Grilled Vegetables

To continue with the squash theme, and to take advantage of the slightly cooler weather we are having, I thought I would add one of my favorite appetizers, Grilled Vegetable Antipasti, plus the closely related Grilled Vegetable Pasta.   This is so good (and pretty) I have two pictures!

This is from this year, at the book club get together in Munds park.

And this is from a couple of years ago, from a party at a friends in Co Springs.











Please just use these recipes as a guide.  You can cut the vegetables thinner or thicker (just adjust cooking time), simplify the coating… just olive oil and salt is good, or just use one or two vegetables if there are only one or two of you.

Grilled Vegetable Antipasti

Marinade:½ cup olive oil
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 lemon, juiced
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley leaves
1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano leaves
½ teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Vegetables:
½ pound eggplant, cut into 1 cm (something between ¼ and ½ inch) slices
½ pound zucchini, cut into 1 cm slices (on diagonal if med or larger, lengthwise if small)
½ pound yellow squash, cut into 1 cm slices
1 medium red onion, sliced into 1 cm slices – stick toothpick through to keep intact
1 yellow or red bell pepper, cut in half lengthwise
Extras:
½ cup coarsely grated Pecorino Romano or Parmesan
½ cup toasted pine nuts
Olives
Basil leaves (and flowers if you have them)
French bread

Whisk together all marinade ingredients in a large bowl.  Add vegetables and toss to coat. Let marinate for 1 – 2 hours.

Preheat grill to medium or high heat.  Place vegetables on the grill (in batches if necessary).  Grill until marked and starting to soften, generally 2 – 5 minutes per side depending on grill temperature.  Removed with tongs and arrange on a platter, let cool slightly.  Add cheese, pine nuts, olives, basil, and/or anything else that seems good.

Optional:  brush thin diagonal slices of the French bread with olive oil and grill until lightly toasted, about 1 minute per side.

Grilled Vegetable Pasta

4 servings

Veggies (use as a guide only!):¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Fresh or dry herbs, salt, pepper
2 medium zucchini, sliced diagonally about ½ inch thick
1 small eggplant, sliced lengthwise in ½ inch slices
1 red or mild yellow onion, cut in 2 large slices and skewered
2 red bell peppers, whole
1 ear corn, silk removed and husk replaced
1 head of garlic, top cut off
And/or:  Mushrooms, Asparagus

Pasta:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
¼ cup fresh basil (or other herbs)
½ pound chunky pasta, cooked
Save about ½ cup pasta water
¼ cup dry white wine (optional)
¼ cup goat cheese, crumbled
¼ cup pine nuts, toasted

For Grilled Veggies:  Mix together olive oil, balsamic vinegar, herbs, salt and pepper.  Mix with vegetables (can do earlier in the day).   Drizzle garlic with oil and partially wrap in foil. On grill heated to medium, put in some wood chips and with several branches of rosemary. Put all the vegetables on the grill. The corn will cook quickest, maybe 10 minutes. Cook remaining veggies until soft and browned, 15 - 20 minutes.  Turn every 5-10 minutes.  The bell pepper skin will be black.  Remove pieces from grill as they get done and let cool.

Dice the squash, eggplant, and onion. Peel bell pepper and dice.   Cut corn from cob. Put in a large bowl.  Put in several cloves of roasted garlic (cut in half if large), use remainder for snacking.  Add the cooked and drained pasta. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a bit more salt and pepper to taste, chopped fresh basil, enough pasta water and/or white wine to moisten (about ½ cup total).  Serve with about 1 tablespoon each goat cheese crumbles and toasted pine nuts on each serving.

Squash and more squash

We had a great weekend in Colorado Springs, visiting friends who happen to have a garden… and lots of squash (both summer and winter versions).   Plus I have found a great new recipe for a pasta sauce which has lots of possibilities.... seemed I needed to make sure I posted this now for everyone who might have excess squash.

We could not leave without taking some summer squash (side note:  TSA does allow squash in your carry-on bags*), so I made a new variant on “Pasta Whatever” at the beginning of the week: Chop 2 slices of bacon** and cook until crisp, set aside.  Remove all but 1 tablespoon of fat.  Saute ½ an onion, chopped, in the bacon fat.  Add 3 small-medium sized yellow squash, cut in half and sliced thin, sauté a bit more, and deglaze with a bit of white wine.  Add some pasta water if it starts to get too dry.  When the squash is cooked (takes just a few minutes) add a ½ pound of cooked chunky pasta.  Stir, add a couple of ounces of goat cheese, chopped basil,  and reserved bacon.   We ate the entire batch in one sitting (normally, we have at least enough left for one lunch!)

