Fresh Tart

Hooey it's sizzling hot out there, we've got a real summer now.  Makes me hungry for gazpacho, even though it's hardly tomato season in Minnesota, at least not yet.  But never mind that, since in a pinch, canned tomatoes beautifully anchor a tasty version.  So if a cold-salty-crunchy-tangy gazpacho is your perfect antidote to a hot, steamy June day, I say try the recipe below, with canned whole tomatoes and their juices, and you'll be refreshed.  (This is a particularly lovely version - the garlicky egg and bread crumbs add layers of texture and flavor) -

Gazpacho
Adapted from Mom’s Gazpacho by Elizabeth Shepard, editor in chief of Epicurious
Serves 8

2 cups chopped garden-fresh (or canned) tomatoes
1/2 c. chopped green or yellow pepper
1 c. chopped cucumber, seeds removed
1/2 c. finely chopped red onion
1/3 c. olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 c. beef broth (optional)
1/4 c. red wine vinegar (I added more, I like gazpacho to be rather tart/salty)
1/4 c. finely minced parsley
1 tsp. dried oregano (fresh works nicely as well)
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire
46 oz. tomato juice
freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 hard cooked egg
salt
1/2 c. plain bread crumbs
Tabasco, to taste (for me, that means lots)

Garnish (optional), chopped olives, diced avocado

In a pot or large bowl, combine tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, red onion, olive oil, lemon juice, cold beef broth, red wine vinegar, parsley, oregano, Worcestershire, tomato juice, and pepper to taste.  Stir.  (At this point, I pureed half the mixture and stirred it back in.  Totally optional.)

Place garlic and hard-cooked egg in a small bowl and sprinkle with salt.  Mash together with a fork.  Stir into liquid.  Add bread crumbs and stir so that they dissolve into the liquid.

Taste for seasoning and add salt, pepper, vinegar, and/or Tabasco to taste.  Chill for at least 4 hours and serve.  Garnish with chopped olives and diced avocado if desired.

Elizabeth Shepard’s notes:
• The recipe serves eight, but like homemade tomato sauce, its flavor improves with age – you can store it in the refrigerator and eat it for about a week.
• Why mash the garlic with egg and salt?  To make a garlic-infused paste that adds body and substance to the tomato broth.
• Use kosher salt to bring out the flavors of the vegetables.
• Try to chop the vegetables so that they’re small but not minced or pulverized, and don’t worry if the sizes aren’t uniform.  The pieces should be small enough to chew but big enough to recognize.
• If you prefer a more elegant presentation, emulsify the chilled mixture before serving.  Seasoning is a very personal matter.  I tend to like my gazpacho pungent and sharp, with salt, lemon, and onion flavors lingering on the palate.  If you want a spicier soup, add 2 tsp. of minced jalapeno peppers.  To make vegetarian gazpacho, substitute vegetable broth for beef broth.

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

I'm always looking for yummy zucchini recipes - I love zucchini, plus I end up with a boatload of it with my summer community-supported-agriculture (CSA) veggie share from La Finca Organic Farm in Willow River, Minnesota.  (I pick up my first share of the season later today, in fact; I'll have details over the weekend, although a preview email reveals my treasure will include salad greens, saute mix of dark leafy greens, garlic shoots, French breakfast radishes, and arugula - NICE!)  Although zucchini isn't showing up in my share, at the farmer's market, or in your gardens quite yet, it's worth checking out this NYTimes Recipes for Health dish, zucchini ragout with polenta.  Lightly simmered zucchini, tomatoes, onion, garlic, and fresh herbs, spooned over creamy polentaaah...  Looks simple, healthy, filling, and divine - good combo.

Other happenings this weekend include John's brother and his two children coming in for the weekend.  I'm planning on roasting a couple of whole chickens tomorrow night, on the grill, using my beloved Weber poultry roasters.  While the chickens rest up, more chapa vegetables (see below), this time a seared warm "salad" of Swiss chard, mushrooms, sweet onion, and tomatoes - a nice pairing with roasted chickens, I think. More to come, so stay tuned...

...and have a great weekend!

I'm really enjoying the concepts and recipes in my new cookbook, Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way, by Francis Mallman.  In particular, I'm a bit obsessed with cooking vegetables on a chapa - (from the book) a flat piece of cast iron or a cast-iron skillet set over a fire.  I'm using my big Le Creuset cast-iron skillet, set on my Weber gas grill.  I preheat the grill until it's very hot (600+ degrees F), then lay the pan on the grate and preheat it until it's hot too.  Most of the recipes in Seven Fires are cooked on a chapa, which quickly sears and caramelizes food - perfect for vegetables.  I mean prrrrrfect. I've created two insanely simple and delicious dishes so far - one Friday night for my friend Michelle (alongside salmon), the other tonight for just John and me.  Tomorrow?  Yep, but more on that in a second.

