Fab food for the fab Fourth

Sunday is America’s 228th birthday. Through the years, I’ve given you recipes for all sorts of barbecue. This time, although many of us will fire up the grill, I thought it would be interesting to feature foods Americans enjoy outside of Philadelphia.

The late Judith Huxley was a food columnist for The Washington Post. Her book, Table for Eight: Recipes & Menus for Entertaining with the Seasons, is one of my favorite cookbooks. Huxley grew up in New England and wrote that her family ate salmon, peas, potatoes and blueberry pie on the Fourth of July.

Salmon is still the fish of choice in Philadelphia restaurants. I prefer Norwegian salmon to the Atlantic variety, but this is a matter of personal taste. We can enjoy it hot or cold, as steaks or fillets. Or, we can add a bit of luxury and purchase smoked salmon. Those who are truly passionate about salmon smoke their own, including chefs.

During the Book and the Cook in March, I enjoyed a delicious salmon lunch at the National Constitution Center prepared by Chef Max Hansen, owner of Max & Me Catering. The first course was an unusual gazpacho accented with bits of smoked salmon and flavored with heady cilantro oil. The recipe can be found in Smoked Salmon: Delicious Innovative Recipes by Hansen and Suzanne Goldenson ($18.95, Chronicle Books). Cool mugs of this gazpacho would be an interesting kick-off for your Fourth of July party.

I recently purchased a pint of North Carolina blueberries for $2. I have to hand it to the North Carolina blueberry farmers, their berries are just as sweet as the New Jersey variety we enjoy all summer long.

Within the past few years, a number of cookbooks have addressed cooking and baking with store-bought ingredients. The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrne ($14.95, Workman Publishing) was an instant hit when it was published in 1999. She then wrote The Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor and The Dinner Doctor (both $14.95).

The newest cookbook on this theme is Ready, Set, Dough!: Incredibly Easy and Delicious Ways to Use Store-Bought Doughs, by Melanie Barnard ($17.95, Broadway Books). Barnard offers more than 100 recipes for pies, tarts, cookies, cobblers, pizzas and main dishes. I leafed through the book and found an easy-to-bake blueberry pie.

Here are two recipes for the Fourth of July.

Smoked Salmon Gazpacho with Avocado and Cilantro Oil
From Smoked Salmon: Delicious Innovative Recipes by Max Hansen and Suzanne Goldenson

For the cilantro oil:
1 large bunch fresh cilantro
Kosher salt
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

Set aside six nice cilantro sprigs for garnish. Stem the remaining cilantro sprigs.

Bring a small saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the cilantro leaves and blanch for two to three minutes. Drain the leaves well and transfer immediately to a blender. Add the olive oil and puree until smooth.

Pour the oil into a small bowl and let sit for one hour.

For the soup:
1 ripe Haas avocado, halved, pitted, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
3 large vine-ripened tomatoes, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 cups V-8 juice
1 European cucumber, peeled, halved, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 large or 2 small yellow or orange bell peppers, cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 small jalape�o chilies, minced
1 bunch scallions, white sections only, cut into 1/8-inch thick slices
Juice of 2 limes
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 pound smoked salmon, cut into 1/4-inch dice

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the salt, pepper and salmon. Stir well and season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.

When ready to serve, ladle it into six chilled bowls. Divide the salmon evenly among the bowls. Stir the cilantro oil to recombine and then drizzle a teaspoonful on each serving. Garnish with a sprig of cilantro.

Serves six.

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Note: This recipe makes more cilantro oil than you will need. Drizzle the leftover on grilled flank steak, chicken breast or mashed potatoes.

Night Sky Blueberry Pie
From Ready, Set, Dough! by Melanie Barnard

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
5 cups fresh blueberries, stems discarded
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1-1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 (15-ounce) package refrigerated folded piecrusts
1 tablespoon milk or light cream

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Measure out and reserve 2 teaspoons of the sugar.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the blueberries, remaining sugar, flour, lemon juice, lemon zest and cinnamon.

Keeping one crust refrigerated, unfold the other crust and ease it into a 9-inch pie plate. Heap the blueberry mixture into the crust. Unfold the remaining crust and place it on a lightly floured counter. Use lightly floured small cookie cutters in star or crescent shapes (or any shape you like) to cut out four or five shapes from the top of the crust, leaving at least a 2-inch margin uncut.

Reserve the cutouts and place the top crust over the blueberry mixture. Use your fingers to pinch the crusts together and flute or crimp decoratively. Brush the crust with the milk and sprinkle with the reserved sugar.

Bake the pie for 30 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 400 and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 375. Carefully remove the pie from the oven, place a 14-inch square of aluminum foil on the rack, fold up the edges of the foil to form a rim and move the rack to the center of the oven.

Place the pie on the foil and bake until the juices are bubbling and the crust is a rich golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Cool the pie on a rack and serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves eight.