It’s a berry good start to summer . . . .

Berry bounty on Sue's hand made platter!

So Sue found this fresh blackberry martini recipe and stumbled onto a watercress and berry salad, and Meg bought a wonderful new dessert cookbook with corn ice cream and berry sauce. At that point all we needed to figure out was how many blackberries do we really need here; and maybe an entrée?
 
We can attest to the martinis being really good, even though we unintentionally left out an ingredient. See our unsolicited below.

Blackberry martini anyone?

Blackberry Martini
By Chef Kate on April 12, 2005
Food.com

• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Total Time: 35 mins
• Servings: 4

About This Recipe
"A little bit of effort, but amply rewarded. This was adapted by Jonathan Reynolds of the New York Times from "The Berry Bible." He prefers gin and so do I, but it's also awfully good with vodka. You'll have leftover simple syrup and berry puree, but I promise you, it won't go to waste. Cooking time is the estimate of how long it takes the syrup to cool."

Ingredients

For the Simple Syrup
o 1 cup sugar
o 1 cup water

For the berry puree

o 2 cups blackberries
o 1 tablespoon sugar
o 1/4 cup creme de cassis ( or berry brandy)

For the garnish

o 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
o 4 lemon wedges
For the Cocktail
o 1 cup gin ( or vodka)
o 2 tablespoons triple sec
o 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water.
2. Bring to a boil and stir until sugar is dissolved.
3. Remove from heat and cool.
4. In a food processor or blender, combine 1 tablespoon sugar, the berries and the cassis (or brandy) and process till smooth.
6. Rub the rims of 4 martini glasses with lemon. Spread the superfine sugar on a saucer.
7. Twirl the rims of the glasses in the sugar.
8. Place glasses in freezer.
9. Add gin (or vodka), Triple Sec, lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of the cooled simple syrup and 1/4 cup of the berry puree to a shaker filled with ice.
10. Shake vigorously.
11. Strain into chilled glasses and garnish with lemon and, if you like, a whole berry in each glass.
12. To quote Mr. Reynolds, "Serve immediately but sip slowly.".

Watercress in the wild grows in free flowing water, but we think the watercress that we found in the local market was grown hydroponically. The leaves  look different than wild watercress, but still have the spicy flavor we were looking for and they stayed fresher because of the attached root systems.

Watercress

Savory Berry-and-Watercress Salad
Recipe from the Tasting Table Test Kitchen
Yield: Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

Vinaigrette
3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon granulated sugar
½ small red onion, thinly sliced

Salad
½ cup plain Greek-style yogurt
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
2 bunches watercress, ends trimmed
3 cups mixed berries

DIRECTIONS
1. Make the vinaigrette: In a medium bowl, whisk together the sherry vinegar, 1 tablespoon water, the salt and sugar. Add the onion and toss to combine. Set aside.
2. Make the salad: In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 teaspoon olive oil and the honey and set aside.
3. In a large salad bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, dill and remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the watercress and toss to coat. Add the berries and the onion mixture and gently toss to combine.
4. Place a dollop of the yogurt mixture on each of 4 plates. Top with some salad and serve.


Most of the components of this meal can be prepared ahead making it an impressive meal for guests with little same day prep. Think sitting back sipping that martini knowing that all you have to do is roast the salmon . . . 
We used Yukon Keta wild caught salmon from our local Raley’s supermarket. What a find and it was on sale! This is our first time eating this particular salmon and we really liked it. Here’s a link if you want to know more.

http://www.wildpacificsalmon.com/site/680079/PAGE/505886

We roast salmon frequently in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Because of the size of the fillets, we reduced the time to 16 minutes. You really need to judge the time by the thickness of the salmon. We added fresh lemon zest strips before roasting and fresh herbs for plating. So good!

Yukon Keta wild caught salmon

Oven Roasted Salmon
Recipe developed by Sue & Meg For Saturday Night Specials 6/1/13

Ingredients

Salmon fillets
1 Tbsp. lemon zest strips
1 Tbsp. lemon thyme
2 Tbsp. flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put salmon skin side down on a parchment lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with lemon zest strips and salt and pepper. Roast for 15-20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the salmon.

Before serving, sprinkle with fresh herbs.

Roasted salmon with Savory Berry and Watercress Salad

We chose a Castle Rock Pinot Noir from Mendocino County (northern California) to accompany the meal. The berry notes in the wine were a great match with the salmon and the salad.

Castle Rock Pinot Noir, 2010 about $9.00 on sale

Sweet Corn Ice Cream
with Blackberry Sauce

Makes: 1 quart ice cream
Source: “New Flavors for Desserts”, Williams Sonoma, Oxmoor House

4 ears fresh sweet corn
3 c half-and-half
1 c heavy cream, plus more as needed
2/3 c sugar, plus ½ c
pinch of salt
2 ½ pints blackberries
1 t fresh lemon juice

Remove the husks and silk from the corn.  Using a chefs’ knife, cut the kernels off the cobs.  Add the kernels and cobs to a large pot along with the half-and-half and cream.  Add the 2/3 c sugar and the salt and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove from the heat and let steep for at least 3 hours or up to overnight.  (If steeping for longer than 3 hours, refrigerate the mixture.)

Strain the corn mixture through a fine-mesh sieve.  Using your hands, wring out the cobs and press on the kernels with a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible; discard the cobs and kernels.  Measure the liquid; you should have about 3 cups.  If not, add more cream as needed.  Cover and refrigerate the corn-infused mixture for at least 3 hours or up to 8 hours.

In a nonreactive saucepan, bring the ½ c sugar and ¼ c water to a boil over medium-high heat.  Add 2 pints of the blackberries and stir to combine.  Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the berries break down, about 8 minutes.  Transfer the mixture to a blender and add the lemon juice.  Puree the berry mixture then strain it through a fine-mesh sieve.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Freeze the chilled corn-infused mixture in an ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.  If desired, pack it into an airtight container and freeze until very firm.
To serve, scoop the ice cream into bowls, drizzle with the blackberry sauce, top with a few of the remaining blackberries, and serve right away.

Our unsolicited and biased opinions:

Sue made the simple syrup for the martini and then forgot to add it! We actually think that it was better without the added sweetness and would definitely not use it the next time around. Our blackberries were perfectly ripe, and the martini was so fresh. The little bit of lemon and sugar on the glass rim was a little touch of sweetness. By the way, we used vodka in our martinis.

Good to the last drop!

We substituted half of a shallot for the red onion in the salad. We also would recommend doubling the yogurt dressing (smear) if you are serving four people. We used all of the yogurt for two people. Having the yogurt on the side instead of in the salad is a wonderful opportunity to add it to each bite as you wish.

This ice cream is a bit labor intensive, but is definitely worth the effort. We made two changes to the procedures after the cobs and kernels had simmered and set the suggested times: the first was to scrape the cobs to extract all of their creamy goodness and add it to the pot prior to straining. The second was that after straining the liquid we put about ½ cup of the corn kernels at a time into cheese cloth and squeezed the “living tar” out of them, (actually cream and sugar, but you get the picture), until they yielded no more juice. We did not need to add any cream to get the three cups of liquid for the ice cream recipe. The remaining corn actually tasted pretty good and could go into a soup.

The berry mixture took a bit longer than the 8 minutes suggested in the recipe. The time will vary depending on your altitude and the firmness of the berries. Just keep an eye on the pot.

We know what you are thinking . . . . corn ice cream?? You get the essence of corn in a creamy ice cream.  The blackberry syrup takes it over the top. Really, try this. You’ll like it, a lot!

We are in berry bliss!