been trying to meet you
elaborate heat wave cake and surprise zucchini
A friend observed that last summer, socialization felt exhilarating, because we’d been alone up for so long and could finally go outside and see our friends again. The worst was over, we told ourselves. But this summer, socialization feels tricky and at times exhausting: we don’t know when this will end or if we’ll ever really feel safe again, it’s been so long since we interacted with people regularly that we don’t know how to be comfortable around them, and also it’s been so hot and dry that even just going outside doesn’t feel very alluring, either. Lately I’ve been desperate to swim in the cool green water of the river, the idea of it making me almost salivate the way the smell of a freshly sliced watermelon might when you’re hot and thirsty. But every day I thought I might go do it, it’s been too smoky or too hot to hike to get there.
Nevertheless, I did manage to do some socializing this past week, and it was not as difficult as anticipated. My sister needed a bit of cheering up on the weekend, so she and our other sister came over for a mezze dinner of flatbread, hummus, veggies, olives, and salmon candy, and we watched Dazed and Confused and The Sword in the Stone (read: waxed nostalgic about the movies while watching them and pointing out funny details— it’s basically impossible for my family to watch movies together any other way). It was the first time having other people inside our house since probably June of last year, and felt so nice to entertain again, making sure everyone has the appropriate amount of drinks, snacks, and couch cushions. And I think it was probably a good idea to have my first houseguests be people I feel comfortable with no matter what.
On Wednesday a friend had a tie-dye birthday party in the park, and I managed to scrounge up a white t-shirt to bring for the occasion. Even though there were a decent number of people there, I didn’t feel too overwhelmed because there was no pressure to talk to anyone new if you didn’t want to. My friend also provided name tags with stickers so you could indicate your vaccination status as well as your comfort level with social contact (honestly wish I could do this for events even outside of the pandemic). Jeff brought takeout from work for us to eat (vegan poutine and peri-peri chick’n burger), and it was really great to chat with some people I hadn’t seen in many months while watching dogs run around, hearing the shouts of the baseball game on the other side of the park. By the way, tie-dyeing is very fun and I wish I had brought more than one thing to dye.
July disappeared so quickly, like when it rains a little on a hot day and it evaporates from the pavement so soon after that there’s no evidence it even happened. So then I found myself, as I often do, on the last day of the month with a cake to make. I actually merely started it on the 31st and made the majority of it on the first day of August, but the rules were made by and for me only so no one can disqualify me. I’d been wanting to make a cake with peaches since June, but the heat dome prevented me from doing so, and I’d had the peach purée in my freezer ever since. It was still really hot this week, although not billions-of-sea-creatures-dying hot, so while it was nice that my frozen butter thawed quickly, I kept having to put things in the fridge while I was working in order to prevent them from liquefying at room temperature.
I was inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for peach cupcakes with brown sugar frosting, which seemed like an unstoppable combo. However, I’m not a big fan of cupcakes because I don’t have a piping bag and regardless, the cake to icing ratio never seems to be what I want. I also didn’t want to use cream cheese in the icing, as Deb does for flavour and stability, first of all because we didn’t have any, but secondly because of one notably lactose-intolerant person in our house— I did not want to be responsible eating for an entire cake myself. I stuck with the cake batter recipe though, and baked for 30 minutes in two 9” layer cake pans, and the cake came out nicely golden and moist.
I don’t make layer cakes too often, because I’m almost always set on making a different element to put in the middle (this why my more elaborate cake-making usually happens over the course of at least two days). For this cake, I used the peach purée to make a peach curd with a hint of rosewater. I hadn’t peeled the peaches so it wasn’t uniform and perfectly jelled the way citrus curds are, but the pink colour was very appealing, and it did still come out thick, tart, and custardy. Plus it used four egg yolks, which was perfect since I’d be using four egg whites to make the icing.
I thought the best way to incorporate brown sugar into a frosting that didn’t end up gritty or runny would be Swiss buttercream, which I’ve been obsessed with since making it for the first time. The base of it is a stiff meringue, which gives the finished product a rich, glossy creaminess without needing to add a lot of powdered sugar to hold it together, which can sometimes make for an overly sweet or somewhat grainy texture. A lot of recipes don’t seem to mention this, but the trick to a beautifully smooth meringue is to gently heat the egg whites and sugar together before whipping them in order to fully dissolve the sugar— best done on a double boiler over low heat so the eggs don’t cook. You can also make a vegan meringue using aqua faba (the cooking water from chickpeas); I made a showstopping vegan lemon meringue pie this way once, and I promise it doesn’t taste a thing like beans.
