The strawberries that made their debut at the farmer’s market about a month ago are now are beautiful small berries, red all the way through. They give off that distinctive perfume that fills our imagination with strawberry memories.
It makes sense that with warmer weather and more sun, they develop color, sugar, flavor, and what the French might call ‘gueule,’ or what Humphrey Bogart might have called ‘kisser.’ And for those of us in Portland, the Hoods showed up at the Farmers’ Market at Portland State today. Cause for celebration.
We dream of strawberry shortcake, strawberry ice cream, or simply strawberries sprinkled with a little sugar and topped with the last bit of Oregon Pinot wine in the glass at the end of a meal. (I know there is no such thing as leftover wine.)
We’ve passed the moment for using early strawberries (others await) for risottos, or salads composed of mix of first vegetables and berries. When I saw beautiful kohlrabi recently, vibrant from the earth where it grew, I remembered a salad of julienned kohlrabi , nested on a bed of tender butter lettuces, dressed with a yogurt vinaigrette. It was finished with slices of strawberries. I want it again.
At this point in the unfolding of the season, I know the cherries can’t be far behind, so am going through memories of dishes I anticipate. Josephine Araldo taught me to prepare the first green beans tossed with cherries. She garnished them with a compound butter of tarragon, parsley and a note of garlic. They make a lovely accompaniment to pork or chicken. A cherry future is heading toward us with each warming day.
I had the chance to work with Mary Copeland in Colorado where we set up a school in Boulder, and later in Denver. She’s the finest pastry chef with the rare skill of walking the line between artist and scientist. She has the technical skill to make things well, but also has the expectation of what will make it taste, the combination creates perfection. Her sense of using sugar is singular. She knows how to back off the sweetness in a dish. The palate reaches for the flavor and hers always find the marriage of ingredients with sugar, that little engagement via sugar between eater and eaten that’s a surprise.
Clafouti is one of those French desserts that if you grew up French your mother probably made a thousand times before you got out of high school. Mary’s version is more like a tart with cherries in custard. It calls for blind baking a crust of choice. Once baked, it’s filled with cherries, pits left in, so you know it’s Clafouti.
She makes her custard filling a little sturdier with the addition of an extra egg, and a small amount of flour. Milk, once scalded, is added, flavored with vanilla, and something, Grand Marnier, Kirsch, brandy. I sometimes opt for Orange blossom water. Once flavored, the custard is poured onto the cherries contained in the pre-baked crust. It returns to the oven to bake till set. It is a thing of beauty, with flavor to match.
MARY COPELAND’S CLAFOUTI
Tart dough for a 9-inch pan, blind baked
¾ pound of cherries, stems removed, but pits left in
1 cup half and half, scalded
5-1//2 ounces of sugar
1 tablespoon flour
4 large eggs
Vanilla and flavoring to taste, Brandy, Kirsch, etc.
Preheat oven to 400oF
Put the cherries into the pre-baked tart. Mix the sugar and flour in a utility bowl. Add eggs, one at a time. Add milk, whisking, then add flavoring. Pour the mix into the crust with the cherries, set on the middle shelf of the oven, and bake for about 30 minutes until set. Remove from the oven, and let cool before slicing.
Copyright 1998
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