Hey guys, I defended my dissertation!

In celebration, I wanted to eat a bunch of baked goods but since I’m not drawing a paycheck this summer I needed to start to make my own. We had a pint of fresh cherries from the farmers’ market that I needed to get rid of, and I ran across this recipe and decided to go for it. I’m glad I did. They’re sweet without being too cake-y, and the crumb topping is excellent.

Cherry Muffins with Crumb Topping

(h/t What Did You Eat? ; Adapted from Food & Wine)

Yield 16-18 muffins

Ingredients

Crumb Topping

•    1 cup all-purpose flour
•    3 tablespoons light brown sugar
•    2 tablespoons granulated sugar
•    1 teaspoon baking powder
•    Pinch of salt
•    6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Muffins
•    1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
•    2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
•    1/2 teaspoon salt
•    1 cup granulated sugar
•    2 large eggs
•    1/2 cup canola oil
•    3/4 cup whole milk
•    1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
•    1 1/2 cups pitted sweet cherries (try to use 2 cherries per muffin)

DIRECTIONS
1.    Preheat the oven to 375°. Line 18 muffin cups with paper or foil liners or spray 2 muffin tins with cooking spray.
2.    MAKE THE CRUMB TOPPING: In a medium bowl, combine the flour with the brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in the melted butter, then pinch the mixture until it forms pea-size clumps.
3.    MAKE THE MUFFINS: In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, eggs and canola oil and beat with a handheld electric mixer at low speed until combined. Beat in the whole milk and vanilla. Add the flour mixture all at once and beat at low speed until the batter is smooth. Stir in the cherries.
4.    Spoon the batter into 18 of the cups, filling them about three-quarters full. Sprinkle the crumb topping on top of each one and bake for about 30 minutes or until the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 10 minutes before serving.

We’ve got an odd assortment of things in the gastronomic kitchen right now, and so for dinner tonight we had two very good, though oddly paired, dishes: a tomato salad and roasted root vegetables.

Yesterday morning we disovered, to our dismay, that our tomato plants have the dreaded blight.  They grew so well (7 feet tall!!), but will not be yielding any edible fruit.  So when we  went to the farmers market with our friends Caly and Steve later in the day we were on the hunt for some non-blighted tomatoes.

For the tomato salad we simply sliced and arranged a tomato around the edge of a plate, tucked slices of fresh mozzarella and basil leaves (grown in our window box) between the tomato slices, drizzled the whole thing with olive oil and oregano (also procured at the farmers market).  It was the first time I’ve made a tomato salad, and it was really good.  Next time I would add a pinch of salt and some cracked pepper, but it was a definite success.

On to the root vegetables:

Despite appearances, nothing on this plate is burned!  It’s a combination of potato, beet, and carrot, tossed in oil, salt, and pepper, and roasted at 375 for about an hour.  The really dark, crispy-looking pieces are the beets, which were not, actually, crispy at all.  Their surfaces were nicely carmelized, but not at all crispy (and not at all burned!).  The potatoes had crispy, crunch surfaces and the carrots were somewhere in between the beets and the potatoes.  Delicious.  Next time I might add onions and garlic to the roasting pan.

We did make a third dish tonight, but I fear it wasn’t nearly the success these two were.  In fact, neither Gastronomike nor I ate any of it!  We fried a piece of bacon, added an onion some kale and the beet greens, and sauteed with water and red pepper flakes for about 30 minutes before adding a bit of vinegar to finish it off.  I don’t think it was bad per se… it just didn’t look nearly as appetizing as these other two dishes and we were both pretty full from these first two dishes.  We boxed it up and I’ll probably eat it for lunch tomorrow.

Anyway, tonight’s zucchini dish is total comfort food, and was pretty delicious.  Served alongside grilled chicken and steamed yellow wax beans.

Cheesy Zucchini and Squash Casserole

Ingredients (from allrecipes.com)

• 4 slices bread, cubed
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 2 cups cubed zucchini and squash
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Place bread cubes in a medium bowl and pour melted butter over the bread. Add the zucchini, onion, garlic salt and egg; mix well. Transfer the mixture into a 9×13 inch baking dish and top with the cheese.

3. Bake, covered, in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Then uncover the dish and bake for another 30 minutes.

I’d say that both of these recipes were pretty big successes, though there are definitely tweaks Gastronomike and I want to make for next time.