Tasting the icing, the brown sugar flavour was definitely prominent but I was having a hard time placing what it reminded me of, and then I realised: it was cookie dough! It is uncannily reminiscent of what chocolate chip cookie dough tastes like before you add the chocolate chips, and it went so wonderfully with the soft peachy vanilla-ness of the cake, and the tart, juicy curd was the perfect contrast. I will admit that while the individual elements looked great, all three parts of this cake were threatening to destabilize in the heat during the assembly process, so it’s not my most beautiful creation. The remainder of it is currently in the fridge being held together by the cool air and my prayers.
I once again made the zucchini lemon orzo which I discovered last summer. Our zucchini plant, which has had only blossoms on it for weeks, suddenly produced a piece of fruit almost too large to still be crisp and not woody, completely out of nowhere. I was pulling the first few ripe tomatoes off the vines and I happened upon it, wondering how a full-size zucchini had escaped my notice despite going into the garden almost every day. I already had a zucchini in the fridge from my boss’s garden, so I had to use at least one of them up, and soon. This is a very good recipe, especially if you have zucchini that’s a little past its prime for marinating in salads or sautéeing.
When I make this I add the lemon at the end, with the coconut milk, so the flavour stays fresh. And the recipe makes an absolute boatload, so halve it if you’re not having guests for dinner (a half-recipe gave us two generous portions, plus some each for lunch the next day). Since it already uses coconut milk, it’d be easy to veganize this by swapping the parmesan for a vegan version, or even just some nutritional yeast and ground pine nuts, although I think I’d probably want to add more milk in that case.
I think I’ve finally created my ideal green goddess dressing, the robust, intensely flavoured dressing that’s so perfect for hearty salads (and licking off the back of a spoon while I’m making them). In the past I’ve relied on a friend’s vegan version which has a great level of umami but I often found myself looking to make it slightly more creamy and thick, or a non-vegan version which was nicely creamy and herbal but not acidic enough for my tastes with grain salads or roasted vegetables. I combined elements of each to make a delicious vegan hybrid that I scrambled to write down rough measurements for after making, because I plan to return to it often.
There are as many versions of this dressing out there as there are freeway exits in California, but I’ve included my recipe below if you’d like to try it. I ate it this week on a cold quinoa and lacinato kale bowl (so, a salad?) with yellow zucchini roasted in garlic salt, sliced radishes & cucumbers, and pan-fried chickpeas with smoked paprika and cayenne.
VEGAN GREEN GODDESS DRESSING
½ cup tahini
⅓ cup vegan mayo
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup lightly packed parsley leaves (about half a store-bought bunch)*
small handful basil leaves
1 medium to large garlic clove, peeled
2 tbsp soy sauce or Bragg’s
2 tbsp lemon juice (from about half a lemon)
2-3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
a pinch each of salt, pepper, and sugar
Blend all ingredients in a blender until emulsified and bright green. Taste for seasoning, adding more lemon or salt if needed. If too thick, add splashes of water and/or more olive oil. If too thin, add a little more mayo. Keeps in a jar in the fridge up to 10 days (but you’ll probably eat it all in the first 5). Makes around 1 ½ cups.
*note: if using a food processor or immersion blender instead of a standup blender, chop the parsley and basil as finely as you can first, otherwise your dressing won’t come out so uniformly green. You also may want to add the oils after adding the other ingredients to help it emulsify more easily.
Media:
I didn’t have it in me to read anything hard-hitting this week, but this piece from The Kitchn was a fun experiment to determine the best way to quickly chill a bottle of wine if you forget or have run out of fridge space. I often think that I wouldn’t mind a glass of white wine with dinner, see that I have nothing in the fridge, and then just give up and don’t bother. The damp paper towel trick works pretty well for cans or bottles of beer in my experience, but the size of a bottle of wine means it takes a little longer than is ideal. At any rate, it’s nice to know that none of the gadgets seem to be nearly as effective as water and your freezer, so I hope this helps some other forgetful wine lovers out there.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so donations I can use towards cookbooks or future treats are much appreciated. And here’s just another universal human experience.