A Twist On The Cherry

Posted on July 9, 2018 by Ann Lovejoy
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Awakening Flavor In Fruit

This summer has been a good one for cherries and our Northwestern orchards and markets are full of plump fruit. I’m especially fond of pale golden Rainier cherries, with their blush of pink or rosy red. Bred in Prosser, Washington and named for the mountain, they’re little known outside of Washington and Oregon, but locals eagerly watch for the first Rainiers to eat by the handful. The quintessential dessert cherry, they’re sweeter than most and are delectable in salads both fruity or green. Though Bing cherries have long been the gold standard, Northwestern growers have been introducing improved varieties such as midnight red Attika, valentine red Sweetheart, and yellow-to-red Early Robin, nearly as sweet as Rainier and as early as Bing.

Sun-warm cherries fresh off the tree always taste amazing, but after a day or two, they lose a little of their luster. I find that cherries retain quality best if soaked in cold water for an hour or so, then drained well. That long, chilly soak improves their texture, keeping them firm and juicy rather than flaccid and mealy. If they won’t be eaten that day, most cherries can be refrigerated for several days and still taste good. Cherries that lack zip will be enhanced by roasting, since caramelizing awakens a wide range of sweet and savory flavors hidden in many a fruit or vegetable).

A Tooth Breaking Treat

One memorable summer long ago, I worked on a farm outside of Aix en Provence, picking cherries and making lavender bundles. I’d never before tasted anything as lovely as warm cherry clafoutis, a sort of Dutch baby made with tart-sweet black cherries. Apparently it’s traditional to use unstoned cherries and all unsuspecting, I cracked a tooth on a pit on the first mouthful. Ever since, I’ve been a dedicated cherry pitter. After experimenting with various ways to pit cherries easily, I learned to cut them in half, rotating the two halves in opposite directions to loosen the pit, then flicking it out with the knife or my fingertip.

Over the years, I’ve tried many other techniques and tools, including balancing a cherry on top of a bottle and punching the pit through with a straw. This is not as easy as some people make it look, though using a metal straw will definitely help. A few years ago I found a plain metal cherry pitter that’s easy to use and is surprisingly fast, though it’s definitely wise to wear an apron. Cherry juice can stain badly, so if it gets on your nice clothing, rinse quickly and spritz with a bacterial degrader such as Bac-Out or Pure Ayre. Such products are remarkably effective at removing stains made by wine, chocolate, blood, tea and other challenging substances. They can also remove (not mask) lingering smells from cigarette smoke to wet dog and recent skunk (that may take a few treatments).

Clafoutis And The Cat

My cat Sophie isn’t usually interested in people food, but she does go for dried seaweed and cantaloupe. She also seemed to find cherry clafoutis to her liking, as who would not? This French invention is much like a puffy breakfast pancake with a soft, custardy filling. Though such substitutions are not traditional, it’s also fabulous made with raspberries or sliced peaches.

Cherry Clafoutis

1 teaspoon butter
3 cups pitted cherries
3/4 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
4 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup milk (ok to substitute alternative milks)
2 teaspoons vanilla
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Rub a pie dish with butter and cover bottom with pitted cherries, set aside. Sift together flour and salt, set aside. Beat eggs until foamy, stir in sugar and beat until sugar dissolves. Stir in milk and vanilla, then add flour mixture and combine well. Pour over cherries and bake for 20 minutes, then lower temperature to 350 F and bake until puffed and golden (35-40 minutes more). Let stand for 10 minutes (it will collapse) and serve, dusted with powdered sugar. Serves at least one.

Roasted To Perfection

Roasting brings out the latent best in vegetables and can also elevate less-than-fabulous fruit to new heights. Roasted cherries are slightly chewy and tart-sweet, great for nibbling out of hand and wonderful in savory dishes, especially partnered with chicken or salmon or shrimp. They elegantly replace the ubiquitous dried cranberries in chicken salad, and make a lovely side for grilled fish.

Dress them up a bit by tossing while still warm with maple syrup or fresh lime juice, depending on what you want to do with the results. For a savory effect, roll them in curry powder or smoked paprika. For a sweet version, roll in coconut flakes or cinnamon and use them atop ice cream, a party cake, or cherry shortcake.

Basic Caramelized Cherries

2 cups pitted cherries, halved
2 teaspoons rice or safflower oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Toss cherries with oil then spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, cut-side down. Roast until edges are browned (15-20 minutes). Makes about 1 cup.

