Lee's Kitchen: A not-too-sweet ginger cake makes a perfect summer treat - theday.com

A few weeks back I made the most delicious dinner I’d ever made. And the easiest. And so satisfying that no dessert — ice cream, cookies, cheesecake or crème brûlée — was necessary.

Here it was: a T-bone steak I’d bought and frozen when they were on sale, three sliced tomatoes, mashed potatoes from 20 tiny ones I’d purchased from Stone Acres in Stonington and two ears of sweet corn from Whittle’s in Mystic.

The steak was grilled almost black but the middle was blood red, just the way I like it. My next-door neighbor was also grilling at his patio and was concerned, I think, because my grill was smoking.

I took it off the grill and placed it on a plate and let it sit on the dining room table as I sliced and salted the tomatoes, mashed the potatoes with a little milk and butter and set everything down. Those 10 minutes made all the difference, as it always does, allowing the juices to recede back into the meat.

I hope you are all having amazing and healthy and fresh food this summer. Healthy, you say? A steak? Truth is, it is probably the first time I have grilled a steak in six months, so a steak is just an extravagance after lots of chicken, vegetables, seafood and salad.

I hope you are all getting food as fresh and local as I am and cooking it yourself, knowing exactly what the ingredients are and where they come from.

I bet you are playing with ingredients, too. I received an incredible e-mail from Carol Sepowitz from New London, who used a recipe I’d found for poached cod. She’d bought the cod from Stonington Farmers Market and used small yellow tomatoes but didn’t have one of my ingredients.

“I made the cod for dinner,” she wrote, “but had no coconut cream. I [did] have the Nature’s Promise organic frozen coconut fruit bars on the stick from Stop & Shop. When it came time to add the coconut milk, I let the fruit bar melt into the tomatoes and it made a wonderful poaching sauce adding to the spices. The fish was so good!”

Isn’t that amazing? I have always said home cooks may be better than chefs. I like recipes from cook authors and restaurant chefs, but kitchen innovators are often people like Carol.

Just because we are eating healthy, below is a not-too-sweet cake for dessert (or toasted for breakfast) when you want something you deserve.

Triple-Ginger Pound Cake

Makes 2 loaves

3½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground ginger

2½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1¼ cups milk (do not use low-fat or nonfat; 2 percent is okay)

½ cup minced crystallized ginger

3½ tablespoons grated peeled fresh ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pans. Sift flour, ground ginger, baking powder and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until fluffy, at least two minutes. Add eggs and yolk one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Mix dry ingredients and milk alternately into batter. Fold in crystallized ginger and grated ginger. Divide batter between prepared loaf pans.

Bake cakes until tester inserted into the middle of the cakes come out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes or a little more. Cut around sides of pan to loosen. Turn cakes onto rack and cool completely. Can be prepared up to 1 month ahead. Double wrap cakes in plastic and freeze.

On the Side

My friend Katrina told me about an orange melon she buys at Whittle's in Mystic. She says the inside looks like a cantaloupe, but on the outside it is sort of beige or light orange and looks like a honey dew. Katrina, who feels the need for something sweet every day, said this melon is as good as dessert. (Actually, she didn't say that, but I know what she means.)

So I bought one. It is big and, at Whittle's, it is called an orange melon. This morning I cut it in half. I scooped the seeds out and used a teaspoon to taste it. It is so sweet and soft that the only word I can think of is cloud-like. I called Whittle's and was told it is cross between a cantaloupe and a honey dew. If you can find this before melon season is over, see if it is a sweet as Katrina didn't actually say.

Lee White lives in Groton. She can be reached at leeawhite@aol.com.

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