Let me back up a bit and explain the two dishes I've already made.  The first was Burnt Fennel and Zucchini with Parmesan, Lemon, and Basil (recipe here).  The technique is to thinly slice the vegetables, separately toss them with a bit of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper, then cook them separately (fennel first, pictured above, then the zucchini) on the hot (unoiled) chapa until tender and blackened in spots.  The warm vegetables are tossed together and finished with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, chopped fresh herbs, and crumble of Parmesan cheese.  I plated the vegetables over a slice of grilled whole-grain bread, and served alongside salmon fillets that I also cooked on the chapa (Arthur, if you're still looking for a way to achieve crisp salmon skin, this may be the answer, since the pan is so much hotter than you can achieve indoors).

Tonight, armed with my new technique/experience, I rustled around in the cooler and unearthed wild mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, English peas, and spinach.  I grilled each vegetable one at a time, scraping into a serving bowl as I went along, finishing with a handful of quickly-toasted nuts, minced fresh herbs from my pots on the deck (basil, mint, oregano), a crumble of Parm, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.  Frankly, that was dinner - whole-meal-worthy and truly yummy.

I was needing a just-vegetables dinner after Saturday's not-moderate feast, uff.  Stacey, Debbie and Stu The Wine Genius Williams, and Michelle (here for the weekend) joined us for a pool-n-grill Saturday, sunny and hot and perfect for a barbecue.   I slow-braised two spice-rubbed pork shoulders pretty much all afternoon in the oven, then finished them on the grill, crisping up the exterior and slathering them in barbecue sauce.  We ate the pork pulled apart on rolls, with a side of blue-cheese coleslaw, fresh farmer's market snap peas, and apple pie a la mode for dessert.  The wine - thanks to Stu, so delicious.  Blast!

So tomorrow, more chapa vegetables, this time to toss with pasta.  I'm thinking more swiss chard, garlic, and sweet onion, as well as the one little slice of pancetta I have left from last week's Springtime Fava Bean Salad with Poached Egg (like I said, I'm seriously digging this book).  Stay tuned...

I don't each much pork, or meat for that matter, but I have to admit that there is nothing - nothing! - like the power of a bit of cured pork to completely transform a dish.  This is not a culinary secret, of course, but perhaps these days it isn't said often enough.  And it should be, because if you're cooking on a budget, or even cooking for health, with a very small input you can reap a big, big flavor payoff.  I'm thinking in particular of bacon, pancetta, and prosciutto.  Like, start a whatever-is-in-the-cooler vegetable soup with a couple of slices of chopped bacon, saute until crisp, stir in the aromatics, then the substance and broth, simmer until tender and voila, you've elevated veggies to something rather sublime. Finish with a grating of good Parmesan and a grind of freshly ground black pepper, perhaps a toasted crouton, and you will be both charmed and full.  (And how about that asparagus soup I had at Trattoria Tosca last week?  All about the pancetta...)

I know the fabulousness of crispy prosciutto, aka God's Gift to Salads, from a little cooking project I did with Andrew Zimmern a few years back.  We made up a chopped salad for a local restaurant filled with all the good stuff - crisp greens, avocado, sweet onion, crumbled blue cheese, chicken breast, sweet corn, tomato, cucumber, (freshly flash-fried) potato crunchies, and yes, crispy proscuitto.  This via Andrew: to make prosciutto, lay paper-thin slices of prosciutto on a baking sheet (do not overlap).  Bake at 375 degrees F until crisp and browned, about 7-8 minutes.  Let cool, crumble.  Paper thin and shatteringly crisp, it delivers porky saltiness to a salad like no other bacon could - for much less fat.  Must.  Try.

And then, there's pancetta, aka Italian bacon.  Buy it paper-thin, wrap it around shrimps and fresh sage, and grill until crisp for Stu The Wine Genius' famous appetizer (or, saute the whole dish for my adaptation, Shrimp Saltimbocca).  Or for the holidays, or anytime you're craving brussels sprouts, try the Brussels with Pancetta and Dried Cranberries I made this past holiday and is now going to be my new Thanksgiving standard.