* It’s allowed, but expect they will put your bag back through the x-ray and make comments like “is this zucchini in here?”
**  Look for an upcoming blog just on bacon.  Just a touch of bacon now and then makes life much better.
Next is a winter squash pasta sauce based on a Giada de Laurentiis recipe.  I generally have trouble doing anything the same twice, and have made this 3 times: 2 different ways with sausage, and tonight with mushrooms.  Someday I will do the original version, which calls for Shrimp.   

Squash Sauce

This makes enough for 1 ½ pounds of pasta, and freezes very well.  Since I normally cook a ½ pound of pasta, this makes enough for 3 batches, I use one, and freeze the other 2 in zip-loc baggies. 

¼ cup olive oil
2 pounds butternut squash, trimmed and cut into 1 inch cubes
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth

Heat olive oil in a large heavy skillet or wide pot over medium high heat. Add squash, garlic, salt and pepper.  Sauté until the squash is golden and starting to get tender, 5-7 minutes. Add the stock, bring to simmer, cover and cook until the squash is very soft, another 7- 10 minutes.  Transfer to a food processor and puree until smooth.

Pasta with squash sauce

Each of below is based on ½ pound of chunky pasta (like rigatoni), and 1/3 batch of Squash Sauce and makes 2-3 servings.

Shrimp (from original version, which I never have actually done):
Saute ½ pound of shrimp in olive oil with some salt and pepper.
Combine cooked pasta, warmed pureed squash, and ½ cup of milk. Stir to combine.  Add cooked shrimp, ¼ cup chopped basil, and a couple of tablespoons grated parmesan. Stir until warm and serve.

Sausage (v1):
Grill pre-cooked sausage (or warm leftover grilled sausage) and cut into chunks.
Combine cooked pasta, warmed pureed squash, and ½ cup of milk. Stir to combine.  Add sausage, ¼ cup chopped basil, and a ¼ cup grated parmesan. Stir until warm and serve.  Caution: this looks a lot like mac and cheese, but its not.

Sausage (v2):
Saute ½ a chopped onion and a clove of minced garlic in a bit of olive oil until soft.  Add  ½ pound of Italian sausage removed from casing. (I use turkey sausage, but this would be great with venison sausage if I could get more from my brother) and sauté until browned.  Add squash sauce.  Cook for about 5 minutes.   Add cooked pasta and a ¼ cup of light cream (half and half).  Stir, adding a bit of pasta water if needed to thin.  Serve with a good grating of parmesan cheese.

Mushroom:
Saute ½ a chopped onion in a bit of olive oil for a few minutes.  Add a ½ tablespoon of butter, then ¼ - ½ pound of mushrooms (shitake or cremini), cut in half. Saute until starting to brown, then add ½ cup of white wine.  Cook until wine is reduced and almost gone, then add squash puree and a teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme.  Cook for a few minutes.   Add cooked pasta and stir. Remove from the heat and add ¼ cup of plain (preferably Greek) yogurt, stir until mixed.  Serve with a good grating of parmesan cheese.

Salad Dressing

It’s probably some sign of obsession, but there are not any bottles of salad dressing in the refrigerator.   I have made vinaigrette for years, but at some point (the point likely being the Italy trip), we just stopped using bottled salad dressing.  I finally tossed the ¼ full jars.    Most of the time I’m happy with oil and vinegar based dressing; it’s easy to alternate the oils and vinegar to keep it interesting. But every so often I am hungry for a creamy dressing.  And most creamy recipes either call for raw eggs (which I’m OK to eat, but not really willing to serve to anyone) or make 2+ cups of dressing and goes bad a few days.  But finally I have found a recipe that works for me, and the ingredients are things that often are in my house (OK, buttermilk may not be in your fridge, but around my house it goes into waffles, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and any muffin recipe that calls for milk).

Creamy Dressing:
1 small clove garlic, smashed and mashed to a paste with a bit of salt
Scant ¼ cup plain yogurt (I use Greek 2%)
Scant ¼ cup mayonnaise (Best Foods)
¼ cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon white wine or Sherry vinegar
Fresh ground pepper
Whisk everything together in a small bowl.  Keep refrigerated and use within a few days.

Options:  Add 2 ounces crumbled blue cheese (I have some Maytag Blue cheese ready to try this!)

Vinaigrette Dressing

Adjust quantity as needed, I usually make about ½ this much in a 1 cup plastic container.

