Easy, versatile fruit sauces capture season’s best

You can spend the summer munching handfuls of berries or
juice-dripping peaches, plums and apricots. Or you can give that
fruit a job to do.

Turn it into a simple sauce with a fresh-picked flavor, then let
it take a custard or cake into exquisitely chic territory or
transform grilled meat into party fare.

Don’t believe it? Don’t doubt America’s beloved “French chef.”
Julia Child so admired a raspberry puree called a “coulis” that in
“Baking with Julia” she wrote: “A drizzle or two over the simplest
dessert provides a polished, professional look — and an extra shot
of great taste.”

Figure Romney Steele, author of “Plum Gorgeous: Recipes and
Memories from the Orchard” (Andrews McMeel Publishing, $25), would
agree. Her fruit-focused book celebrates sauces, marrying them with
meats, seafood and desserts.

And while they go by many names, such as salsa, coulis and
gastrique, don’t let them confuse — or, in the case of the last
two, scare — you. “When you throw out the name gastrique or
coulis, because usually the words come from France, people rear up
and run the other direction,” says Steele, a chef and cooking
teacher. “All of those kinds of sauce are really very simple.”

Pureed fresh fruits may need only a bit of sweetener (sugar or
honey) or tartness (citrus juice, for example) to balance the
flavor. Chopped fresh fruits mixed with a few chopped vegetables
create a salsa, especially when minced jalapeno is included. And
you’ll have a lovely gastrique to pair with meat or seafood if you
enhance a reduction of sugar and vinegar with fruit syrup.

The key to success? “It takes tasting and thinking about the
fruit you’re using,” says Steele. “Be gentle with the fruit. If you
just take strawberries and start mashing the heck out of them,
something happens differently than if you decide to puree them or
mash them and lightly cook them.

“And if you cook strawberries for a long time, they get a really
dark jammy flavor as opposed to the flavor nuances of fresh
strawberries.”

So before you start stemming, pitting, chopping, mixing and
cooking, “really slow down to smell things and taste them,” says
Steele. “That’s when you can start picking up those nuances.”

Cherry Salsa

Combine ½ pound sweet cherries, halved, pitted; ½ red onion,
minced; º cup almonds, lightly toasted, chopped; 1 jalapeno,
seeded, minced, 1 tablespoon honey and a pinch cinnamon in a bowl.
Stir in juice of 1 lime; · cup chopped cilantro and a few julienned
mint leaves. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Steele’s tips: Try a few basic recipes, then
get creative, augmenting flavors with a complementary liqueur or
extract or fresh herb.

No-cook method: Puree fresh fruit in a blender,
using about 2 tablespoons water per cup to blend without overly
thinning. Push through a sieve. Balance flavor with sifted
confectioners’ sugar or lemon juice.

Cooked berry sauce: Simmer 1 cup lightly
crushed fruit (such as blueberries) with 1/2 cup water until soft.
Push through a sieve. Return sauce to medium heat; whisk in 2-3
tablespoons sugar. Simmer until slightly syrupy. Stir in lemon
juice or other flavorings to taste. Add 1/2 cup whole or sliced
berries.

Coulis: Keda Black offers a trio (strawberry, mango, rhubarb) in
“My Cooking Class: Sauce Basics.” Mango’s the simplest: Puree pulp
with a bit of lime juice. Serve with: Panna cotta.

Gastrique: Richard Grausman, in “French Classics Made Easy,”
notes that the sweet-tart sauce called gastrique often accompanies
savory dishes made with fruit. The basic sugar-vinegar reduction
often includes fruit juice. Serve with: Rich meats, game,
seafood.

• From Romney Steele’s “Plum Gorgeous”

Steak With Blackberry Salsa

Servings: 4

2 teaspoons each: toasted coriander seed, pink peppercorns

2 New York strip steaks, 8 ounces each

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ small red onion or 1 large shallot, finely diced

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 ½ cups blackberries

· cup extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons thyme leaves

6 to 8 basil leaves, cut into chiffonade

Aged balsamic vinegar

Freshly ground pepper

3 to 4 cups mixed leafy greens

Coarsely grind coriander and peppercorns with a mortar and
pestle. Sprinkle on both sides of steaks; season with 1/4 teaspoon
salt. Lightly cover; let sit at room temperature, 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, ready the outdoor grill or a grill pan on the stove.

For the dressing, put onion and vinegar in a medium glass bowl;
let stand to soften flavors, 5 minutes. Add 1/2 cup blackberries;
gently crush with a fork and blend in. Whisk in olive oil, thyme,
basil and touch of balsamic vinegar. Season with remaining 1/4
teaspoon salt and pepper to taste.

Grill steaks to desired doneness, about 4 to 6 minutes per side
for medium rare, depending on thickness. Transfer to a board; tent
with foil. Let rest for about 5 to 10 minutes; thinly slice across
the grain. Place salad greens on platter or individual plates; top
with steak. Drizzle with fruit sauce; scatter with remaining
blackberries.

• Adapted from Romney Steele’s “Plum
Gorgeous”

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