The Last Hurrah
Sadly, the garden is over for another year... It's been a good year, with a record amount of tomatoes, cucumbers, galore, and some pretty hot peppers.
The eggplant didn't do as well as it has in the past, and, neither did the hot peppers, although there are still a few out back. The peppers that did arrive came late. I'll go out and get the last of them as soon as it stops raining. (Wishing I could send the rain west...)
The green and purple beans started out great and then withered away. No idea why. The beets were good, but also not really plentiful. We also harvested the last of the leeks and the fresh ginger.
It really was the year of the tomato - and, when we weren't canning them, they seemed to go into almost everything we made.
A few nights ago, I made a throw-together andouille sausage and chicken stew, and then the following night, made a pot pie with the leftovers.
I laid thick slices of tomato on top of the filling before adding the top crust. It was a pretty good use of leftovers...
And then, after seeing a recipe from La Cucina Italiana - I made a bean soup with shrimp.
I didn't even remotely follow their recipe. but I did take their idea.
I made a quick bean soup using canned cannellini beans, homemade tomato paste, garlic, leeks, and celery, along with white wine, chicken broth, and aleppo pepper. I used an immersion blender to smooth it all out and then added a final can of beans for texture.
I sauteed shrimp in butter and olive oil, lots of garlic, a squirt of lemon, and lots of parsley. Put the soup in a bowl, added the shrimp on top, and drizzled the pan juices around. It was pretty darned good. I made garlic bread from the Italian Bread I had made earlier in the week
It was pretty good, too.
We probably have another weeks worth of tomatoes ripening and then it's over until next year - and next year's garden will be in California!
Tomato Risotto
I have been making risotto for years. And years.
It's one of those dishes I just make - the basics are always the same, the flavors can change depending upon what's in the 'fridge. It's really an easy dish to pull off - and pretty much impossible to screw up. It takes about 30 minutes - and it's worth the minimal effort.
Tonight's version started off as a way to use up tomatoes. We're getting to the last of them, but... there are still quite a few. I used small yellow tomatoes for this, but any would work.
Tomato Risotto
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 cup arborio, carnaroli, or other risotto rice
- 1 cup white wine
- 4 cups hot chicken broth
- 1 chicken breast, cut in chunks
- 6 tomatoes, quartered
- 1 - 2 oz grated parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper, to taste
Saute onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil and butter. Add chicken and cook about half-way. Add rice and cook until translucent, stirring continually. Add the tomato paste and blend well.
Add wine and cook until almost fully absorbed.
Begin to add broth by the ladle, stirring continually. Continue adding ladles of broth as the last one is absorbed. Midway through, stir in tomatoes.
Continue stirring and adding broth until rice is just tender.
Stir in cheese.
Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.
Enjoy.
20/20 hindsight being what it is, I probably could have held back a few tomatoes and stirred them in at the end for a bit more texture, but, as it was, they melted in and made for a rich, flavorful sauce.
Risotto with Aleppo Pepper
For a spice that is so popular, I must say that trying to find Aleppo Pepper out here in the culinary wasteland of the Philadelphia suburbs is nigh-on impossible. Thank goodness for online shopping or our culinary staples would be reduced to white bread and black pepper.
Aleppo pepper is named for the city of Aleppo in Syria - a city that has been inhabited for upwards of 8,000 years. Longevity doesn't translate to peace, however. Because of continued war in the area, the spice now comes mostly from Turkey.
The pepper is mildly spicy compared to other crushed red peppers, and has a unique sweetness, as well. It's quite flavorful.
Risotto with Aleppo Pepper
- 1 chicken breast, cubed
- 1 cup arborio, carnaroli, vialone nano, or other risotto rice
- 5 green onions, chopped
- 1 bunch asparagus, chopped
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 heaping tbsp Aleppo pepper
- 1 cup white wine
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1/4 cup grated parmigiano cheese
- 2 tbsp butter
- S&P, to taste
Saute chicken in a combination of butter and olive oil until just starting to brown a bit. Add minced garlic and aleppo pepper. Saute until chicken is almost done.
Add 1 cup of rice and saute until the rice is translucent. Add 1 cup white wine and stir until most of it has been absorbed.
Heat the broth and add by half-cupfuls, stirring and waiting until it has been absorbed before adding the next. About halfway through, add the asparagus and green onions.
Continue cooking and stirring, adding broth by half-cupfulls, until rice is fully cooked.
Stir in the cheese and the butter. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.
The combination of pepper, chicken, rice, and asparagus just seemed to work. Of course, I think cardboard would have worked with this. The flavors were exceptional.
The leftovers are going to be worked into a chicken soup.
More fun cooking!
Stuffed Pattypan Squash
My impulse buy at the produce store on Monday was a huge pattypan squash. I had never seen one that size, so I thought it would be fun to see what I could do with it.
