I am melting

The summer solstice occurred less then 24 hours ago, and I think we landed smack-dab into the dog days. Soaring temperatures that reach back a week, with reports that it’s stretching forward. The sun fiercely pelts down, evaporating the morning dew upon kissing the horizon. Trying to be a step ahead, the alarm clock on my husband’s nightstand is going off at 5.30 am in order for me get my java jolt, and grab a hose. I am trying to make sure my garden is not stressed by the lack of rain, but by noon the

squash plants droop for heat exhaustion. Though the tomatoes and peppers haven’t flinched, rather a profusion of flowers have been put out. I am hoping the chili peppers are going to be extra-hot this year. All my herbs are feeling just dandy under these conditions, growing and putting out leaves potent with fragrance. The only downside is the push to bolt, which I expect in August. Add to my just-breaking-day chores: deadheading all 30 plus herbs I am growing. But I am always excited to use these scented denizens of my summer scape.  There are daily sun-teas; torn leaves in every salad; pestos to rubbed into grilled meats, and infusions to magically extract.

As for the people and animals around me, the oppressive heat has everyone seeking shade or the relief of an artificial environment. Personally, I stand in solidarity with my friends in the garden, and suffer the heat…okay, with a caveat or two like a daily dip in the pool and a big scoop of ice cream.

Mango-Rose Geranium Ice Cream – approx 2-quarts

3-magoes – peeled and pureed (3-cups)

6-rose geranium leaves

4-cups whole milk

2-cups heavy cream

1½-cups sugar

4-egg yolks

In a 2-quart sauce place the geranium leaves, mago pits, milk and cream, and warm over a medium low heat.

In the meanwhile, in a work bowl beat the egg yolks and sugar together. Once the milk concoction has warmed beat about a third of the warm milk into the eggs. Then whisk the warmed eggs into the pot with the remaining milk. Using a rubber spatula stir the milk/egg mixture over the heat for about five minutes – making sure you don’t let the egg cruddle.

Remove the milk mixture from the heat, and pour through a fine sieve into a bowl. Stir in the mango puree to completely combine. Store the milk mixture in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours.

Pout the milk mixture into your ice cream maker, and proceed according to the manufacture’s instructions.

Trying to Forget it's Winter

The winter doldrums this year is more like, oh no not again. I have done my best to cook the blues away with stews, soups, braises any long cooking meal that will warm the house and allow our spirits to waft with the redolent bouquet coming off the stove. And, this employment of aromatherapy has done it job on many of the past nights, but I fear its effects are getting less potent. I am craving vibrant colors; I want to trek dirt into the house not because of my boots but due to the soil clinging to roots of what I just harvested. I must be suffering my own version of culinary-cabin-fever.

No one is more obsessed with being in the moment then me – eating what is seasonally abundant, locally sourced and, when possible, from my yard. It is February, and this year even my kale has succumbed to the bitter frosts that have descended on too many nights. I am suffering a need to spot the first crocus and deep green tip of an emerging asparagus, and yet it will be weeks before I dare to look down. Time to employ some color therapy and make a dish that takes me to a warmer, sun-drenched place. Winter does not have to cool blue outside and comforting brown on my plate – not tonight.

Winter Fruit Salad – yields 4 to 6 servings

2 kiwi fruit – peeled and sliced into strips

1 mango – peeled and sliced into strips

1pink grapefruit – peeled and cut into segments

1 English cucumber – sliced in julienne

1 medium red onion – cut in half; thinly sliced

1-tablespoon sesame oil

1/8-teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Gently toss all the ingredients together. Serve

An herbal life

My love of herbs can be traced back to my adolescence and that first herb that put a tolerable haze over those years – I go stoned.

I glided home in order to be on time for dinner – for it was both a requirement and the pot was working its hunger producing magic. I was so grateful that my father was working late and would not to be home for the evening meal for I was sure he would sniff me out – he has the nose of a bloodhound. My eyes were beet red, and I thought very word I spoke at the dinner table was being scrutinized with great relief I got through the meal undetected. That night’s meal glowed, and yet it was the usual salad; my mother made a mixed salad nightly accompanied with an array of dressings, hamburgers and canned French cut green beans. I inhaled five hamburgers before I started to slow down with my sixth.

My friends and I had the habit of pooling our resources in order to secure an ounce of this sweet aromatic burning herb. I did try to grow my own, a frugal attempt, which was thwarted by the gardener who spotted my struggling, pathetically leafy stems by the chimney on the side of the house – they got yanked -- so much for gardening. One weekend some friends headed into Manhattan to get into innocent teenage trouble, and hopefully cop some pot. With their wallets endowed with our collective funds they made a beeline to Washington Square Park where you could not spend a minute without being propositioned. Personally, I was a bit suspect of this public wholesale market, and my suspicions were borne out when the group returned to Long Island with a bag of oregano. Now, if they had the culinary aptitude I possessed they would have easily recognized that that plastic bag was filled with the wrong herb – we all ate pizza how could they that not recognize the contents of the shaker that was always found next to the grated cheese and chili flakes. For me, I returned my resource of a sure thing – my next-door neighbor.

Today, the herbs I score are just as potent except today their addictiveness is due to their heady aromatic presentation then an inhaled chemical released by smoke. 

Verbena-Mango Cake – yields 10-inch cake

8-ounces unsalted butter

2-cups sugar

4 whole eggs

1-egg yolk

1-1/2 teaspoons minced verbena leaves

1-teaspoon rose water

3-cups all-purpose flour

1-teaspoon baking powder

1/8-teaspoon salt

2-ripe mangoes – peeled and sliced (tossed in 1-tablespoon of flour)

1-heaping tablespoon apricot preserves

Butter and flour the cake pan.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a standing mixer mix together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

In another bowl beat the eggs, egg yolk, rose water and verbena together to combine.

Once the butter/sugar is very fluffy add the eggs to mix well.

In a separate bowl sift the flour, baking powder and salt through a sieve. Then on a low speed add the flour to the butter mixture.

Pour half of the batter in to the cake pan and then distribute the sliced mangos over the batter. Spread the remaining batter over the mangoes, and bake for about 40 to 50 minutes until set and a cake tester comes out clean.

Remove to a wire cooling rack and cool the cake completely before inverting.

Once the cake has cooled combine the apricot preserves with ¼-cup of water and over a medium heat stir to completely dissolve. Brush the warm apricot preserves over the cake allowing it to soak in.