"Fruit" may be a small book, but it's a gem, with uncommon recipes you'll really love.
One of these is Strawberry Shrub, an old-time drink that was a way to preserve fruit in the days before refrigeration. It's made with a vinegar-based syrup that you add to water, lemonade, cocktails or other drinks.
The flavor is sweet, tangy and absolutely delicious. I tasted it at Melissa's Produce, where author Nancy McDermott (above) appeared to talk about the book and demonstrate some of the recipes, including the shrub.
"It's one of the easiest recipes in the book," she said. All you do is marinate strawberries in vinegar, then drain off the vinegar and cook it with sugar, making a syrup that will keep for months in the refrigerator.
"Fruit" is a "Savor the South" cookbook from the University of North Carolina Press in Chapel Hill, where McDermott lives. Each book in this series focuses on a single southern food or on traditions such as Sunday dinner and southern holidays.
This one is McDermott's 14th book. Topics for her others range from Thai food, Chinese cooking and stir-fries to southern cakes, pies, soups and stews.
The 12 fruits in the book include mayhaws, wild persimmons, damson plums, pawpaws and muscadine and scuppernong grapes, which might be hard to find outside the region.
More widespread are blackberries, cantaloupe, quince, strawberries, figs, watermelon and peaches.
This salad of arugula with persimmons and shaved Parmesan didn't make it into the book but was added to round out lunch at Melissa's. If you would like the recipe, click here to get it. It's on McDermott's website, Nancie's Table.
McDermott's stint in Thailand with the Peace Corps inspired this pineapple and watermelon salad, as at home in the sultry South as in steamy Southeast Asia.
McDermott suggested hot pepper jelly as a replacement for the mayhaw jelly with which she sweetens this stir-fry of shrimp and zucchini.
If you want an easy dessert, the answer is blackberry roly poly, descended from a centuries-old British dessert. You scatter a few blackberries over sweet biscuit dough, roll this up and bake it, then serve with blackberry sauce and vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
At Melissa's, the whipped cream was sweetened with another quintessential southern product, sorghum, which came to the South with West African slaves, McDermott said.
Here is the recipe for the shrub, which McDermott serves over ice and dilutes with water.
For traditional flavor, It's essential to use apple cider vinegar, she said, because that is what her grandmother would have had access to.
STRAWBERRY SHRUB
From "Fruit" by Nancie McDermott
3 cups apple cider vinegar
3 cups trimmed and quartered fresh or frozen strawberries
3 cups sugar
Prepare a large sterilized glass jar with tight-fitting lid.
In a medium saucepan, heat the vinegar until it is just about to break into a bubbling boil and remove it from the heat. Place the strawberries in the prepared jar and pour the vinegar over them, making sure they are covered by an inch of vinegar.
Let cool to room temperature and then cover tightly. Set aside in a cool, dark place for 24-48 hours (be sure the jar is not exposed to heat or light).
Strain the vinegar into a medium saucepan and discard the solids. Add the sugar to the vinegar and bring to a rolling boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. As soon as the sugar is dissolved, remove the pan from heat and let the shrub cool to room temperature.
Pour the shrub into a clean, sterilized jar and cover tightly. Store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.
Makes about 3 cups.
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