as promised, zucchini soup/balsamic glazed green beans and the perfect ear of corn

In my last entry, I made orzo with summer squash in pesto sauce. This was because Nathan does not have a blender, and I couldn't make what I had initially planned, which was this gorgeous zucchini basil soup.


zucchini soup with basil

Originally from Gourmet, (surprise!), this soup is a snap, and totally delicious. I used two zucchini, and two yellow summer squash, plus half of one large, fresh, food co-op onion and vibrant green basil. I chopped the squash into fairly thick rounds. Then I realized I was supposed to have peeled the zucchini and julienned the skin, so I had to peel each round individually. That was a pain, so I only did the zucchini and not the summer squash. (I also figured that the green skin would be more visually striking than the yellow.)

I put the zucchini skin strips in a small colander with a spoonful of salt and let that sit while I made the soup. This is supposed to make sure the skin doesn't turn to mush when you use it to garnish the soup. It didn't, so I guess it worked.

To make the soup, I sauteed the sliced onion in olive onion until soft, and then I added the chopped squash and a teaspoon of salt. I let that cook for five minutes and then I added three cups of water and simmered for 15 minutes. Finally, I added a third a cup basil and went to town with my immersion blender. To serve I blanched the thinly sliced skin in boiling water for one minute. I added plenty of black pepper to the soup and topped it with my julienned zucchini. It was so great. The basil really added a delicious kick to what was already a delicately creamy delight. What a great summer treat! The perfect way to use up that bounty of zucchini!

I also made some green beans because I got a huge bag of them from the food co-op. I sauteed the other half of my onion, (possibly in butter or oil, but I think it was a spoonful of bacon grease), and then I added my green beans, ends trimmed and chopped in half. I stirred it all around for maybe five minutes or so, and then I added a healthy splash of balsamic vinegar. Maybe three tablespoons or so. I let that cook down for maybe ten to fifteen minutes, until it boiled away into a nice syrupy glaze and the beans were cooked through. Seasoned with salt and pepper, this was a pretty tasty side dish. Nothing I would jump at the chance to make again, but definitely not a dud either.


balsamic glazed green beans with onions, and the perfect ear of corn

I rounded the meal out with a perfect ear of summer corn. Where last time I tried to do too much with it, this time around I decided to let the corn stand alone, and boy did the flavor sing. I simply shucked it and dropped it into a pot of salted boiling for like 8 minutes or so. I didn't even butter it. It was so good. I hope you get to have corn this good this summer. One of us should, seeing as I can't. What a waste I am now. Never break your jaw kids.

reruns are delicious + a new twist

Today's entry features three things I have already made for you here on the blog, although one of them is a bit of a new take. That being said, all of these dishes are delicious, and I guarantee they will make you a very full and happy camper should you choose to make them!


the tried and true

Nathan and I cooked dinner over at his place last Wednesday before Top Chef and it was really great. There's a reason I've made lime cilantro coleslaw and dry rubbed ribs before— they are delicious!


orzo in pesto with yellow squash

I also gussied up some pesto sauce by serving it with orzo and summer squash sauteed with garlic and parsley in olive oil. I was initially planning on making a soup with squash, zucchini and the pesto, but I forgot to bring over my immersion blender to Nathan's so I had to improvise. If the soup sounds intriguing, you'll be pleased to know that I ended up making it a few nights later— and it was even better than I had imagined. As I learned from my makeshift orzo squash pesto dish, basil and zucchini make very good bed mates. It's a delicious combination I encourage you to try.

As for the ribs and coleslaw, I didn't really change anything this time around. I added too much salt to the coleslaw, but after an hour in the fridge, the salad mellowed, thankfully. Since we don't have a grill, we cooked the ribs in the oven at 350° for an hour. They were awesome. Bursting with flavor and nice and tender. We had plenty leftover, which made for tasty rib and coleslaw sandwiches. Mmmm.


moist and flavorful dry-rubbed ribs

I'll leave you with one last shot of glistening ribs. I'm getting hungry just thinking about them. It's going to be far too long before I can sink my teeth into a nice healthy chunk of meat. I hate my life right now.


