comes from Larsen’s Fish Market in Menemsha on Martha’s Vineyard. They start with baked potatoes and add bacon and scallions. Delectable!

2. Put Some Skin in the Game

Personally, I like potatoes with their skins on—more color, more flavor, and more fiber. Scrub them clean with a stiff-bristled brush before cooking. On the other hand, Mrs. Raichlen prefers her potatoes peeled before they become potato salad. Just saying.

3. Dress the Potatoes at the Right Temperature

When Germans make potato salad, they start with hot cooked potatoes. As the potatoes cool, they absorb the dressing, which typically includes vinegar, mustard, oil or bacon fat, and, of course, cooked bacon. Warm or room temperature is the way to serve it.

For a creamy American-style salad, let the potatoes cool fully before adding the mayonnaise dressing. For food safety reasons, mayonnaise should always be kept cold.

4. Choose Creamy or Vinegary

The traditional American version gets its richness from mayonnaise. Hellmann’s, please—unless you come from the South, in which case your mayo of choice may be Duke’s. Central Europeans favor a sharper vinegar-based dressing, with oil or bacon fat supplying the richness.

Neither style is automatically better. The important thing is balance. Potatoes are mild and starchy, so the dressing must bring enough acidity, salt, and seasoning to wake them up.

5. Flavor Assertively

As far as I’m concerned, any potato salad needs mustard and vinegar to offset the starchiness of the potatoes. German potato salad demands a touch of sweetness to counterbalance the vinegar and smoky richness of the bacon.

Many people crown their potato salads with a sprinkling of sweet paprika. You, my friend, will add a smoky dimension by sprinkling on pimentón—Spanish smoked paprika. Once you try it, I promise, you’ll never go back to the sweet stuff.

6. Add Crunch and Contrast

All cream and no crunch would make for a boring potato salad. In my house, capers, olives, and cornichon pickles are obligatory, as are chives or scallion greens chopped so finely a sudden sneeze would blow them away.

Sliced celery? It certainly adds crunch, but Mrs. Raichlen doesn’t like celery, so I omit it. I have been known to sneak in slivered celery leaves. Mrs. Raichlen, meanwhile, likes to add diced raw carrot—diced, mind you, not shredded—to maximize the crunch.

The exact embellishments are up to you. The larger point is to give the soft potatoes something crisp, briny, fresh, or sharp to play against.

7. Make It More Substantial

Just because it’s a side dish doesn’t mean potato salad can’t contain protein. Bacon may define German potato salad, while sliced hard-cooked eggs give an American version more heft. Peru’s popular papas a la huancaína pairs potatoes with a piquant sauce made with tangy white cheese and aji amarillo, the country’s fruity yellow chile.

8. Above All, Add Smoke

So what makes a Raichlen potato salad a Raichlen potato salad? You guessed it: smoke and fire. Instead of boiling the potatoes, I smoke-roast them on the grill.

Set up your grill for indirect grilling and heat it to medium-high—about 400°F. Add wood chips or chunks to the fire. Place the potato chunks in a foil pan and toss them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Smoke-roast until tender, about 40 minutes, stirring from time to time with a wooden spoon.

The potatoes emerge bronzed at the edges and perfumed with wood smoke. From there, you can take them in an American, German, or Peruvian direction.

Four Potato Salads to Try

Drum roll, please. I now give you four of my favorite potato salads—American, German, and Peruvian, with two very different approaches to the German classic. You be the judge as to which is best.

So Which Potato Salad Is Best?

Creamy or vinegary? Warm or cold? Skins on or off? There is no single correct answer. The world’s best potato salad is the one that delivers the right balance of tender potatoes, assertive seasoning, contrasting textures, and enough acidity to keep you coming back for another forkful.

But this much I know: smoke-roast the potatoes instead of boiling them, and your potato salad will taste like the barbecue it accompanies. Once you add smoke and fire, the humble potato salad becomes a star of the show.

The post How to Make the Best Potato Salad You’ve Ever Tasted—The Secret Is the Smoke appeared first on Barbecuebible.com.