The bread (with a few modifications) is from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (where they also have a really good photo tutorial).  I’m sort of embarrassed to say that despite the supposed ease with which you can whip up bread from this site, we (shhh) used dough we bought from our local supermarket.  Alas.  Next time we make this bread we want to cut down on the parmesan and substitute mozzarella for the main cheese.  We’ll also wilt the chard in a dry skillet and use just the tiniest amount of oil possible to saute the garlic.  The reason is that our bread was a little soggy in the middle, the result of spreading oil from the saute pan across the dough when we rolled it.  But it was really good and I’m looking forward to making it again.  It was really nice to have warm bread at the table with dinner.

Chard-Parmesan Bread

• 1 1/2 pound dough
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 large leaves,  washed, stems removed, chopped (we could have used a lot more)
• 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, loosely packed

Saute the garlic over medium low heat in the olive oil until it is soft and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the chard and cook until wilted, about another 2 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Take the dough and roll it to a 1/4-inch thick rectangle, using plenty of flour so the dough won’t stick to your hands, the Rolling Pin or the work surface.

Spread the garlic chard mixture over the surface.

Sprinkle 1 1/2 cups of the Parmesan cheese over the chard and roll the dough up, starting at the short end of the the dough.

Allow it to rest in a well greased non-stick 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch Loaf Pan, loosely covered with plastic wrap for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake for 45 minutes or until well set and a deep caramel brown color.

Potato Leek Soup

Now you may or may not know how much I love a good potato soup… but I really love a good potato soup.  And this one is now one of my very favorites.  It’s quite brothy without feeling too thin, and the white pepper burns the throat ever-so-slightly on the way down.  I’ll modify some things for next time: I’ll chop the bacon MUCH smaller (though I probably won’t use less), and I’ll be very careful about salting.  This batch was on the verge of being too salty, which I think was a combination of the fact I used much more bacon than the recipe called for and also used cooking wine (which is salted), rather than regular wine.

On the whole, though, absolutely wonderful, from Emeril Lagasse.

• 1 large or 2 small leeks, about 1 pound (ahem, we used 3 super-small leeks, harvested from our garden)
• 2 bay leaves
• 20 black peppercorns
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 strips bacon, chopped (oh dear, I forgot to defrost the bacon, which turned into an excuse to use 6 strips)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 1 to 1 1/4 pounds russet potatoes, diced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup creme fraiche or heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons snipped chives (harvested from our garden!)

Trim the green portions of the leek and, using 2 of the largest and longest leaves, make a bouquet garni by folding the 2 leaves around the bay leaves, peppercorns and thyme. Tie into a package-shaped bundle with kitchen twine and set aside. (Alternately, tie 2 leek leaves, bay leaves, peppercorns and thyme together in a piece of cheesecloth.)

Using a sharp knife, halve the white part of the leek lengthwise and rinse well under cold running water to rid the leek of any sand. Slice thinly crosswise and set aside.

In a large soup pot over medium heat, melt the butter and add the bacon. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is very soft and has rendered most of its fat. Add the chopped leeks and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. Add the wine and bring to a boil. Add the reserved bouquet garni, chicken stock, potatoes, salt and white pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are falling apart and the soup is very flavorful.

Remove the bouquet garni and, roughly mash the potatoes in the pot to the consistency you like.   Stir in the cream and adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Serve immediately, with some of the snipped chives sprinkled over the top of each bowl of soup.

This “pizza” has a crust that is made out of grated zucchini.  It was really unusual and kind of interesting to eat.  It’s not a favorite meal for either one of us by any means, but it was a totally solid meal and an unusual way to use up the many, many, many zucchini that are sitting around our kitchen right now.

The pizza toppings themselves are non-standard for us– artichoke, olive, banana pepper.  They resulted in a pizza that was tangy and appealing.  After baking the zucchini “crust” we were suprised and worried to see how much it looked and smelled like an omlet.  We weren’t at all sure how it was going to turn out.  But we continued following the recipe and were both pleasantly surprised in the end.

