Zucchini pie, roasted cherry tomatoes and arugula salad.
Tag Archive for 'zucchini'
Yeah, that’s not the best name…it takes longer to say it than to make it. Frankly, I didn’t really know what else to call it. I didn’t want to leave out any of the three main ingredients as they really do all come together so nicely and one isn’t necessarily the star of the dish more than another (although don’t those cherry tomatoes look absolutely mouthwatering?*) And I refuse to use the word “medley” — that is reserved only for those of the musical variety and then, only those sung by Cher (Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves, Half Breed and Dark Lady being my personal favorite). But I digress.
I came up with this recipe when I was a lazy single gal. Not that all single girls are lazy; I just was. When it came to cooking, that is. Yes, cooking! What did you think I meant? Anyway. I was known, at times, to eat a yogurt for dinner or even cereal (yes, girls do this too, boys). Not always, mind you. Just some nights. Oh you know what I mean. Anyway.
One night I was feeling mildly less lazy and had some zucchini and cherry tomatoes laying around and a can of cannellini beans in the cupboard. So I tossed in a little garlic, a pinch of dried sage, a sprinkle of Parmesan and a nice big grind of black pepper, and I was golden, Pony Boy. It’s a super-easy one-pan meal, but you can also serve it as a side dish (for those really industrious types). And if you want to make it a complete protein, just serve it with rice or pasta. It’s also lovely over quinoa. And it beats cereal any old day.
Zucchini, Tomato, Cannellini Quick-Cook
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium or 2 small zucchini, cut into thin half circles (or quarters if you have a small person)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried sage (or 1 tablespoon fresh, minced)
12-15 cherry tomatoes, halved (about 1 cup)
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
Salt
Black pepper
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)
Heat olive oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add zucchini, sauté until the pieces start browning. Add garlic and sage and stir everything around a bit. Squeeze the juice out of each cherry tomato half into the pan and then toss the tomato in. Cook for another minute or two. Add the beans and cook until heated through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grated Parmesan.
* Courtesy of Dan‘s garden…and all gone by this time of year…so I had to use store-bought (but still local and organic!)
This is another recipe that I love from 101 Cookbooks. It’s pretty simple as is, but I made a few changes because a) Hubs isn’t so crazy for brussel sprouts (yes, he is that odd vegetarian who doesn’t like a lot of vegetables…weirdo) and b) I didn’t have a few things the recipe called for (like brown sugar, pecans, etc.). Which is how this recipe came about in the first place (Heidi basically just threw it together based on what she had in the house — aren’t those recipes always the best?).
This is rapidly becoming one of our standard weeknight meals. It’s fast, easy and uses one pan (unless you want to add rice or noodles, which I’d recommend). And I do sometimes use brussel sprouts (as you can see from the photos) just because I love them! And you know what? The husband still eats it, which is testament to how good this recipe is.
1 block of tofu (firm or extra-firm)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1″ piece of ginger, grated
1/3 cup almonds, chopped (the recipe calls for toasted pecans, but I didn’t have any and am lazy, so no toasting for me)
2 tablespoons sugar (brown if you have it)
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 lb. zucchini, julienned (or brussel sprouts, thinly sliced; broccoli also works great, cut into small florets)
Salt
Cut the tofu into 1/2″ thick slices that measure about 1″ x 1″. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and the sesame oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Place the tofu slices in a single layer (it should all fit in the pan). Cook until the bottom gets a nice golden color and firms up. Flip and cook the other side. Turn the heat down to medium, add the ginger, garlic and nuts and cook for a minute, making sure to not burn the garlic. Sprinkle the sugar over the top and stir it around, coating the ingredients. Cook for another couple minutes, until it’s all nice and caramely (is that a word?). Remove from the heat and put the tofu mixture in a serving bowl (I like to cover the bowl with a plate so it stays hot).
Put the pan back on medium-high heat, add the other tablespoon of oil, a bit of salt and once hot, add the veggie of your choice. Cook for a couple minutes and don’t stir too much; you want it to sit on the hot pan and caramelize a bit. Once there are nice brown bits and the veg is just tender to the bite, take off the heat. Add to the reserved tofu and stir in the cilantro.
Serve immediately. Also tastes great with a bit of sambal oelek or siracha on top.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that we probably eat this dish once a week. It’s one of those really easy, do-it-blindfolded recipes (okay, maybe not the grating part; that would be unwise) that we all love…and there’s just too little of (name that song). You can also throw in whatever veggie you have lying around in addition to the zucchini, like peppers, mushrooms, corn…you get the idea. It’s versatile, folks (I didn’t have any basil, but I did have some pesto on hand, so I tossed that in and it was fab). And oh so very easy.
And the kicker? My kid loves it too. Which, now that I think about it, is probably why we have it once a week. No one likes to have their food rejected…even by a toddler. Even if that’s what they do. Although, not mine. He’s an excellent eater. And yes, I realize I’ve just totally cursed myself by typing that. Thanks.
Zucchini Pie
Adapted from Real Simple
3 cups zucchini, grated
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup grated provolone cheese (mozzarella or gouda work great too)
3 eggs, beaten (if you want to lower the cholesterol factor, you can use 2 yolks and 3 whites)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons grated Parmesan
Preheat oven to 350°F/180ºC. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, reserving 2 tablespoons of the Parmesan. Spoon the mixture into a 8″ round metal pan or a glass pie pan coated with vegetable cooking spray. Sprinkle the rest of the Parmesan on top and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until golden brown. If the top isn’t browning, pop it under the broil for a minute or two (and DON’T walk away from the stove while you’re doing this!). Make sure you cool it at least 10 minutes before cutting into it or it will fall apart (yes, this little piggy learned that the hard way).
