experimenting

For those of you getting emails of my posts, sorry if you get some old posts.  Because the home page is getting quite unruly and not easy to search (at least for me), I have been trying to figure out how to rearrange my old posts by subject, sorted onto tabbed pages.  So far, I have achieved elevated blood pressure, a desire for strong drink, and an unseemly hatred toward the blogspot designers.

Assuming I don't simply implode, I am going to continue trying to figure this thing out, and I hope it doesn't mean that I cram your inboxes with old crap.

curry...in a hurry?

Jim and I love Indian food.  I have 3 or 4 Indian cookbooks I leaf through often.  So far, the end result is some Tandoori chicken and the stray kabob or two.  Because curry recipes make my eyes swim.  I have a chef's collection of spices, but I still don't have asafetida, fresh curry leaves, mace, white poppy seeds, sambar powder... the list goes on and on.  And, lest anyone forget, I am absolutely terrible about measuring and following recipes, particularly when they are 25 ingredients long.


So I close the cookbooks and we head out to the (very good) Indian restaurant up the street.  But it pisses me off.  There is no reason I shouldn't be able to make a decent curry at home on a Sunday afternoon.  So I cast about for some ideas, and realized that I had at least five different curry powders, as well as garam masala.  If they weren't for making curry, then WTF?  What were they doing living in my spice arsenal?  So, Sunday, curry was on the menu.

The list of ingredients was still long.  I let the spice mixtures stand in for the exhausting lists of spices toasted and pounded in pestal and mortar, but I still needed garlic, onions, ginger, and cilantro.  I set my sights on a curry with both a tomato component and a coconut base, because for reasons unknown I had always resisted Indian dishes with tomatoes in them, and adored those with a coconut component.  Why the tomato issue?  I love both Italian and Mexican dishes with tomatoes.  I eat tomatoes straight off the vine.  What could have been going through my brain?

The curry starts with a bit of browning.  I like chicken thighs for braised chicken dishes, because they don't dry out the way the breasts do.  Bone in for flavor, skin off to reduce the fat content.

browned chicken thighs without skin don't look so hot,

but trust me, this step brings a lot of flavor to the finished dish

Next, the thighs are set aside, and the spices are "bloomed" in the fat.  For some reason, a few minutes of frying makes spices noticeably more delicious.  Don't ask me why.  I just know that it works, and that it is a pain in the butt, because burning them is incredibly easy.  I think the "blooming" reference is because they become very fragrant after a few minutes in hot fat.  Use the term to look like a snobby high-brow chef to your friends.  

onions, spices, and broth, ready for the addition of the chicken

The heat goes down to medium low, and all the aromatics that also benefit from a few seconds in hot oil need to be right next to the stove.  The drill is:  spices for 30 seconds; then the garlic, ginger, chiles, and tomato paste go in for another 30 seconds; then the onions go in, and if nothing is burning (different from sticking a bit to the bottom of the pan--burning is turning black), those cook for a minute or two, until they begin to soften.  Then a cup or two of water deglazes the pan.  No need for chicken broth here.  The sauce is loaded with flavor already.

Chicken goes back in, and everything simmers over low heat for 20 minutes.  Then the chicken gets turned over, and cauliflower goes in, if you are using it.  It is one of my favorite curry veggies, because it is such a blank canvas.  It absorbs all the flavors of whatever sauce it is cooked in.

my latest discovery--small bags of pre-cut cauliflower--

not that I mind chopping up a cauliflower, but a whole head

is always way too much for two

Once the cauliflower is in, everything simmers, covered, for another 20 minutes.  Then the chicken comes out, a few wedges of tomato and half a can of coconut milk go in, and the heat goes up.  The sauce should reduce over medium high heat in about 10 minutes or so.  Once the sauce comes off the heat, a handful of fresh cilantro goes in.

a few minutes will produce a creamy sauce

Did I ever mention that there are a few herbs that are just expensive dust when you buy them dried?  If you have basil, parsley, cilantro, tarragon, or chervil in dried form in your cupboard, smack yourself upside the head, and pitch them in the trash.  Then buy them fresh at the grocery.  Yes, I know.  No one carries chervil.  Grow it in the garden next year, or substitute a smaller amount of it's stronger doppelganger, tarragon.  Dried tarragon can have some flavor, I will admit, but it loses its taste after about, like a week, and it's expensive.  Stick with the fresh.  Some time I'll talk a bit about freezing herbs, which is a handy way not to flush money down the toilet and still have that fresh herb flavor.

