Vegetables + Salads – Page 10 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Tomato- and Ricotta-Stuffed Squash Blossoms

I’ve stuffed goat cheese in squash blossoms before but we want to be more creative and adventurous with our Supper with Strangers. When Cameron and I sit down (and drink) to plan our monthly menu, we immediately think of the more well known dishes and try to cross them off our list. When we came up with August’s tomato theme, I begged that please, please, no caprese salad.

We could have saved squash blossoms for autumn but a light, almost foamy texture with a thin crisp of a vegetable flower, was just perfect to start off a summer meal. I tried this recipe the only way I know how: coating the blossoms with flour before frying. But the flour only weighed down the delicate blossoms so I ended up skipping the batter. One of those Asian strainer ladles is useful to fry them quickly and remove them from the hot oil.

Ingredients:
12 fresh squash blossoms, stamens removed
5 tbsps ricotta
1 heirloom yellow or orange tomato, pulped removed and set aside, diced
juice from a small lemon
oil, salt, pepper

1. In a small bowl, combine ricotta and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Gently stuff the squash blossoms by spooning half a dollop of the ricotta-tomato mixture inside. Do not overstuff. Lightly twist the blossom ends to shut close.
3. When ready to fry, heat some oil in a deep skillet. Before the oil starts to smoke, Fry up to 3 blossoms at a time using a strainer ladle. Try to swish the pot so that the entire blossom gets some of the hot oil. When they start to brown, remove to a stainless steel colander. They will sweat and lose crispiness if you put them on paper towel right away. When cool enough to handle, then you can transfer them to a plate lined with paper towel until ready to serve.
4. Serve with some of the tomato pulp and season with salt, pepper and a squirt of lemon juice.

Bresaola Omelet Salad

On the flight back from Vancouver, I watched one of Jamie Oliver’s farm episodes. The guy is living the life: hanging out in the English countryside, gardening, taking care of his own chickens and cooking simple and healthy meals in his adorable kitchen. He made a few dishes during this one episode, but this bresaola omelet salad struck me as something refreshing, but at the same time substantial for a sunny weekend. The key is to cook the egg like a crepe and rolling it to slice it like strands of pasta. Thinly-sliced bresaola, or air-dried beef (think prosciutto, but from a cow), gave this dish the saltiness it needed while the fennel added some crunch and kick to the mixed greens.

I woke up famished on Sunday morning after a much-needed sleep. While drinking my iced coffee, I quickly assembled this before heading out to enjoy the rest of my long weekend. Note: Whole Foods doesn’t slice bresaola, or any other cured meats, paper-thin. I bet they can’t trust those young goons behind the counter with sharp objects. If you’re in New York City, Di Palo is the way to go.

Ingredients:
4 eggs
8 bresaola, sliced thinly like prosciutto
a handful of mixed greens
half a bulb of fennel, thinly sliced
a squirt of lemon juice
oil, salt, pepper

1. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with some salt and pepper. Heat a nonstick skillet with some oil. Pour half of the egg mixture and cook over medium-low heat. Make sure the bottom of the pan is covered with the egg by lifting and swaying the pan and letting the egg mixture spread thinly.
2. Once the egg is set, lift one edge of the egg crepe using a spatula and gently roll it to meet the other edge. Remove to a plate.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for the rest of the egg mixture.
4. When cool enough to handle, slice the rolled up egg crepes to make strands. In a large salad bowl, toss the rest of the ingredients together. Top with strands of egg crepe and season with salt and pepper.

Salmon Tamarind Glaze with Corn Salad

Here’s one thing I rarely cook or eat: salmon. Now, salmon is a perfectly good fish but I think I’ve been traumatized with the way they prepare it at weddings. Salmon is like shrimp: a few minutes too much and it’s overcooked, dry and devoid of taste. But I haven’t given up on it. I know that just like any other fish, it will taste good if cooked properly. Besides, after devouring a lot of smoked salmon while I was in Vancouver, I knew I had to play with it some more in the kitchen.

It’s July 4th and corn should be on everyone’s grills this weekend, but they’re more expensive this year because of flooding in the Midwest and drought in the South. According to the Des Moines Register, the corn will come eventually, but maybe not for a few weeks. For now, we all have to eat corn from Georgia and Florida.