You’d think that the food in Buenos Aires would be spicy, no? Well, it’s not. Like, not even the littlest bit. I don’t know why this was so shocking to me, seeing as how porteños are really a bunch of Italians that speak Spanish and think they’re English. Not really! I kid! That’s just an expression here. I guess I thought, you know, Latin America…spicy passionate people…spicy passionate food…umm, no. Fact is, Argentina is not big on the picante. I’m really not sure why that is, although a lot of the cuisine here is based on Italian food, which generally isn’t terribly spicy.
Thus, when it comes to Mexican food of the spicy variety, there’s quite the dearth of available options. I mean, Argentina is a looong way from Mexico, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that Mexican food and ingredients are not the easiest things to procure here.
The issue here is that I am a Mexican food junkie. Hello, my name is Jennifer and I am a Mexican food junkie. Say it all together now: “Hello, Jennifer.” Clearly, San Francisco is the holy grail of Mexican food in the US (fyi, I’m partial to La Taqueria on 25th & Mission). And while NYC is NOT — I repeat NOT — even close to SF in regard to its Mexican food, it has BsAs beat hands down.
So, my solution to this Mexican food dilemma is threefold:
1) Track down any and all hot sauces available in the city; Barrio Chino is the spot for this.
2) Have visiting friends and family bring hot sauce and other spicy things.
3) Make my own.
The great thing about enchiladas is that you can really throw anything in there that’s available, which is a good thing here because quite frequently, I’ll go to buy something I’ve bought for the last 9 months or so and the grocery store just doesn’t carry it anymore. Just like that. Poof. Gone. Like, peanut butter, for instance. Or black beans. I mean, really? They have 35 brands of dulce de leche, but not a single stinking jar of peanut butter lying around? Come on, people. Work with me here!
These enchiladas are freeing. So, there isn’t a black bean to be had in Buenos Aires? Never mind. I’ll throw in some alubia beans (cannellinis to Americanos). No cilantro? Pfff. I see your cilantro deficiency and raise you a handful of parsley. You really can’t screw them up. This time, I was feeling a bit time-crunched, so I found a nice little pre-chopped mix (swiss chard, celery, corn, leeks, carrots, squash and parsley), which is ostensibly for soup, but worked perfectly here.
Tortillas + veggies + cheese + red pepper sauce
+ just a little more cheese, thanks
= Pseudo-Mexican goodness
And that’s good enough for me. For now.
Veggie Enchiladas
Recipe adapted from Tamra Davis’ Cooking Show
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
3 zucchinis, chopped (or 2 cups of chopped vegetables of your choosing)
½ an onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1-1/2 teaspoons of cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder*
1 cup of corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
1 14-ounce/210 g can of beans (I like black, but as they have fallen off the face of the earth here, I used cannellinis (kidney beans would also be nice)
Salt and pepper
1-½ cup of sharp cheddar (or mozzarella, asiago, goat cheese, go crazy)
12 flour tortillas
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce:
1 red pepper, roasted and peeled (you can buy them like that, no need to burn the house down!)
1 15-ounce can of tomato sauce (they sell cubed or cubierto tomatoes in tomato sauce here; that’s what I use)
1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped (yes! Found this here)
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 tablespoon of cumin
½ teaspoon of salt
Black pepper
2 tablespoons of cilantro, roughly chopped
Juice from one lime
Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC. Start by sautéing the onions in the olive oil on medium heat for a couple minutes. Add your veggies, then add the corn and spices. Cook for about 3-5 minutes; you want the veggies to soften up — not super crunchy, but still with a little bite to them. Add the beans and cook just til they’re heated through.
While that’s cooking, grate your cheese of choice (or open your package of pre-grated cheese and have a glass of wine; no judgment here).
Now it’s assembly line time. A great project for the kid or kiddies to help with. Take a tortilla, fill it with enough of the veggie bean mixture to spread out evenly across the lower-middle part of the tortilla (the tortillas here are really small, so I can only manage about ¼ cup, but if you have the big ones, you can put a lot more in). Don’t pile it too high, but don’t skimp either. You’ll work it out. Now squiggle (yes, squiggle) a nice handful of cheese over the veggies and then take the bottom of the tortilla, roll it over the top of the veggies and place seam down in your waiting 9” x 13” pan. If you have the big tortillas, after you roll the bottom over the top of the veggies, fold the two ends in and keep rolling, so your filling doesn’t fall out. My veggies often fall out and I just tuck them back in.
Once you’ve done all the filling and rolling and placing, pour the red pepper sauce over the tortillas. If you have any filling left, just add it on top of the sauce and then sprinkle liberally with the remaining cheese.
Bake for 30 minutes. Serve immediately.
It’s nice to serve with some guacamole, sour cream or plain yogurt and hot sauce. Some brown rice with a little smoked paprika or cilantro tossed in there would be lovely as well.
* They don’t have chili powder in BsAs (see what I mean? No spicy!), so I use a combination of aji molido, ground coriander, ground nutmeg, oregano and a dash of cinnamon.