Zucchini Kuchen

When I took a German class back in the day, we read a recipe in the "Kochen" chapter for zuccinni fritters. I forget the word for fritters now- it could be "Kuchen" (which is commonly used to for all cake like things- like potato pancakes are Kartoffel Kuchen) or it could be Schmalzgebackenes. Steven and I are going to Frankfurt to visit friends and for part of our "honeymoon," so I've had Deutschland on the brain. We got about 1 lbs. of local organic zukes the other day, so I looked up a zucchini fritter recipe, with minimal frying oils. They were easy and Blokey approved. They could probably be baked in the oven as well.

Lower-fat zucchini fritters (adapted from Spark Recipes)
1/3 c. of whole wheat flour
1/2 teas. of baking powder
1/2 teas. of salt
1/8 teas. of pepper
dash of paprika (Hungarian)
2 eggs, beaten (replace with appropriate amounts of Ener-G egg replacer or thickened ground flax seed to make vegan)
3 c. of shredded zucchini (about 3-4 medium sized ones)
1/2 small onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic
2 Tbs of fresh parlsey, chopped.
Olive oil for cooking


Method:
Mix together the whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, paprika, and eggs. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the oil) and mix well.
Warm up about 1/2 Tb of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Use a 1/4 measuring cup to drop rounds onto the skillet. I fit 4 into a 10" pan.
Cook about 3-4 minutes on each side.
Serve with apple sauce, plain yogurt, or some jam (seriously).

Oven fried salt and vinegar crips

I have been intrigued by Heidi Swanson's grilled salt and vinegar potatoes since it was posted. I passed along the recipe to Anne of Shepwell Kitchen a few weeks ago, and she tried it with a garlic bath. My first time trying this, in an oven, I sliced the potatoes a wee bit to thick. The thinner ones were better, so I decided when our CSA gave us about 2 lbs of potatoes and the weather dipped below 85 to give it another go. But thinner this time.

Salt and vinegar oven crips

Ingredients:
4 c. or so of white vinegar
salt
5-6 medium sized waxy potatoes (we used red ones)
olive oil (for tossing)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Fill a medium sized saucepan with vinegar and bring to boil (I left the heat low so I could take my time with the potato cutting).
Wash and cut out the eyes of the potatoes. Peel if you're using conventional (non-organic) ones. Slice real real thin, but not paper thin. Try to be as consistent as possible. A mandolin would probably help but those things scare me.
Place as many slices that will reasonably fit into the vinegar bath. Bring to boil and then simmer for about 5 minutes. Take out the potato slices with a slotted spoon, and place into a large bowl. Add the remaining potato pieces and repeat process.
Be sure to drain out excess vinegar juice. Toss the potatoes with just enough olive oil to coat. Place in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Salt. Bake for 4-5 minutes, then flip them over, and bake again 4-5 minutes. Keep a good eye of them so they don't burn. A little crisp is perfect.
I had to make two trays full.


Served as a side dish to our go-to summer dinner- big ole' salad. (There are no black olives in this salad, just dark purple carrot coins).

These were quite vinegary, just enough salt, and not too bad for you. I try to take Michael Pollan's advice seriously- you can eat junky treats, as long as you make it yourself (from scratch).

Borscht!

For some reason, we've been getting a lot of beets in our CSA. When Blokey's parents were in town, we went to Brighton Beach and we got some borscht for his gastro-adventureous mother. We've gotten these delicious, local and organic beets in our CSA pick up twice now.
This stuff fills me up but is actually quite lite. I recommend that you don't wear light colors while making this delicious veggie stew.

Ingredients:
3 large beets, washed and peeled (keep the greens, washed too)
2 potatoes or turnips, rinsed and diced
2 large carrots, peeled and grated
1/2 bunch of parsley, washed and chopped
1/4 c. of fresh dill, washed and chopped
2 onions, diced
2 Tbs of olive oil
1/2 head of cabbage, cored, and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 c. of plain yogurt
pepper to taste
1/2 teas of oregano
6 Tbs of apple cider vinegar
water
caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon of ground allspice (or 5 all spice berries)
3 bay leaves
2 teaspoons of salt (this has to be to your tastes though, don't just dump it in)
Dark rye or pumpernickel bread

Method:
Thinly slice the beets into match sticks. This will take time, but it's worth it.
Next start cooking the onions and 1 clove of garlic in oil in a large soup pot. Ours is coated with chemical goo, but it works. Cook over medium heat for about 2-3 minutes, until softened.
Add grated carrots and potatoes, and stir. Cook another 2-3 minutes, then add the beets. Continue to cook and stir for about 4-5 minutes (add more oil if you'd like) and then add the cabbage, and enough water to cover by 2 inches, all spice, bay leaf, pepper, oregano, caraway seed. Bring to boil, and then simmer for about 20-30 minutes. Add the beet greens, parsley, apple cider vinegar, and 1/2 the dill and simmer another 5-10 minutes, until everything is the desired consistency.
In the mean time, mix the other 1/2 of the dill with 1 clove of chopped garlic with the yogurt.
Salt the soup to your desire saltiness. Always undersalt, you can always add more. Add more vinegar if you desire (we generally add more).
Serve warm with toasted rye bread and garnish with yogurt. We usually butter the bread, but that makes the meal non-vegan.

