David Ross

This is version two of a dish that is still in progress, but I think it's close. Roasted Poblano Stew with Chicken. I'll put together the recipe once I have it completed. I braised chicken breasts under pressure in the multi-pot with chicken stock, bay leaf, chili powder and Mexican oregano. Then chilled and shredded the meat in chunks. The poblanos were broiled then skins removed. I charred some yellow onions and garlic cloves in a hot, and dry, cast iron skillet then added those to the food processor along with the poblanos. Also added a little minced jalapeno for heat, cilantro, Mexican oregano, chili powder, toasted pepitas, salt, pepper and probably a few other spices I'm forgetting right now. Then that went into a heavy pot along with cream and the chicken braising liquid to get to a creamy yet not too thick consistency. Most of the chicken was stirred into the stew and I reserved some for the garnish. Along with the chicken for garnish I added thinly sliced red radish, cilantro, toasted pepitas (green pumpkin seeds), diced tomato and feta. I'm starting to use feta in my Mexican dishes because it has a lot of flavor over traditional cheeses. Then a little drizzle of Mexican crema. It was delicious and just the right kind of dish for a hot summer evening. Not shown are the homemade corn tortilla chips I make. Just cut tortillas in quarters, deep-fry til crisp and golden, then salt, pepper and chili powder.

Those sound really intriguing. I do a bloody mary aspic served alongside grilled chicken that is chilled. But I'm thinking of changing it up somehow to do a terrine of grilled summer vegetables and use the aspic to bind it together in a mold of some sort. I think I'll have to do a lot of experimenting.

I went back to refer to my 1913 edition of the Boston Cooking -School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer and was surprised that many of the salad recipes were similar to what we would prepare and eat this summer. There are 11 seafood salad recipes, including a sardine salad, 3 different lobster salads and an interesting oyster and grapefruit salad that I think could be quite refreshing on a hot day. It's very similar to a tomato aspic I make that has the flavors of a bloody mary cocktail. "parboil one and one-half pints oysters, drain, cool and remove tough muscles. Cut three grape fruits in halves, crosswise, remove pulp and drain. Mix oysters with pulp, and season with six tablespoons tomato catsup, four tablespoons grape fruit juice, one tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce, eight drops Tabasco sauce and one-half teaspoon salt. Refill grape fruits skins with mixture and garnish with curled celery."

I've been looking through some of my summer salad photos for some ideas on putting together a new recipe for our Cook-Off and I came across one of my favorites that I came up with last year, green beans with egg salad. My Mother was always a stickler for bringing any mayonnaise based summer salad along on a picnic, but if it came right out of the kitchen onto the table on the deck, well then that was ok as long as the salad didn't sit in the sun too long. I blanch the beans for just a few minutes in salt water with a spoon of "Fruit-Fresh." It's mainly used in canning and preserving but I use it for blanching green vegetables to help retain a bright color. Then I chill the beans until ready to serve. For my version of egg salad I make my own mayonnaise using Greek olive oil, mustard, fresh oregano and a good amount of lemon juice. I like the strong flavor of Greek or Spanish olive oils. Then some finely diced celery, chives and dill relish, fresh dill and celery seeds. One thing that's not in the photo is a garnish of fried onions. Yep, the ones out of the can for some crunch and flavor. The salad is great for one serving or for a larger group, but take my Mother's advice and keep the egg salad chilled!

You've gotten me thinking about tuna and combining it with some white beans that I have from Rancho Gordo. We have one small shop in town that has a good selection of premium imported tuna so that will be just the ticket. Thanks.

I'm going to read that right now thank you. Jellied consommé has always been a favorite and I'm thinking I could work it into a salad somehow.

It can be gelatin or resurrecting one of those salads from back in the 50's to the 70's with your own twists on it for today's tastes. Or your take on how to rethink summer salads so we're not just doing the familiar standbys of potato, egg or pasta. I'll be doing my take on a tomato aspic salad that my Mother and Grandmother made every summer for years. But I'll be doing it by changing up the aspic and flavorings and using some different garnishes and adding seafood. I'm also going to do my take on a potato salad, but more than just the standard fare we're used to.