 

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Thoughtful Food For The Fourth

Posted on July 2, 2018 by Ann Lovejoy
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Celebrating A High Dream

As a child growing up in historic Concord, Massachusetts, a town where you could hardly walk a mile without stumbling over some historic monument to freedom and justice, I pretty much bought the high American dream wholesale. According to the local mythos, our beautiful country was founded by high dreamers indeed, noble minded people who deeply valued liberty and justice for all. As a young visitor to New York City, I remember reading this stirring poem (written by Emma Lazarus in 1883) on the base of the Statue of Liberty and feeling a thrill of tearful pride:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Yes! My country was certainly one to be proud of! As the Sixties rolled and the Civil Rights movement rocked our world, it seemed thrilling again to be part, however, tiny, of that great national willingness to be a better people. Social justice, economic justice, equality, freedom, education, human rights; all woke an enormous YES in my young self. YES, I want to be a part of making this country, this world a fairer, safer, and happier world for all. Liberty and justice for all, right? Right? YES!

What Can We DO?

It’s still there, that YES of mine. However, so many more of our filters are being stripped away now that it can be hard to know what to hang on to. Native American rights come into play as we recognize the inhumane and unjust way our forefathers ripped away their lands. So many of our national leaders clearly thought that genocide might be just the ticket for getting rid of these pesky people so the white could prevail. How did we the people not notice this most basic injustice? How can we ignore the way injustice and cruel inhumanity are still in play, with the First People of this land, with people of color, with poor folks, with immigrants who seek shelter here? Oh, and let’s consider the lot of women and children in general, whose rights are still abused with horrifying frequency as well. What about animals? What about the land? Earth itself?

What can we do indeed? I only wish I knew. On one hand, we can try to exercise our rights as citizens and require our elected officials to act in our names and according to our will: Abolish ICE! Set the captive immigrant families free! Reunite those families and make reparation! Get the unfairly imprisoned out of jail-for-profit institutions and help them find their feet. Stop the increasing ecological abuses of all kinds! Stop NOW! We can call and call and call again and we must, for only by letting our representatives hear from us daily, over and over and over, can we expect them to act in our interests, not corporate interests. And we can all be kind, generous, quick to offer a hand when a need is made known. Stress can make us crabby, that’s for damn sure, but let’s make a pact to stay kind and as clear about what we DO want as what we DON”T.

A High Dream

Here’s what I want, with all by heart: I want to live in a peaceful world where millions of people are constructively busy, making and mending, repairing old wrongs, restoring old damage. I want to be part of a culture that prizes kindness and creativity over acquisition. I want to live in a country where immigrants are actively welcome and where there’s no need for a War on Poverty because nobody goes unhoused, unfed, uneducated or without medical care.

I used to think that the pursuit of happiness was shallow and frivolous. The older I get, the greater the value I see in happiness for everyone. For one thing, happy people don’t covet other people’s land. Happy people don’t need to fill an inner black hole with stuff. Happy people don’t create hierarchies or play win-lose games with people, places, or things. Happy people don’t make war, don’t steal (legally or otherwise), don’t develop addictions. As the Buddha famously pointed out, happy people don’t need anything and they like to help. So now, I’m trying my best to be a happy person. After spending several years purging several homes of accumulated things, I am very clear about the not needing anything part. And I find that I really do like to help, whenever I can. Won’t you join me?

Feeding Family And Friends

It’s not easy to celebrate America in these dark and doubtful days, but I find that I can cheerfully celebrate that high dream and people everywhere who share it. Here’s a sparkly little salad that lifts my spirits every day all summer. It’s particularly good with crisp tortilla chips or stuffed into a pita with grilled fish.

Zingy Tomato Salad

1 tablespoon avocado oil
1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups shredded cabbage
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes (use several kinds)
2 ears sweet corn, kernels cut off
1 cup chopped sweet peppers (use several kinds)
1/2 cup chopped red or sweet onion
1/2 cup stemmed cilantro OR parsley
1 lime, cut in wedges

In a serving bowl, whisk oil, vinegar and salt together and adjust to taste. Toss gently with remaining ingredients except lime wedges and let stand for 10 minutes. Serve with lime wedges. Serves 6-8.

 

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Summery Fare For Sunny Days

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Ann Lovejoy
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Savory Fruit Soups

I recently attended a lovely lunch party for a dear friend who, at nearly 88, has decided to emigrate to Panama. Carol is one of my life heroes, a wise, kind, thoughtful, smart, engaged, active woman with connections to multiple community groups. Like so many others, I am beyond sad to lose her weekly companionship but thrilled by her example. How courageous to uproot herself after decades in this community and transplant herself into a distant country that doesn’t even have mail service. Actually, that may be part of the attraction; one reason Carol is making this move is that she too often feels overwhelmed, angry, horrified and sad about the state of our country. Panama, she has found, is a lot more peaceful, especially since it’s more challenging to follow our news there.