Knowing our normal food styles, we probably won’t go out of our way to make this again, though we certainly won’t avoid making it either.  If we end up with more zucchini than we feel like we can eat again, we’ll likely respond with this recipe.  It was solid and unusual.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups grated zucchini
• 3 eggs, well beaten
• 1/2 cup flour
• salt to taste
• 2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped black olives
• 1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
• 1/2 cup finely chopped Italian pickled peppers or chopped marinated artichoke hearts
• jalapeno pepper rings (we substituted the banana pepper we’d just harvested from our garden)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh basil
• 3 to 4 small tomatoes, thinly sliced

Procedure:

Generously butter a 9×13-inch baking pan. Preheat oven to 450°. Put grated zucchini in a colandar and press out as much excess liquid as possible. Put zucchini in a mixing bowl. Add well-beaten eggs, flour and salt. Mix well and spread in buttered pan. Bake in a 450° oven for 8 minutes. Remove pan and reduce oven temperature to 350°. Cover the zucchini base with cheese. Combine olives, onion, and chopped pickled peppers. Spread over cheese. Arrange banana pepper rings over top. Sprinkle with fresh or dried herbs. Arrange tomatoes on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 350°, uncovered, for 25 minutes.

Recipe from about.com

Behold, our harvest so far (minus one cherry tomato which I popped into my mouth before Gastronomike could snap a photo):

You can see a few little tooth-marks on one of the cucumbers.  At the beginning of the season I built a cage to fit over the top of the garden to keep nibblers away.  Two days ago we took the cage off.  And tooth-marks appeared.  So after we harvested this little crop the cage went back over the garden.

First, here is an oddly focused photo of Mujadarrah made from a recipe Gastronomike’s friend sent us.

We really like this dish and make it every so often.  It’s warm, and yet feels like a cool meal on a hot summer evening.

Speed Recipe: boil a cup of lentils and 2/3 cup rice with a tbsp of cumin, and spread on lipped baking sheet.  Saute an onion (throw in some pine nuts at the end, too) and spread on lentil/rice mixture along with some chopped tomatoes.  Use pitas to scoop up bites, and eat with cucumber-yogurt sauce (chop a cucumber, a pinch of salt, and a few cloves garlic into plain yogurt and squeeze a lemon over it).

Next, here’s a photo of a steak/potato/salad meal I had while Mike was travelling with his grandmother earlier in the summer.

Everything here is pretty simple and standard.  Mostly, this is an opportunity to share the recipe for the avocado salad.

Speed Recipe: halve a pint of tomatoes, drain a can of corn, slice an avocado, roughly chop a handful of cilantro, and mix together in a bowl while squeezing a lime over the top.  It’s one of my absolute favorite salads of all time, and it’s really simple.  You can substitute different herbs for the cilantro to get totally different flavors–basil is a good one that always gets compliments.

Next up: Pasta with Carbonara

I don’t remember the occasion… what I do remember is coming home from campus to find Gastronomike nearly finished with this delicious meal in the kitchen.  I had been dreading trying to figure out what to make for dinner, and was thrilled to toss my worries out the window and sit down to an already-prepared and delicious meal.  Since Gastronomike made this one,  I don’t have the recipe on hand, but I do remember that the carbonara was a lovely delicate sauce, rather than the heavy, thick sauce you sometimes get.

This next photo isn’t too old– it’s from last week sometime: Orzo with Chard

This is orzo with chard and parmesan… and that’s about it, as far as I recall.

Speed Recipe: while boiling a cup or two of orzo, saute a few chopped cloves of garlic, then add chopped chard leaves and wilt.  Mix together in bowl with half cup or so of parmesan and a squeeze of lemon juice.  Oh!  And add a teaspoon of turmeric to the boiling orzo water to turn the pasta bright yellow.

This was good, though it didn’t have the oomph that a really good dish has.  It was, well, just a little bland somehow.  I’d happily make it again, though I’d play with the spices a bit.  Gastronomike says he’d try a mix of Italian spices and throw some tomatoes in, which we might do sometime.

Now this next picture is truly an unappetizing photo, which is too bad because the sandwich itself was so good and so easy!

We’d made pesto the night before, and decided to use the pesto, along with an overabundance of zucchini and summer squash, to make panini sandwiches.

Speed Recipe: cut zucchini and squash into long, thin strips and grill, with a bit of oil, on a George Foreman grill.  Cut a loaf of Italian bread into sandwich-sized segments, halve, and spread with pesto.  Fill with grilled squash, zucchini, and a thick slice of provolone, and press whole sandwich in Foreman grill until cheese melts.