1/3 – 1/2 cup wine vinegar (red or white or balsamic or sherry)
2/3 cup olive or walnut oil
1 teaspoon Dijon or some fancy mustard you don’t know what else to do with
salt, pepper to taste

Put everything in a sealed container and shake well, or whisk together in a bowl.
Store indefinitely in the refrigerator.  If you use olive oil, it will get thick, just remember to get it out a little ahead of time.  Walnut oil (which is also good for you, maybe even better than olive oil) has good flavor – and – doesn’t solidify when cold.

A couple of notes:  you can use garlic in this as well, but use right away.  Garlic in olive oil is a good breeding ground for botulism.   This is tasty for a marinade if you use a 1:1 ratio of oil and vinegar,  lots of herbs, and maybe extra mustard.

Swimming makes you hungry

Swimming is certainly the rage this week with the Olympics, Michael Phelps, and the new world records with the new Speedo suits.  It's great motivation to keep me going.  Plus I keep  watching to figure out how out things like the body whip (the dolphin like swimming that the swimmers do as they come off the wall).  My main motivater has been my swim class leader Kymmie, who makes it fun.  She has a huge amount of positive energy that she brings to class, plus is really, really a good swimmer.  And Tuesday made us swim with cups on our head (the red plastic kind you would use at a keg party - I'm thinking there needs to be a drinking party game involved).  The other fun thing is that you need to eat more (assuming your goal is to not lose weight).  According to the press, Michael Phelps eats 12,000 calories per day.  The challenge is to not just starting eating a bunch of crap.  But Kymmie has helped here too, with several recipes on good for you foods to help keep you going. 

Disclaimer:  every recipe I have put on my web is something that I have cooked, usually many many times.  These are from Kymmie, and I have not tried them yet.   I have added my thoughts, and I will add comments when I make them to how they come out (and be suspicious if I make you chocolate pudding).   Enjoy!

Cowboy Caviar

Deb’s take:  This is real similar to my corn and bean salad (my salad has some olive oil but no acocados, I suspect this is a good trade).  Unless you are cooking for a crowd, I would suggest making just 1/3 of the recipe (using just black beans).  I would eat this straight up without the tortilla chips.

Juice of 1 lime
1/2 cup of red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp hot sauce (Tobasco)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp salt
3 firm, ripe avocados, diced into cubes
1 (15oz) can each: white beans, black beans, kidney beans; rinsed and drained
3 cups frozen corn; thawed
1 cup green onions, thinly sliced
1 cup fresh cilantro; chopped
1 lb pear tomatoes; halved
Tortilla chips; Scoops are best

Mix together lime juice, vinegar, hot sauce, oil, garlic, pepper and salt.  Add avocado; mix gently with lime juice mixture.  Add remaining ingredients, put in refridgerator for several hours.   Serve with Scoops

Cauliflower Lemon Antipasto Salad

This looks yummy.  There are couple of interesting techniques.  One is marinating the tofu in the dressing, which will give it great flavor.  The other is putting boiling water on the broccoli and cauliflower – which should help remove the “rawness” without really cooking.   I will definitely be trying this out.

4 oz  extra firm tofu
1 cup  broccoli florets
1 head cauliflower, cut in florets
1 small lemon, thinly sliced
2 cups  chick-peas
1 small sweet red, green, and yellow peppers, sliced
Half  seedless cucumber, chunks
2 cups  cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup  black Kalamata olives
3 oz   fresh mozzarella cheese, cubed
2 tbsp  fresh parsley, chopped
2 oz  feta cheese, crumbled
Dressing
¼ cup  olive oil
1/8 cup red wine or white balsamic vinegar
1  green onion, minced
2-3  cloves garlic, minced
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp  Dijon mustard
2 tsp  each fresh basil, oregano, parsley
Pinch  sea salt and pepper

Dressing:  In a bowl, whisk together all ingredients, gradually adding oil.

Cut tofu into 1-1/2 inch long strips, about ¼ inch wide; add to dressing. Let stand at room temperature for 1 hour.

In a bowl, pour boiling water over broccoli, cauliflower and lemon slices; let stand for 8 minutes. Drain well and place in salad bowl along with remaining ingredients. Add tofu and dressing; toss gently. Cover and refrigerate, stirring occasionally, for at least 1 hour or until chilled.

Nut Butter Protein Energy Balls

This looks like a way to make your own energy bars.  I’m not crazy about all of the added vitamins that most of the bars have (I think I taste them), plus they tend to be expensive.  
Update: There are a great alternative. I have made with chocolate chips, as well as chocolate chips and dried cranberries.  I have not used the protein powder, but Kymmie says the Ruth's is good and not highly processed, and available at Sprouts.

