Summer

Ice cream sandwiches are hard to hate, especially this one. What can be wrong with a dessert that combines sweet blueberries, tart lemon ice cream, and buttery blondie-like cookies? Store-bought vanilla ice cream gets a flavor lift with the addition of lemon juice and zest, plus an easy (as in three minutes’ prep time) blueberry compote.

Add some Parmesan cheese to creamed corn and what you get is something worthy of your best special-occasion roast, courtesy of Epicurious member Judym1us.

Mexican chef Roberto Santibañez invented this dish. Fresh corn adds a bright note to the buttery pudding, which pairs well with ribs, chicken, or salmon. Not a meat eater? Omit the ham without missing out on the bold variety of flavors. The pudding calls for instant corn masa mix, sometimes called masa harina, which can be found in the international aisle of the grocery store. This recipe easily doubles or triples for larger gatherings.

Soy sauce, sriracha, hoisin, and Asian sesame oil assert an Eastern influence on the traditional burger. Since the burgers and sauce can both be made ahead of time, this is a versatile, no-fuss meal perfect for a dinner party or after-work bite. With the lettuce, bell pepper, carrot, and cilantro in separate bowls, guests can customize their burgers as they please.

This spicy standout nails the difficult balance of sweet and fiery that characterizes the best jerk, cutting the heat of the Scotch bonnet chiles with a mixture of allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. The soy sauce adds a sticky-salty-caramel note when the meat is grilled. Because jerk seasoning can burn easily, make sure to use indirect heat when grilling the meat. Serve with rice, beans, and plenty of ice-cold beer. (And be sure to use gloves when handling the peppers.)

Here’s a restaurant-quality sauce that is rich and luxurious but easy enough to make at home. Professional cook and Epicurious member Thomas Campbell of New London, Connecticut, invented it, and his favorite part of the recipe is the bacon-flavored liquid; it adds a slightly sweet but smoky flavor to the sauce, and tastes even better after the flavors have time to mingle.

Crunchy, zesty, and light: what else could one want in a warm-weather salad? Radishes are thinly sliced and mingle with shelled fresh peas, while feta cheese and honey provide a special salty sweetness. Pea sprouts can be found at natural-food stores and Asian markets.

Chickpeas make this hearty dish even more gratifying. A half cup of the high-fiber legumes daily can cut your consumption of fatty foods.

The key to this recipe is using a ripe, in-season peach. Here in Arizona, we get amazing peaches from the farms in the city of Queen Creek, as well as from Utah. It's always good to get to know the produce guys at your local grocery store because they will tell you when peaches are in their prime. Peaches contain numerous nutrients that are good for your body, including niacin, thiamin, potassium, and calcium. They are also high in beta-carotene, which promotes healthy hearts and eyes. The darker the peach's color, the more vitamin A it has in its pulp. Peaches may also help in maintaining healthy urinary and digestive functions. There's some evidence that flaxseed oil, which is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, may help reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and even diabetes.

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other Mediterranean classics, check out the video classes.

This coffee-cake like strawberry cake is piled high with a lemony pistachio streusel.

This is a family favorite, created by Gianni's aunt Angela. It's a great cake to make when summer fruit is abundant. It is delicious when made with the plums called for in this recipe, but you may also want to consider using figs—one of my favorite fruits—or pitted sweet cherries. You can substitute about 6 quartered figs or 1/2 cup of cherries in place of the plums.

Arab salad, chopped salad, Israeli salad—whatever you choose to call it, there is no escaping it. Wherever you go, a Jerusalemite is most likely to have a plate of freshly chopped vegetables—tomato, cucumber, and onion, dressed with olive oil and lemon juice—served next to whatever else they are having. It's a local affliction, quite seriously. Friends visiting us in London always complain of feeling they ate "unhealthily" because there wasn't a fresh salad served with every meal. There are plenty of unique variations on the chopped salad but one of the most popular is fattoush, an Arab salad that uses grilled or fried leftover pita. Other possible additions include peppers, radishes, lettuce, chile, mint, parsley, cilantro, allspice, cinnamon, and sumac. Each cook, each fmily, each community has their own variation. A small bone of contention is the size of the dice. Some advocate the tiniest of pieces, only 1/8 inch / 3 mm wide, others like them coarser, up to 3/4 inch / 2 cm wide. The one thing that there is no arguing over is that the key lies in the quality of the vegetables. They must be fresh, ripe, and flavorsome, with many hours in the sun behind them. This fabulous salad is probably Sami's mother's creation; Sami can't recall anyone else in the neighborhood making it. She called it fattoush, which is only true to the extent that it includes chopped vegetables and bread. She added a kind of homemade buttermilk and didn't fry her bread, which makes it terribly comforting. Try to get small cucumbers for this as for any other fresh salad. They are worlds apart from the large ones we normally get in most supermarkets. You can skip the fermentation stage and use only buttermilk instead of the combination of milk and yogurt.

This flavorful lemongrass marinade is pretty common in Vietnam, where it's used on thin pork chops that are quickly grilled over a hot fire. Because the marinade has a lot of sugar, grilling the meat is the only way to go. If you try to pan-fry the pork chops, the sugar will burn before the meat is cooked through. These chops are best grilled over a two-zone fire. Start the meat on the hot side of the grill, which will sear the meat and begin to caramelize the sugar in the marinade, then move them to the cooler side to cook them through. The combination of salty and sweet is pretty irresistible, and the hand-chopped lemongrass adds fragrance and texture. I like to serve the pork with bowls of rice or vermicelli noodles. Use the best pork you can get, and don't trim off all of the fat. It helps baste the chops as they cook.

A simple shrimp salad is served in small dinner rolls in this fun (and easy) twist on the traditional New England lobster roll.

Salting and pressing vegetables draws out moisture and makes them snappy. Sake and seasoned rice vinegar infuse these pickles with mild, cocktail-friendly flavors.

If you're looking for fresh hits of color and crunch for the buffet, here's your answer.

The pan-fried pizza move comes in handy during the summer when you don't want to turn the oven to 500°F.

If it's melon season, you have to make this. In Burma (Myanmar), gin thoke, meaning "ginger mix," is a blend of crispy fried garlic, sesame seeds, and ginger, and is eaten as a sweet digestive snack after meals. Although not native to the region, melons are a refreshing and delicious complement to this dressing, together making a perfect summertime side dish. The ginger is key to this salad. Ideally, the gingerroot should be so young that the skin is almost transparent and the roots are tipped with pink.

What could possibly be better than a strawberry milkshake? A strawberry cheesecake milkshake! The cream cheese, which has a tang of its own that's enhanced by the lemon zest, helps make this milkshake as thick as, well, concrete (the very apt Missouri term for a milkshake).
If the idea of frozen strawberries hits you as totally counter to your locavore sensibilities, know that they are another secret to a milkshake thick enough to eat with a spoon, and if you grow your own or buy them at the farmers' market, we urge you to freeze them for this shake. You'll find the directions in the Cooks' Notes at the end of the recipe. Editor's Note: This recipe is part of Gourmet's Modern Menu for Burger Bash. Menu also includes Bacon-Cheddar Burgers with Caramelized Onions and Homemade French Fries with Five Dipping Sauces.