The sauce for this shrimp dish incorporates lime, tequila and triple sec.

Sautéed Shrimp with Margarita Sauce

1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 tablespoon red bell pepper or zucchini or tomato, diced
2 tablespoons pure olive oil
2 tablespoons shallots, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
5 local, wild-caught shrimp, peeled and deveined
Juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons triple sec and tequila (1:1 ratio)
1/4 cup organic black beans
1/4 cup organic coconut milk
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Kosher salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Cook the rice according tot the package instructions, adding 1 tablespoon red bell pepper or other vegetable.

When the rice is done, tightly pack it into two 4-ounce ramekins. turn out the molded rice onto two serving plates.

Heat the oil in a skillet over high heat. Add the shallots and garlic and sauté them for 1 minute.

Add the shrimp and sauté them for 3 minutes. Add the lime juice and cook for another minute. remove the pan from the heat and deglaze the pan with the liquors. Return the pan to the heat and add the beans, coconut milk, and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook for a minute or two longer to reduce the pan sauce; then serve.

Makes 2 servings.

From “The Harvest Eating Cookbook” by Keith Snow

Basil

The flavors of summer combine in this refreshing, simple salad.

Bibb, Basil and Mint Salad

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 head Bibb or butter lettuce, leaves torn
1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced
1/3 packed cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/3 packed up fresh mint leaves, chopped

In a salad bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and oil until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Add the lettuce, fennel, basil and mint and toss well.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Adapted from “Giada at Home” by Giada De Laurentiis

Use fresh fava beans when they are available.

Fresh fava beans or frozen lima beans work equally well in this recipe. “Be careful not to overcook the beans, as they can turn an unattractive gray,” Giada De Laurentiis warns. “Red snapper, with its pinkish hue, is a quite flavorful white fish that works perfectly with the fava beans. Finish it off with a drizzle of really good-quality extra virgin olive oil.”

Red Snapper with Fava Bean Purée

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3 pounds fresh fava beans, shelled, or 1 1/2 pounds frozen lima beans, thawed
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 (6-ounce) center-cut red snapper fillets

In a medium saucepan, bring the broth to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the beans. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the beans are tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Drain the beans and reserve 1 cup of the broth. If using fava beans, when the beans are cool enough to handle, pop them out of their outer pods, discarding the pods. Combine the fava or lima beans and reserved broth in a blender or food processor. Add the mint and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Season the fish with salt and pepper on both sides. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, until brown and the center is just opaque.

Divide the fava bean purée among 4 serving plates. Place a fillet of red snapper on top of the purée. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.

From “Giada at Home” by Giada De Laurentiis

This simple dish comes together in two minutes and cooks for 15, so it’s a great side dish for those without a lot of time on their hands.

Roasted Cauliflower

5 cups cauliflower florets
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Toss the cauliflower in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper.

Place in a roasting dish and cook until the cauliflower begins to brown slightly, about 15 minutes.

The roasted flavor of the cauliflower makes many dishes special, such as cauliflower soup, fresh salads, pizza or mashed cauliflower.

Makes 2-4 servings.

From “The Harvest Eating Cookbook” by Keith Snow

Two recent cookbooks demonstrate a trend that’s becoming more popular with those who have little time to cook, yet still want to put something fresh and delicious on the dinner table. They are “The Harvest Eating Cookbook” (Running Press, $29.95) by PBS chef Keith Snow and Giada at Home (Clarkson Potter, $35) by Food Network celebrity Giada De Laurentiis.

What they have in common is that they are both tie-ins to TV shows and feature plenty of pretty pictures of food. Yet neither has little writing in them to rob you of an extra second to spare.

So don’t look for a lot of technique here. Instead look for sound recipes that come together quickly. Snow even provides prep times as well as cooking time, so you can have Roasted Cauliflower on the table in no time. Snow says you should be able to prep the vegetable in two minutes and cook it in 15, so it’s ready in 17 minutes. Whip that up while you’re working on Sautéed Shrimp with Margarita Sauce, which takes 10 minutes of prep time and 25 minutes of cooking.

What is Harvest Eating? Snow answers in his brief introduction: “Harvest Eating is not a fad diet. Rather a lifestyle of cooking and eating using methods that have been practiced for centuries all over the globe. The method is simple: Buy foods that are fresh and in season; then prepare them using whole, natural ingredients produced by farmers, not chemists. If your second-grader can’t read it, you definitely don’t want to eat it.”

