Southern Fried Corn, a Summery Tomato Congee and a Lot of Limonada

New York Times

20-07-2025

Kim here, doing Sam's homework for him again.
I live in the South but grew up in the Midwest. I mention geography only as a way to discuss corn.
I've always wanted to try fresh corn the way the old-timers in both regions suggest: Boil a pot of water in the field, shuck an ear while it's still on the stalk and then drop it into the water for about as long as you can hold your breath.
I suspect the old-timers are just making that up, because that's what I'm going to do when I'm an old-timer. But the concept is solid. Corn should be boiled just long enough for the milky starch to gelatinize, but not so long that the kernels get wrinkly and the sweetness is boiled away.
Around here, that's about three minutes. You could use Sam's blanch-and-grill method, brought to you by way of Bobby Flay. Easier still, you throw the ears, still wearing their husk suits, into a microwave the way our Genevieve Ko suggests.
Or you can pivot hard, cut uncooked kernels off the cob and make Southern fried corn. The bacon and roasted red peppers in Millie Peartree's recipe read main dish, but I do want to find someone making Sunday fried chicken so we can collab.
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But tomorrow is Monday, and who has time to fry chicken, amirite? Instead, I'm going to do it the way they do on the Italian island of Ischia and make baked chicken with potatoes, cherry tomatoes and herbs, brought to you courtesy of my work wife, Julia Moskin. I like this recipe for a lot of reasons, but one is that it gives me an opportunity to use some of these cherry tomatoes renting space on my counter.
Cherry tomatoes are coming in fast and furious at this point in the summer, which sent me in search of more ways to put them to work. Eric Kim's brothy tomato and rice soup is a terrific idea for Tuesday. It has a summery congee vibe that I think you will love.
My summer Wednesday solution: 30-minute, chilled tahini ramen salad. You're welcome.
Around my house in Atlanta, we like to mark the end of the week with a dish that honors all of the promise of the weekend to come. That's often my recipe for Southern shrimp scampi. Scampi is one of those terms that has migrated past its original Italian roots (shrimp scampi roughly translates to 'shrimp shrimp'). The thing that makes this Southern is the beautiful gulf shrimp that are just killer this time of year. And also, I wrote the recipe in the South.
The Saturday forecast here is for hot and more hot, with a good chance of hot. So I'm making another batch of Brazilian lemonade. The recipe is dead simple — just blend limes, peel and all, with sweetened condensed milk. It could become your drink of the summer.
And if I've said it once, I've said it a million times: Weekends are for Dutch babies. This is a classic magic trick of a recipe from Florence Fabricant. Did you know her first article for The Times was in 1972? She went to Queens to report on food from the collection of countries that used to be called Yugoslavia. She is our queen.
To our subscribers, thank you. It's no hyperbole to say we can't do this without you. Obviously, if you haven't yet, you'll want to subscribe to New York Times Cooking and join those who know that, for less than the price of a good Dubai chocolate bar, you get access to thousands of recipes and cooking instructions. If you ask me for technical help, you'll be waiting a long time. But the kids at [e-mail] will be on it like a duck on a June bug.