Okay.  Tirade over.  Back to the curry.  This is a perfect dish to serve over rice, but I have a soft spot for naan bread with Indian dishes, and naan is available in just about any store that dares to call itself a supermarket.  Jim would be happy with both naan and rice, but I am pudgy enough without two starches in one meal.  And the naan toasts up beautifully with about 5 minutes in the toaster oven.  Way less fussy than cooking rice.

 a final handful of cilantro, and it's curry for Sunday dinner

the best intentions...

I needed to write a Halloween column for my glamorous and high-paying newspaper career.  I knew Halloween was really all about treats, and I also knew that I was not much of a sweet maker, so I headed to the grocery store to cast about for some ideas.  Milling about in the produce, I spotted the first fall crop of my favorite apples--Honeycrisp.  Unlike some apples, they aren't available all year long.  I don't know why.  Perhaps they don't store as well as some other apples.  Or they don't grow as many and they just sell out.  But there they were, calling to me.  I already had a great caramel recipe, so why not caramel apples.  I mean, how hard could it be?  I snapped up a couple of kinds of chocolate and some nuts for decorating my Halloween creations and headed home.

caramel, bubbling away

The caramel was beautiful and glossy.  I cooked it down, to make sure it would set up on the apples, let it cool a little, poured it in a bowl, stabbed sticks into my apples, and commenced with the dipping.

An hour later I had eight apples blobbed with uneven coats of caramel--some spots too thick, some spots too thin, and a sludgy pool of caramel forming at the bottom of every apple.  I had caramel on the counter, all over my hands, and stuck in my hair.  Forget dipping those sad confectioner's specimens in chocolate and nuts.  Forget putting a picture of those in the paper.  I didn't even think of taking a picture of them, though I wish I had, so I could show you just what a disaster they were.

I left them on the kitchen counter and went off to sit on the porch and think about what else I could do.  The very idea of tossing all of that tasty caramel stuck in my craw, and I certainly didn't want to toss those apples.  It occurred to me that the caramel was making its way down the sides of the apples anyway, so why not just help it along?  I swiped the caramel off the apples into a pan, thinned it with a bit of cream, and made a caramel dipping sauce.  I washed the apples and sliced them into little wedges.  There you have it.  Apples with caramel dipping sauce.  Worked for me.  But it did seem a bit boring.

What about those chocolates and nuts?  How about a Halloween bark?  I certainly didn't want to work too hard, after the apple debacle.  What could be more simple than some white chocolate colored orange, spread out and pressed with toasted nuts and dried apricots, and drizzled with dark chocolate.  In less than half an hour, I had my Halloween candy.

from disaster comes a pretty holiday treat

the rescued apples and caramel

I will never make caramel apples again...

great steak without breaking the bank

Sometimes I just crave a really nice steak, medium rare in the center, with a nice char on the outside from a sizzling hot grill.  Ribeye is usually my victim of choice, but it can be expensive, and frugality is the order of the day right now.  Still, I was tempted when I saw some particularly handsome ribeyes on sale for $6.99 a pound at my local grocer.  They jumped into my shopping cart unbidden.

When I got home, I stared at that package of steaks, thinking $11.00 for two steaks for a midweek meal seemed a bit over-the-top.  I needed a way to satisfy two people with just one of those babies, saving the other for some other adventure at stretching my beer budget and still having a taste of champagne.

I set one of the steaks out on a plate with some salt and pepper

sprinkled over it, waiting for inspiration

I know that steak looks like it should be big enough for two, but it isn't--not when you are feeding a hungry guy who could devour the whole thing by himself.  So, I started thinking about what was in the fridge and freezer.  A little poking around rooted out a couple of sesame-coated rolls in the freezer.  A trip through the fridge generated some arugula, sweet bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, and gruyere cheese.  I always have horseradish, mayo, and a few different mustards on hand.  A plan began to take shape, and it seemed perfect for a casual week-night dinner, loaded with flavor, and much lighter on the pocketbook than the typical meat-centric steak dinner.

