LAST SUNDAY

 

I daringly proposed to my cousins to have another go at my vegan food and spend their last Sunday dinner on the island with me at home cooking for them how like my mom used to do (whom they had known so well back then) calling family over to come by and eat. So I texted this menu for their determination:

•Sorrel Leaves Farro Risotto 

•Chayote Tendrils Salad with Mountain Apples and Chico Fruits 

•Espresso Brownies with Berries-Orange Compote

And I closed with, How often do we get together like this, cousins? My mom would be really happy.

The sorrels are in season - a spring herb:vegetable on the tangy and acidic palette profile - that come back this time, it is a family of the spinach with a vibrant zest when eaten raw; it would be delicious in a creamy risotto while stewing, offsetting their bitterness spice for unctuous earthiness, and with buttered pine nuts in the mix would produce another level of tastefulness (think of collards and mealy grits combined - but Italianized). 

So are the fruits. I love the concept of the plating color juxtaposition of ruby red (mountain apples) with chartreuse brown (chicos) over filigrees of steamed greens dressed in calamansi vinaigrette. The pairing of this salad with the rich risotto I think will be marvelous and be very al fresco dinning experience.

“It’s a champagne from a bottle of Mum, what I had for a lucky piece and wish me luck on it and that will do - best piece I ever had, and now it’s spirited away.”  

             (Ernest Hemingway)

The boys are fishing while the girls and yours truly, the de facto family cook, are in the kitchen prepping up for the three-course menu, plus whatever catch from the sea is brought home for the omnivore stomachs (I told my cousins to butcher and clean the fish there at site for direct steaming or grilling here, absent the gore). Of course, for once in a blue moon reunion, I will make exceptions in my kitchen’s strict plant-based ethos.

I will miss them dearly when they leave for the mainland midweek. But I will make the most of this “Last Sunday” dinner with them with how I do it best when it comes to love: cooking.