Snow breaks down his recipes into the seasons, using an icon to differentiate among the dishes. That doesn’t always work here in South Texas; the better advise would be to use whatever is freshest at the farmers market, mixing and matching what is available now, no matter what the rest of the country is eating.

If I prefer Snow’s work to De Laurentiis’, it could be because so many of the recipes and few tips that the Food Network star seem old hat. “Chimichurri is the A1 sauce of Argentina,” she writes as a preface to one recipe. “Italians love lentils and cook them in lots of creative ways,” she burbles in another. Some of her information is helpful, though: “Leftover caponata will keep, covered in the refrigerator, for up to a week. Toss with warm pasta, serve on top of meat, chicken or fish, or simply serve it with some toasted bread or crostini.”

Essentially, though, the usefulness of “Giada at Home” boils down to whether you like De Laurentiis’ Cal-Ital approach to cooking. After leafing through the book on several occasions, I came to the conclusion that I don’t. A few recipes were intriguing, but more often than not, I kept flipping pages hoping to find something I might make. For every Bibb, Basil and Mint Salad or Red Snapper with Fava Bean Purée, there were too many dishes like the sickly sweet sounding Honey-Balsamic Lamb Chops or the yawn-inducing turkey meatloaf.

No amount of photos of De Laurentiis in her kitchen or dining with friends could make up for the cavernous gastronomic pauses.

Your tastes could be wildly different. Just take the time to leaf through the both books before deciding.

Saffron threads suffuse food with a dusky, exotic flavor and golden color.

Q. I love the color and flavor of saffron, especially in paella, but it’s expensive. Can you substitute other seasonings when it is called for in a dish, such as achiote or turmeric?     — K.W.

A. Saffron is one of the world’s more exotic flavorings, used since ancient times and difficult to harvest. The thin threads are pricey, but the flavor is really what makes it all worth it. It has a dusky perfume that suffuses anything from delicate rice dishes or hearty stews. It’s delicious with fish or chicken and a perfect seasoning for slow-simmered lentils or garbanzo beans.

If it is just a pale golden or slightly orange color you want to impart to food, and all you have on hand is turmeric, a pinch or two of this less-expensive spice, in dried form, is OK to use. Fresh turmeric (from the rhizome, part of the root system, of a tropical plant) has a more pungent flavor, and is good on its own terms, not just as a substitute for saffron.

Achiote (from annatto seeds, from a tropical evergreen plant)  is mild in flavor but will yield a more reddish-orange color. It is used to color some cheeses, for instance, as an alternative to artificial colorings that might cause allergic reactions.

The reason for saffron’s expense is first that while the saffron crocus grows in places throughout the planet, it doesn’t grow just anywhere. The stigma, or threads that are the female part of the plant’s reproductive system, must be painstakingly hand-harvested from the blossom of a type of crocus plant. But a little saffron goes a long way, and it’s a valued addition to any good cook’s spice cabinet.

Photograph by Bonnie Walker

Island Coleslaw

Looking for a different take on your coleslaw? Try this Caribbean version from Trinidad and Tobago, where ripe fruit is plentiful and the combination of it with the cabbage is delicious.

Island Coleslaw

1 small head green cabbage, shredded small
1/2 cup crushed pineapple
2 small oranges, pith and seeds removed
1/2 cup diced mango
1 cup plain yogurt
Pinch of salt, or to taste
Dasheen or spinach leaves, for serving (optional)

Mix cabbage, pineapple, orange and mango. Stir in yogurt. Salt to taste. Serve either in a bowl or on a bed of dasheen, leaves of the taro plant, or spinact leaves.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Adapted from “Callaloo, Calypso & Carnival” by Dave DeWitt and Mary Jane Wilan

When my husband and I moved into our house 20 years ago this month, our next door neighbors welcomed us with a short visit and a frosted banana cake. The cake was very good, and the friendship has lasted through the years though the neighbors, Don and Ruth Frantz, purchased a house a few blocks away some time ago.

When we met, the two were about to have their first and only child. Now 20, Brad is studying accounting at the University of the Incarnate Word.

Ruth was over last night to catch up, have some wine and Mediterranean food and watch a movie. During the evening she got a text from her son who now watches over his mom. He was checking to see if she’d taken care of the flat tire she’d had earlier in the day on her car, and if she needed a ride.  That was worth a smile.

