SINGING & SHARING GRIEF

WITH TALK OF OLIVE OIL CAKE, TOMATOES & MORE

This is the week of the August full moon; it’s due tonight, with a partial eclipse around midnight. I’m hoping for clear skies.

anenomes with a foraging bee; in the garden at Friends’ House where we sang last Saturday

At the next full moon I should be in Tbilisi. I’ve just finished writing a note to thtravellers who will be joining me in there in late September for eleven days of food and culture-focused travel in Georgia and Armenia. At odd intervals this past week I’ve found myself travelling in my mind’s-eye, anticipating the pleasure of seeing friends and familiar places again.

The last ten days have been wonderfully intense, with my son Dom and family visiting from Vancouver, and a lot of singing. Last weekend was the annual Central Ontario Sacred Harp Convention - a full weekend of singing with others who had come from near and far. We had about 100 singers over the weekend; more than 75 each day, from 7 states and 3 provinces.

One of the features of Sacred Harp Conventions and One-day Singings is that there is always food served at midday, a practice known as “dinner on the grounds.” The host community of singers is responsible for providing good eats for everyone who shows up. It’s a point of pride for us to provide generously each year, in potluck fashion. Without facilities for refrigeration or for last minute reheating, etc. it takes a bit of ingenuity. This year there were loads of salads of every description, lentils, lots of cheese, piles of sandwiches and wraps of all kinds, cold cuts, watermelon pickles, tender green beans, and loads more. On the sweets end there were many peach pies and custard pies, plus chocolate cake, butter cake, butter tarts, cheesecake, cookies, fresh fruit…you get the idea.

the feast laid out at the Detweiler Meeting House, where we sang on Sunday

The exhilaration of singing with others is very special. I imagine that playing in an orchestra or other group music-making gives a similar buzz. The harmonies and overlapping vibrations bring the body alive. With singing there are also the life-giving sensations in the mouth and lungs as the body works consciously to breathe and sing. And with shape-note there’s the satisfying integration of eyes and brain and hand that happens when you’re (sight-) reading the music and the words and keeping time. At the end of each day of singing I was high with the pleasure of it all.

There’s a short Memorial on the Sunday at each Convention, where we remember those who are ill and those dear to us who have died in the past year. Last Sunday at the singing, with some hesitation, I added Tashi’s name to the list. Though Christianity helps many people, it is not for me. And so it felt strangely alienating at first to hear Tashi’s name read in the middle of a list, nakedly out there with no shared context except that every name was of someone who had died. But when I pictured the same feeling of hurt and love in other people as they heard their lost precious person’s name read out, it shifted things for me.

the skyscape yesterday afternoon

We carry the load of grief alone, yes, but also with others, and that’s part of life. The saying of a name brings those we’ve lost freshly into being as loved real individuals, if only for a moment. And somehow the sharing of grief becomes a balm, a form of care for ourselves and for others.

KITCHEN EXPLORATIONS celebrating tomatoes, tomatoes; plus a recipe for olive oil cake with peaches and hazelnuts

Tomatoes! There’s a bit of a competition for me if I want a snack or a treat: do I opt for slices of tomato on toast, or with cheese, or with sardines?

a huge homegrown tomato from my friend Sarah; and plenty of sliced tomato, with sardines - a perfect lunch

The other day I had a pound of ground lamb and a few small zucchinis. They were very easy to transform into a sauce for egg noodles, assisted by some chopped fresh tomato. What a lush easy-to-eat treat with terrific textures (I love the bite of cooked zucchini, the slight resistance of egg noodles, the melt of lightly cooked tomato).

the lamb-sauced egg noodles, with green beans on the side

I came across some beautiful flat beans at the Trinity-Bellwoods Farmers Market the other day. I sliced a large white onion finely and softened it in hot olive oil flavoured with some mustard seed and nigella, in my large cast-iron skillet. In went the beans, chopped crosswise in ½-inch/1 cm lengths. I cut the kernels off 2 or 3 cobs of grilled corn left over from the previous day (such a handy ingredient, for both its flavour and its texture), and added those, along with perhaps a half cup or more of hot water to help the beans cook. I used a splash of fish sauce plus a little salt for seasoning. (You could always add some minced anchovy to the dish; or for vegetarians use say sauce instead of fish sauce as part of your seasoning.) I added a chopped tomato plus several halved cherry tomatoes for colour and acidity. The dish simmered gently for a little longer, until the beans were tender, before I put it out in a large serving bowl with some chopped sorrel leaves on top for a tart note (you could instead sprinkle on sumac). Leftovers from the fridge were delicious this morning, topped with two fried eggs plus a few yellow cherry tomatoes.

a perfect breakfast or any time pleasure: eggs and tomatoes over leftover mixed vegetables

OLIVE OIL CAKE, A CASUAL RECIPE:

This year for my sweet contribution to the table at the Saturday singing I decided I’d improvise a different version of olive oil cake, using my recipe in The Miracle of Salt as a starting point. I had fresh peaches, toasted hazelnuts, and lemon zest as my flavourings (instead of the preserved lemons and slated nuts of the original recipe). I chopped two unpeeled peaches into small chunks (you could use plums or nectarines instead), processed a handful of hazelnuts to about ½ cup of coarse powder, and sliced thin pieces of zest from a large lemon then chopped it finely. I mixed the peach and zest together in a bowl with half the nuts before I started assembling the cake; the rest of the nuts you’ll find below in the recipe. I thought I’d try to incorporate some of the peach mixture into the cake and then later, while it was baking, add a little of it on top.

I lightly greased a small loaf pan (8 by 4 inches/20 by 10 cm), and lined the bottom with parchment paper. The oven was preheated to 350F/175C.

The rest is easy. In one bowl mix the dry ingredients together well:

1 cup/about 130 grams whole grain flour or substitute all-purpose (I used a wheat variety called Maris Widgeon this time)

1 cup/200 grams turbinado sugar (plus a little extra for sprinkling on top)

¼ cup ground toasted hazelnuts (or walnuts or almonds)

2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of fine sea salt

In another bowl whisk together the wet ingredients:

½ cup plain full-fat yogurt

3 large eggs

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and use a spatula to stir and fold them in until they’re fully mixed. Add ½ cup/120 ml extra-virgin olive oil and stir to blend it in completely. You’ll have doubts about it the first time you try, but it will work.

Stir in about ½ to 3/4 cup of the peach mixture.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place the pan in the centre of the preheated oven. You’ll need to bake it for about 50 minutes, or perhaps as long as an hour. Once the top of the cake is looking a little firm, at about the 40-minute mark, drizzle a line of the peach mixture along the centre of the loaf, sprinkle on a tablespoon or so of sugar, and then place it back in the oven to finish baking. Test for doneness by inserting a fine skewer into the centre of the cake; it should come out clean with no batter sticking to it.

The cake needs to rest until completely cool. You can lift it out of the pan to slice it, or just slice it in the pan. It’s moist and lush-tasting. Another tribute to peaches!

summer treasure: close-up of someone else’s shopping at the Trinity-Bellwoods Farmers Market