Summer zucchini soup

Sauté or steam some zucchini and perhaps also some yellow squash and fresh onions if all in season in the glorious high summer month of July in the Hudson Valley. Then purée with steaming liquid or vegetable stock, add yogurt, some lemon and perhaps some sumac in the sauté, and some grated garlic in the soup to then chill. 

Ingredients:

Fresh onion (optional), 1, sliced into half moons

Zucchini perhaps some yellow squash too, 1 #, soaked in water and then cut into half moons

Sumac, optional

Salt and pepper

Vegetable stock, 1/2 – 1 c

Yogurt, 1-1/2 c

Lemon juice, 1 T

Garlic clove, 1 small, grated

Directions:

1. Sauté onions in olive oil in large sauté pan over medium high heat. Add sumac. Add sliced zukes when onions are cooked pretty much. Add S&P and sauté, then add vegetable stock, cover and steam until done. 
2. Purée zucchini with stock. Put in bowl and whisk in: yogurt, lemon juice and garlic. 
3. Chill. 
4. Strain soup, using spatula to press and scrape. This is optional, such as for company or you’re feeling fancy.
5. Optional garnishments: mint, chiffonade cut; or thinly sliced zucchini, salted and strained for 15 minutes, rinsed then patted dry.

Source: Martha Rose Shulman, New York Times

Frittata

There are so many recipes for frittata with varying ingredients beyond eggs, and various techniques including either flipping on a plate and putting back into a pan or broiling. I’m going with the broiling from now on. Easier. In a cast iron pan it seems to work fairly well. Just remember to remove the plastic handle cover before popping under the broiler!

Eggs, 8

Greens — boiled kale, or spinach or chard

Onion and scallion, sliced (optional)

Garlic cloves, 2, minced

Red pepper flakes, pinch

Parmesan, 2 T grated

Mozzarella, 1/4 #, sliced thin

Prosciutto, 3 or 4 slices, torn into strips

I also had some leftover parsley, garlic, oil purée from baking eggplant, which I threw in too. This is a template to use your fresh vegetables. It being July, I had fresh onions and a bounty of scallions on hand. So I sautéed the onion and then added in the scallion later, first the white part and last the green and then garlic at end. Put both the boiled kale and sautéed onion/scallion mixture into the refrigerator to chill while I prepped the other ingredients. Otherwise, adding the warm vegetables to the eggs could start to cook the eggs in the bowl before they get into the pan.

Directions:

1. Prepare your greens. Boil the kale for 4-5 minutes. Or toss spinach or chard with garlic, olive oil, S&P in a bowl with your hands.
2. Sauté onion with pinch of salt, and then scallion if using. Add some chopped garlic in for last minute. Put kale and onion mixture in refrigerator to un-warm.
3. Prepare cheeses and prosciutto. Put eggs into bowl. 
4. Get out cast iron pan.
5. Set up oven rack to high up close to broiler. Turn on broiler.
6. Beat eggs and season with S&P. Add red pepper flakes and parmesan. 
7. Pour eggs over greens, onions and like veggies, and stir together. 
8. Heat a cast iron pan on medium-high heat and then pour in some olive oil to almost coat bottom. Add egg mixture and cook, topping with mozzarella and prosciutto. Lift up sides with spatula to let uncooked egg slip under and cook about 3 minutes, perhaps turning down heat if getting brown too quickly. Slip pan into broiler for 2-4 minutes until top is set. 

Source: David Tanis, NY Times

Cantonese-style stir fry with snow peas and shrimp or chicken

July brings me snow peas from my CSA farm, and this is an excellent way to highlight their light, fresh taste. It’s a stir-fry, but light on the soy sauce — not a dark, heavy sauce — a sauce that is bright with ginger and lets the snow peas shine. The original recipe calls for shrimp; I used boneless chicken breast, cut into larger-than-bite-size pieces. Worked great! You brine the meat for five minutes in salt water to keep it moist in the high wok heat.
Here’s how:

Ingredients:

Shrimp or boneless chicken, 1/2 #

Chicken or vegetable stock, 1/3 c

Rice wine, 2 t

Soy sauce, 1-1/2 t

Cornstarch, 1-1/2 t

Sugar, 3/4 t

White pepper, ground 1/8 t

Garlic, 1 T minced

Ginger, 2 T minced

Snow peas, 6 oz, strings removed, washed and dried

Grapeseed oil, 1 T and then 2 t

Scallion, 1, chopped

Directions:
1. In bowl, mix 2 c water with 1 T salt and stir to dissolve salt. Put chicken (or shrimp) in water and let sit for 5 minutes. Remove and dry. 

