By Rebecca Crichton
Fifty years ago, I moved from La Jolla, California, to Victoria, British Columbia. I knew nothing about the Northwest. I thought Victoria, on Vancouver Island, was on the large island next to a larger land mass and was famous for lemurs. Who doesn’t love lemurs? When I asked where the monkeys were, people regarded me with a combination of alarm and hilarity.
I joked that I left Southern California because the weather “lacked nuance.” The Northwest, on the other hand, proved to be “reliably obscure.” In my 46 years of living here, I rarely complain about the shades of grey or the range of temperatures from mainly moderate to mostly moderate.
My interest in food and cooking inspired me to propose a cooking show to the local Victoria TV station that was chartered to provide community content. Anybody could pitch an idea, get a regular slot, and have a cameraman turn on the camera and come back 30 minutes later to count you out.
This was almost 20 years before the Food Network began in 1993. Long before professionals learned how to make food sexy. No closeups of sizzling, juicy steaks, piles of pasta tingly with pesto. None of what sends us into sensual trance in front of the many food shows we ingest 24/7.
I called my half-hour show Cooking with Taste. The premise was that if you knew how things tasted and what you were hankering to taste, you could create food that would deliver that to you. My first show honored the familiar flavor combination of sweet and sour. I made dishes that spanned a meal starting with appetizers (my five-ingredient avocado sauce) and continuing through dishes that included savory, sweet and spicy, ending with some variation using lemons, such as a pie, mousse, or curd.
Back in 1973, nobody would have predicted that Americans’ favorite foods in 2023 would include Vietnamese Pho, Japanese sushi, and other specialties from foreign cultures. In Seattle, I live within three blocks of restaurants including Greek, Mexican, sushi, Thai, Northwest fusion, tapas, and bubble waffles.
Our retrained and enlivened palates now crave new flavors, with sugar holding the helm against the other basic tastes. We imbibe drinks with bitters and balsam, crunch wasabi peas, blinking back the tears. We continually up the ante on the Scoville Scale for hotness. We are familiar with chocolate and chili, hot honey, sriracha, gochujang, furikake, zhug, Thai green and red chili sauces, Indian curries, and miso, which blends with sweet, savory, and spicy with equal ease. Pomegranate molasses, one of my favorite ingredients, will always deliver a sweet/sour note to sauces and salad dressings.
The following recipes offer ideas and options for mixing flavors over the course of a meal.
- Grandma Annie’s Sweet & Sour Cabbage Soup
- Roasted!
- Rebecca’s Salad Dressing
- Easy Eton Mess
Grandma Annie’s Sweet & Sour Cabbage Soup
This soup is a variation on Russian Cabbage Borscht. It is the essence of what a really good sweet and sour soup can be. While it can be vegetarian, the depth of flavor from meat changes it to something sublime. It also calls for an ingredient most people don’t know: Sour Salt (Citric acid). You can find this at markets that sell Kosher or Eastern European food or, although it sounds weird, you can get food-quality Citric acid at a pharmacy. It is inexpensive and a little bit goes a long way!
Ingredients
This makes many quarts, but it freezes very well so you might as well make a lot!
- 2 T. olive or other oil
- 2–2 ½ lbs. stew beef
- 1 red cabbage–shredded
- 1 green cabbage–shredded
- 2 large onions–red or white, sliced
- 3-6 cloves whole garlic–chopped or shredded
(I use Trader Joe’s already peeled and use an entire small pack) - 1 32 oz. can sauerkraut (no need for expensive kind)
- 2 large cans diced tomatoes
- 1 quart chicken broth
- 1-3 cups leftover wine–white, red, whatever you have
- 1-2 T. powdered Sour Salt (Citric acid)–start with 1T and then see if you want/need more
- 1–2 c. brown sugar
- Salt and pepper
Directions
- In a large soup pot, cook the beef in hot oil until it loses color and begins to brown.
- Add onions and garlic and cook down and begin to brown.
- Add both red and white cabbages and let cook until they also reduce and release their liquids.
- Add sauerkraut with its liquid.
- Add tomatoes, wine, and chicken broth.
- Add sour salt and sugar.
- Stir and bring to simmer.
- Simmer soup for several hours (at least two) until meat is tender and falls apart easily.
Keep testing for the right balance of sweet and sour. I almost always add more sugar and, depending on how much sour salt I start with, I might add a bit more. Just add 1 tsp at a time as it is very powerful.
If you can make this a day ahead, the flavors deepen overnight. And it is just fine served the same day. It can be kept at a simmer for a long time, which also improves the flavor.
Serve as is or with sour cream or yogurt to stir in.
Roasted!
My new approach to fruit and vegetables that are a bit past their prime is to roast them. It works splendidly for cherry tomatoes or Roma tomatoes, cut in quarters and grapes of any color. Other seasonal fruits can be treated the same way!
Heat oven to 350 degrees
- Wash tomatoes or fruits and cut in half or quarters if needed. Grapes and cherry or grape tomatoes don’t need cutting.
- Combine herbs, oils, and other ingredients in a bowl and toss the ingredients to coat well.
- Spread in foil-lined pan and roast at 350 for up to an hour, turning pan and moving ingredients around so everything cooks and become juicy or “plummy” and browned.
Herb mix for 1 lb. tomatoes or fruit
- 1 T. Herbes de Provence
- 2 T. plain or flavored olive oil
- 2 T. sumac
- 2 T. flavored or balsamic vinegar (I use tarragon vinegar with green grapes)
- 1 T. sugar for tomatoes or other fruit if it isn’t too ripe
- 1 tsp, salt
Terrific on a charcuterie board. Or with roasted meats, curries, grain bowls, or as a bruschetta topping over goat cheese.
Rebecca’s Salad Dressing
Enough for two large salads
2 T. Dijon or other specialty mustard (coarse grain, hot/sweet, etc.)
1/3 c. balsamic vinegar
1/3 c. seasoned rice wine vinegar
1/3 c. good quality olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed (optional)
1-2 T. pomegranate syrup (optional)
Mix together. Store in refrigerator.
Use this on salads that have mixed greens and some combinations of fruit, nuts, and cheese. For example:
Oranges, kalamata olives, red onions, pine nuts, and crumbled feta
Pears, candied walnuts, crumbled gorgonzola, or blue cheese
Apples, pecans, or walnuts (toast them in the oven a bit to bring out the flavor)
Grated sharp cheddar cheese
Easy Eton Mess with Lemon Curd—An Assembly Job
Ingredients:
- 1 package of meringues (small or large, any flavor that appeals)
- 1 jar lemon curd (Trader Joe’s has a good one and it is available in most grocery stores)
- 1 pint whipped cream or a can of whipped cream
- 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries, strawberries, or mixed berries
Directions:
- Fold lemon curd into whipped cream—don’t worry if it isn’t smoothly incorporated.
- Gently crush the meringues—you want big pieces of meringue, broken from their original form.
- Layer meringues, whipped cream, and lemon curd and whatever fruit you are using so there are two layers of each.
- You can use individual glasses or other glass dishes or put it all in a large glass bowl.
- Serve right away. This amount should serve four people depending, on size of containers.
Rebecca Crichton is executive director of Northwest Center for Creative Aging and presents programs on that topic in the Seattle area. She worked at Boeing for 21 years as a writer, curriculum designer, and leadership development coach. She has master’s degrees in child development and organizational development, and is a certified coach.