Sour power - June 27

Sour cherries. Many shoppers walk right past them and instinctively grab the darker, ruby-red sweet cherries on display at the market. What a shame!

Sour cherries are where it’s at when it comes to baking, preserving and — yes, cocktail mixing!

Sour cherries, which are smaller and more globular than their sweet cousins, lend themselves well to savory preparations, too.

Try them in this Melissa Clark sheet pan chicken recipe. This is one of those recipes that make me giddy because nearly all of the ingredients are available at the market right now (chicken thighs, yogurt, cucumbers, red onion, sour cherries and herbs!). And guess what? Neverstill Wines joins us this week. And I just know that this woman-owned winery’s Rosé or Chenin Blanc would go down quite nicely with this breezy summer dish. 

As any baker will tell you, sour cherries are in fact the preferred cherry to bake with and play with in the kitchen. Try your hand at this easy sour cherry slab pie. Or this rustic sour cherry galette. Remember you can buy key baking ingredients like heavy cream, butter,  and locally-milled flour at the Le Roux Trading Co. tent.  A word of warning: the cherry season lasts about 5 minutes so don’t be left wishing you’d taken advantage. Supermarket cherries will never taste the same!

You know what else is around for about 5 minutes? RHUBARB. So pick up some gorgeous rhubarb  from Fresh Meadow Farm this week and make this

roasted rhubarb and sour cherry compote. “This intensely sweet-tart condiment is as versatile as it is vivacious” says Martha Stewart who created the recipe. Sour cherriespack a punch, and keep their color when roasted with rhubarb and a splash of orange juice. She suggests you swirl into your favorite morning yogurt (so many options at the market now) or use it as a sweet-tart mixer to your evening cocktail.

Black Girl Kimchi is back this week with her gut-healthy kimchi with a Caribbean/Southern twist. My recommendation? Try it on a Dough Co Bagel with cream cheese. Insane!

Raw Chocolate Love is making a new iced “frappé” drink with his organic chocolate — raw, dark and unadulterated — cold brew coffee and bananas. I was the lucky taste tester last week and gave it a big thumb’s up.

Shuck NY is in the house offering Wellfleet and briny Blue Point oysters shucked to order. Bliss!

All this and Milton in the music tent, too? 

Aren’t we just the luckiest...