I absolutely love tastespotting.com because it gives me so many ideas for things I want to cook. The zucchini crudo is no exception. A couple of weeks ago, I had no idea what a crudo was. Nowadays, I still don't really know what it is, but I do know it sure does taste good!
The recipe for the crudo is mostly outlined on kissmyspatula.com aside from a few changes I made. This is what I used to make my crudo:
1 zucchini from farmer's market
1/2 lemon from my neighbor's tree
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 small red onion
1/2 tomato from my boss's garden
1/4 bunch cilantro
sea salt
freshly ground rainbow peppercorns
feta cheese, crumbled
I sliced the zucchini as thin as I could and laid them out in a circle on a plate, overlapping slightly. A mandolin would work great in this situation and you would probably spend half the time I did to slice a whole zucchini. Drizzle some quality olive oil, lemon juice and a little salt and pepper and refrigerate for about 30 min. While those flavors are soaking in, you can dice the red onion and tomato into small pieces and pick the leaves of cilantro and chop that up too. I really dislike picking cilantro leaves because it's so tedious! You pick one or two leaves at a time and the engineer in me wants to make the whole process quicker and more efficient. Once you take out the zucchini from the fridge, top it with the veggies you just prepped, sprinkle some feta cheese and there you have it! One light and refreshing side dish is read to go.
The stuffed squash blossoms were an interesting feat and discovery from Tastespotting. I saw them at farmer's market and the adventurous foodie in me said I had to make something of them. I bought them on Thursday and I cooked them on Monday, but most recipes said the blossoms would only last a a couple days. They definitely didn't have as much life in them as when I first bought it, but I think they turned out okay after frying.
This recipe was more a conglomeration of a couple different recipes I found online. This is what I ended up using:
8 Squash blossoms
1 Cup feta cheese
1.5 tsp Italian herb mix
salt and pepper
To make the herbed feta cheese, I just mixed the cheese with the herb mix and a little bit of salt and pepper to taste. It took a lot of mixing to get the creamy consistency I wanted. Upon tasting it though, it came out really strong and next time I would probably use less herbs and maybe add some cream cheese to tone it down too.
We prepped the blossoms by cutting out the stamens and stuffing about 2 Tbsp worth of the feta and twisting the tips of the petals to hold it in. Heated up about 2 Tbsp of olive oil on a frying pan and cooked the blossoms till it was lightly fried all around.
The basmati rice was a mix from Trader Joe's and saved the dish from being overpowered by the feta cheese.
Late last week I went fishing with a friend of mine and now I'm left with more cod than I know what to do with. I started with a cod and cheddar cheese melt sandwich, to cod fish tacos and on Monday I made miso marinated cod. This was another recipe I adapted with what I had on hand and it consisted of:
4 fillets of cod
1/2 cup white miso
1/3 cup rice vinegar
Once I had the fillets defrosted, I stuck it in a gallon size ziplock bag with the miso and vinegar and let it marinade for 30 min in the fridge. The vinegar will smell really strong but don't worry, it'll burn off in the oven and it wont overpower the miso flavor. Turn the oven on to broil and depending on how good your broiler is, it'll be ready in 15-30 min (I was using my friend's oven from the 70's and it took the better part of 30 min). I love eating fish and this miso marinade was absolutely fantastic! I'll be doing this again in an attempt to finish all the fish in my freezer.
The watermelon granita was a much welcome dessert for the first heat wave to hit us this summer. We've definitely been spoiled here on the Central Coast, with most days hitting a high of 80 somethings, but Monday had to have been high 90's. An absolute scorcher. So I went out, bought a watermelon and made a granita. I love it because it's so simple! This is what I used:
2 lbs watermelon
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
Ideally, you would use a blender or a food processor to puree the watermelon, but I didn't have that (I know, what self respecting chef goes without a food processor, right? My friend is supposed to move in mid-September with one so I'm holding out till then), so I cut it up as best I could into small pieces. Man, that was a messy project. I just got watermelon juice all over the counter. Making simple syrup is, well, simple. You put 1 part sugar and 1 part water in a pot and let it melt, turn off the heat before the sugar starts caramelizing but after it's all melted and clear. It should be an opaque yellow color. Pour the syrup on the watermelon in a pyrex or something big enough to hold it and stick it in the freezer forever. Okay, not forever. You want to eat it sometime soon. I heard it only takes 3 hours to freeze, but I was lied to. It took a solid overnight to freeze for me so we actually ate diced watermelon in a soup of cold sugar water. sad. Once it is frozen though, you can flake it up rather easily with a fork. You might want to let it sit out a few minutes if it's too frozen solid.
As a teaser for the next post (whenever I get around to it), don't try gluten free cooking for the first time when you're cooking for 15 - 20 people. It's just a bad idea.
No comments:
Post a Comment