Ah…Summer!
The wrens have fledged their young
from their tidy house in the crabapple outside our kitchen window. The white
blossoms are gone from the tree, but its shade is most welcome on the few warm
and muggy June days as we brace for the visitor season in Maine.
Those of us who live here year around tend to
grumble at more than five cars at an intersection, but happily forget the
inconvenience when friends and relatives ‘from away’ come to visit. It is the
season of outdoor festivals and holidays that simply demand we savor this short
and glorious season of summer.
We savor not only the light breeze with our view of
sparkling blue water and sky, but also the change in meals reflecting the
bounty of local fresh produce. The grill takes over for our usual kitchen
activities. Even though we cringe at burnt toast, the slightly charred edges of
a steak or even a kale leaf affect our visual and taste appeal in a mouth
watering way.
Steak and hamburger are the quickest and easiest
meats to grill. Hamburger mixed with a couple of tablespoons of Worcestershire
sauce, formed in patties and chilled for a half an hour, provides an
interesting variation on this staple. To dress up steak or a hamburger, blend a
¼ cup softened butter with some crumbled Danish blue cheese or Roquefort and
place a dollop on the warm cooked meat before serving.
Grilled lamb is delicious in many variations.
Shoulder lamb chops marinated for a half an hour before cooking in light soy
sauce make an easy dinner choice. Kebabs take longer to marinate, but their
flavor is wonderfully complex with vegetables briefly marinated in the same liquid.
Lamb
and mushroom kebabs
Meat is most flavorful if marinated overnight or at
least 8 hours. Marinade: 1 cup dry red wine, 1 tblsp. Worcestershire sauce, 2
minced cloves garlic, 2 tblsp. vegetable oil, 1 tblsp. catsup. ½ tsp. sugar, 1
½ tblsp. red wine vinegar, ½ tsp. marjoram, ½ tsp. thyme. Cut 1 lb lamb
shoulder in 2 inch cubes and marinate in the wine mixture in the refrigerator
overnight. For grilling: clean 12 mushrooms, cut a red onion in quarters and
separate out individual leaves, cut a red or green pepper in 2 inch pieces and
a thin zucchini in 1 inch slices. Marinate the vegetables in the wine mixture
briefly before assembling. It is easier to control cooking of the meat and
vegetables on separate skewers, with only the onion leaves separating the meat.
Grill on a hot grill until meat is cooked to desired level and the vegetables
as browned.
One of the joys of living in Maine is the yearly
crop of rhubarb, that has grown with great exuberance this year in our cool
spring. We have it at our house as a compote with raisins, rhubarb cake, a
rhubarb dried cherry pie and occasionally as rhubarb cream pie. The original
recipe for this came from my good friend Elizabeth Lenz many years ago.
Rhubarb
cream pie
Have pastry ready for a 2 crust 9 inch pie and line
the bottom with one crust. Put in 3 cups cut up rhubarb. In a bowl mix
together: 1 ½ cups sugar, 3 tblsp.
flour, ½ tsp. nutmeg, ½ tsp. grated lemon peel, 1 tblsp. melted butter and 2
slightly beaten eggs. Pour mixture over rhubarb and top with a lattice top
crust. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, reduce heat to
350 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Remove from oven, cool and
enjoy.
As Gershwin wrote: “Summertime, when the living is
easy…”
(I. Winicov
Harrington lives in coastal Maine and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and
Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website:
www.winicov-harrington.com)