ribs glorious ribs

happier times and fried zucchini

So last Monday, bursting with excitement for summer vegetables and an apartment suited for dinner guests, I cooked a summer supper for Marc, Grace and Nathan. I served the previously discussed minestrone soup, maple carrots and turnips, and a salad, but the part of the meal I was most excited about was my late grandmother's fried zucchini.


my Nona's fried zucchini

Without fail, Nona would make this every time I would visit her in San Diego. My Uncle Ed and I would fight over each and every piece, and it would never make it to the dinner table. It's simple but incredibly delicious, and I did my best to recreate it. Actually, I got a lot of help from Marc and Grace, who were excellent sous chefs for our dinner. Marc peeled carrot and Grace chopped greens for the minestrone, made a salad, and sliced zucchini into long, thin strips. Together the two of them dipped the thin zucchini slices in egg, dredged them in flour, and then passed them off to me to fry in hot vegetable oil. We made a great team, and I couldn't have gotten dinner on the table so quickly without all their help. Thanks guys!

The zucchini turned out great, although Nona's would have obviously been better. The woman could do no wrong in the kitchen, and I miss her terribly. I hope she's out there somewhere, smiling to see the joy that her peerless cooking continues to give people.


fried zucchini, a salad and maple syrup glazed carrots and turnips

To round out our meal Marc brought a couple of bottles of wine, and Grace picked up some beautiful little desserts that I forgot to photograph. Their wonderful contributions really made for a festive evening. Considering the meal was almost entirely vegetarian save for chicken stock in the soup, we were all quite satiated and satisfied. This sort of thing will really be missed now that I can't eat real food or drink alcohol. :(


Marc and his sparking red wine made for two welcome guests

this is going to be tough

My jaw is now wired shut. It is a terrible, awful, weird feeling. I feel like I am locked in! Drinking purees is fine in theory, but it s crazy to not be able to lick my lips or use my tongue at all. Yesterday they had told me that I was going to be wired up for 5 weeks, but today they told me that they should be able to switch to rubber-bands in two week's time, which means soft foods like eggs will be ok at that point. That also means only four weeks total before my mouth is back to normal, God willing.

I feel pretty knocked out. I made ratatouille last week or over the weekend or something, so I took that home to Long Island with me. Mom came in by train yesterday and stayed over my apartment last night, and dad came and picked us up at the hospital. We stopped at Rite Aid back in Huntington and my mom picked up some protein drinks and Sensodyne toothpaste and stuff. Not the most inspiring purchases in the world.

Dad pureed my ratatouille with some water. He also made me a blueberry cantaloupe Ensure smoothie. I had put wax over all the spiky metal on my teeth, but I was still a little drugged up from the surgery when I did that, so I put too much and it was blocking the gaps and the food couldn't get through very well. It was gross. I had to clean off all the wax before I could actually eat. Not fun.

My teeth hurt, and I wish I could talk normally, but I'm glad my jaw is in place at the very least. In that regard, I definitely feel better, and I'm sure the pain killers are helping me out. I'm feeling pretty hopeless about being able to enjoy anything for the rest of the summer, but I think that I will be able to heal ok, and that this shouldn't have any lasting damage on my body. Paying for all these medical bills is another story...

liquid diet

Today I broke my jaw. I will be getting it wired shut tomorrow for the next five weeks. I am incredibly depressed about this, and probably won't continue blogging, since I will be drinking boring nasty purees from now until the end of August and can't imagine mustering up the necessary enthusiasm to write about them. Basically, the rest of my summer is shot to shit. I may post the few dishes I haven't written about yet, but I'm not sure what the point is.

maple carrots and turnips

maple syrup glazed carrots and turnips

Last summer, my very first food co-op share included turnips. I had never ever cooked a turnip in my life, and thus had no idea what to do with them. My friend Megan lives and runs an organic farm, (and earlier this year was blogging about it), so I asked her how she liked to cook them. The resulting recipe, rich with butter and maple syrup, was so delicious I immediately submitted it to the CSA newsletter. I admit that the combination might sound strange, but it highlights the veggie's natural sweetness and gives it a beautiful sticky sweet glaze and is just off the hook good every time I make it, which is every time I have turnips. Megan also gave me a nice method for cooking turnip tops, which I haven't made recently, but will include nonetheless. Here is my submission, first composed on 6/17/09:

A newcomer to community sponsored agriculture, I was excited to receive my first share of vegetables from Norwood. However, I have to admit I was intimidated by the selection, as I had never cooked a turnip in my life! I put out a cry for help on facebook, and a very good friend of mine, who lives on an organic farm, responded with a pair of recipes which she dubbed "the best way to eat turnips." I am not too sure on the measurements, so this is the closest approximation I can come up with.