She also has family there and a circle of friends (of course), since she’s visited a number of times. This year, her winter visit lasted longer than usual and when she returned, she announced cheerfully that she had bought a small house with an attached “casita” for guests or caregivers, should the need arise. Her new community is made up of a number of similar units, a development model that could be extremely successful here as well. Given the lack of affordable housing all across the country, modest, single story homes with built-in ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) would sell like trendy doughnuts.

About That Lunch Party

Our lunch party was both cheerful and tearful, with old friends sharing marvelous Carol stories. There was plenty of laughter, much of which reminded me that old sorrows can seem pretty amusing in retrospect. That’s especially true when the imminent loss of a dear friend puts other issues into fresh perspective. For one thing, we all heard stories that were new to us, revealing how complex and fascinating a person Carol is. Indeed, I think most folks are, and often wonder how little of them we may really know. At one point, I suggested that we should start a class called Write Your Own Obit. I’ve noticed that too many single people have nobody to remember or tell their stories when it’s too late to discover more. I’d love to spend a few hours with others, writing our own stories and listening to them as well. We could even do a real version and an imaginary one, just for fun and contrast…

Anyway, at the lunch, we were fed a fabulous watermelon gazpacho that tasted like the essence of summer. Our kind hostess shared the recipe, which I tweaked to reflect my own preferences (see below). As always, I hope you may do the same, for recipes are really just guidelines, meant to be adjusted to your own taste. By all means, substitute and fiddle, because that’s how great food is born!

Cold Soups For Hot Weather

These chilled soups are exceptionally refreshing in hot weather, when hot, heavy foods can seem repellent. They are most easily and quickly made with an immersion or stick blender, which reduces washing up, but if you don’t have one, a food processor or even a regular blender will work just as well (but with more of that fussy washing up). All can be served immediately at room temperature or chilled, and like any soup, they’ll deepen in flavor as the ingredients mingle, so an overnight chilling is all to the good.

Sweet-hot and savory, this luscious watermelon soup is utterly delicious on a sultry day. Seasoning to taste is important, as some like it sweeter and others prefer to turn up the smoky heat. Flat Italian parsley can be substituted for the cilantro with very pleasing results.

Watermelon Gazpacho

6 cups peeled, chopped watermelon with juices (1 medium)
1 large English cucumber, finely chopped (peeled and seeded if not an English type)
2 cups finely chopped sweet peppers
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup minced sweet basil (such as Genovese)
1/2 cup stemmed cilantro (reserve half for garnish
1 tablespoon avocado oil or fruity olive oil
1 lime, juiced, rind grated
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon smoked hot paprika

Combine first seven ingredients in a large bowl, stir to blend and season to taste with lime juice, salt and paprika. Let stand 20 minutes, then adjust seasoning to taste. Remove 4 cups of the mixture, then use an immersion blender to puree the rest. Return the reserved 4 cups to the bowl, cover and refrigerate soup until ready to serve. Serve chilled or at room temperature, garnished with reserved cilantro. Serves 4-6.

A Melon Marvel

Ripe, fragrant cantaloupe blends beautifully with shallots, fresh ginger, and a touch of curry, though you can use any kind of flavorful melon. Make this simple soup as mild or fiery as you prefer, adding just a little maple syrup to boost the flavor contrasts if the cantaloupe isn’t particularly sweet.

Curried Cantaloupe Soup

6 cups peeled, seeded and chopped cantaloupe (1 medium)
2 cups chopped Persian cucumbers
1 large lemon, juiced, rind grated
1 inch fresh ginger root, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon curry powder or garam masala
2 teaspoons minced shallots
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon maple syrup (optional, as needed)
1/4 cup crumbled soft goat cheese
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

Combine cantaloupe, cucumbers, half the lemon juice and rind, half the ginger, the curry powder, shallots, and salt in a bowl and puree with an immersion blender. Adjust lemon juice, ginger, and other seasonings, adding maple syrup as needed to bloom the flavor. Serve chilled or at room temperature, garnished with goat cheese and green onions. Serves 4.