First order of business--assemble and prep all of the ingredients.  I mixed a sauce of mayo, horseradish, and a dollop of grainy mustard to really set off that beef flavor.  I sliced onions, mushrooms, and sweet peppers for a vegetable element.  And I sliced a couple of slices of the flavorful gruyere.  I tend to like to cook with fairly strongly-flavored cheeses.  You can get all of that flavor for a small amount of cheese.

mise en place for the steak sandwiches

veggies, in a small amount of olive oil, go in the pan to wilt and brown--

still loving that French steel pan

While the veggies cooked, I took the steak out to the hot grill.  I came back in, split the buns, smeared both inside surfaces with the sauce, and took the buns and the cheese outside.  By then it was time to flip the steak.  That size steak only takes about 4-5 minutes a side to come to medium rare.  Essential is another 10 minute rest for the juices to distribute through the meat, and for the steak to finish cooking.  The internal temp will continue to rise after the steak is off the grill.  Since I wanted a final temp of about 125 degrees.  I took the steak off at about 110, tented it with foil, and let it sit while I prepped the bread. 

An aside on resting meat -- all meat.  I am an iconoclast when it comes to bs admonishments in the kitchen.  A bunch of the crap you read just ain't so, like saying that searing meat seals in juices.  That was disproved years ago, but you still hear it from chefs all the time, both on cooking shows and in cookbooks.  Sear your meat to make it taste good, but don't kid yourself, you aren't sealing in anything.  On the other hand, resting meat does seems to do something to keep the juices from running out all over the cutting board, and keep the meat juicier and more flavorful.  Sure, some juice still runs out, but not near as much as when you cut it immediately.  I've seen it with my own eyes more than once.  You can test the principle yourself, but you'll sacrifice dinner for the experiment.

Bread grilled outside gets wonderfully crispy, with great char marks along the surface, so it is worth the few minutes time it takes to prepare the rolls that way.  Cut-side down for a couple of minutes produced the desired marks.  I then flipped the bread, layered on a thin layer of cheese on the bottom side, and closed the lid.  Another couple of minutes produced a crisp crust and melted cheese.  Watch closely.  Thing can go from crisp to burnt very quickly.  Looking out for your carb intake?  Wrap the same ingredients in a low-carb wrap that has been warmed on the grill.

Back inside, everything was ready for assembly.  

I cut the steak on the bias in 1/4" strips, for maximum tenderness.  Over the cheese, I put down a handful of crisp, peppery arugula (my favorite sandwich green), a generous portion of steak, and a big spoonful of the sauteed veggies.

the one thing I would do next time is drizzle a little

more of the sauce over the meat

The steak sandwich was crisp, crunchy, loaded with meaty steak flavor, and had a nice compliment of silky vegetables.  A perfect way to satisfy a steak craving without breaking the bank. 

quiche...it's what's for dinner

When I don’t quite know what I want to cook for dinner, I sometimes turn to eggs, making a simple omelet, or a quiche.  Last night, I had some cream and milk I wanted to use, as well as bacon and onions in the refrigerator, so I decided on a classic quiche Lorraine, served with an easy salad on the side.  I had cream cheese on hand as well, so I made a tender crust--the recipe is the same as the one here, minus the sugar.  Even easier--buy a frozen crust at the grocery.  I like to keep a couple in the freezer for when I don’t feel like making pie dough from scratch.

Quiche is a wonderful blank slate for using odds and ends in the refrigerator.  One can use various bits of vegetables, and small amounts of several different cheeses.  Broccoli and cheddar is a good combination, as is ham, Swiss, and asparagus.  Red bell pepper, goat cheese, and arugula make a fine combination.  Consider mushrooms, cooked leftover chicken, and spinach, with feta.  Whatever vegetables you decide to use, just be sure to cut them small and sauté them until they are crisp/tender, and have given up a good deal of their moisture, so the quiche isn’t watery.