2.  In small measuring cup, mix: stock, wine, soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar and pepper.

3. Prepare snow peas. Mince garlic and ginger. Chop scallion.

4. When ready to cook, heat wok over high heat. Swirl 1 T oil around sides of wok. Add chicken or shrimp in single layer, and then stir-fry for 3+ minutes (for chicken) or 2-3 minutes for shrimp until just cooked or shrimp just turns pink. 

5.  Add more oil, ginger and garlic, and just mix in, and then immediately add snow peas, 1/4 t salt and stir fry for 1 more minute.

6. Stir cornstarch mixture, and add to wok, bringing to boil, cooking about 30 seconds more until sauce thickens. Add in scallions. Serve with rice. 

Source: NY Times Cooking

Green Goddess dressing and height-of-summer salad

This is definitely a summer dressing for when herbs are plentiful. I don’t know the origin, but I jumped in successfully using a couple sources. Lots of herbs, perhaps an avocado mashed in, some anchovies — and for me liquid aminos as well — for unami. Here’s what I did and will happily do again:

Ingredients:

Anchovies, 2, cut up

Shallot, minced

Garlic clove, minced

White wine vinegar, perhaps w/ tarragon, or apple cider vinegar

Lemon juice, 1-2 T

Mayonnaise, 1/2 c.

Sour cream, 2 T — or use yogurt

Avocado, 1/2

Parsley, 1/2 c

Basil, 1/3 c 

Chives, 3 T

Tarragon (I had none so I omitted which worked fine)

Optional: Bragg’s liquid aminos, 1 T

Directions:

Put shallot in 2-3 T white wine vinegar and a bit of lemon juice to macerate (e.g, sit for about 15 minutes). Add garlic. This is the start of your dressing.

Put into mini-chopper: shallot and garlic mixture, anchovies, mayo, sour cream, avocado, herbs, S&P. Give it a whirl to chop. Taste and perhaps add liquid aminos, lemon juice and/or mayo to balance flavors.

Amazing on this salad in July:

Boiled shrimp: (Prepare water with Old Bay, coriander seeds, peppercorns, crushed bay leaf, half a lemon or lemon juice, then cook peeled shrimp for 3 minutes; drain and refrigerate.

Potatoes (cut up and put into pot with water to cover by 2 inches, a shallot of piece of onion. Bring to boil, uncover and add salt and cook 5 minutes or until tender. Drain and refrigerate.)

Lettuce

Baby turnips, cut thinly on a mandoline

Carrots, sliced

Cucumber, peeled somewhat, cut in half lengthwise and seeds scooped out, cut into slices

Grape tomatoes, cut in half on the bias cross-wise

Scallions

Snow peas if they are available fresh, cut on bias

Gild the lily: top with pepitas or oven-crisped pita

Sources: NY Times Cooking and Chez Panisse Vegetables (here’s an approximation).

Sautéed Swiss Chard

When you’re thinking of cooking chard as a side dish, you might want to boost its flavor because by itself it’s kind of bland. Mark Bittman has you pre-boil your chard before sautéing but I rarely want to do that if I’m ready to make dinner since (1) it’s a big effort to fill a pot of water, wait for it to boil, and then cook the veg, and (2) it’s another step I’d prefer to avoid. Instead, I find that sautéing and then stewing/steaming with a bit of water — such as pasta water, or veg stock if on hand — suffices nicely.

This recipe adds garlic (natch!), pine nuts and currants. On first making it I feared it would be too sweet, but it was not. I served with London broil and roasted fennel. I would have chosen roast potatoes, but they had gone soft.

Ingredients:

Chard, chopped and rinsed, 1 bunch

Garlic, 2 cloves, rough minced

Currants, 1/4 c, soaked in hot water 10 minutes to hydrate and drained

Pine nuts, 1/4 c

Directions:

Heat skillet over medium-low heat, add oil and then garlic, cooking gently until garlic just begins to color.

Add pine nuts and cook for a minute. Then add chard — stems first for a couple minutes if large — then leaves — salt, currants, black pepper, and a good splash of water. Cover and cook for a few minutes. Uncover and cook off liquid. 

This can sit for an hour or so and serve at room temp if needed.

Source: Mark Bittman, Chard with Garlic, Pine Nuts, and Currants, in How to Cook Everything, p. 558.

Tamarind pork country ribs

I’m not a big meat eater, and especially in summer when fresh, local produce abounds, I prefer to focus primarily on vegetables in meal planning. 