Savory rainbow chard and mushroom tart with potatoes

Tonight, it finally got below 80 degrees, which is a big deal if you don't use the A/C your in-laws generously sent. We've lately become Stan Cox devotees (except on the train), so I baked now that it was a little cooler out. We got some rainbow swiss chard the other day and I really wanted to make an eggy, cheesy quiche. But since I stink at quiches, I made a tart instead.
This is an adaptation of the Fresh Direct recipe. Oops, did I fail to mention that sometimes, we get our groceries delivered? I have a lot of enviro-angst about this too, but since we don't own a car, and sometimes I am not always well served by the grocery stores in our neighborhood (and buying groceries in Manhattan and lugging them down to Brooklyn only makes sense during the school year), we resort to this sometimes.

Savory rainbow chard with mushroom tart
(approx 1 hr to prep, serves 4)


Ingredients
1 bunch of rainbow chard, washed and finely chopped (separate out the stems)
1/2 onion, diced
4 oz of baby bella mushrooms, rinsed and chopped
1/4 c. and 1 Tbs of olive oil
1/4 teas. of salt
salt, pepper, and oregano to taste
1 c. of whole wheat flour
3 large eggs
1/3 c. of finely grated parmesan
1/4 c. of crumbled feta
1/4 c. of milk

Preheat the oven to 400.

Mix 1 cup of flour, 1/4 teas. of salt, and 1/4 c. of olive oil in a bowl. It should get to be grainy but doughy. Press into the bottom of a pie plate and stick in the oven (to firm up a bit) for about 4-5 minutes.

Cook the onions in the remaining olive oil over medium heat, for about 3-4 minutes. Add the mushroom, and stir occasionally, another 3 minutes. Next add the chopped chard stems and stir. You can increase the heat a bit here. Add the leaves, stir, and cook until the liquid boils off.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and cheese.

When the liquid is evaporated from the chard/mushroom mixture, empty the mixture on top of the crust in the pie pan.

Pour the egg/milk/cheese mixture on top, and bake for 40 minutes.

post baking goodness (it tasted meaty! But there was no meat!)

But in full disclosure, the "crust" was neither good nor necessary. Next time, I'll forgo the crust entirely and make it frittata, upping the recipe to 5 eggs.

Roasted Potatoes with Paprika
In the meantime, scrub and dice 4 medium potatoes. Toss with 1 Tbs of olive oil, and bake in the same oven for about 30 minutes. You can turn the oven onto broil and stick the pan in the broiler for 3 minutes to get the tops crispy. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika.

Our baby cat Buster really wanted the potatoes.

Speedy, no-cook dinner

Did you guys ever make "no cook" recipes with your ma when you were kids? Well, since it's been so hot out, we have been making more no cook dinners. It's too hot to even bother with take out.

We had a bunch of left over brown basmati rice sitting in the fridge from when Blokey's parents were in town, so I used it to make fake tabbouleh. If you leave out the feta, it's vegan.

No cook Middle Eastern style rice
Probably serves four as a side dish. We pigged it down just the two us together.

Ingredients:
About 3 c of cooked, cold rice
Juice of 3 lemons
Handful of parsley, chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
1 cucumber, diced
4 green onions, sliced
2 Tbs of olive oil
1 can of no added salt chickpeas
3 oz. of feta cheese, crumbled
1/3 c. of sliced black olives (or nice kalamata ones, if you've got them)
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together with the rice in a large bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with yogurt-tahini sauce

Yogurt Tahini sauce
3/4 c. of plain yogurt
2 Tbs of tahini
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt to taste

Mix everything together. If you want more tahini, add it until you reach desired nuttiness. Serve over the rice.

Quick meals for hot days

It's been warm and muggy in Brooklyn again. And Blokey and I have been working on projects, which means sometimes we snack all day and never eat a proper meal together. (Finn Crisp Rye crackers, what would my life be without you?) But over the weekend, I did get my act together to make a couple meals (Blokey's big mess o' rice and beans from Friday was also very popular).

Everything in the fridge Asian Noodles
We had some disparate ingredients, some udon noodles, and I was starving after a short jog, but we had to go grocery shopping for eggs and apples and stuff. So I threw together lots of stuff and it made me less likely to buy the whole store.

Ingredients:
6 oz of Udon noodles, dry
leftover bagged spinach, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
3 green onions, cleaned and thinly sliced
1 Tbs of butter
salad leftovers
1 Tbs soy sauce (more to taste)
1 Tbs of sesame oil
2 Tbs of tahini
2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar
2 Tbs of water
2 teaspoons of honey
3 small radishes, peeled and thinly sliced
2 eggs, beaten
sesame seeds for garnish (optional)
Sriracha sauce (optional)


This was the stuff I took out to make into a meal.
Cook the noodles according to the directions.
Make a thin omlette with the two eggs in a wide frying pan (with butter, of course). Slice into quarters, and then thinly slice into matchstick sized pieces (maybe a bit wider than a matchstick).
In the same frying panm or medium sauce pan, saute green onions in butter over medium heat, under softened. Adjust to low heat. Add the tahini, water, soy sauce, honey, vinegar, and sesame oil. Stir until it becomes a sauce like consistency (you may have to add some more water).
Toss in cooked noodles and vegetables. Serve.