And then, and then, there's the dish I made for dinner tonight, which I'll call Springtime Fava Bean Salad with Poached Egg because it's the recipe I loosely followed (from the cookbook I mentioned last week, which I now posess - gorgeous and incredible, Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way by Francis Mallmann; pic above).  I say loosely because I didn't include favas (John doesn't like them) and because I didn't poach the eggs (I just sauteed them over-easy right before we ate).  Also, I filled out the veggies with sauteed swiss chard (I knew it would be delectable with the pancetta, tomatoes, and freshly shelled peas), I used no extra oil (and drained off most of the pancetta drippings), and I skipped the toast.  Not what I would usually recommend - to change a recipe before ever making it.  But in this case, it was a do-with-what-I-had, as well as a keep-it-healthy sort of effort, and the result was truly sublime. The star was the three ounces of thick-cut, cubed pancetta, mmm hmmm. Recipe (and my adaptations, if you're interested) here.

Actually, I can't believe I haven't posted this before, one of my very favorite sandwiches.  There's nothing to it, that's probably why, and probably because you make some form of this for yourself anyhow.  But in case not, and in case you love Greek/Middle Eastern flavors, here's a quick, filling, bursting-with-flavor sandwich, somewhere between a grilled cheese and a pizza.

I start with pita bread or naan (not pocket bread-style, although it would work, it's just not as chewy and soft as the thicker loaf style; I buy whole-wheat naan at the deli at Whole Foods, there's a white version in the bakery at Byerly's).  I use half a loaf, but you could easily prepare one as a whole for two people.  I give the bread a spritz of oilve oil spray on both sides, then set it in a medium-hot skillet - while it toasts on one side, I halve a handful of cherry tomatoes, chop a handful of spinach, and halve a few kalamata olives.  I flip the bread, crumble a bit of feta cheese over it, sprinkle with Greek seasoning (or salt and pepper), then top with the tomatoes, spinach, and olives.  When the bottom is toasted I slide it onto a plate and drizzle with tsatsiki (I use nonfat Greek yogurt, grate in some cucumber and onion, some minced dill if you have it, stir in a little salt - I make a cup or so at a time; extra keeps tasty in the fridge for a few days).

Sit down with a knife and fork and be ready for the flavor explosion of a gyro or falafel sandwich, with far (far!) fewer calories.  Enjoy!

This interview in the recent issue (May/June 2009) of Eating Well magazine caught my eye - Daphne Miller, MD, author of The Jungle Effect: A Doctor Discovers the Healthiest Diets from Around the World.  While researching the world's healthiest people/diets, she noticed "three dietary themes" - the inclusion of fermented foods (yogurt, sauerkraut, miso, tofu, natto), an emphasis on whole grains and legumes, and treating meat as a precious commodity (use sparingly).  Check out the interview here.  Check out fermented foods, whole grains and legumes, and small amounts of meat at your local grocery store...

On another note, Nathan and I saw the movie Fresh on Wednesday night (thank you Lexi for the tip).  Seven hundred people packed into the sold-out Riverview Theater!  And that was the second showing of the week - very cool.  The movie profiles a selection of farmers, writers, and business owners who are working to reinvent the US food system.  Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (two of my favorite books) is featured prominently and as usual provides clear, easy-to-understand descriptions of the flaws in our industrialized food system (disease, pollution, mistreatment of animals, nutritionally-depleted food, obesity) and potential solutions and alternatives.  Farmer Joel Salatin, of Polyface Farms, steals the show - he's completely hilarious.  The movie's no longer showing in Minneapolis, but DVDs are available for purchase on the Fresh website (plus, the site itself features clips and articles).

Eat (real) food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food (I added the parenthetical)

John and I snuck out for dinner last night at Turtle Bread's long-awaited venture, Trattoria Tosca.  I didn't have false hopes - I knew that this wasn't going to hit the ground running as a (Restaurant) Levain experience - but based on a quick read through Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl's blogpost (she hasn't done a full review yet), I was jazzed.  And not disappointed!  The space is simple, the tables outside have a lot of action (like the Turtle Bread tables next door), and I settled in happily to peruse the menu. (Honestly, I'd perused the menu plenty online, which I always do if it's available, so that I can map out healthy-tasty choices ahead of time and not get side-tracked by some totally sick-sounding pasta.)  John arrived, we sipped a glass of wine, and then dove into the serious business of ordering our meal.