It's all inclusive so yes, updating some of those clunkers from the past, but the salads we are enjoying this summer too. I really like how you take broccoli and cucumber to a new level with your dressing, especially using fish sauce.

The summer salad is often regarded as summer food's unpopular kid. Sure, potato, pasta and egg salads are the standard bearers of summer salads, yet they seem stuck in a time warp in terms of creativity. When I was growing up in the 1960's, the only "exotic" summer salad Mother served was a gelatin mold studded with shredded carrots and surrounded by heaps of Miracle Whip dotted with green olives. We dreaded seeing Mother parade that salad out of the kitchen and put it on the picnic table yet we grudgingly ate it lest we disappoint her. Yet we should not ignore the basic elements of the summer salads of yesteryear. One can easily use the concept of gelatin, fruits, vegetables and seafood into a contemporary and delicious salad that is perfect for the hot days of summer. Summer salads are well-adapted to a variety of cooking and preparation techniques, from poaching, grilling and roasting, to chilling, preserving and deep-frying. And a summer salad benefits from a bevy of garnishes, cheese, spices and fresh herbs from the garden. Let's join in the fun and present our summer salad bowls in eG Cook-Off #79: Resurrecting and Rethinking Summer Salads, Summer Food's Unpopular Kid. (See the complete Cook-Off Index here, https://forums.egullet.org/topic/143994-egullet-recipe-cook-off-index/)

And one more nectarberry dish. This time a pound cake I baked in individual tart molds, then vanilla ice cream and the nectarberry compote. Probably would have been a good idea to add a sprig of mint of rosemary from the garden.

It took a few different twists and turns with the Nectarberries. I had found the Raspberry Jam with Bitters recipe at Bon Appetit, but my nectarberry jam project really turned into more of a nectarberry compote, which turned out to be a good thing. Then the idea morphed from serving it on an English muffin to a topping for a waffle. I use the old-fashioned Carbon Golden Malted Waffle Mix that they've been making for nearly 90 years. Then simply topped with some of the nectarberry compote. I thought it might need some whipped cream, but I didn't have any and the waffle didn't suffer because of it. Sure beats the gloppy strawberry out-of-a-can and whipped topping that chain restaurants serve.

The recipe comes from the May 2018 issue of Bon Appetit. They named it "Raspberry Jam with Bitters." The basic ingredients are 5 cups raspberries, 1 1/4 cups sugar, 1 tbsp. orange zest, 2 tbsp. orange juice, 2 tbsp. lemon juice and 1 tbsp. Angostura bitters. I used the nectarberries, and only 3/4 cup sugar. I didn't have any oranges or lemons, and didn't put it on the shopping list! But I substituted orange-guava juice I had. I used 1 tsp. on Angostura bitters, but then realized I also had Orange Bitters from Scrappy's Bitters in Seattle so added 2 tsp. of that. It tastes a little sweeter than I like, but you can detect the bitters which I think are perfect for this unique caneberry. I don't think the lack of orange or lemon zest made a difference and I almost think it would have drawn away from the berry taste. It was a little runny in consistency, so I added another cup of mashed berries to add some texture. It's more of a sauce than a jam I think. It would be perfect on grilled pork chops or grilled duck breast. And I have to make an early trip to the market tomorrow morning because this is going to be delicious on an English muffin.

Well this one was far off what I would normally do. It was a recipe out of Bon Appetit for fresh raspberry jam and they add bitters. I added Angostura bitters but also an orange bitters from a artisanal craft place over in Seattle. I'll take the photo, and taste my nectarberry jam today. You got me to thinking a little more though. I think my fresh rosemary might work, maybe not with this fruit but I might try it. I find the traditional sugar amounts for jams to be way too high for my tastes so I cut it down about 30% or so.

It seems like here in the Pacific Northwest things are early both on the west side and the east side where I live. The asparagus was about on time this year and it was a good crop but didn't last long. The raspberries, big and juicy from the west side, seemed to have started big but are pretty much done now. We're edging into our really hot weeks so I think things are going to slow down some.

I scored a very rare find at a local market yesterday, these Nectarberry's from Sterino Farms on the west side of the State. Same folks who produced the blackberries I bought last week. The Nectarberry is a cross between the blackberry, raspberry and loganberry. I'd never seen nor heard of them until I spotted them in the market. They have sweet, yet tart flavor and a strong perfume of rose and a little citrus. I'm making them into a jam so we'll see how it goes.

