FAREWELL TO SUMMER

IT'S ALWAYS AT THE END of summer that everything looks and tastes so good. Consider the tomato. They're in full bloom right now and red as blood and sweet and dripping with juice, as are peaches and apricots, even grapes. Cherries too but they're almost finished for the season. 

CUCUMBER AND BEET BORSCHT

I'm writing today, however, about cold food and hot. Light yet creamy, hearty but not too filling. I should really have titled this entry Pickled, but we'll leave it at that. 

I had a cucumber in the house and some shellfish stock and decided to make cold cucumber soup. I made it with my own home made yogurt, fresh dill and cayenne pepper but somehow it just didn't have the oomph I was trying to attain. After thinking about it for a moment and then exploring the contents of the fridge, I found a couple of jars of leftover pickled beet juice with what remained of the pickled onions - the beets were long gone - in the juice. I added this to the soup and it came out pink and tasted like a very cold, very subtle borscht. It was delicious! I've written about cold soups before (see entry dated July 14, 2013) so you can refer to the recipes there. All you need to do to the finished cucumber soup is add the pickled beet juice to make it pink. You'd be surprised at how this little addition changes the overall flavor of the soup, while still being able to taste every ingredient on its own.

On a completely different note, I bought a loin of pork and decided that I wanted sauerkraut and kartoffel. It was rather simple and I decided to do to sauerkraut what I did to the cucumber soup!

ROAST LOIN OF PORT WITH SAUERKRAUT,
ROASTED POTATOES AND BEET HORSERADISH

This should be enough to serve 6 as a main course.

Preheat the oven to 375º

1 4-5 pound loin of pork

Seasoned with an oil rub comprised of:

1 tbs. olive oil

1 tsp. harissa paste

8-10 anise seeds

6 or 7 fennel seeds

1 tbs. dried tarragon (powdered)

1 tsp. kosher salt

8-10 turns of the grinder with black peppercorns

Mix into a paste and rub all over the top of the pork loin. Place the pork into a ceramic or earthenware dish and surround it with the following:

French Sauerkraut cured in champagne and lardon drizzled with pickled beet juice.

Baby red spring potatoes cut into quarters which have been salted and peppered tossed with a bit of olive oil and rosemary.

Pour about 1/2 cup of Champagne or Prosecco over the sauerkraut.

Place the dish into the oven and bake for about an hour and 15 minutes. Juices at the bottom of the pan should have reduced at least by half. 

Cut the pork into slices. Place sauerkraut onto a plate, arrange the pork slices over the sauerkraut along with the potatoes. Serve with a hefty dollop of beet horseradish. 

Bon appetit!