We both eyed the asparagus soup - he ordered it as a first course, I as a second.  It was sublime - silky smooth asaparagus-ness beautifully contrasted with tiny cubes of chewy, salty, porky pancetta, paper-thin slices of French radish, and a generous drizzle of olive oil.  I started with the Riverbend Farms Salad, chock full of lovely things like asparagus, shell peas, green beans, radishes, arugula, ramps, olive puree, and toasted breadcrumbs.  Spring on a plate, truly delicious.  Alongside my soup I had planned to nosh a small side of local mushrooms (I LOVE restaurants that offer small vegetable sides - they're often what I order for dinner, so good), but I was so full of salad and soup that I brought them home with me (they're now quite gone).  John's second course was the pasta Dara wrote about, which as she points out doesn't jump off the page as described, but does jump off the taste buds, wow:

From 'Dear Dara,' May 29, 2009 -

Chef Adam Vickerman starts with handmade pasta— a particularly thick and toothsome version made with lots of egg yolk—then cloaks it in a sauce that is not going to sound delicious, but was phenomenal. It’s a variation on vitello tonnato, and involves making an emulsification of tuna, anchovies, egg yolk, Italian Pinot Grigio vinegar, canola oil, and olive oil, all of which tastes like nothing so much as the Carbonara sauce of your dreams. It’s creamy, it’s lush, it’s so rich that it may as well be custard. How can a fish and anchovy sauce taste that good? I don’t know, but I had four adults at a table ready to stab each other with forks to get the last bite. Granted, my table was one of only a handful seated in the restaurant, but if Vickerman can cook like this consistently, Tosca is going to be one of the most important new restaurants of the year.

Needless to say, it was fantastic.

Tonight, I dined alone, an opportunity I embrace as a chance to eat what no one else 'round these parts gets very excited about.  My choice was halibut, which I brushed with a miso glaze and grilled (alongside miso-glazed zucchini) and holy buckets was it tasty.  I was inspired by one of my fave local fish dishes - the miso-glazed sea bass at Lurcat.  This was my first run with miso glaze here at home and not only is it ridiculously easy (miso paste, water, brown sugar, done), it's glorious.  Sticky-salty-sweet-savory and just oh so good.  Nice 10-minute dinner.  Recipe here.

Remember when everyone thought marinades tenderized meat?  Ah well, they don't (just like browning meat doesn't "seal in the juices" - but I digress...).  Marinades do however add tons of flavor - to meat and vegetables - and are therefore my current obsession.  Just last week I marinated shrimp and fish for a citrus-y kick to kebabs; seitan for a non-meat barbecue sandwich; chicken for spicy fajitas; steak for Korean bulgogi; and last night, cubes of pork tenderloin for zesty Greek souvlaki.  Tonight I'm back to something citrus-y for salmon steaks.

Since I get bored very easily, I just make up marinades, depending on what I'm hungry for - I follow a basic formula of 1 Tbsp. olive oil to 1-2 Tbsp. of citrus juice, vinegar, or wine.  Add garlic, onions, soy sauce, sugar, herbs, or salt to taste.  (As far as I can tell, it's pretty impossible to mess up a marinade.)  I pour the mixture into a large Ziploc bag, add a pound or so of protein or vegetables, and marinate for anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours (depends on how much time I have).  Drain, toss the marinade, and grill away.  You can get more depth of flavor with the addition of spice rubs and glazes, and I sometimes do, but for day-to-day fast flavor, it's hard to beat the tasty punch of an easy marinade.

Some quick, broad combos below.  All the suggestions are great for chicken, steak, fish, vegetables, tofu, or seitan.  Sometimes I marinate whole pieces, sometimes cubed and threaded on skewers for kebabs.  I always start with olive oil, as well as generous salt and pepper (unless using soy sauce), then add the following simple combinations - see what jumps out at you:

Greek flavors: red wine or lemon juice, dried oregano, minced garlic (also olive paste, minced fresh mint or dill)
Asian flavors: rice vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, minced garlic, chopped scallions (also bean paste, fish sauce, curry paste)
Italian flavors: balsamic vinegar, fresh rosemary, dried oregano, minced garlic
Indian flavors: yogurt, curry powder or garam masala, minced garlic, minced mint (also chutney, grated lime peel, minced ginger)
Mexican flavors: lemon or lime juice, cumin, oregano, minced jalapenos, minced garlic (also splash of enchilada sauce or salsa)
Caribbean flavors: pineapple or citrus juice, honey, minced ginger, minced garlic, minced jalapenos
French flavors: white wine, Dijon mustard, minced fresh tarragon or dill, minced shallots or garlic

You get the idea.  Exp-marinate away!