It's Too Darn Hot

So here's a SUPER easy lemon buttermilk basil ice cream recipe.

Of note: does require ice cream maker. Such is life.

Combine 2 cups sugar, 1 quart buttermilk, 2 tbsp lemon zest, 1/2 cup lemon juice, a big bunch of muddled basil leaves. Put in fridge a few hours. Strain out basil leaves. Put in ice cream maker. Put in freezer a few hours. Eat and enjoy. Try to avoid heat stroke.

It's Not Easy Being Green, Part II

I suppose it's not so crazy that two of our recent dinners have been green-themed given the CSA's influence.

I did a bad job of using up the CSA veggies this past week (stupid new job), but today we picked up a second batch of scallions, and something had to be done. That something, courtesy of Young's recommendation, was Mark Bittman's Scallion Pancakes. I was a bit thrown off to find that they were... green. But DELICIOUS. (And the side salad wasn't bad, either!) And kudos to Santosh for not only tracking down the recipe but doing all the cooking, for that matter. (Hey, I set the table at least.)

Ingredients
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 bunches scallions or spring onions, about 1 pound
1 egg
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 cup flour
Peanut, canola or olive oil as needed

1. Boil water, roughly chop three bunches, mince the forth.
2. Add the roughly chopped scallions to water and cook x 5 minutes. Drain and save a bit of water.
3. Puree cooked scallions in blender, use the reserved cooking water as needed to make it all mushy together.
4. Mix the puree with the egg, soy and flour. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook in oil, about 2 minutes each side.
5. Serve with more soy sauce. MMM.

THIS BABY or The Apricot Cherry Clafouti

I made a salad yesterday with lots of CSA veggies (cukes, tomatoes, 2 kinds-o-peppers, garlic) and herbs (basil) And gals, it was really perty and healthy and all that good stuff, but I'm not gonna post about it because:

1. As we have already determined, many of us don't follow actual recipes.

2. Its a Greek salad. Do you really need another Greek salad recipe? No.

3. Who gives a crap about veggies? I don't. They're nice and all, but they don't hold a candle to....

THIS BABY!!!

(Which for the record, is not mine).

Sebastian Matthew Smiley is evidence of the following:

-Bite size chunks make everything better.

-Playing with your food is immensely more interesting than eating it.

Also I made a clafouti (but was so focused on THIS BABY that I failed to get pictures, bad, bad blogger). What's a clafouti? According to the food dictionary at epicurious.com, clafouti is:

Originally from the Limousin region, this country-French dessert is made by topping a layer of fresh fruit with batter. After baking it's served hot, sometimes with cream. Some clafoutis have a cakelike topping while others are more like a pudding. Though cherries are traditional, any fruit such as plums, peaches or pears can be used.

I used apricots from the farmers market and cherries from my crap local grocery store. The apricots were amaaaazing. The cherries were sad and pathetic looking. But together....oh together, they made sweet sweet love in my oven.

Apricot Cherry Clafouti

• lb. apricots, quartered and pitted (about 2
  cups)
• .5 cups of cherries, pitted
• 2 tsp. brandy or cognac (not optional)
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs. milk
• 6 Tbs. granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbs. confectioners sugar

Prepare the baking dishes
Preheat an oven to 350°F. Butter 8x8 baking dish and place on a rimmed baking sheet.

Place the apricots/cherries in baking dish and sprinkle with the brandy.

Mix the batter
In a blender (or bowl) combine the eggs, milk, granulated sugar, lemon zest, vanilla, salt and flour. Process (or stir) until smooth. Pour the batter over the apricots/cherries.

Bake the clafoutis
Bake until clafouti is puffed and golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool slightly. Dust the top with confectioners sugar and serve.

Hodgepodge lasagna

The beauty of lasagna is that you can add a bunch of veggies, add it to some cheese and sauce, and bake. It's like a pasta sandwich. It's also great because you don't really need to follow a recipe which is my favorite kind of cooking. So we used up the rest of our veggies (swiss chard and spinach) and one from this week (eggplant) to our lasagna. I put in some ricotta, tomato sauce, noodles in layers. Joe wanted to add the squash, but I adamantly said no (see letter to zucchini entry). This is what I will be eating the rest of the week. I forgot to take a picture before I took a few slices =)

Currant Events

The first thing we tried to do with this week's currants was eat them raw.

This was unwise.

The second thing we tried to do with this week's currants was combine them with our new SodaStream machine.

