August on the North Fork is usually hot and humid with the grass turning brown, but it is also the time when so much local produce is at its peak.
Sweet corn, eggplant, green beans, zucchini and tomatoes. It is also when our local fruit is abundant. Blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, melons and peaches. If you believe in fresh food and cooking from scratch, this is your time.
Here is an August menu for six that incorporates some of these things:
Menu
First Course
Seared sea scallop with lemon corn sauce
Salad
Tomato, yellow watermelon, cucumber
Entrée
Boneless duck legs with peach chutney
Dessert:
Blackberry/raspberry crostata
Seared Sea Scallop with
Lemon Thyme Corn Sauce
Purchase 18 fresh sea scallops and trim off the small muscle that attaches the adductor meat to each shell. Season with coarse salt and pepper and refrigerate.
For the sauce, shuck 4 ears of corn and strip the kernels with a paring knife into a bowl.
Heat a sauté pan and add 2 tablespoons butter. When it just begins to brown, add the corn kernels. Shake the pan and stir in 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, 1 teaspoon minced garlic and the zest from 1 lemon. Continue to cook at medium heat for 5 minutes, then remove from heat.
Transfer half the corn to a food processor and pulse until smooth. Add the puréed corn back to the pan along with the juice from 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.
At service time, heat a sauté pan very hot and add 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon canola oil. Place the scallops in the pan individually so that they don’t touch each other. Sear quickly on both sides and remove.
Put a small amount of sauce on a plate and place 3 scallops on top for each serving. Garnish with a sprig of thyme.
Tomato, Yellow Watermelon
and Cucumber Salad
Remove the cores from 2 beefsteak tomatoes and slice into thick slices. Cut the watermelon into 1-inch-thick slices and trim 12 slices to match the tomato slices in size. Peel a cucumber and slice lengthwise, then cut in half.
Place a base of local arugula on a salad plate and stack the tomato, watermelon and cucumber, placing mint leaves between the slices.
Make a dressing by combining 1/4 cup aged balsamic vinegar with 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper. Drizzle dressing over each stack at service time.
Grilled Brick Weighted Duck Legs
Purchase 6 duck legs and trim off excess fat, leaving the skin on. Place them skin side down on a cutting board and make a cut along the leg and thigh bones, exposing the bones. Slip your knife under the bones and remove them, leaving the duck leg and thigh in one piece. Make another cut partway through the thickest meat to make the whole piece of uniform thickness (this is called butterflying).
Season both sides of the duck with a rub made of 2 teaspoons Chinese five spice powder, 1 teaspoon coarse salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Refrigerate duck for 30 minutes.
Make peach chutney by placing in a small saucepan 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, 1 teaspoon curry powder, 1 teaspoon salt and a dash red pepper flakes. Cook until sugar dissolves and add 2 cups peeled and chopped peaches along with 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 1/2 cup chopped onion, 1/2 cup chopped green pepper and 1 teaspoon minced ginger. Bring to a simmer and remove from the heat.
Prepare a chargrill and wipe the grill with an oil-soaked paper towel.
Spray the duck legs with no-stick and place them skin side down on the grill. After 5 minutes, turn the duck and grill the other side for another 5 minutes. Turn again and put the pieces to the side of the grill where the temperature is not so hot.
Wrap 2 bricks in foil and place them on top of the duck legs. Let them cook, with the grill cover on, for 20 minutes and remove. They will be flat like a cutlet and fully cooked inside, but still very moist and flavorful. Serve the chutney on the side.
Blackberry and
Raspberry Crostata
For the crust, place 1 1/2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a food processor. Pulse a few times and add 2 ounces cold butter and 2 ounces cold shortening cut into small pieces. Pulse until mixture looks like coarse cornmeal, then empty into a bowl and stir in 6 tablespoons ice water with a dinner fork to make a dough.
Place dough on a flour-dusted surface and form into a round disk about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Place 1/2 pint of blackberries and 1/2 pint of raspberries into a bowl. Sprinkle over them 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon cornstarch and the zest and juice of 1 lemon. Toss gently and let sit for 15 minutes.
Roll out the dough into a circle about 1 foot in diameter on a floured surface. Transfer the pastry to a parchment-lined sheet pan and set the oven to 400 degrees.
Place the berry mixture in the center of the pastry, leaving a 2-inch rim around the edge. Fold the edge of the dough over the berries, crimping it along the way but leaving some of the berries exposed. Brush the top of the dough with egg white and place in the oven.
Bake for 35 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Cool and serve.