 bacon crisps, then the onions cook in the rendered fat

I blind bake the crust in a 375⁰ oven for about 15 minutes to prevent it from becoming soggy once the egg mixture is added.  I usually use dried beans to weight the crust.  Pie weights will work if you have them.  If you don’t have either, just “dock” the crust with a fork (poke several holes in it) and when you take it out of the oven, deflate any risen areas with a fork.  Scatter your ingredients across the bottom of the crust, and pour in the egg custard mixture.   It is a good idea to place the pie plate on a cookie sheet to catch any run-over and save yourself the hassle of cleaning the oven.

 a simple whisk job makes a wonderful filling

Quiche Lorraine

(makes enough for 1 nine inch pie crust)

4 strips bacon, cut into ¼ inch lardons

½ medium onion, cut pole-to-pole in ¼-inch strips

½ cup milk

½ cup cream

4 eggs

1 cup guyere cheese

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

Heat the oven to 375⁰.  Bake the crust, using beans or pie weights, for about 15 minutes.  While the crust is baking, sauté the bacon until crisp.  Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon, and sauté the onions in the bacon fat until they are light brown and wilted.  Combine the milk, cream, eggs, cheese, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, and whisk until thoroughly combined.  Sprinkle the bacon and onions over the bottom of the crust, and pour over the egg mixture.  Bake the quiche for about 30 minutes, or until the egg is set and the top golden brown.

 puffy, golden deliciousness

a thin, crispy version of quiche with lightly dressed salad 
on the side

oven dried tomatoes

I have gathered and frozen a bounty of tomatoes from my garden, but this heat wave we're having here in the Carolinas has taken a toll on my plants, and I want more.  Whole Foods recently acquired a batch of small, heirloom tomatoes that are delicious.  I have little room left in my freezer, so, what to do?

Dry a batch, and freeze.  Once their volume is reduced, their flavor is intensified, and they take up little room in the freezer.  And they do need to be frozen.  Unlike commercially dried tomatoes, home-dried ones retain enough moisture that they can develop mold.

a variety of heirloom tomatoes, split in half and ready for the oven

Placing the split tomatoes on a rack allows the air to circulate around the tomatoes.  I dry them for about 3 hours in a 200 degree oven (if you have a convection oven, use it--the additional air circulation will dry the tomatoes even faster), then bag them when they are cool, for a taste of summer sweetness in winter dishes.  Drying them longer will of course reduce the moisture even more (um, duh, Gail).  I keep the time to around 3 hours so the tomatoes will still maintain a bit of their tender bite.

the finished product

These tasty little bites are a great addition to a cold weather tomato sauce, a scampi, or a salad of fall greens.  I think, since the little local gems are so good this year, I will be drying another round. 

brown bag lunches for grown ups

When finances are tight, one of the first places people look for some savings is the lunch bill.  Packing school lunches for kids is the norm, and there are plenty of ideas out there for great child-friendly, healthy lunches.  But what about the grown ups?  A few days of the same old turkey sandwiches and congealed leftovers, and its back to the chain restaurant specials (which often aren’t so special) and the fast food meals loaded with calories and salt.  

This brown bag recipe calls for boneless, skinless chicken breast, but consider changing things up a little with some leftover steak or lamb, or even some grilled zucchini or eggplant.  Though the chicken in this recipe calls for a marinade, there is no reason to let it sit.  In fact, the acid in the yogurt can make the chicken a bit mushy, so just dunk and grill (or broil.) 

Naan bread is softer than pita, but pita pockets will do if you can’t find naan. 

Marinade:

4 oz. Greek yogurt (thicker than plain yogurt.  You can also simply drain plain yogurt in a tea towel)

1 ½ tsp garam masala (available in the spice aisle)

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1 fresh hot chile pepper, such as jalapeno or Serrano

Juice of half a lemon

2 TBS chopped cilantro

Mince the chile, and mix all of the ingredients together.  Add two chicken breast halves, either whole, or sliced if you prefer them to cook more quickly.   I grill mine whole, and they are easy to slice as I need them.  Make this when you are already grilling or broiling something, and let them tag along.  They can be stored, fully cooked, in the fridge, until you are ready to make lunch.