Today, I thought of that banana cake as I looked at two very, very ripe bananas in my kitchen and argued with myself whether it would be: banana smoothies or banana cake? You see here which won out!

The recipe is from Southern Living’s “Our Best-Ever Cakes & Pies.” I had to cut this recipe in half and substitute half-and-half for buttermilk. I added a teaspoon of lemon juice to the half-and-half and used a teaspoon of baking soda and a teaspoon of baking powder. The single-layer cake turned out just fine.  I’m going to whip up the Luscious Lemon Frosting for the cake as soon as it has cooled.

Decadent Banana Cake

2 1/2 cups plus 5 1/2 tablespoons cake flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
4 large very ripe bananas, mashed
2/3 cup buttermilk
Luscious Lemon Frosting (recipe below) or frosting of your choice
Banana chips for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Beat unsalted butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add granulated sugar and light brown sugar; beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition.

Beat in mashed bananas at low speed. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at medium speed until just blended after each addition. Pour batter into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks and let cool 1 hour before frosting.  Spread frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. Garnish, if desired.

(Cake, in photo above, has sifted powdered sugar over the top.)

Luscious Lemon Frosting

1 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 (32-ounce package) powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons half-and-half

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Stir in lemon zest and juice. (Mixture will appear curdled.) Gradually add sugar; beat at high speed 4 minutes or until spreading consistency. Gradually beat in up to 2 tablespoons half-and-half, if necessary, for desired consistency.

Makes 1 two-layer cake and frosting for a 2-layer cake.

From Southern Living’s “Our Best-Ever Cakes & Pies”

Grilled Beef Skirt Steak with Citrus

Try this recipe, created for Bush’s Grillin’ Beans by chef Tim Love, with a dry rosé or Albariño.

Grilled Beef Skirt Steak with Citrus

Dry Rub:
2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons minced fresh thyme
4 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2  tablespoons kosher salt
2  tablespoons cracked black pepper

2 pounds beef outside skirt steak clean
¼ cup peanut oil
2 lemons, cut in half

Combine rosemary, thyme, chili powder, cumin, kosher salt and black pepper to make dry rub.

Bring meat to room temperature. Light the grill and bring to 350 degrees.

Rub meat with peanut oil. Season well with dry rub.

Place meat on heated grill for 4 minutes each side for medium rare. Just before the meat is done, squeeze lemon all over the steak while still on the grill. This will punch up the flavor. Check temperature with a thermometer; remove from grill when the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.

To serve, slice meat across the grain.

Serve with 1 (21-ounce) can Bush’s Texas Ranchero Grillin’ Beans.

Makes 4-6 servings.

From Tim Love

Grilled Skin-On Chicken Breast

Chef Tim Love of Fort Worth created this recipe to be served with Bush’s Grillin’ Beans. Don’t fill your grill with meat. Save half, so the grill will be hot when you have to flip the meat, Love says.

Grilled Skin-On Chicken Breast

Serves: 4 to 6

Marinade:
1 gallon of water
½ cup salt
1 tablespoon chile flakes
3 garlic cloves
¼ cup sugar

4 medium chicken breasts with skin
3 tablespoons minced garlic
¼ cup chili powder
¼ cup peanut oil
Kosher salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Combine water, salt, chile flakes, garlic cloves and sugar in a container. Mix until salt and sugar dissolve. Add chicken breasts to mixture, cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Heat grill to at least 350 degrees.

Remove chicken from marinade and pat dry with paper towels. Combine minced garlic and chili powder in a small bowl, add peanut oil and mix together. Rub chicken breasts with chili powder mixture and lightly season each breast with salt and pepper.

Place chicken breasts on grill, searing each side for 9 to 11 minutes. Cook breast skin side down first, searing it until skin is crispy brown. Move chicken to warm side of grill (not directly over hot coals) and finish cooking for 13 to 16 minutes, until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees (juices should run clear). Or, if you need more time indoors, sear the chicken, then finish off in the oven by cooking it at 350 degrees for 13 to 16 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees (again, juices should run clear).

Serve with 1 (21-ounce) can Bush’s Black Bean Fiesta Grillin’ Beans and with Citrus-Arugula Salad (recipe follows).

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

From Tim Love

Citrus Arugula Salad

½ pound arugula
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 limes, juiced
Kosher salt, to taste
Fresh cracked pepper, to taste

Place arugula in a bowl and drizzle olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper over it.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

From Tim Love