Strawberries and summer fun
My latest article for Encore, with my recipe for quick pickled onions - one of my old recipes for www.BeyondCeliac.com, formerly National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.
Sumer is icumen in –
Lhude sing, cuccu! Or in this case a Hummingbird.
On our deck, we have 3 hummingbirds that come back to NH each year.
In Modern English this would be Summer has arrived, loudly sing Cuckoo. My husband didn’t know what I was talking about, but with Catholic education and serious music classes, we learned to sing this as a round.
The 13th-century round known as the The Cuckoo Song, isn't about the approach of summer, but its arrival. "Sumer is icumen in" is frequently mistranslated, but "icumen" means it has come, as the presence of the cuckoo implies, and it's here, nu (now). Summer, that is. If this thought is nu to you, if your bank holiday skies are grey (Britain celebrates beginning and end of May, not American Memorial Day. Bank Holiday literally meant the banks were closed on that day.) and cold raindrops falling down your neck, you might not be in the mood for such a loud, sweet, jolly song. On the other hand, The Cuckoo Song could cheer you up. See Wiki for more.
But I digress. Hopefully good weather is here to stay and we can enjoy our decks. I’ve just planted up my window boxes full of red flowers to attract the hummingbirds, bees, butterflies and dragonflies. We can sit on the deck at night with a glass of wine and the hummingbirds are a few feet away and ignore us. But they’ll almost dive bomb us if we move around. It’s lovely to sit indoors and hear their happy chirps, which change to a scold when I remove the feeders to clean and fill with fresh sugar water.
Wonderful June
So June should be Happy Father’s Day or various Graduation parties, Weddings etc, even just Summer Fun with friends. In England, June is the time for tiny new potatoes (tiny fingerling or tiny Yukon gold) and fresh peas served with salmon and Hollandaise sauce, as well as fresh strawberries and cream everywhere you go. When my son was little if he saw fresh salmon on sale in the market, I would have to say it’s not asparagus season so I’m not making fresh Hollandaise sauce. I did make salmon and asparagus with Hollandaise sauce for his First Communion Party. Now, I even make a dairy free Hollandaise sauce for him and a cousin, as well as a lime Hollandaise sauce. Link to my website with Hollandaise recipe. Plus Hollandaise sauce is on various menus for Royal Ascot.
I keep saying that virtually all real food is naturally gluten free and I’ve always cooked with real food. I have found with my gluten free baking/cooking classes that people who have to be gluten free ask me to share recipes for tasty food naturally gluten free, not just baked dishes. Wheat eating friends happily eat all my food.
As a Londoner, in London these are just a few of the special events Spring or Summer where strawberries were sure to make an appearance. A delicious but simple strawberry dessert is ‘Eton Mess’, named for the very expensive private school in England, attended by both Prince William and Harry. Eton Mess is basically strawberries, cream and broken meringues mixed together so it looks like a mess. It was also served as part of Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee celebration in 2012. Story and recipe on my web site https://tinyurl.com/y6rs3uxb
so good, so easy. Eton Mess, cream, strawberries, meringue.
Chelsea Flower Show May 2019 · Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London. This year Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge was the co-designer of a nature garden. See the photos of Kate and the little Royals enjoying it. https://news.sky.com/story/duke-and-duchess-of-cambridge-dote-on-their-children-in-new-photos-11724415
Stunning photos of this years show
Royal Ascot: You thought you saw some hats at the Royal Wedding, now watch Royal Ascot (even fancier than the Kentucky Derby) where the Queen is driven around the course in an open carriage. Tuesday 18 June to Saturday 22 June 2019 - 300 years and going strong
Wimbledon Tennis Championships: July 1-24, 2019
Lord’s Cricket Matches at Marylebone Cricket Club since 1787 and on village greens throughout England all summer long. Exactly like Midsomer Murders.
such a cute serving dish, I bought in South Africa, and look even tiny serving spoons are giraffes.!
Quick pickled onions for Dad's burger on the grill or anytime.
The kids can help you mix vinegar etc together, you cut the onions, they fill the jar. Then they've made something for Dad for Father's Day rather than that tie.
I'm British so as an adult we always had jars of malt vinegar pickled onions to go with bread, cheese and meats, often known as Ploughman's lunch at Pub’s in UK. In NH before jars of pickled onions in malt vinegar were available, I would peel all those little white onions, salt them, then pickle well in advance of Christmas as a silly but wanted, Christmas present for my husband with a selection of cheeses. Of course with gluten free, malt vinegar made from barley is on the no eat list. This is a recipe a girlfriend gave me. She makes it with red onions as she likes the pink color. I make it with Vidalia or other sweet onion since I found that Vidalia onion is as crisp as red onion in the vinegar but we thought Vidalia was a more tender, less chewy onion. These are made overnight, ready for next day, but last months in the fridge according to Allyson. We've eaten them before then.
Remember your taste for sugar, salt and vinegar can be different to mine. I don't like raw onion, even a Vidalia. Pickled onion tasted on its own will taste very different when put on bread and cheese, a sandwich, a burger. Different vinegars will give a different taste, not bad just different. Saturday lunch or quick dinner for us is Against the Grain naturally gluten free cheese and tapioca rolls (6.49 for a bag of 4 frozen in Market Basket), toasted (don't care for them cold), optionally spread with some of my tomato jam/chutney, topped with Kerrygold Dubliner Cheddar or Brie or Gouda and some of these onions, with soup if needed. My husband is very happy.
The salt helps to bring the water out of the onions so they shrink down in the jar. Sugar tempers the sourness of the vinegar and is also a preservative. I don't can them. You could use some of the vinegar mixture in a home made vinaigrette after onions are ready to eat. Do Not use the vinegar mixture in the jar (after onions are ready) to make another batch. Too much water will have come out of the onions and will alter vinegar strength for pickling. You could add dried hot chili pepper to jar, or some pickling spice, mustard seeds.
1 Vidalia onion, peeled, quartered and very thinly sliced, then separate the slices.
3/4 c (6 fl oz, 180 ml) red wine vinegar (real stuff made from wine or grapes please) or apple cider vinegar (real stuff made from apples or cider – Heinz apple cider vinegar is fine)
1 tsp (5 ml) salt – add more if you want, after taste testing next day.
1/4 c (2 fl oz, 60 ml) sugar – I don't use artificial sugars and don't know if they would work as a preservative.
1. Make in 2 or 3 cup (16-24 oz) Ball jar with plastic lid. If you use old jam jar etc, sterilize and put plastic wrap between glass jar and metal lid.
2. Fill jar with prepared onion slices. Really push them down and it's ok to fill right to the top.
3. Mix vinegar, salt, sugar together and pour over onions, shake a few times during the day. It seems like not enough liquid, but onions shrink down in solution overnight.
Enjoy.
