The tastes of summer
The harvest tables begin to overflow now, the start of any 50-mile gourmand’s favourite time of year, when the corn that was planted in the first week of June ripens, when tomato vines strain against their own weight to remain upright, when apple trees easily part with their crisp reminders of autumn’s pending arrival. Barbecues are stoked, ready to grill marinated meats and vegetables, pizza crusts and the like.
There is no harvest moon this year, but according to the Canadian Farmers’ Almanac, Monday this week is a good day to dry fruits and vegetables, while Tuesday and Wednesday favour making jams and jellies. Thursday and Friday are ideal for hosting parties.
Chef Marina Livingston, from Whalesbone’s Elmdale Oyster House, recalls an outdoor wedding she helped cater one gorgeous summer day last year at Stanley’s Olde Maple Lane Farm in Edwards, just southeast of Ottawa.
It took two men to carry the pig, which had been roasting in front of guests throughout the cocktail hour, to the carving station.
“Everyone loved the unctuous pork and sweet BBQ and not a drop of red Sailor Jerry sauce was spilled on the wedding dress,” says Livingston. “Such a joyous occasion with fun and tasty food to prepare, the kinds of food that have always been meant to enjoy near a smoky grill with the sun on your skin.”
Similarly, Black Cat Bistro chef Patricia Larkin has fond summertime food memories, ones going back to the annual summer street parties held on the nine-home Kanata culde-sac where her family lived when she was a youngster. Between the nine houses, she says, there were probably 25 children.
“We’d have a big lobster cook-off in the middle of the court, and there’d be corn-on-the-cob and a potluck where every family was known for something.”
Her family’s contribution was typically Caesar salad, which on special occasions such as this would find her father cooking crusty bread in bacon fat — “and he’d use real bacon, not that Ready Crisp stuff we’d have on weeknights,” Larkin recalls, “and really good Parmesan and Romano cheese, and the boiled eggs on top.
“It was always something to look forward to.”
So much so, in fact, that to this day Larkin insists on a meal of lobster and Caesar salad on her late-December birthday. The corn on the cob, she insists, is strictly a summertime dish. So get it while it’s hot.