Anyone ever made a Summer Pudding? I've never thought it looked very attractive, but now I'm tempted since we've been talking about cane berries.

One of my favorite cookbooks is Dungeness Crabs and Blackberry Cobblers by Janie Hibler. It's a testament to cooking of the Pacific Northwest. There are recipes for blackberries boysenberries, loganberries and raspberries. I took a look for some ideas for our cook-off and found these wonderful recipes- -Smoked Quail with Raspberry Mustard Sauce -Raspberry Tea Bread -Raspberry Vinegar with Fresh Rosemary -Boyseberry Swirl Cheesecake with Hazelnut Crust

Sounds delicious over a pork tenderloin. I had my eye on a turkey tenderloin the other day and was thinking along those same lines.

Two summers ago I created this recipe for a strawberry and watermelon summer salad for a class I was teaching on how to incorporate fresh herbs and spices into dishes. A few days ago I remember this salad and thought it would work really well by using those big blackberries rather than strawberries. The strawberry salad includes berries, cucumber, watermelon, feta cheese that I marinate in olive oil and dried herbs, and Italian green olives. The dressing was olive oil with a bit of sherry vinegar and shallot then fresh basil and mint. For this recipe I used the blackberries rather than strawberries, cucumber, watermelon and simply feta without marinating it in olive oil and herbs. I omitted the olives because I didn't want that strong flavor with these juicy sweet blackberries. I just drizzled a little olive oil over the salad and didn't use the sherry vinegar because again I thought it would be too strong. Then a little basil, along with fresh mint and fresh oregano from pots on my back steps. Pretty delicious for a light and crisp summer salad. Here's a picture of the strawberry version of the salad-

These blackberries are so big and juicy I just couldn't put them in a baked cobbler at this point. So I just had them with vanilla bean ice cream.

I found these beauties in the market this morning. They're from Sterino Farms in Puyallup, WA, over on the west side of the state. They were $9.00 for the 4 1/2 pint boxes. And they had both red and orange raspberries that were nearly as big as the blackberries. The raspberries were literally 3 times bigger than the small boxes you usually find in the supermarket. I tasted a few and they are incredibly sweet and juicy.

Has any one ever made a blackberry ketchup? I'm thinking it might be a nice sauce for grilled pork or chicken, or maybe as an addition to a BBQ sauce.

I'm just a couple hours drive from the cherry orchards around Wenatchee, WA. We've started to see the annual cherries show up in the markets. But what was unusual yesterday was the Rainier cherries were only $1.99 a pound. As Okanagancook mentioned, they are the yellow, red and orange multicolored cherries. Even locally they are more expensive than Bing cherries, usually about $4 a pound. But I found them at $1.99 a pound which is a fantastic bargain even around here. I usually just buy them as eating cherries.

I first learned of the term "cane berries" from my Father who for many years worked for the Oregon Agricultural Department in Salem. He headed up the various commodity commissions that are made up of farmers and ranchers who work with the State to promote their products among other things. The berries down there really sweeten up in July. Every Sunday we'd drive over to friends my Father knew who had a horse farm in Molalla, just west of Salem. The sides of those country roads are bursting with wild blackberries in summer and it's not at all unusual to see folks stopped along the roadside picking berries. Show that photo to my city friends today and they'd think I was poisoning myself by eating wild berries that had been exposed to car exhaust. Well, maybe, but I'm still standing and it beats spending $6.99 for a 3oz. plastic hallock of supermarket berries. Free, wild and sweet.

Oh my oh my. The last photo, with the ice cream is just about taken me to the moon and back! And it reminds me of many family summer dinners at my Grandmother's farmhouse in Prineville, Oregon where we would have blackberry cobbler or pie with homemade ice cream. That was in the days where we used that awful old hand crank ice cream bucket with salt and ice. And we turned and turned. But it was wonderful cranking that ice cream churn out on the porch and scooping it right there onto warm cobbler. Heck, now that I think about it I should go back to that method and leave the expensive electric ice cream machine, that weighs a ton, locked in the pantry! Or of course just buy a very good ice cream. So delicious everything you've shown us.