June is Bustin' Out All Over
With two recipes to prove it!
Friends, I had a different newsletter prepared for you today entirely, but I was struck with unbridled joy this weekend with what’s happening at the market and was inspired to shift gears and share not one, but two recipes!
The first is a snap pea salad with scallions served with a buttermilk and feta dressing and scattered with chives and mint. If you can find chives with their blossoms still attached, please do. It makes for a stunning presentation. I’d serve this salad alongside roast salmon, or steak or eat it with fried chicken, which is what we did on Sunday. And, no I did not fry my own. I generally will outsource fried chicken, unless I’m feeling very generous of spirit. Gracie’s in Leeds does a fantastic job and saves me a stove clean up! I highly recommend it. And, I do believe because I didn’t fry my own chicken, I had the energy and impulse to make a perfectly imperfect strawberry galette for dessert. This dough recipe works well for any in-season fruit, I just happened to really love strawberries.
Those other recipes I had planned for you will have to wait until later this month! And, luckily I’ll get to live this season all over again in Nova Scotia as they are about a month behind the Hudson Valley produce-wise. There, I’ll also be eating A LOT of new potatoes. Buckle up!
Before I jump into this week’s recipes (!) I thought it would be nice to return to the À Noter column of the newsletter, which I haven’t done in a few weeks. I’ll keep it short and sweet.
🍷 Drink: Massican! My friend Dan Petroski is a talented and award winning winemaker in the Napa Valley known for making Mediterranean inspired white wines. He generously sent me a few bottles and we opened the Sauvignon Blanc on Helen and Dan’s roof to pair with some oysters and usher in June. It was truly exceptional. Dan also has a Substack, which you should subscribe to! It’s called A Mediterranean Dinner Party.
🎥 Watch: Herb Albert, Is... I may have mentioned this in previous newsletters, but Chad and I both love music documentaries. We got really into Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass Band when we were in Menorca - weird, but true. Herb is a true mensch and a legend and he was such a babe in his youth! We both thoroughly enjoyed it. Here is a link to his album Whipped Cream and Other Delights. Almost all the songs are titled after food names.
📚 Read: Sensitive. This book was recommended to me by my amazing shrink! I think the subtitle tells you all you need to know. “The Hidden Power of the Highly Sensitive Person in a Loud, Fast, Too-Much World.” This goes out to all my HSPs out there. Right there with you!
Peas, Shoots & Leaves with Buttermilk and Feta Dressing
Serves 4 as a side
INGREDIENTS
¾ cup full fat buttermilk
2.5 ounces crumbled feta cheese, preferably French if you can find it
2 lemons, to yield 5 tablespoons of juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces snap peas, cut on the bias
3 scallions, thinly sliced on the bias
2 ounces pea shoots or baby arugula
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2 tablespoons chives and/or blossoms for scattering
2 tablespoons roughly chopped or torn mint leaves
Flaky salt for serving
METHOD
Make the dressing: In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, feta cheese, 3 tablespoons of the lemon juice and season well with salt and a good few churns of black pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt as needed. Set aside.
Make the salad: In another bowl, gently toss together the snap peas, scallions and pea shoots with the remaining lemon juice and the olive oil. Season with salt.
To serve, transfer the dressing to a medium plate or platter, preferable with sides and mound the snap pea mixture on top in the middle. Drizzle with some more olive and scatter with the chives and their blossoms and mint. Finish with a few pinches of flaky salt.
A Strawberry Galette for June
Serves 4 to 6
INGREDIENTS
For the dough:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
¾ cup (1½ sticks) very chilled unsalted butter, cubed into smallish pieces
For the filling:
1 pound strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced
2 teaspoons cornstarch
¼ cup sugar, plus more if needed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Lemon or lime juice
1 teaspoon citrus zest
A pinch of kosher salt
1 egg, whisked
Demerara sugar for sprinkling - I actually only had regular brown sugar and it worked fine
Vanilla ice cream for serving
METHOD
In a food processor pulse together the flours, salt and sugar to combine. Add the butter and pulse a few times until the mixture resembles a coarse meal with a few quarter-size pieces still intact.
Transfer the mixture onto a lightly floured work surface and drizzle with ¼ cup ice water. With your hands gently knead together the dough, adding more ice water by the tablespoonful as needed, until no dry spots remain (do not overwork). Pat into a disk and wrap in plastic. Chill for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.
Preheat the oven to 400.° In a large bowl, stir together the strawberries, cornstarch, sugar, vanilla, a good squeeze of lemon or lime juice and zest, and a pinch of kosher salt. Taste and add in a bit more sugar if needed - this will depend on the sweetness of your fruit.
Take the dough out of the freeze and let it sit for 5 minutes. I like to thwack it a few times with my rolling pin while still in plastic to encourage it to go in the direction I’d like it to go.
Unwrap the dough and roll out on a lightly floured sheet of parchment paper to a 12-14" round about ⅛" thick. Transfer on parchment to a baking sheet. Add the berry mixture to the center of the dough, leaving a 2” border. Fold the dough up and over the edge of the filling, pleating the dough as you go around. Brush the crust with the egg and scatter the Demerara sugar over top.
Bake galette, rotating once, until crust is golden brown and cooked through, 40–45 minutes. Let cool on a baking sheet for an hour before serving with vanilla ice cream, of course.
Finally, I couldn’t leave you without the incredible Renée Fleming singing June is Bustin’ Out All Over from Carousel - one of my favorite musicals of all time. In fact, I sang If I Loved You for my college auditions, and sometimes I still do, but in the shower.
Have a beautiful rest of your week. Thank you, as always, for being here.
With love,
Colu
Might have to make both of these this weekend...🍓
That galette!!! Also HERB!!!