Make a simple sauce.  Combine:

1 seeded, peeled, diced cucumber (a melon baller is a great tool for seeding a cuke--gather the diced cubes up in a kitchen towel and wring out the extra moisture)

1 small hot pepper, minced

1 green onion, minced

1 tsp salt

Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon

1 tsp finely minced fresh mint

2 TBS minced cilantro

 

diced cucumber, draining in the sink--you can just wring

it out in a towel

the beautiful beginnings of a raita

 the end result, with the addition of some Greek yogurt

Sandwich assembly:

1 piece of naan bread

small tomato, chopped and drained on a paper towel

minced hot pepper to taste (remember there is already some in the marinade and raita)

3 thin slices of onion (white onion works very well, and can be toned down by a quick rinse in cold water)

Handful of chopped cilantro

1 half sliced, marinated, cooked chicken breast

Optional garnishes are thinly sliced pickle, shredded cabbage or lettuce, and Tzatziki  or raita sauce

Stuff the sliced chicken, tomato, pepper, onion, cilantro, and any other garnishes in the naan or pita pocket, alternating layers so you have all of the flavors throughout.  Wrap in foil or parchment paper.  If you are using tzatsiki or raita sauce, pack it in a little container to add at lunch time to prevent your sandwich from getting soggy.   With a little planning, you can have a brown bag lunch in no time, loaded with tasty and interesting ingredients!

not your typical brown bag lunch

from the humble, the sublime

I made french toast last Sunday, and since there are just two of us, half a loaf of challah bread sat on the counter for several days, taunting me.  Bread pudding was calling out to me.  And I had  caramel sauce in the fridge, which lasts forever once you have made it.  No dessert is more humble and beautiful at the same time as a good bread pudding.  I cubed the bread, heated the oven to 350, and dotted it with a bit of butter.  Ten minutes produced a light toast on the bread.

even with already stale bread, a light toast is in order

Bread pudding is a forgiving dessert--it will accept nearly all comers.   Shredded apples, sliced peaches, minced dried apricots, mangoes, currents, nuts of any kind.  This time I went with traditional.  Raisins plumped in a bit of rum (because I had it.  Bourbon is probably better), and pecans toasted in the oven for about 10 minutes, then chopped.  

The pudding was simple.  Four eggs, about 1 1/2 cups of light cream, a cup of sugar, and a teaspoon each of nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon zest, and salt.  Whisk like you mean it.

getting ready to add a furious minute or two of whisking

The oven goes on at 325.  I added the nuts and raisins to the bread, poured on the pudding mixture, and added it all to a buttered casserole dish.

 

ready for the oven

40 minutes later-- would like to say I read War and Peace

in the interim, but more likely, I watched SuperNanny

What looks like a mess comes out of the oven 40 minutes later ready to do time as an elegant finish to any meal.  I keep the caramel sauce in a squeeze bottle that can warm in the microwave in a minute, ready to decorate a simple serving of delicious bread pudding.  What a great fate for some stale bread, haunting my counter top.

guess I'm not being very humble, but I think any 

New Orleans cook would be proud of this plate

the basil is going crazy

I have a dilemma.  I have basil plants outside just going nuts, and I still have basil pesto in the freezer from last year.  Yes, I know, I must have been nuts not to use it all up over the winter.  But to make room for this year's harvest, I have been using last years harvest in any dish I can dream up.  So last night, I made up a dish from the freezer.  Pesto, pancetta, and peas, with little pasta shells that have been lingering too long in my pantry.  It was delicious, and ready for the plate in under 30 minutes.

some sliced pancetta and a hot pepper from the garden, 

along with a bit of frozen pesto -- dinner was fast

Pancetta is easy to find these days -- most grocery stores have it in the deli, ready to be sliced very thin.  Bacon will suffice in a pinch, but pancetta is not smoked, so the flavor is very different.  It crisps up much the same, and adds some great texture to a creamy dish.  I started by frying the pancetta in one of my beloved pans, and as it crisped, I added in the sliced hot pepper for a little kick.

I am still enamored with these French pans

While the pancetta crisped and the peppers softened, I boiled up some pasta shells.  While many different pasta shapes would do here, I like the shells particularly.  Their little cupped shape scoops up peas and pesto with alacrity.   I know it is the height of summer, but I must admit to using frozen peas.  Peas are a springtime treat, and we are far past spring.  Frozen peas are one of the best frozen veggies in the market.  Picked at the height of their season and flash frozen, the end product can often be superior to the peas you find in the veggie section at the market.  If someone told me I could have only two frozen veggies for the rest of my life, I would choose frozen peas and frozen pearl onions.  I don't even want to talk about the grim chore of peeling fresh pearl onions.

