There are tastes — namely the sour sting of sorrel and the sweet freshness of watermelon — that HG associates with the sunny days of
summer’s past. HG’s Mom used sorrel to make Schav, a mouth puckering Eastern European sorrel soup. This was a thin soup of sorrel leaves, served ice cold and accompanied by a hot boiled potato and sour cream. Very refreshing. BSK makes a different version of sorrel soup. Sorrel (cultivated by BSK in her Prince Edward Island herb garden) is cooked with lettuce, onions, butter and some egg yolks in chicken broth. When done, BSK purees the mixture with a hand blender. Sublime where HG’s mom’s soup was simply refreshing. Terence Conran, the multi-talented furniture and design merchant and prominent restaurateur, describes the soup as “very useful for lifting jaded appetites.” True…Athough HG’s appetite rarely needs leverage. On the sweltering sands of Rockaway Beach HG used to savor a thick slice of watermelon, the chilled juice running down HG’s chin — a wonderful, minimal pleasure. BSK, on the other hand, uses watermelon in an inventive summer salad. Chunks of watermelon are mixed with chopped tomatoes, scallions and parsley. Feta cheese is added to the mix and BSK gives it a hit of a secret ingredient — fig vinegar. Last night, BSK served demi-tasse cups of hot sorrel soup (the perfect amuse geule). The watermelon salad accompanied batter fried hake. A Perfect meal of updated summer pleasures.
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