Greetings, all! I’m back from my annual vacation in Midcoast Maine. In addition to chilly evenings (there’s something so wonderfully strange to me about needing a sweater in August), I love that the main activities up there tend to be simple ones: read a book, hunt for sea glass on the rocky beaches, drift from shop to shop in little towns, and…eat.
Maine and New England are top destinations for honest, simple, good American cooking. But we can also bring New England right to our homes. This week: recipes for easy chowder, tender biscuits and blueberry muffins, peach cobbler, summer salad, and a delicious blueberry galette.
Below is my updated Portland, Maine dining guide — one of America’s best food destinations.
The best lobster roll in Maine is not a typical lobster roll. It’s better. For my paid subscribers: If you make one dessert this summer, make it this Rustic Blueberry Galette. It’s basically blueberry pie, but in a folded, free-form (read: easier) dessert that looks great.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend, everyone. —Lisa
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Straight from my favorite Maine diner, this true Maine fish chowder is satisfying and surprisingly simple, full of tender white fish and buttery potatoes in a milky broth.
There is nothing like tender buttermilk biscuits to go with that chowder, warm from the oven and with so many flaky layers they split open by hand.
Lobster rolls may have the most fame, but this New England crab roll recipe keeps things simple, perfect, and authentic, with sweet lump crabmeat and grilled buttered rolls.
This Ina Garten-inspired French potato salad recipe needs no mayo. Instead, a fresh vinaigrette gets tossed with warm potatoes and fresh herbs for a true standout side.
Easy to make but impresses like a restaurant dish. I consider this a late-summer must.
Of all the blueberry muffin recipes, Jordan Marsh’s blueberry muffins best them all. Here’s the official recipe from Boston, with a few (dare I say?) tiny improvements for perfect results, every time.
This is a total winner: easy, tender drop biscuit topping over a fresh peach filling made even easier because you don’t have to peel the peaches!
Here it is! All my favorite picks for eating your way around one of my favorite food towns in America, from lobster rolls to fine dining.
I always think of a galette as the wild, jazz-loving cousin to a prim, proper pie. Where a pie is a fairly organized dessert — bottom crust, fruit filling, top crust, seamed together and baked — a galette is a free-form affair you can experience in an undone, but no less delicious, way.
A blueberry galette is fun to make, and looks especially gorgeous. The blueberries darken and get so juicy the juice bursts out of the seams, while the crust you carefully (or not! it’s fine! whatever!) folded up spreads a bit and bakes golden brown, barely containing the fruit.
You only need one pie crust, a mixing bowl, and a sheet pan for this. It keeps for several days and is the best dessert you’ll eat this month. Let’s bake.
Prep Time: 20 minutes + dough chilling / Bake Time: 40 minutes / Serves: 8 people (One 9” galette)
Filling:
5 cups blueberries (about 1 quart)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
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