This was genius.

And so I present a new cocktail:

The Varment.

(1) Rinse some currants, put into a small pot with some sugar, boil until gooey.

(2) Strain so you're left with a syrup. Throw out the solid gunk.

(3) Combine seltzer, 1 tbsp currant syrup, 1 tbsp lemon juice +/- vodka.

(4) Garnish with crazy thai basil that is sitting in the fridge begging to be used.

(5) Enjoy with reruns of The Cosby Show, The West Wing.

Beautiful Week 5

Hoorah for the beginning of our fruit share! Blueberries and nectarines and currants, oh my!

squash sambar

Yep, i'm only good at posting about indian stuff. but i'm pretty proud - i went and picked up yesterday's CSA veggies and turned them into sambar, which Wikipedia describes as a "vegetable stew." I guess that's pretty much what it is.

Summertime Squash Sambar
- 2 squashes, peeled and cut into 0.5 inch chunks

- 1 onion, cut roughly

- tamarind paste

- salt, brown sugar, turmeric

- ground red chilis or chili powder

- cumin powder

- rice flour

1. bring water in about half a large pot to a rolling boil

2. add squash, onion, and salt. boil slowly until the water is boiled about 1/2 off.

3. add about 2 tbsp of tamarind paste, 2 tbsp brown sugar, and 1 tsp turmeric. continue boiling.

4. when the sambar starts to thicken and/or the squash is WELL cooked through, add cumin powder (2 tsp) and red chilli powder (2 tsp).

5. When its ready (it takes about 45 minutes total to boil down), add about 1 tsp of rice flour to thicken up the sambar. Serve with rice.

Also pictured: daal with peaches (for this i used toor daal because it was sweeter) and chutney made out of tamarind and rhubarb that annie made a few weeks ago with our massive CSA acquisition of rhubarb.

It's Not Easy Being Green

The theme of last night's dinner was: green food.

I panicked because I'll be (finally) starting work on Monday, and there's a bunch of CSA veggies that could go unused (cardinal sin, see dead radish entry). So, though this was a bit too visually match-y, it was perfectly taste match-y.

And without further adieu, I present: a trifecta of green foods:

(1) Yogurt Chicken, aka The Easiest Chicken Ever
- Take chicken breasts, put in a bowl covered with plain yogurt (fat free fine), a chopped up onion and some salt. Let that sit in the fridge for as many hours as you have time, overnight best.
- Cook chicken in oven at 350 for about 40 minutes.
- Put in broiler about 4-5 minutes until onions start blackening.
- [and here's where the green comes in] Sprinkle with ample cilantro.

(2) Sugar Snap Peas
[Note, these were hands down the best CSA veggie we've received thus far, as evidence by the recipe below.]
Wash sugar snap peas, serve raw, do not put anything on them that might ruin their amazing flavor.

(3) Basil Mashed Potatoes
- Put basil leaves in boiling water x 15 seconds then transfer to ice bath to stop cooking (i.e. blanch them).
- Use the same water to boil some peeled-and-quartered potatoes about 20-25 minutes (until soft).
- In a separate saucepan, simmer 1 cup milk (skim worked fine) and 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, then add basil and use immersion blender to blend.
- Add milk to potatoes and again use immersion blender to blend. Salt and (white) pepper to taste.
[This recipe, for the record, was SUPER good and very easy. Will definitely make again.]

Actually tasty

Zucchini, baby, sweetheart, you're makin' a comeback.

So this was actually good, and had the benefit of being low-carb.

I call it: Zucchini Spaghetti.

Julienne your Zuck. Or you can just peel it into thin long strips, like pasta.

Make a sauce. (I just sauteed a bunch of CSA veggies--onion, green pepper, tomatoes with basil and oregano and garlic in olive oil).

Add some garlic to some olive oil in a skillet. Then put in the Zuchhini. Then add salt and pepper. Toss till hot.

Serve with sauce, basil leaves, and some feta.

Then enjoy your completely weird but totally edible meal.

Zuccess!

(Yes, I'm very proud of this blog post title ThankYouVeryMuch.)