While we did end up with a pretty good dinner, I don't think I'll be rushing out to get more of them - they're actually pretty dull and flavorless. The filling made up for it.
In doing a Chef Google search, I found that one of the better things to do with squash of this size is to stuff them. I also found that they should be pre-baked before stuffing, so I cut off the top, hollowed out the seeds, applied olive oil, salt, and pepper, and place it in a 350°F oven for 30 minutes.
The filling was bacon, leeks, mushrooms, garlic, chicken, and a hot pepper. I cooked everything and when it cooled, mixed in some shredded cheese.
Into the squash and into the oven for another 30 minutes.
The filling was excellent - the squash was meh.
Stuffed Cabbage
When I was a youngster, my Birthday Dinner was Veal Marsala and Pineapple Cream Pie. My mom made a great dish with pounded beef, mushrooms, and marsala - we never saw $$$ veal in our house - and she served it over buttered egg noodles. Delicious.
Fast-Forward a few years and the Birthday Dinner has become Stuffed Cabbage.
What makes this so special is Victor has never really been fond of cooked cabbage, but, knowing how much I like it, he made it for me one year - and liked it, too! It's become a twice-a-year dish - once in winter and once for my birthday!
And since this was a birthday celebration, we started off with prosecco and homemade goat cheese, along with little crackers and hot peppers. Victor made the cheese yesterday. It is outstanding! We both really like hot peppers - there is always a container of peppers in the 'fridge - and we've taken to jacking up the heat from the store-bought peppers with a couple of the hot peppers from our yard.
More calories than we normally have for dinner, but... what the hell.
From cheese and peppers to stuffed cabbage served over rice. The rice is perfect for sopping up all of that delicious sauce.
The recipe originated with Ina Garten. It takes time to prepare - and it's worth every second!
Stuffed Cabbage
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons good olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
- 2 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes and their juice
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 large head Savoy or green cabbage, including outer leaves
For the filling:
- 2 1/2 pounds ground chuck
- 3 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onions
- 1/2 cup plain dried breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup uncooked white rice
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Directions
For the sauce, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the onions, and cook over medium-low heat for 8 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add the tomatoes, vinegar, brown sugar, raisins, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Remove the entire core of the cabbage with a paring knife. Immerse the head of cabbage in the boiling water for a few minutes, peeling off each leaf with tongs as soon as it s flexible. Set the leaves aside. Depending on the size of each leaf, you will need at least 14 leaves.
For the filling, in a large bowl, combine the ground chuck, eggs, onion, breadcrumbs, rice, thyme, salt, and pepper. Add 1 cup of the sauce to the meat mixture and mix lightly with a fork.
Preheat the oven to 350°.
To assemble, place 1 cup of the sauce in the bottom of a large Dutch oven. Remove the hard triangular rib from the base of each cabbage leaf with a small paring knife. Place 1/3 to 1/2 cup of filling in an oval shape near the rib edge of each leaf and roll up toward the outer edge, tucking the sides in as you roll. Place half the cabbage rolls, seam sides down, over the sauce. Add more sauce and more cabbage rolls alternately until you ve placed all the cabbage rolls in the pot. Pour the remaining sauce over the cabbage rolls.
Cover the dish tightly with the lid and bake for 1 hour or until the meat is cooked and the rice is tender.
Serve hot.
It really is one of those classic meals that succeeds on every level. It's a perfect agrodolce - sweet and sour - with perfect textures and perfect flavors. We each had two rolls. More than enough after cheese and peppers, although a part of me wanted to finish the pan.
We didn't have the Pineapple Cream Pie, though. I think Victor asked me half a dozen times if I wanted a birthday cake - and I repeatedly said no.
We had fresh fruit. But... we get to have the leftovers for dinner, tomorrow!
It's better than cake!
Ground Pork and Vegetable Galette
The latest batch of grilled vegetables is almost gone. I really do love having them in the 'fridge - they are so versatile.
Tonight, they got worked into a galette filling - a perfect summer-y dinner.
I started off by making a pie crust. Pretty much the easiest thing in the world to do. Half went for dinner and half went into the freezer for another day...
When making pie dough, I make a few variations on a theme... this is the basic. I add a couple tablespoons of sugar if making a dessert pie.
Pie Dough
- 2 cups flour
- 1/3 cup pastry/cake flour
- 2 sticks butter, frozen
- pinch salt
- 1/2 cup ice water
Using a food processor, add flours, salt, and sugar. Pulse to mix.
Chop up frozen butter and add. Pulse until butter is incorporated and mixture looks grainy.
Slowly add ice water and pulse until mixed.
Turn out onto counter. Press and form mixture into two disks . Wrap in plastic and refrigerate about an hour to allow the flour to properly absorb the water and to relax the gluten.
Roll out crust and place in pie plate. Crimp edges and fill.