Once the shells were al dente and the pancetta crisp, I drained the pasta, tossed the still frozen peas in the empty pot along with the frozen pesto, and heated it all over low heat, just until everything melted.  In went the pasta, and I tossed it all together.

Onto a plate, and on with the crispy pancetta and hot peppers.  Lovely dish, from the garden, the freezer and the pantry, all together in less than 30 minutes.  Can't complain about that....

Impromptu mix of spring and summer flavors

roasted tomato soup with fennel and orange

We are bursting at the seams with tomatoes. Another light summer soup seems in order.  This one with roasted tomatoes.  Roasting makes tomatoes super easy to peel and core.  They can be roasted in the oven or on  the grill.  About 20 minutes yield tomatoes with blackened skins and cores that are easy to pluck out with your fingers.  Let them cool for a few minutes, then pluck off the skins, pluck out the cores, and add the juices that have accumulated in the pan into a sauce pan to reduce.  After about five minutes, add the tomatoes, and a finely shaved head of fennel, reserving a few of the wispy fronds of fennel for garnish.

soup at its most simple and seasonal

Once the tomatoes have reduced and the fennel is tender, turn off the heat, add in the zest and juice from a small orange, and salt and pepper to taste.  Blend it up in a blender to smooth it out, or better yet, just go at it with an immersion blender right in the pot.

a most handy tool, like a portable blender

Put a cheese sandwich on the grill, and prepare for summer heaven, ready in just 30 minutes.  Throw the leftovers in the fridge and serve cold as an appetizer with some diced cucumber and herbs on top at your next dinner party.  Heavenly, and ever so light on the palate.

the smooth flavor of garden tomatoes, accented

with the licorice of fennel, and the citrus punch of orange

gad zuccs!

I dream of being pursued by giant green monsters.  Of being buried in an avalanche of heavy red orbs.  Of being lost in a dense green forest growing wildly before my very eyes...

Yes, my garden is in full flourish, and every day, when I go out back to inspect things, more and more veggies and herbs are ready to pick.  Keeping up with the produce production has become a challenge.

a single day's harvest from 4 tomato plants, two zucchini plants

and three pepper plants

The pepper plants are burgeoning with peppers, but I am leaving them to ripen.  I love chiles when they have ripened to a sweet, hot red hue, and they aren't as often available that way in the grocery store as their young, green counterparts.  The numbers and rate of growth on the two zucchini plants is downright scary.  And, as for the tomatoes...I will be making sauce like an Italian grandma all summer long.  Time for some new preparations.

I have a forest of herbs in the garden as well as the veggies.  So I decided to use some of my parsley as the greens in a salad.  By limiting it to a couple of handfuls, the flavor stays in balance with the remainder of the ingredients.

the bright green hue of the parsley is beautiful -- effectively 

washed and dried in this perfect little herb/salad spinner

I decided to make a salad using zucchini "ribbons".  The ribbons can be cut with a vegetable peeler, or on a little mandolin.  I didn't peel the zucchini, wanting the dark green contrast to the white of the flesh, but I did discard the outermost slices, which were mostly skin.

this handy little gadget cuts perfect, and perfectly thin slices

of a variety of foods

Once the ribbons were cut, and the seedy core of the zucchini discarded, I placed them in a colander, and coated them with a couple of teaspoons of salt to draw out some of the considerable moisture.  After half an hour, I rinsed away as much of the salt as possible, and dried them on a pile of paper towels.  This salting process had an unexpected benefit.  It lent an impossibly silky texture to the ribbons, giving them the mouthfeel of a tender, well-cooked pasta, and a silken texture that made draping them about the plate a breeze.

For a salad dressing, I combined lemon juice and olive oil, along with a small dab of mustard, salt and pepper, and emulsified it in my little blender.  The only thing left to do was assemble the salad.  I cut a couple of those gorgeous tomatoes into little wedges, and tossed together the zucchini ribbons, tomato wedges, thinly sliced hot red pepper, and parsley to create a salad that looks like the essence of summer.

a drizzle of dressing, and a near perfect salad is born

stew in the summer? really??