1 cup raw almond, cashew or peanut butter
3 cups organic old fashioned oats
1-2 Tblsp of protein powder (Ruth's Raw Hemp/Flax seed)
1/2 cup maple syrup, honey or agave nectar
1 tsp vanilla extract
cinnamon
Optional additions
1/2 cup raisins (or dried cranberries)
1/3-1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4-1/2 cup raw cacoa bits (or chocolate chips)
Combine all ingredients together; take a tablespoon and form into balls. Refrigerate.

Raw donut holes

These look good, I’m a huge fan of dates. However, I am not a big fan of coconut of the sweetened dried coconut (probably relating to those pink Hostess things), but sometimes I’m OK with the unsweetened coconut.

1 3/4 cup raw almonds, soaked overnight in water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups dried pineapples, chopped  (the mini ones at Trader Joe’s)
2 cups pitted dates
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

Process first 3 ingredients in food processor until fine powder, slowly add pineapple and dates. Place in a large bowl and add 1/3c coconut. Form into small balls and roll in 1/4c remaining coconut.

CHOCOLADO PUDDING 

This one I’m just going to have to try… 

~3-4 servings

2-3 ripe avocados
7 ½ Tbs unsweetened organic cocoa (chocolate) powder (Dagoba, etc.)
½ cup agave nectar OR pure maple syrup
splash vanilla extract
pinch sea salt
dash cinnamon

Peel the ripe avocados and blend them in a Cuisinart/food processor. Add chocolate/cocoa powder, vanilla, sea salt and cinnamon. Blend. Add agave or maple syrup and adjust the amount for sweetness. Keep blending in your Cuisinart until creamy with a pudding-like consistency.

Eat or refrigerate, serve w/ fresh berries.

Eggs

I have been on an egg kick lately.  Partially because they are an old-fashioned food and also because we have been getting some good eggs.  We had omelets last week from eggs a neighbor gave us (OK, the chickens are not in the neighborhood, but he has some land someplace nearby), and generally get eggs from Sri at the farmers market.  These are eggs from chickens that are really outside, free to wander and eat bugs, which results in orange yolks.  Call me weird, but what I like the most is the eggs are all different sizes, from tiny to jumbo.  And the ones from Sri are all different colors – brown, green, blue, and occasionally white.

I actually was ambitious enough a couple of weeks ago to make soufflés, which was fun but a bit of work, and one of these days I will try some chocolate soufflés.  I also poached an egg (just like Jacques Pepin, with just boiling water, no forms) and put on top of a spinach salad.  But most of the eggs get used in omelets.  

Omelets are more technique and imagination than recipe, so just try to follow along: Start with 2 or 3 eggs, depending on how hungry you are (or who ever is eating)  and how big the eggs are.  I use whole eggs.  Yes, by eliminating the yolks you get less fat (5 grams / 2 of which are saturated per yolk) and no cholesterol, but I think you loose a lot of flavor, not to mention 1/3 of the protein and other nutrients.  Recent data is showing that eggs are not as bad as they have been made out to be, and  cholesterol that you eat has little to do with the cholesterol in your blood (but there is still conflicting information, especially for diabetics) .  So don’t eat a 3-egg omelet every day.   While I’m on the nutrition rant (I’ll get to the recipe soon enough), compare the fat in eggs to Newman’s Own Ranch Dressing at McDonald’s where 1 serving has 30 grams of fat, 5 saturated.

Back to making omelets.  I like to have some vegetables in my omelets, like spinach, mushrooms, asparagus, or bell pepper.. and maybe a bit of onion.  If there is meat around, like leftover chicken or ham (prosciutto is great, but cut-up lunch meat works too) it can go in.  Plus cheese:  Favorites include goat cheese, Parmesan, Manchego, Cheddar, somewhere between ½ to 1 ounce.   Herbs are an option too… think chives, tarragon, thyme.

Omelets: 

To start, get out a good non-stick skillet, about 10 inches.   Start by cooking the vegetable(s).  For asparagus or broccoli, put about a ¼ inch of water in the pan, and boil for a few minutes over high heat until they are done.  Put the vegetables on a small plate and set to the side), drain the pan.  For spinach, peppers or mushrooms, sauté a little chopped onion in a bit of olive oil, (ham can be added here too if you like), add the vegetable, and cook until its done.  Set aside and wipe out the pan if needed.