Fine, I'll admit it. I've perhaps made just a few CSA things that didn't turn out so great. The cumin-yogurt dressing salad that made me cry it was so cumin-y. The escarole pasta (which only needed about thirteen extra ingredients to make it edible -- turns out you can make any pasta into a meal with crushed red pepper flakes and lemon juice). But most depressing has been, as everyone else discusses, the zucchini creations. Santosh successfully made an excellent zucchini-lentil (daal) dish, but he was silly and posted it as a 'comment' in Jen's PS: Zucchini post rather than creating a blog post all of his own. (I'm trying to guilt him into posting in the near future.) But my two prior zucchini attempts both wound up the same: moldy. According to Jen, zucchini is super moist and so, despite the fact that I covered both zucchini bread #1 and zucchini brownies with plastic, they turned into an even greener pile of mush within days on my kitchen counter.

Long story short, because (surprise) we got zucchini again this week, I told myself that I would not only find a better zucchini bread recipe, but that I would store it in the fridge to avoid it turning into penicillin. And what I created by combining two recipies was, might I say, delicious. Here's what I did:

- Preheat oven to 325, butter and flour a 9x4" loaf pan

- Combine 2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp allspice
- Separately, combine 2 eggs, 1/2 cup veggie oil (YES, oil makes this better, it's true), 1/2 cup plain yogurt, 2 tbsp lemon juice
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients
- Toast 1 cup walnuts, then chop and add to batter
- Grate one medium zucchini (there it is!) and add to batter
- Scold self for eating raw batter for fear of new deadly E. coli virus (Whatever, it's only in Germany, right? RIGHT?!?)
- Bake for about 1 hr 15 min (and at the end I threw some raw sugar on top to make it extra crunchy; and besides, despite the fact that this recipe involved yogurt, it also involved oil, so who are we kidding this wasn't going to be particularly healthy)

Serve with beer while studying for internal medicine qualifying board examinations on August 12th.

Subsequently forget what you've studied that night. Have more zucchini bread for breakfast, re-study cardiology chapter.

P.S.

Zucchini, while I do feel similarly to Emily, chin up. A lot of people are having a good deal of success on match.com. A few words of advice, however: no shirtless photos, and leave the phallic jokes off of your profile.

All best,

Jen

Dear Zucchini

Dear Zucchini-

We have to talk. Things haven't been good between us for a while now. I avoid you when I open the refrigerator door. I choose lettuce over you. Today I picked you up and you were cold to the touch. Cold and clammy. No one wants to eat cold and clammy. Its unattractive.

What I'm trying to say is: Its over.

I tried. I did. First I roasted you with some olive oil and salt. And you were, well....boring. But I thought, hey, first dates are always awkward. Maybe you need a little help in the flavor department (it happens to everyone), something to give you a little zing, a little mystery, a little je ne sais quoi. So I slipped you in a salad with my favorite balsamic vinaigrette. I was excited. I was anticipating sparks. And.....nothing. Nada. I left you on the bottom of the bowl. But still, STILL I rationalized. This should work. WE should work. Maybe you just weren't supposed to be a vegetable. Maybe you were a baked good in a past life. In a last ditch effort I paired you with what might be my favorite food in the entire world: Chocolate. Surely you would be friends I thought. Everyone likes chocolate. And chocolate makes everything yummier, sexier. Surely I would see a new and improved you through chocolate tinted glasses.

And then you did this:

And well, I can pretend no more. Its not that there is anything horribly wrong with you. But there's nothing right either. And even paired with chocolate, you just taste weird. Its time to face the facts, we have no chemistry.

I wish you nothing but the best and can only hope that your relationship with Jen is progressing better.

Emily

PS: There's nothing wrong with this recipe. Its yummy. If you like zucchini. Which I don't.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

(makes 2 smallish loafs or one giant unwieldy loaf)

2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
3 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 applesauce
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate until melted. Stir occasionally until chocolate is smooth.
2. In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, grated zucchini, vanilla and chocolate; beat well. Stir in the flour baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean.

Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes and Collards

After a long day of biking and adventure around Gov'ners Island, wanted something easy and healthy. This did the trick.

For the tomatoes. Sliced 'em. A little olive oil, salt, pepper and in the oven in a baking dish at 425 for 10 min.

For the collards:

sauteed shallots in butter

added some veggie stock (half a cup or so) and threw in the collard greens with some salt and pepper. Covered and let simmer for 10-15 min.

Scrambled eggs:

I really enjoy how this man tells us to make them. And he has a British accent, which automatically gives him great credibility. No creme fraiche for me, instead a bit of Romano cheese.

It was tasty. And pretty. My terrible camera could not capture its beauty, but trust me.