Big Salad
Remember how on Seinfeld, Elaine would get the big salad? I love a big entree salad. We got tree kinds of lettuce from our CSA, so I did something like a modified Salad Nicoise.
For 2

Ingredients:
A blend of lettuce (we used romane, boston, and green leaf). about 6 cups worth
Cooked or canned chickpeas: 1 1/2 c.
2 tomatoes, cut into quarters and sliced in 1/2
1/3 c. of thinly sliced black olives
2 hard boiled eggs, halved
1/2 avocado, chopped
Optional: 1/2 can of tuna (canned in olive oil) or 3 anchovy filets, finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
dressing

Directions: Either toss all the ingredients together with dressing and serve (uglier, but well incorporated) or arrange all pretty like (aesthetically pleasing, but more of a challenge to distribute the dressing). I went with plan B. (Mine is the one on the right, with the wee bit of anchovy on top).


We don't buy bottled salad dressing, because they are usually full of sugar and corn syrup and taste funky. This is our standard salad dressing recipe

2 Tbs of olive oil
1 1/2 Tbs of sour (this usually lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, or balsamic. I did a combination of both)
1 garlic clove, chopped (did not use, because Blokey calls me Garlic Monkey. He has no idea how garlicky I am)
1 Tbs of fancy dijon, whole grain mustard (even better if there is some kind of German last name on the bottle)
salt, pepper, and oregano/Italian seasoning mix to taste

Mix all the ingredients in a used jam jar and shake (with the lid on). Pour immediately over salad.*

*I have tried 3 times to make mayonnaise. Oil and egg yolk emulsions are not my friend, as they require patience).

First CSA meal of the summer

Summer doesn't just mean guilt* about work, hot depressed cats, allergies, and sweaty subway stations. It also means delicious, seasonal, local, organic Community Supported Agriculture vegetables! (And a pint of local raspberries, too!)

Our CSA farm is owned by an Asian-American couple, and they plant a lot interesting greens. They especially love the bok choy. So in honor of Sang Lee Farms, and my old roommate Kris, who ruled the tofu world, I made (or tried to make) Ginger Baked Tofu and Bok Choy Stir Fry

Serves two hungry kitty-sitters**

Ingredients:
1 box of firm tofu, frozen and thawed
1 Tbs honey
2 inch of ginger root, grated (less if you're not a ginger freak)
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 Tbs of lite soy sauce (and some more to taste)
1/2 Tbs of toasted sesame oil (and some more to taste)
1 Tbs of a neutral oil
sesame seeds for garnish
pepper to taste
2 baby bok choys, well rinsed with stalks removed from leafy parts
3-4 small carrots, chopped into thin slices
handful of sugar snap peas, cleaned and chopped
1 c. of jasmine rice (white or brown)

The middle carrot has to go to the bathroom real bad

To prepare the tofu (takes some planning)
Ahead of time, you can freeze the tofu and thaw it. This takes at least a day. This is not necessary, but frozen and thawed tofu absorbs marinate better. If you're not crazy, you can just wrap the tofu (uncut) in 2-3 paper towels, and stick a cutting board and a book on top, and this will draw out most of the moisture (for at least 30 minutes).
Slice the tofu in 1/2 length wise, and then cut those pieces into quarters. If you can, cut these into quarter height wise (so you're slicing them thinner, not smaller).

This picture was meant to show the texture of thawed, once frozen tofu. The freezing process expands the water pockets, helping it "soak" up marinades

Make a marinade with 2 Tbs of soy sauce, 1 Tbs of honey, 3 cloves of chopped garlic, half of the ginger, some salt, and 1/2 Tbs of sesame oil. Stick it in a Tupperware and let it in marinade in the fridge. Go file your nails or something. Or chop up the vegetables.


After 1-2 hours of marinading, preheat the oven to 350. Place the tofu in a single layer on a pan, and bake for 25 minutes, taking out to flip the pieces half way through. They should be firmer and take on a nice golden glow.
While the tofu bakes, cook the rice according to the directions.
For the stir fry, warm up the oil in a wide pan, over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger, stirring. Separate the leafy part of the bok choy from the firmer stalks.


When the garlic/ginger has cooked a few minutes, increase the heat to medium-high add the stems of the bok choy. Stir. After a few minutes, add the carrots. Cook 2 more minutes. Add the chopped sugar snap peas and then the leafy part of the boy choy. Cook until wilted. Remove from heat. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, and sesame seed to taste. Add the finished tofu and serve over rice.

Vegan dinner is served

*Mostly joking. I do love summer, but I love fall more. I think summer, as a season, is a bit overrated. I hate dem pesky mosquitoes, and all of NYC goes nuts during that time.

**Blokey and I have a new kitten in our lives. Aw...