To make the omelet: beat the eggs in a small bowl.  Melt a bit of butter in the pan (1 teaspoon or so, maybe less) over medium heat.  Add the eggs.  The goal is to cook them slowly.  When they are partially set, sprinkle with herbs (optional), cheese, vegetable, meats.  I like to add salt and pepper at this point.  When the eggs are done (they will still be very soft on top, and you probably have a bit of liquid from the vegetables and cheese) .. and they should not be very brown on the bottom, fold in half, and slide to a plate.   If you are being fancy, put a few more herbs on top.

Some of my favorite combinations:

Goat cheese, spinach and onion
Aparagus and manchego, with chives
Ham, bell pepper, and onion (aka Western Omelet)
Chile and cheddar with Chicken
So use your imagination… and what happens to be in the fridge!

June

What a month.  I suspect Phoenix will set some kind of record for # of day’s in June over 110F, which was even more delightful on Friday when ash from the Ethan fire (no relation to our dog) was falling on the house…  Roy suggested that we go to the neighbor’s and start their fire pit, just to see what hell was really like.  But hot or not, we have had a great display of flowers on our night blooming cereus cactus.

I have been busy in the kitchen (as a side note: its way cooler slaving over a hot stove in the air-conditioned house than doing anything outside on the grill).  I made Apricot Jam, which didn’t seem very hard… just cook chopped apricots, sugar (2:1 ratio) along with a bit of lemon juice until its jam.  I didn’t make much, so it’s just in the fridge for PB&J sandwiches.  As a follow-up, I made peach sauce (which is really good on Roy’s waffles). You make this just like apricot jam, but with peaches and you don’t quite cook as long.  I bought a bunch of peaches at the farmers market so have more in the freezer… maybe I will try some peach jam later.  But I think that this week is the last week we will see peaches a the farmers market (and the apricots are long gone..  but still getting good tomatoes).     I also made soufflés for the first time… Its not that hard, but don’t expect it to be a week night staple – way to many dirty dishes. Let me know if you want the recipe.  

My adventure has been swimming class. The name of the class is the Mile Club (at the Awatukee Y).I figured this meant the goal of the class was to get you to be able to swim a mile.  What they really intend is that you swim a mile every class, which includes a bunch of drills where you only do one part of a swim stroke (like breath).  I really never realized that there was so much to think about when swimming, its almost as bad as golf.   Some of the people can actually swim more than one lap without resting (not me..yet), so  the swim coach said she would start teaching us flip turns.. and bring a video camera.  Let’s hope she doesn’t post them on youtube.

The biggest highlight was celebrating our 25th Anniversary (which sounds much better than a Silver Anniversary, implying that you should have grandchildren and drive a Buick).   We celebrated by going to Tucson and staying at the Westward Look (same place we stayed for our honeymoon), and having dinner at Janos.  Here’s to another 25!

Muesli -- Revisited

I have a hard time repeating things.  I could never be a restaurant chef or a potter that made dinner ware, where there is some expectation of getting the same thing the next time you order it.  I continue to adjust, often based on what I have in the house (especially with $4 gas), or reduce the amount of dirty dishes generated, or maybe to adjust the quantity.  As to my pots, I like to think the clay is jointly expressing itself with me (not that I haven’t really mastered the basics!)

Some examples… starting with Muesli.  The recipe I posted makes enough for 3, but there are only 2 of us (the dog gets kibble every morning and loves it… some things don’t change).    So I cut down the oatmeal by a third, from 1 ½ cups to 1 cup.  The milk should be cut from 2 cups to 1 1/3 cups but that would necessitate a bit of math, not to mention another measuring cup.  So I just put in a cup of milk, or just enough to cover the dry ingredients (including some nuts and dry fruit, and usually honey to sweeten).   In the morning, I add enough plain yogurt to get to just the right consistency.   I now never make it like the recipe I posted last year.  

Another example:  Fish tacos. Using the blender seemed like too much trouble.  So I just mixed the flour and spices in a large bowl with a whisk, and then whisk in the beer. You can just put the fish in this bowl, so one less dirty dish.

Last example:  Muffins.  I made our normal Apple-Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins.  But instead of apples and cranberries, I used zucchini and raisins.  I only had 1 egg, so I used a bit more oil, 1/3 cup instead of ¼ cup.  I was stringy on sugar..  only used 2/3 cup instead of ¾ cup.   Well, they came out great (so I promised Roy I would right it down).

So where is this going?  At some point, you will see a new recipe for “low cholesterol zucchini muffins”.  But generally, I will try to post a comment when I have made a fairly repeatable changes.  So… don’t forget to take a look at the comments.  And if you make something, don’t hesitate to leave a comment on how to make it better!