Yes, stew in the summer.  The only resemblance this dish has with a stew is that it is thick and rich with vegetables from the season.  Cooking time is under 30 minutes, it's a one-pot wonder that comes out perfect no matter what veggies you throw in, and it has the heat and sweet of  fabulous summer vegetables.

Two cans of light coconut milk go into a pan.  I chose to use the light version of coconut milk because it has about 70 percent fewer calories and fat than the regular stuff.  Boneless, skinless chicken (one full breast in this case) gets sliced crosswise into thin slices, and simmered in the coconut milk, just until cooked through -- about 15 minutes.  While the meat simmered, I chopped the veggies.

 in this case, I had both hot and sweet pepper, scallions, cilantro,

and two kinds of mushrooms--shitake and something called a bunapi mushroom

 The bunapi mushrooms were a new one on me.  Whole Foods had them, so I gave them a try.  Score!  When cooked, they had a smooth, silky texture and added a creamy earthiness to the dish.  When your grocer has an unusual type of mushroom, don't hesitate to give them a whirl.

I had both lemon grass and galangal root in the freezer

galanal is similar to ginger, just a bit more spicy--they can really be used interchangeably

I know I have mentioned this before, but both lemongrass and ginger (or galangal if you happen upon it) freeze perfectly.  No need to defrost.  Just run the frozen pieces across a microplane grater for lovely ginger and lemongrass snow, then toss the leftover pieces right back in the freezer.  I do remove the tough outer leaves of the lemongrass before freezing, but I never bother to peel ginger.

microplane graters--fantastic for grating ginger, lemongrass, cheese,

nutmeg, citrus zest--no kitchen should be without one (or two, or three)

When the chicken is nearly cooked through, I added the ginger and lemongrass, a pinch of five-spice powder, and a bit of salt.  In went the veggies, just to cook until crisp-tender.  I reserved the cilantro to be added after the stew was off the heat.  I used peppers, scallions, and mushrooms because that's what I had.  Other veggies to consider would be broccoli, very thinly sliced carrots, zucchinis, snow peas, snap peas, and a last minute addition of some mung bean sprouts (they are better if they stay crisp).  If I were adding broccoli or carrots, I would send them into the coconut broth a few minutes before the more delicate veggies.  Once the veggies have become tender, you are ready to serve.

I garnished with cilantro here--if I had them I might have added

a handful of bean sprouts, and perhaps a sprinkling of chopped peanuts

So stew on a hot summer day can be a delicious, simple dish to prepare, loaded with seasonal vegetables and delivering a refreshing crunch, seasonal flavor, and a short stint in front of the stove.

summer veggies

A bounty of summer vegetables is showing up here in the south, at the farmer's market, in the grocery stores, and in my garden out back.  Jim and I ate our first two beautiful Early Girl tomatoes with breakfast on  Sunday morning.  They were delicious, and put me in the mood to exploit some of the exquisitely fresh  vegetables available locally.

First order of business was to think of ways to make unusual preparations of summer vegetables.   And that made me think of soup.  People don't often think of soup in the summer, but cool, creamy soups can be an excellent way to use fresh vegetables, and a refreshingly light addition to the supper table.  I started my experimentation with a fresh corn soup served at room temperature.  When buying sweet corn, look for ears with a tight, smooth sheath of leaves that are bright green and moist.

Shucking is easiest done outside, over a sheet of newspaper that can then be wrapped around the husks and silk and tossed in the trash or the compost pile.  A simple way to remove the kernels from the cob is to split the corn crosswise in the middle, turn each section on the stable end, and run a knife down the kernels of corn.  Once all of the kernels have been removed, over a bowl, scrape the back of the knife over each cob to remove the "cream" of the corn, which is full of sweet corn flavor.

corn kernels from three ears each of fresh white and yellow corn

the "cream" from those same six cobs

My goal was to maximize the fresh corn flavor in my soup, so I pureed the "cream" in a blender, and set it aside to add at the end, uncooked.  I roughly chopped half of a sweet onion, and sauteed it in about a tablespoon of butter, just until it was translucent.

