Juicy Fruits: Medicine We Need Now

My oops. I've forgotten to say we've come to the juicy fruits phase of the year and need to fortify ourselves with all the farmers' market has to offer. Why? Because moving around in the heat and intense sunlight of summer (which, if you look at the thermometer these days, extends into early September) soaks moisture out of our bodies in the form of sweat. So just when we most need to rehydrate back up to 90% water (that's our bodies for you), Mother Nature hands out juicy berries, melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, summer squash and all sorts of watery food. Eat this is her mantra. Now is the time. This is the best medicine!

So indulge. Watermelons make great salad with fresh feta and black olives (added salt to hold moisture in your body) or fabulous agua frescas even kids can drink. A recipe is in How to Fix a Leek... the book so I won't repeat it here. Melons can be eaten with berries or ice cream or both. They're great for breakfast as a starter or beside blueberry pancakes. They can be mushed with yogurt into a cold soup; there's a recipe in my other book, Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking, for a tasty one. And of course melons including watermelons are the stalwarts of vividly colorful and necessarily water filled fruit salad, perfect right now for breakfast (with yogurt), lunch (with a sandwich or cold chicken) or dinner as the salad.

Cucumbers are the star of simple, vinegary German cucumber salad (recipe in How to Fix a Leek...) and the all purpose Greek tsatsiki, aka Indian raita, both famed dishes of cooling yogurt laced with shredded cucumber, salt, garlic and either dill or mint, your choice.  Either one makes a great dressing for fresh chicken salad too.  Cucumbers are part of the trinity of famed Greek salad (called Farmer's Salad in Greece), a super hot weather creation designed to put and keep moisture in your body. For each person it needs one large juicy tomato in vivid chunks, half a pickling size cucumber quartered and sliced, 4 Kalamata olives, 1/2 small green pepper in thin strips, optionally a thin slice of a small red onion with the rings separated, and 4 good sized chunks of fresh feta cheese. Note the various shapes and colors. Optionally and not traditionally you can now add a few chopped leaves of fresh oregano or fresh mint. Dressing is simply 1 part fresh lemon juice to 3 parts good fruity olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Summer eating at its juicy best!

If berries haven't gone by where you are, grab all you can. What you don't eat right away you can easily freeze for winter warmth. How to Fix a Leek....has a great French provincial recipe for blackberries in a clafouti, a cross between pudding and cake that's excitingly simple to make. Blackberries are also perfect with yogurt pudding, thick yogurt combined with cardamom, saffron and other precious spices along with pistachios. Recipe in Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking. 

Large high bush blueberries in a bowl all by themselves are perfect party fare right now. And for a breakfast wow, hold the butter on your French or just plain toast, slather on mascarpone and top with blueberries that will stick to it. If you have time, make a quick cookie dough (Linzer torte dough is especially wonderful for this), pat it into a pie or tart pan to about 1//3" thick, seal it with a slather of apricot jam or apple jelly, put weights on it and bake until golden. When it cools, slather on 1/4" of fresh mascarpone and cover it entirely with a layer of whatever berries you've got. Seal and shine them by brushing on melted jam.  Here's my leftover dough, leftover blueberry tart made exactly like that:

It works for breakfast, coffee, lunch or dinner!  Here's the Linzer torte dough recipe but beware: it's enough for two tarts. (You can freeze the dough if you don't need it all.)  Cream 2 sticks (1/2 lb) unsalted butter with 1/2 c sugar. Add 2 egg yolks, 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice and 1 tbsp lemon zest. Beat until smooth. Add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, pinch of ground cloves, larger pinch of ground cardamom and 2 1/4 c flour. Combine into crumbly dough: do not process into a ball.  Press this dough into your pan or free from shape on a buttered surface, seal with jam. Cover with foil or parchment and press down with a weight before baking at 350º about 35 min or until crust is golden brown and crunchy. 

Eat and be well!