My coop had pork country ribs, and they were fairly inexpensive and I don’t think I have ever cooked them . . .  so I was curious and took home a 1 lb package. I did some research on how to cook. I successfully cooked baby back ribs in the pressure cooker/Instant Pot and thought I would go that way. How long??? That’s the thing with the Instant Pot — there’s no gradual cooking; more like put your food into a black box and hope for the best. I prefer the stirring at the stove over a simmering pot with aromas wafting up — seeing, hearing and smelling as a dish comes together. Anyway, I figured 25 minutes pressure for 1 # of boneless pork, which turned out to be too long — next time I will boldly try 15 minutes plus 10 minutes natural release. And then they’re going to be cooked again briefly either under the broiler with the glaze, or on a charcoal grill. Here’s an Instant Pot cooking guide.

I also adore sour. It’s a flavor that perks up my taste buds as bright and unusual — particularly when it is balanced by something bright — like tamarind and lime zest creates a tantalizing chord of flavor. Now that I found some liquid tamarind concentrate — so much easier to use than the hard brick — I intend to exploit it for perhaps a barbecue sauce for chicken wings on the grill. 

Here’s the sauce/glaze:

Dark brown sugar, 1/4 c

Tamarind concentrate, 1/4 c

Sambal oelek (chile paste), 1 T

Honey, 1 T

Ginger, grated, 1 T

Nutmeg, 1/8 t

Later: lime zest from one lime

Directions:

Heat up in small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir and simmer and cook for several minutes until sauce is thick and somewhat reduced. 

Remove from heat and add lime zest and salt. Let cool. 

The sauce can be made ahead and stored for one week refrigerated. 

“Ribs” (pork “country ribs”):

Pork, 1 #

Dry rub:

Dark brown sugar, 1/4 c

Garlic powder, 1 t

Cayenne, 1/2 t

Black pepper, 1/2 t

Kosher salt, 1/2 T or more to taste

Mix up dry rub ingredients in a small bowl. Rub pork on both sides with rub, and refrigerate, covered, for a couple hours. 

When ready to cook, put up some white rice. Cut up some scallions, and crush peanuts.

In instant pot, put water in bottom to slightly below trivet. Place in pork, and cook on “meat” setting for 15 minutes. Let release naturally for 10 minutes. Then remove and put onto foil-lined baking sheet. 

Put glaze on ribs and broil 3-5 minutes per side until caramelized in spots. 

Top with chopped peanuts and scallions.

Serve with: 

Rice

Thai cabbage celery salad or perhaps a cucumber salad or this Vietnamese cucumber salad

Source: NY Times Spicy Tamarind pork ribs

Cucumber salad

When cucumbers are coming in fast and furious in your summer garden or via your CSA, you are going to want to use them fairly quickly. A nice, easy, summery way to use them is to make a light salad. I like to macerate onions in rice vinegar which cuts down their bite. Ali Stafford recommends salting the cucumbers, which makes sense if you cut into substantial slices and want them to retain some crunch rather and not exude a lot of water in the mix. 

Here’s how:

Cucumbers, 2

Fresh onion or red onion, 1/2, sliced

Vinegar, rice or white balsamic, 3 T

Scallions, 1-2

Serrano or other hot pepper (or use pinch of red pepper flakes)

Fresh herbs: dill or mint (cilantro wants a Thai or Vietnamese salad)

Prep:

1. Peel cucumber like zebra stripes, intermittently. Cut in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds. Cut into half moons or stripes as you like, perhaps a variety. Put into colander and add 1 t kosher salt. Let sit 20 minutes. Squeeze in towel to extract water. Put into bowl.

2. Cut onions and put into small dish with 3 t vinegar. Let macerate at least 10 minutes.

3. Scallions: If time, put into ice water to crisp up. Otherwise, just cut on sharp bias. Use white part only if using red onion.

4. Cut hot pepper in half, deseed, and chop

5. Mince herb

6. Mix: cucumber, onions, vinegar, scallions, pepper and herb. Maybe chill for an hour or not. Best same day.

Ali Stafford simple cucumber salad:

Another cucumber salad Vietnamese-style per Ali Stafford via Samin Nosrat

This is similar to my Celery cabbage Thai salad, which comes by way of Alison Roman

Thai cabbage celery salad

Spaghetti with tomato sauce

Dinner time rolls around in mid-summer and you’re not feeling like making a big effort and not keen on meat what with the (wonderful!) heat . . . Here’s a super-simple dish. Tomato sauce cooked on the stove in 22 minutes with lots of simmering garlic and olive oil to flavor it, while you boil some water and cook spaghetti. That’s it. It’s best for July when basil is available but not yet summer fresh tomatoes. Has me wondering why folks lay in a supply of marinara jars, and why such a huge expanse of the supermarket shelf is devoted to that. I buy some good quality Italian chopped tomatoes, some decent spaghetti and I’m good to go and it’s delicious. 