the chop needn't be precise here -- everything is going into the blender in the end

Add the corn kernels, a couple pinches of salt, and about three cups of water.  Simmer until the corn kernels are very tender, but not overcooked, about 20 minutes.  A healthy and low calorie way to make the soup creamy is the addition of some cooked rice.  One quarter cup of rice cooks up into about a cup of cooked rice.  While the corn simmered, I cooked the rice.  Once it was done, I added it to the pot.

ready for the blender

I allowed the cooked corn and rice to cool a bit, then processed it in the blender in two batches.  Processing hot food in a blender can be tricky.  The steam from the food combined with the vortex created by the blender can make food "explode" out of the container.  So, if you are going to process hot foods, be sure and leave plenty of air space in the blender.

Once the corn and onions were pureed, I pushed the liquids through a fine sieve.  The next time I make this soup, I think, instead of blending and straining it, I will put the corn through a food mill.  I think a food mill would have done a better job of creating a completely smooth soup.

Just to make the soup even a little creamier, I stirred in a couple of dollops of sour cream, along with the uncooked corn "cream".  The addition of sour cream is totally optional, but I like the tart zing that the sour cream brings to the party.  A couple of lower-calorie options would be low-fat buttermilk, or even Greek yogurt.  Topped with a bit of chopped chives and served with a thin slice of garlic toast, this summer soup was a delicious rendition of sweet corn essence.

I love the beautiful pale yellow color

lasagna!

I love a good lasagna.  I have never made one that didn't have loads of cheese, including mozzarella and creamy ricotta.  But I had some mushrooms and fresh local tomatoes that needed using, and I thought I would try a different tack.  A lasagna made with a white sauce and a creamy mushroom tomato sauce.

First things first.  The tomato sauce.  I sliced some green garlic from a local farm very finely on my hand-held mandolin, then sliced onions,cremini  mushrooms and sweet bell peppers.  Fresh thyme, oregano, and parsley rounded out the sauce flavors, along with some salt and pepper.

"green" garlic isn't really green -- it simply hasn't dried out yet --

the farmer from Red Fern farm gave me some uncured garlic --

she grows six different varieties

I sauteed the garlic, onions, peppers, and mushrooms, then added chopped, fresh, local tomatoes.   I also added some dried wild mushrooms hydrated in a bit of water, for a little interest.  I wanted some body in the sauce, so I went to the fridge for tomato paste, and didn't have any.  No worries.  I hydrated some sun-dried tomatoes in a little hot water, and ground them to a paste in a blender.  Last in the pot -- a bit of chopped thyme, oregano, and parsley from the garden.

a couple tablespoons of cream enriched the vegetable-laden sauce

I put the finished sauce in a bowl, and rinsed out the pan to make the white sauce.  No sense in making more of a mess than necessary.  A white sauce is a simple affair.  Equal parts butter and flour, cooked into a paste.  I used about four tablespoons each, and cooked them together for about five minutes.  I added salt, pepper, and some freshly grated nutmeg, then slowly added about 3 cups of milk I had heated in the microwave.  Once all of the milk was incorporated, and the sauce was smooth, I added about one and one half cups of grated Parmesan I had in the fridge.  

From there, it was simply assembly time.  I am a huge fan of Barilla's "no boil" lasagna noodles.  No pre-cooking necessary, and the baked noodles taste very similar to home-made pasta.  A layer of tomato sauce to prevent sticking in the bottom of the pan, then a layer of noodles, another layer of tomato sauce, a layer of white sauce (bechamel), noodles, tomato sauce, bechamel, noodles, sauce, bechamel.... you get the picture.  Once the casserole dish was full, I topped it off with a bit of grated mozzarella and my last bit of grated parm, covered it with foil, and baked it for about 45 minutes.

one of the things I love about lasagna -- nearly all of the kitchen

cleanup can be done while it bakes

Forty-five minutes in the oven, another twenty minutes without foil, and a ten minute rest out of the oven produces a perfectly golden dish of cheesy goodness.  You can certainly add meat, but in this case, I didn't think it was necessary.  A bowl of crisp salad, some crunchy grilled garlic bread...  Yum...