 

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Gorgeous Garlic Scapes

Posted on June 18, 2018 by Ann Lovejoy
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Savoring Swirling Scapes

A generous friend (thanks, Rick!) gifted me with one of early summer’s tenderest treats; a bagful of curly, tender-crisp garlic scapes. These slim, whippy stems are harvested before they bloom, so that the garlic bulbs will continue to ripen without expending energy on producing flowers and seeds. The bulb quality is always better if the scapes are removed before the blossoms open, though if a few escape your notice, a host of pollinators will be thrilled to visit the fragrant florets, a sweet reminder that garlic, onions, and their kin are members of the lily family.

Mushroom & Garlic Scape Salad

1/4 cup fruity olive oil or avocado oil
1 large lime, juiced, rind grated
1 cup finely chopped garlic scapes
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
pinch of smoked paprika
12 spears asparagus, thinly sliced diagonally
2 cups stemmed, thinly sliced brown field mushrooms
1/4 cup crumbled soft goat cheese
1/4 cup roasted pumpkin seeds

In a serving bowl, whisk oil with lime zest and juice and add salt and smoked paprika to taste. Add asparagus and mushrooms, toss gently to coat and let stand for at least 20 minutes or up to an hour. Before serving, toss with goat cheese and toasted pumpkin seeds. Serves 4 (or at least one).

A Savory Summer Frittata

This Umbrian specialty was one of the first recipes I learned from Signora Savino, my kitchen mentor during my student days in Perugia. It’s a very flexible recipe, so you can add or substitute many kinds of summery vegetables, from zucchini and pole beans to tomatoes and sweet corn, and change up the seasoning as well.

Asparagus & Garlic Scape Frittata

1-2 tablespoons fruity olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon minced rosemary or oregano
1/8 teaspoon hot pepper flakes (optional)
1 cup finely chopped garlic scapes
8 spears asparagus, chopped in 1-inch pieces
1 cup cooked rice (short grain brown or whatever you like)
6 large eggs, well beaten with 1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons minced Italian parsley
1/4 cup grated pecorino or Romano cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a wide, shallow pan that can go from stovetop to oven, combine 1 tablespoon oil, onion, salt, herbs, and pepper flakes if using and cook over medium heat to the fragrance point (about 2 minutes). Add garlic scapes and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add asparagus, cover pan and cook until tender crisp (about 3 minutes), shaking pan a little to keep things from sticking. Add rice, stir well and cook for 1 minute. Add more oil if needed, then pour in egg mixture and shake pan to distribute evenly. Sprinkle with parsley and cheese, then cover pan and reduce heat to lowest possible setting. Cook until barely set (6-8 minutes or so) then uncover and transfer to oven until top is lightly browned and cheese is melted (10-12 minutes). Serves 4.

Perugina Pesto

Piquant with lemon and spicy with garlic, this recipe is traditionally made with a mortar and pestle but a food processor does the job in no time and the results taste just as lovely.

Garlic Scape Pesto

4 cups chopped garlic scapes
1/2 cup lightly roasted hazelnuts
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Juice and finely grated rind of half a large lemon
1/2 cup coarsely grated Pecorino cheese
2-3 tablespoons fruity olive oil

In a food processor, grind garlic scapes, nuts, and salt into a rough paste. Add lemon zest and 1 tablespoon lemon juice, blending quickly, then add cheese, adding olive oil as needed to make paste smooth and creamy. Season to taste with salt and lemon juice, then spoon into glass jars, cover with a little olive oil and use at once or refrigerate, tightly sealed, for up to 2 days. Makes about 1-1/2 cups.

And By The Way

Feeling frustrated, helpless, uncertain about the state of our country? Here’s a comforting and clear guide to action:

Americans of Conscience Checklist

Each week, Jen sends out list of accomplishments, of successes, and of key tasks that need our focused concern. If it’s all too much, pick a single pressing issue and let your voice be heard. Every little bit, right? For me right now, it’s a family matter. As the current regime continues its assault on innocent people of many descriptions, the ongoing attacks on refugee families are among the most brutal. If you are horrified that families are being divided and that children are being incarcerated in cages without help or hope, you, like me, may want to speak out by calling your Senators in support of S.3036, a bill called Keep Families Together.

If you’re feeling outraged and overwhelmed, here’s a terrific link to a helpful site: 5calls.org (there’s a phone app too). I especially like the 5calls site because they offer a changing menu of topics you care about and a basic overview for whichever you select, various numbers to call depending on your zip code (including local offices if your politician’s D.C. line is busy or a voice mailbox is full). There’s also a guided script which you can change up or amplify as you like. I find this part really useful as I tend to start crying when I explain why I care so much about liberty and justice for all or basic human rights or human decency or Constitutional rights or…pass the hankies, please and hand me the damn phone.

 

 

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