The Love of the Labor of Cooking is Never Lost

Summer is nearly run out, though here in Southern California a week of high heat is upon us. It’s going to be 94 Fahrenheit on Wednesday, and it appears that similar highs will persist through the end of the week. So it goes …

My Labor Day weekend was highlighted by a dinner party we hosted on Saturday, for which I began prepping on Friday by making gazpacho and ice cream. I was at lunch a week or so ago at Marino Restaurant and Sal Marino gave me his recipe for gazpacho, which I used. Here is an image of his version of this dish:

The guests numbered four, two regular dinner and cooking companions, two whom we have been attempting to get to our table for a few years now; something or other always interfered. But that is now a thing of the past.

The ice cream I made without eggs, a Philadelphia-style spicy-maple concoction. I used heavy cream and simmered in it cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, and some salt. About a cup of maple syrup I reduced, then added to the cream and milk mixture, and it all chilled overnight in the refrigerator. I made a chocolate-banana bread on Saturday morning and served the ice cream with it for dessert.

The table was set Saturday afternoon.

The rest of the menu came together on Saturday. For the main course, spices including red pepper flakes, smoked paprika, toasted and ground coriander, and fennel seeds were simmered in olive oil for 30 minutes; that mixture melded for four hours, then I slow-cooked a coho salmon at 300 Fahrenheit for 20 minutes in the oil.

We opened with the gazpacho, then I served rigatoni with basil pesto; the leaves had been harvested that afternoon from our balcony garden.

There are few things in life I love and appreciate more than cooking and sharing my food with others, especially friends and family. It is love’s labor, a work and passion for which I live. I hope on this holiday that whatever you cook is delicious, and that you are able to share it with people you love.