Cuisiniers Kitchen...: Preserved Goodness...

The summer season is a time when it is so fun to be a chef, especially in Seattle! The plethora of fresh, ripe fruits and vegetables are simply begging us to do something cool and fun with them. Sexy and luscious coming in hand-picked from local farmers or being placed on display at the local markets ready for the taking...either way, you want to just take all of them and eat them right then and there, which in our kitchen, is what sometimes happens. Some of the local fruits and especially tomatoes barely make it to the line, as the cooks are constantly dipping their greedy little fingers into them and popping them in their mouths before they come out of the walk-in. Cool. During the summer, we like to do a lot of preserving and canning...whether making pickles, putting up vinegars of various sorts, housemade salumi, alcoholic infusions or canning different batches of local love, it just is part of our gig. As with years past, both at the club and at my previous stomping grounds, canning was like a ritual, and one that was to be missed. Sure, in the days at Rover's, it was almost always done after service as we hovered over our steaming water baths until wee hours of the morning, but nonetheless, it was something that gave us a sense of our upbringing and that made it special. In my kitchen at the club, it is no different. Not a lot of professional kitchens do canning anymore from what I gather, but for those that do, they obviously realize the "importance of" and the joy and crazy goodness it brings us when we tap into it late in the fall or winter as the weather is cold and all one can find is citrus. Here are a few shots of the last batch we did of local Bing, Lapin and Sweetheart cherries. Although not pictured, we did up some Rhubarb Compote with Vanilla as well as "Batonettes" of Rhubarb. The process is quite simple. Try it, I am sure you will enjoy the results!