HUNGRY GERALD

Joyous birthday dinner for Lesley R. featuring some of Brilliant Daughter’s favorites. A nice beach day on Prince Edward Island. Breezy and sunny. Appetites were sharp. Meal began with two dozen Colville Bay oysters (distinctive green shells). This was followed by BSK’s sorrel soup, the sorrel snipped from BSK’s herb garden. Each bowl was decorated with a dollop of Greek yogurt and a sprinkle of Aleppo pepper. Lush. Sorrel, unfortunately, is almost never found in supermarkets or farmer’s markets (and very expensive when it is). Sorrel is a sour, leafy plant that often grows wild — it is very easy to cultivate. Best to grow your own. In HG’s Bronx youth, sorrel was found in every fruit and vegetable store. It was the basis for Schav, the heat beating summer soup that was always served ice cold and accompanied by a boiled potato and a bowl of sour cream mixed with chopped radishes and scallions. HG’s Mom didn’t puree the sorrel leaves but left them whole. Very refreshing. Main dish at the celebratory feast for Lesley was lobster salad packed into toasted, buttered frankfurter rolls. Lesley made the lobster salad and it hit the right notes of lemon juice, mayonnaise and herbs. Meal ended with a green salad and a dessert of Meyer Lemon Cheesecake. Perfect summer meal.

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.