Caramelized Maple Turnips and Carrots
6 small white turnips
2 carrots
3 or 4 tbsp real maple syrup
quarter stick of butter
1 cup stock (or enough to cover the carrots and turnips in the pan)
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Wash turnips and remove the greens, which can be cooked separately. Chop into small slices. Peel carrots, and slice into thin disks. Place carrots and turnips in a pot, and pour in enough stock to more or less cover them. Cook on medium high heat until carrots and turnips are almost cooked all the way through and the stock has mostly boiled off. Then add butter and syrup, and let that cook down until it gets nice and caramelized. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve to guests who won't mind if you lick the plate.

Braised Turnip Greens
6 turnip tops
1-2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
1 tbsp bacon grease
red wine or apple cider vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Wash and chop turnip greens. Peel and mince garlic. Heat bacon grease in pan over medium high heat. Add garlic and turnip greens and cook until tender. Serve with a drizzle of vinegar and a dash of salt and pepper. Enjoy!

minestrone

As I've discussed, kale is my least favorite food co-op veggie. I never know what to do with it, and it's always disappointing to get it from the food co-op.

I volunteered for a couple hours during distribution recently, and there were actually several people there lamenting the lack of greens this season. While I was in a different co-op last year, and was not among the members who complained about getting too many greens, I had to admit that I shared their sentiment. When I explained that I never knew what to do with all that kale, one woman suggested cooking it in oil with lots of garlic, adding chicken stock, red pepper flakes, cannellini beans and pasta to make a minestrone soup. When she put it like that, it sounded pretty good!


minestrone soup

I did pretty much exactly what she told me to. I used kale and beet tops, (which made it turn pink) as my greens, and threw in some carrot rounds as well. Nathan told me that minestrone is supposed to have tomatoes in it, so I tossed in some leftover tomato sauce. Then after it had been simmering for awhile, we tasted it. Nathan was worried that the chicken broth was too bland, so I told him to add some more red pepper flakes. He did NOT stop dumping them in when I said and thus the soup was far too hot, but STILL managed to be a little bland. Not terrible, but not that great. Next time I'll use a legit recipe, or maybe just add some onions. Also, I used canned beans and Nathan convinced me not to rinse off the bean gunk. That was probably a mistake. I think the beans tasted a little funky, especially on the reheat, and I've never had that problem with canned beans that I've rinsed.


spicy minestrone topped with grated romano cheese

breakfast!

Last weekend I made breakfast for Nathan and me:


a decadent breakfast

A poached egg with creamed swiss chard, half a toasted kaiser roll, and some steak. It was pretty filling and delicious. I had put all my half and half in my sad, watery corn soup, so I actually used some of that to cream my chard. It worked just fine, although I ended up adding just a little more than I probably should have. You can see the sauce pooling out underneath the chard in the photo.

Man, I love chard. This new food co-op has only given us chard twice all summer, which is sad and shockingly infrequent. I love the brightly colored ribs. I have a great method for cooking them that I'd love to share with you all, so I hope I get more chard soon!

glazed Gourmet potatoes and a terrible disappointment

When Gourmet Magazine folded last year, it was almost as if a little part of me died. Growing up, I think I thought Gourmet was just another picture book. My Aunt Cathy had a subscription, and I used to make her read me recipes like they were stories when I came to visit. I still can't believe that it's no longer in existence. A damn shame. Anyway, the good thing is that plenty of the magazine's recipes are available online, from one source or another. Today, I'd like to talk about a wonderful potato recipe that I made last week.


olive oil glazed potatoes with fresh parsley

The original recipe was entitled Fingerling Potatoes with Chives and Parsley, but I didn't have fingerlings, so I just used some regular ones at it worked out fine. (Actually the bag says "Golden Potatoes," if you really want to know.) I just had to slice them into long cross sections.