This recipe requires a tamarind concentrate you can buy from your Asian market. If you have access to fresh and ripe tamarinds, all you have to do is soak them in hot water to soften them. Put the pulp through a sieve to extract the juice, discarding skins, seeds and fibers.

Ingredients:
4 salmon fillets, patted dry with a paper towel
4 ears of fresh corn, skin and silk peeled off
a handful of cilantro, finely chopped
half a red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup of tamarind concentrate
2 tbsps brown sugar
2 tbsps soy sauce
2 tbsps fish sauce
a splash of sherry vinegar
1 red chile, seeded, chopped
juice of half a lime
oil, salt, pepper

1. Make the tamarind glaze. In a small bowl, mix the tamarind concentrate (or extracted juice if using real tamarinds) with the brown sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce, chile, and lime juice, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
2. Rub the flesh side of the salmon with salt and pepper the brush the glaze over them. Store in the fridge until ready to cook.
3. In the meantime, assemble the corn salad. Using a sharp knife, cut off the corn kernels from the cob and into a salad bowl. Toss with the cilantro, red bell pepper, red onion, lime juice and sherry vinegar. Feel free to adjust the liquids according to your taste.
4. Cook the fish. Heat a nonstick skillet with some oil over medium-high fire. When oil is smoking just a tad bit, gently place the salmon skin side down. Let them cook for 5 minutes without moving them to get a crispy skin. Using a heat-resistant spatula, turn the salmon over and cook the flesh side with tamarind glaze for an extra 3 minutes. Brush the skin side with leftover glaze. Carefully remove to a plate and serve with some of the corn salad.

Kale, White Beans and Sundried Tomatoes

I had sushi with Stacie of chowbaby the other week and she told me about this quick yet nutritious dish she makes for her baby, Isaac. You gotta pay attention to a one-year old who eats kale; he’s sure to go places. Today, kids just don’t eat the bland slush we grew up with. Companies like chowbaby offer flavorful and exciting dishes made of organic ingredients frozen in convenient pouches which you can just heat up when needed. Can you imagine eating Moroccan couscous with raisins when you were a year old? Thank the stars for innovative and creative moms who think of solutions such as chowbaby to create future foodies everywhere. Anything good for baby Isaac is good enough for me.

Ingredients:
2 bunches of kale, leaves picked from the stalks, thoroughly washed
1 cup white beans, soaked overnight
2 cups sundried tomatoes, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
oil, salt, pepper

1. Heat some oil in a large Dutch oven. Sauté garlic until light brown. Add kale in batches and toss until wilted. Add white beans and tomatoes with 1 cup of water. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and let it simmer for 15 minutes to cook the beans and reduce the liquid.
2. When beans are soft, add balsamic vinegar and turn up the heat. Toss until the vegetables are covered with the vinegar.

Stir-Fried Black-Eyed Peas

The ginger-garlic paste I made three weeks ago is proving to be very useful. I first made it for dilled vegetables when I started cooking for some of my co-workers. I have since used the batch I stored in the freezer for two kinds of kimchi and now for this dish. It’s so much easier than peeling and chopping garlic and ginger all the time. And because they’ve been puréed together, the paste is much more fragrant. I love snapping a frozen sheet of it and just waiting for a few minutes before throwing it in a pot of vegetables.

This is the first time I’ve cooked with black-eyed peas. I’m only familiar with it from Cameron’s traditional New Year’s dish. She made it for our group when we welcomed 2007 in Florida and again in Austin last January. This take is more northern than southern; in fact it’s a northern Indian specialty in Punjab, Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi according to Monisha Bharadwaj’s India’s Vegetarian Cooking.

Ingredients:
3 cups of black-eyed peas, soaked in water overnight then drained
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
a handful of cilantro, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp sugar
oil, salt

1. Heat some oil in a large Dutch oven. Toast the cumin seeds until fragrant. Stir in ginger-garlic paste and cook for 1 minute.
2. Add the black-eyed peas and sprinkle in the chili powder, turmeric and garam masala. Cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes and sugar and season with salt. Mix and add 3/4 cup of water, cover and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce the heat and simmer until the peas are tender. Mash some of them to add thickness to the sauce. Turn off the heat and mix in cilantro before serving.