STOCKING THE SUMMER PANTRY
A few staple ingredients make all the difference when preparing simple summertime meals
I’m done with canned tomatoes and chunky sauces, hot soups and meaty stews.
This cook is in summer mode, back at the market looking for whatever’s coming out of the farmers’ fields, craving crispy salads and grilled vegetables followed by fruity desserts.
Summer cooking is simple and easy, but it demands just the right pantry staples to highlight the best of the season’s offerings. Salads of delicate local greens call for nothing but a splash of light vinaigrette, but the oil and vinegar need to be top-notch. Juicy garden tomatoes want nothing but a pinch of salt, but it would be a shame to use ordinary table salt.
So I’m clearing out my pantry and bringing in a few stellar sidekicks to hit the high notes in my summer dishes:
MALDON SALT
This sea salt from the Essex coast of England comes in large, lovely flakes with a clean taste that lacks the bitterness of common table salt. First there’s a quick crunch, then the crystals dissolve on your tongue. That makes Maldon the perfect finishing salt for sprinkling on grilled fish and meats or sliced field tomatoes.
A FEW GLAM VINEGARS
There’s always a salad on the menu these days, so I keep a variety of vinegars in the pantry to switch things up: bold Spanish sherry vinegar for sautéed greens; sweet Asian rice vinegar to whisk with sesame oil for steamed vegetables; a splurgeworthy 15- or 20-year-old balsamic vinegar for salad or to drizzle over strawberries. To keep it local I make my go-to vinegar an old-fashioned Quebec apple cider vinegar, like the unprocessed one from Verger Au Coeur de la pomme, the familyrun orchard in Frelighsburg (a drop or two of which even find their way into a cocktail from time to time).
AN ALTERNATIVE OIL
Extra-virgin olive oil is a yearround staple. But an unrefined, cold-pressed organic local sunflower oil with a nutty nuance is just right for light vinaigrettes and homemade mayonnaise. I like the one from Champy, the farm in Upton in the Eastern Townships, or Maison Orphée in Quebec City.
ORGANIC CANE SUGAR
A rustic handmade pie is a work of kitchen art and the last brush stroke should be a sprinkle of turbinado or demerara sugar, both of which are less refined than white sugar. Their large grain and subtle caramel flavour add a bit of a crunch, which is a nice touch in fruit salads, too.
RICE PAPER WRAPPERS
All these dried Vietnamese rice sheets need is a quick soak in hot water to soften them up. This makes them the perfect base for a cold, no-cook supper on a hot summer day. Fill them with vermicelli rice noodles, julienned carrots and/or cucumbers, lettuce leaves, cooked shrimp, leftover chicken and a spoonful of hoisin sauce then roll up and eat. The dried berry of the Peruvian pepper tree isn’t a true peppercorn, but it has a gentle peppery taste with a hint of fruitiness that pairs well with a variety of seafood and looks beautiful, too. Lightly crushed pink peppercorns also give Mayan drama to melted chocolate for pouring over vanilla ice cream. The berries are delicate though, so smash them with a knife or spice mill rather than a pepper grinder. I keep cans of good-quality anchovy filets on hand to add a salty note to homemade pizza topped with cheese and sliced tomatoes or zucchini flowers. Also, they are nice mashed with lemon juice and garlic for rubbing on fish while grilling or as a quick crostini topping.
For a light salmon tartare, I add a couple of tablespoons of chopped pickled capers to a dressing that also includes 2 tablespoons olive oil, a handful of chopped fresh dill and parsley, a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground pepper, a tablespoon each of lemon juice and white wine vinegar all of it tossed with a pound or so of the freshest salmon filet, chopped by hand into small cubes.
And I really like salsa verde to serve alongside grilled meats and poultry or to slather onto the perfect summertime BLT to give it zing. This herby green sauce, as Italians make it, marries handfuls of fresh herbs with garlic, pickled capers and salty anchovy filets.