These potatoes literally couldn't be easier. You simply peel them, place them in the skillet and cover them with water, a couple tablespoons of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Then, you bring it to a boil, and then cover and simmer for ten minutes stirring occasionally. At that point, you take off the lid and let it cook for five more minutes, so that the olive oil sort of glazes over the potatoes. Add freshly chopped herbs, like basil and parsley, and eat immediately. I only had parsley on hand when I made it.


simple and delicious

It was delicious. Absolutely delicious. I will definitely be making this again. Normally I'll just make a baked potato if I'm having them for dinner, but this is so much faster and just plain old better. Good old Gourmet. Still coming through with amazing, fantastic food, even after being cruelly shut down.

I was lucky that those delicious potatoes turned out to be so delicious, because I majorly screwed up the main component of that meal, which was supposed to be a delightfully sweet and summery corn chowder. I was really excited about it too. I had gotten corn from the food co-op, and it was just the sweetest most delicious corn I had even tasted. I cut all the kernels off the cob and set them aside while I made a stock to base the soup on, and let me tell you, I couldn't stop nibbling. It was like candy.

I opened up The Flavor Bible to the corn entry, and in addition to learning that corn goes nicely from everything from crab to maple syrup, I was excited by the suggestions of a chef from Oregon named Vitaly Paley. He had two ideas that really spoke to me, which I will quote:

"We used the husks, which produce a juice, to make a stock for the soup... We made a stock using the corn hucks cooked with a little onion, water, and salt, and let it cook for about 45 minutes. What came out was the most amazing sweet broth. We added the corn, pureed it, and served it chilled. It was so sweet and full of corn flavor you would have sorn there were cream and sugar in it. We now make a corn husk broth to add to a corn, chanterelle, and Dungeness carb risotto with a touch of pesto. Basil pesto and corn really speaks to me. It is a wonderful combination."

You always hear that the best way to make a really sweet and delicious soup infused with bright corn flavor is to boil the cobs first, so I figured I would use the husks as well. I was convinced that this was going to be the most delicious, most flavorful, most corn-like corn soup ever. Liquid gold, if you will. I also was going to add porcini mushrooms and swirl in some of my homemade pesto. I was really excited.

What went wrong? I got the proportion of husk/cob stock to actual kernels completely wrong. Wayyyy too much water and not nearly enough corn. It was totally diluted. I tried adding some cream to thicken it up, but that didn't do much to help. It didn't taste bad, but it was just so bland compared to the glorious soup I envisioned, and the sugary sweet and farm fresh corn I had to work with. When I told Nathan, he employed one of his favorite phrases: casting your pearls before swine. It was a damn shame.

veggie inventory

So, another Thursday has come and gone, giving me a new load of veggies to do my best to dispose of.

I cooked up some onions and green beans and corn and basil and stuff tonight, but there's still a lot left to go through, and more of it than I care to admit is a week or two old already.

4 ears of corn
3 red onions
3 yellow squash (one of them is from last week)
2 bell peppers
2 zucchini
1 eggplant
1 bag of green beans
1 head of lettuce
1 bunch of basil
1 bunch of carrots with tops
2 carrot tops (from last week. I need to make stock)
3 cucumber (last week's share)
cilantro (from last week... this really ought to be used)
1 onion (last week)
2 bunches of little beets (two and three weeks old respectively)
2 green cabbages (these are at least three weeks old)
3 scallions (at least two or three weeks old)
6 small turnips (probably like 5 weeks old...)
2 garlic scapes (these are from like, the second week of the share)
2 big beets ( I confess these are left over from winter share still. bad Sarah.)

Also I have from the grocery store:
parsley (about a quarter of a bunch)
1 bag of carrots
1 bag of celery

In terms of fruit, I pint of blueberries Nathan's grandma gave me on Tuesday, and a pint of PEACHES from the food co-op. YUM YUM YUM.

It's crazy a lot of food. I am totally overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with deliciousness, but overwhelmed nevertheless.