The filling was a clean-out-the-'fridge affair...
- 1/2 lb ground pork
- 2 cups roasted vegetables
- 2 tomatoes
- chopped fresh herbs
- 1/2 cup tomatillo salsa
Brown pork in skillet. Add vegetables and heat through. Stir in tomatillo salsa and mix well. Remove from heat and cool.
I rolled out the crust, lined the bottom with sliced tomatoes, added the pork and vegetable filling, and topped it with more sliced tomatoes. Folded over the crust and baked at 425°F for 40 minutes.
We ate half of it and will have the other half for dinner tomorrow.
Grilled Vegetables
Our new favorite thing to have in the 'fridge is a big batch of grilled vegetables. They can be eaten cold as a salad, or warmed and used as a side dish or ingredient for something else - total versatility.
And reasonably healthy, as well.
Today's batch included:
- broccoli
- cauliflower
- mini potatoes
- asparagus
- green onions
- mushrooms
- yellow zucchini
- mini peppers
- carrots
- beets
The basic is to keep them whole or in fairly large pieces, drizzle with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper, and slowly grill until tender - taking items off the grill as they're done. Once cooked and cooled, they get chopped into bite-sized pieces, drizzled with a bit more olive oil, and a bit of balsamic vinegar - just enough to add a bit of sweetness - not enough to mask the vegetable flavor.
From there, it's lunch, dinner, side, or snack. Tonight, it was dinner.
We still had polenta from the other night, so I cubed it into about 1-inch cubes and lightly browned it in a skillet. I took it out and added a cubed chicken breast and cooked it until about half-done. I added an almost-ripe tomato from the garden that I chopped, along with a splash of white wine.
Next into the skillet went the grilled veggies, and when they were heated through, I stirred the polenta back in.
A bit of S&P and some chopped fresh herbs from the garden finished it off.
The only thing missing from the vegetables was coen. Gentile's only had white corn on the cob - and I'm a yellow corn person. I really don't care for white corn - I find it rather tasteless. I'll see about getting a couple of ears today and adding them in...
In the meantime, we have lots of good food in the 'fridge to get us through the week - and plenty of ideas for using it!
Stuffed Tomatoes
I pulled some ground beef out of the freezer with no clear idea of what I was going to make. That's not unusual for me... I tend to wing it more than I do follow any sort of recipe.
While we were getting lunch together, today, I noticed a big ol' beefsteak tomato on the counter. I had one of those aha moments and said we were having stuffed tomatoes for dinner. With the concept formed, it was now a matter of figuring out what I was going to stuff it with...
Ground beef was the obvious first choice, and then I opened the 'fridge. We had green onions, a zucchini, and olive tapenade in there, and our first hot pepper from the garden was on the counter next to the tomato. I grabbed the last of the monterey jack cheese, too.
I preheated the oven to 375°F and went to work.
I sliced the tomato in half and cut out a good portion of the center. That was mixed in with the ground beef, minced green onion, minced hot pepper, and the tapenade. A bit of salt, pepper, and garlic powder went in, as well.
I put a hefty slice of cheese into the tomato and then filled each with half of the beef mixture and topped each with another slice of cheese.
I sliced the zucchini into thic coins and placed them around the peppers, and baked everything off for about 30 minutes.
It was one of those things that just worked. The burger was juicy, slightly spicy, and full of lots of flavor. The tomato was fork-tender but still had substance, and the cheese made everything just creamy-good!
Not bad, at all...
Crab and Shrimp Frittatas
Dinner Monday night was Crab and Shrimp Louie - dungeness crab and bay shrimp piled high on top of iceberg lettuce with a homemade Louie Dressing. In typical Tim-Fashion, I had more crab and shrimp than I needed for four salads, so the rest went right into the freezer.
While getting lunch together, today, Victor said he had a plan for it - he was going to make a frittata for dinner. Never one to argue when someone wants to feed me, I immediately took the crab and shrimp out of the freezer!
And I had a feast for dinner!
Along with the crab and shrimp, Victor added diced red pepper, caramelized onions, diced tomatoes, pecorino romano, ricotta, fresh basil and oregano, and salt and pepper.
As perfect as perfect can be!
Even more perfect is we have enough for lunch tomorrow, as well, since there's really no way to make a small frittata in our house!
It's great being married to a man who can cook!
The End of Week Forty-Three
Whew! After two days of doing leg strengthening, it was back to core, today. Tough stuff. Doing specific muscles is rough but doable - there's a rhythm to the repetition and breathing is a lot easier. But core exercises are another world altogether.
My biggest issue is still breathing properly when doing things involving multiple muscle groups. I really need to just do it and not think about it. Of course, that's a lot easier to do when you're not gasping for breath with sweat pouring off you. During one particularly arduous exercise, our Trainer told me to breathe naturally. My first though was how in the %$#@% do I breathe naturally while on the floor, hopping, squating, and crawling on my hands - forwards and backwards?!? Call me crazy, but to me, that is not a scenario where breathing naturally could ever be considered natural. I mean... Really.
