07/30/2010 12:00 am
Adventure
Summer Food for Thought – The Frenchwoman Way
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Now is the season of summer produce markets and the tastiest of local fruits and vegetables. They are tastier than supermarket or out-of-season varieties so you can eat less and enjoy more, which is surely good for one’s health. Additionally, they are good for the local economy and environment (less transportation by-products).
I was shopping recently at an organic or “bio” market in the South of France and was taken aback by avocados from South Africa alongside local melons – no Manhattan Union Square Market, for sure – and it made me wonder whether the notion of organic at all costs or the reality of globalization is doing more to take taste out of our mouths. Just eat seasonal is nature’s first rule.
For many of us, food often evokes a memory of mom making something special, probably seasonal, concocted with love and linked to our culture and values. And cooking and shopping for food is and/or can be a pleasant experience in time travel, pleasure and nutrition.
For most of my girlfriends growing up in Eastern France, the summer treat par excellence was without a doubt ice cream because, in those not-too-distant days, it was only available July/August, made at the local patisserie and a treat that many had to deserve. Have things changed?
But for me the seasonal treat was a luscious red fruit: la tomate, something not exactly characteristic of the cool area and somewhat warm sun-deprived area where I grew up. But I would visit my cousin Andrée in Aix en Provence and she served the freshest, tastiest tomatoes daily in the summer, whether in a gazpacho, a ratatouille, a terrine, a stuffed tomato, a pasta sauce or pizza topping as well as all sorts of creative salads.
My taste buds would suddenly expand to heightened awareness and refinement of my senses in conflict, in harmony and in combination and celebration with one another, not only from the variety of dishes but the variety of tomatoes. A visit to the local market always brings back memories of my cousin at the different stands looking at the fruit like a precious object – its color, size, ripeness, asking all sorts of questions, getting carried away in conversation and sharing a recipe or two with the farmer or another customer and then deciding what she was going to cook.
Of course, ultimately cooking is education, and over the years I developed my own tomato recipes (probably enough for a tomato cookbook or two!). Over, the last 20 years, creative chefs have experimented a whole meal with tomatoes, and Arpège in Paris is known for his tomato dessert, but the most famous place in France is in Provence where chef Christian Etienne in Avignon makes an entire tomato menu, something many people will make a detour to taste summer after summer. And Christian gave me more ideas, like creating a quick, easy and delicious dessert with my midsummer fruit and adding it to my other red favorite fruit: la fraise, the luscious strawberry at its best early to midsummer. I serve it for lunch under the shady terrace. I wonder whether cousin Andrée would have liked it. I do, and so do my guests. The mix of the reds and the pepper always make for a conversation piece.
Strawberry Salad with Tomatoes
Serves 4-6
2 lbs. strawberries
3/4 lb. ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2 lemons
2 tablespoons honey
Freshly ground pepper
Wash and hull the strawberries and slice them. Place in a bowl and add the tomato pieces.
Cut four slices of lemon from one lemon, and press the juice from the other. Add the honey to the lemon juice and stir till well mixed. Add the lemon slices.
Pour the lemon/honey mixture over the strawberry/tomato mixture. Serve immediately or refrigerate for an hour before serving. Season with pepper at the last minute.
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Dianne: you aren’t the only "gotcha" guy. Yesterday this was posted:
As a sidebar, because I know Myrna Blyth is a writer and editor, I want to point out that
"I spent the whole sleepless weekend worrying about getting the second rental car and my husband and Iback to New York safely."
should read
" … getting … my husband and me back to New York safely."
It’s those little errors that grab, ain’t it?
By LucindaHerbert on 07/28/2010 10:25 am
In my travels, I’ve eaten many incredible foods, and when I visited France and Italy, I learned to understand the palate in a way that truly opened my mind to the idea of contrast.
Part of my family is Italian, from Sicily and the Bari region. At holiday gatherings, we enjoy a wonderful appetizer of fresh, juicy sliced discs of navel oranges with fresh orange juice (including some blood orange juice), plenty of freshly ground black pepper and thin slices of fresh garlic. A drizzle of the best olive oil we can get completes the dish, which marinates for a few hours before we attack it, soaking up the amazing combination of citrus, garlic and olive with chunks of Italian bread, and devouring the oranges that have absorbed the peppery, fragrant ingredients.
I also love it when strawberry season rolls around, so I can make one of my favorite summer treats. I slice loads of the ripest, most fragrant berries, and then add about half a cup of the sweetest, most complex balsamic vinegar I can possibly afford (and believe me, the great balsamico brands ARE costly!). I mix gently and cover the bowl to let it rest a while. This can be served in a mixed green salad, as part of the dressing - add just a touch of olive oil. It can be added to a fruit gazpacho. It can be used to smother a grilled chicken breast. But best of all? Over a scoop of creamy vanilla gelato, with just a tiny drizzle more of balsamic vinegar: heaven on earth! The blend of sweet, tart, creamy, soft, and so on just might make you swoon.
I also love chunks of ripe watermelon with ground pepper and ribbons of basil for garnish.
Best of all, I think that when food fills the mouth with a multiplicity of contrasting flavors and textures, it seems to satisfy more as we slow down to enjoy the experience. Result: eating less, and enjoying it more!