Ingredients:

Chopped tomatoes, 14 oz can. I like La Fede brand

Garlic, 5 cloves, chopped fine

Olive oil, 3+ T

Basil, torn before using — caution! Don’t do as I did mistakenly first time of putting into tomato sauce to cook!

Directions:

Put up pot of water for spaghetti.

In small saucepan, put in tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, S&P. Cook at medium temp boiling/robust simmer for 20-24 minutes. Add in some basil off heat. 

Cook spaghetti in usual way and drain.

Top with some tomato sauce and some basil. Toss. Eat and enjoy. 

Goes great with Roasted eggplant or perhaps some super fresh broccoli, steamed.

Source: Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: Tomato Sauce with Garlic and Basil (p. 156)

Peanut sesame noodles

Ingredients:

Peanuts, 1/4 c, roasted, cooled, and then crushed slightly

Spaghetti or some other noodles such as udon or fresh Chinese

optional: bean sprouts, tofu, cilantro, sesame seeds, and/or scallions 

Sauce:

Soy sauce, <4 T

Rice vinegar, 2 T

Toasted sesame oil, 1 T

Peanut butter, 2 T

sugar, 1 T

Ginger, 1 T finely grated

Garlic, 2 T grated or minced

Sambal olek, 1 T or other Chile paste

Miso, 1 T optional

Directions:

Heat water for noodles. 

Toast peanuts, cool and then crush with heavy rolling pin. Wrap/cover nuts with parchment paper to prevent scattering as you hit them with rolling pin. Put on dish and set aside.

Whisk together sauce ingredients. Can dilute with 1-2 T water if you like. 

Cut up peeled and seeded cucumbers into small batons. Additional options include: Bean sprouts, tofu, cilantro, sesame seeds, and/or scallions would be welcome accompaniments to top noodles for serving. 

Cook noodles. Drain and rinse with cold water. Drizzle with sesame oil and stir around to cover — to prevent noodles from sticking.

Mix in some of the sauce and coat. This is a good way to store for another day. 

Add in more sauce when ready to serve. Top with cucumbers, and whatever else you have in mind. 

Yum!

To serve with baked tofu:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Press tofu, and cut into slices.

Stop making sauce before adding peanut butter. Dip both sides of tofu slices in and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Roast for 15+ minutes, turning once. 

Source: NYT Sam Sifton’s Takeout Style Sesame Noodles

 

Baked tofu with shiitakes and bok choy

I used to buy (expensive!) baked tofu because I like the flavor contribution seasoned tofu adds to a dish. Once I tried mixing up a sauce and sliced and baked myself, I realized how easy (and inexpensive!) it is. If you want to skip a step, you need not make two different sauces for tofu and rest of dish — combine into one.

Prepare ahead:

Put up rice to cook. Basmati is nice. Or plan way ahead and put up brown rice.

Press tofu

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Put up pot of water to boil bok choy

Tofu: Put parchment on a baking sheet.

Make glaze for tofu:

3 T stock

2 T mirin

Heat to boil for 20 seconds. Turn heat down to low, and stir in: 1 rounded T miso, and 1/2 t sugar. 

Remove from heat and 

Stir in: <1 t sesame oil.

Divide in half.

For tofu, mix into half the glaze: 1 t sesame oil, spicy Ssam sauce (or Thai Chile sauce plus cayenne), 1 T peanut oil and 1 t soy sauce. 

Slice tofu, dip both sides in glaze and put onto baking sheet. Bake for 15+ minutes. Maybe edges will start to crisp or darken. Remove and let cool on baking sheet.

For bok choy and shiitakes:

Cut stem off bok choy; cut in half width-wise, separating stems from leaves. Slice stems, cut leaves into large slices. Put into sinkful of water to swish and let soil fall off. Drain.

When water boils, add stems, and then 30 seconds later, add leaves and boil for another minute. Drain and run cold water over bok choy to stop cooking. Leave in colander to drain. 

(4) Cut off stems from shiitakes and slice tops. Mince a couple garlic cloves. Grate some ginger. 

Heat pan and add 1 T peanut oil. Add shiitakes, and let sit for 30 seconds. Then stir with salt and cook 2 minutes. Add garlic and ginger, and cook 2 more minutes, stirring. Add Mirin and deglaze. Add in bok choy, toss and heat with miso glaze. 

Serve:

Tofu

Shiitakes & bok choy with glaze

Rice

Delicious!

Sources:

Baked miso-glazed tofu with wild mushrooms

And Glazed Shiitakes with Bok Choy by David Tanis