But... we survived. As we always do and as we always will.
It really is amazing what we have put ourselves through these past 43 weeks. What's even more amazing, though, is what we're able to do today. I can bitch about doing something where breathing is difficult, but six months ago, the entire concept was totally inconceivable. It's all perspective.
And keeping it all in perspective, we did lentils and fennel, tonight, with chicken and crayfish - a spin on a regular rotation recipe... The basic is:
- 1 cup dried lentils
- 1 fennel bulb
- 1 leek, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 carrots, cut into small dice
- 1 celery stalk, diced
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar – or vinegar of your choice
- hefty pinch thyme
- S&P
Cook lentils until lentils are just tender.
While lentils simmer, cut fennel bulb into 1/4-inch dice.
Heat a bit of olive oil in a skillet and add leek, carrot, fennel, garlic, and celery. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
When vegetables and lentils are cooked, stir lentils into vegetables and cook until heated through. Stir in vinegar. Add S&P, as desired.
From there, you can play...
I diced up a chicken breast and cooked it, took it out of the pan, and then pretty much followed the above recipe. At the end, I added the cooked chicken and the cooked crayfish.
I also added a liberal amount of white wine while cooking everything to keep it moist - and then a liberal dose of sriracha sauce to add a bit of spice.
It was a really simple meal with a lot of flavor - and took less than 20 minutes start to finish.
I'm ready for week 44!
Clean Out The Refrigerator Chicken
Today is my Aunt Dolores' birthday. Actually, great-aunt. She was my grandmother's sister and my mom's aunt. She was born in 1898, so today is the 121st anniversary of her birth. She was the youngest of six, born in Colorado, married twice, and a damned good cook. Her Rum Balls are legendary. And her leg of lamb... if only I could replicate that gravy...
She made it to 96. Not bad, at all...
Her mother-in-law - my Aunt Katharine - was born in 1882, and is probably the oldest person I have vivid memories of. Since Aunt Dolores and Uncle Tommy never had kids, i was the grandchild she never had. She did a good job of spoiling me...
As I said, Aunt Dolores was a great cook. We would head over to their apartment (at this point, she and her sister, Aunt Phoebe, were both widows and lived together) in Stonestown - in a high-rise! - and she would cook up some of the best meals.
As were most women of her time, she was an intuitive cook - never used a real recipe and when she wrote something down it was with the expectation that you knew what to do with the minimalist information.
If she had only written down her lamb gravy.....
But I digress...
I cooked something up tonight that I'm sure Auntie would have enjoyed. A clean out the 'fridge vegetables and chicken thighs.
I started by browning 2 chicken thighs. I took them out of the pan and added a half-bag of broccoli slaw, a zucchini, and 2 tomatoes. I chopped the tomato and zucchini and sauteed it with the slaw, and a bit of S&P.
When it all started wilting a bit, I added a splash of red wine and about a cup of pasta sauce that was left over from another meal. I nestled the chicken thighs on top, added some chopped green onions, and put it, covered, into the oven at 425°F for 30 minutes.
Lots of flavor, lots of texture, lots of leftovers used up. A perfect meal.
And... just for grins and giggles, here's Aunt Dolores in Italy in the '30s before the war... She was between husbands at this time...
She was a lot of fun.
Sausage and Lentils
This has definitely become one of my most favorite go-to dinners.
Lentils have always been a favorite food, and paired with really good sausages... well... it doesn't get much better. The sausages, of course, come from Martin's at Reading Terminal Market. They really are the best.
I've written this one out a dozen times, but here it is, again...
Lentils and Fennel
- 1 cup dried lentils
- 1 fennel bulb
- 1 leek, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 carrots, cut into small dice
- 1 celery stalk, diced
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar - or vinegar of your choice
- S&P
Cook lentils until lentils are just tender.
While lentils simmer, cut fennel bulb into 1/4-inch dice.
Heat a bit of olive oil in a skillet and add leek, carrot, fennel, garlic, and celery. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
When vegetables and lentils are cooked, stir lentils into vegetables and cook until heated through. Stir in vinegar. Add S&P, as desired.
It's quick and easy.
What's not being quick and easy is redoing this entire website.
The theme I was using was causing problems - you've obviously noted how slow it had become - so I'm working on redoing the entire thing.
The 2300+ blog posts will pretty much handle the changeover without a lot of individual attention - the older posts will not render as nicely as the last few years, but... as I get to them I can make them better. The 1500+ cookbook pages, on the other hand, are going to require a lot of individual handling.
Such is life.
It's been a lot of fun looking at the site and seeing how it has changed since I stared the official food blog in 2005.
Fourteen years of blog posts... and many more to come!