If you are like me, a watermelon lasts for days and days. The arrival of a watermelon requires cutting diagrams and refrigerator blueprints. I dice some for breakfast and snacking. Then I consider all the ways to sneak them into a week’s worth of menus. This Watermelon Gazpacho takes advantage of the fruit’s natural juiciness and sweetness to balance rich tomato juice. It’s fast and fresh, exactly the way I like to cook in summer.
Red Wine-and-Blueberry-Granita
Soon the tables at the Chester Sunday Market will sag under the weight of fresh blueberries, peaches, apples, and other fruit. This bounty usually coincides with the kind of intense heat and humidity that makes me stop cooking. The heat arrived early. So, I made my first batch of granita of the season, a Red Wine-and-Blueberry-Granita. Anyone with a freezer can make granita. You don’t need an ice cream machine. Instead, you combine crushed fruits
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Basic Sugar Syrup
Basic Sugar Syrup is used in so many recipes I think it merits a spot of its own. Use it to sweeten iced coffee or tea or in cocktails. Flavored with a little Cointreau or cognac, it moistens cake layers before filling. And it is an essential ingredient in frozen icy treats such as granita, pictured here, or sorbet. Ingredient Note – Sugar Sugar is what’s known as a “technical food.” This means that it
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"Let no man fancy he knows how to dine Till he has learnt how taste and taste combine."
-Horace, Satires, 2.4