These sandwiches were really, really delicious, and they were so easy, too.  No cooking, and we had enough to make leftovers the next day, too.  This one’s a big winner, in my book.  We actually did this as a quick and easy variation on the delicious pressed sandwiches we like to make for picnics. The pressed sandwiches, while really, truly delicious are also time consuming and kind of a lot of work.  The panini-style version is an easy alternative.

So that’s the first Gastronomic meal roundup.  Enjoy!

There are three parts to this recipe.  There’s the pork itself, then the sauce, then the salad.  I’ll list the ingredients as a whole, then break down the procedure part by part.

Ingredients

Procedure

Pork

• Put the pork on a platter and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper. Add the 1/4 cup olive oil.  Add the juice and zest from 1/2 lime and turn to coat the pork with the marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in the refrigerator.

We had been planning to take a picnic dinner over to campus and watch the movie on the quad tonight with all the Summer Start students.  We’ve done that every year since we’ve been here and always really enjoyed it (despite the run of terrible movies they’ve chosen in recent years).  But today it’s cold and has been raining all day.  The university obviously has an alternate rain location and the event is going on as planned, but for us most of the fun is in watching the movie en plein air.  So instead, we stayed home and ate our picnic dinner at the kitchen table.  Here you see a combination of rice-paper rolls with veggies and noodles inside, and collard leaf rolls with spiced chicken inside, along with peanut sauce for dipping.  We still have about half of this meal left in the fridge right now– I guess that’s what happens when you don’t slowly munch on it for the duration of a movie.  I’m looking forward to finishing it tomorrow for lunch.

The rice paper rolls are simple.

Ingredients:

• 6 rice paper rounds
• handful of rice noodles, cooked and cooled
• 5-6 lettuce leaves, shredded
• 1 daikon, matchsticked
• 10-12 sugar snap peas, matchsticked
• 2 carrots, matchsticked

Briefly soak a rice paper round then spread it flat on a wet plate.  Quickly fill with desired amounts of lettuce, daikon, peas, carrots, and rice noodles, then roll up like a small burrito, as tight as possible.  Done.

The collard leaf rolls were a bit more involved, but they were really delicious.  We got the recipe from Eggs On Sunday who also needed to use some CSA ingredients. 

Ingredients (slightly adapted):

• 1 bunch collard greens
• 1/2 pound ground chicken
• 1 tbsp tamarind concentrate dissolved in 1/4 cup water
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup onions, chopped
• 3 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp minced ginger
• 2 tbsp roasted cashews, chopped

Cut central stem off collard leaves so that what remains is a large round piece (I also recommend notching out any remaining stem that is particularly large).  Steam leaves and set aside to cool.

Whisk the tamarind concentrate into the warm water until dissolved; set aside.

Heat a wok over high heat, then add the oil. When hot, add the onions and garlic and stir-fry until golden. Add the ground chicken and cook until it’s all changed color. Add the sugar, tamarind juice, fish sauce, and salt and continue cooking until almost all of the liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Add the ginger and chopped toasted peanuts and stir-fry one minute more. Taste and adjust seasoning to your taste.

Put a couple of spoonfuls of spiced chicken onto a collard leaf and quickly roll up, like a small burrito.  Done.

Like I said, this was pretty good– especially the collard and chicken rolls.

We’ve only made curries from scratch a few times, and I think this was the biggest success.  R absolutely loved it, I think I would add half cashews or maybe even raisins in the last 5-10 minutes when we make it again.  But make no mistake, that’s “when” and not “if.”  Recipe via Epicurious.

Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon yellow or brown mustard seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1 to 2 teaspoons chopped fresh jalapeño chile including seeds
• 2 teaspoons finely grated peeled fresh ginger
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 6 medium green or Cocozelle zucchini (3 lb), cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices
• 1 (13 1/2- to 14-oz) can unsweetened coconut milk, well stirred
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 cup roasted cashews, chopped

Procedure
Toast mustard and cumin seeds  and cool.

Pound garlic, jalapeño (to taste), and ginger to a paste with 1 teaspoon salt using a mortar and pestle (or mince and mash with a large heavy knife), then stir in curry powder, coriander, and mustard and cumin seeds.

Heat oil in a 6-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté onion, stirring, until golden, about 8 minutes. Add curry paste and cook over moderately low heat, stirring, 2 minutes.

Add zucchini and cook, stirring, until it begins to appear moist, 3 to 5 minutes. Add coconut milk and remaining teaspoon salt and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until zucchini is just tender, 10 to 12 minutes.

Serve sprinkled with cilantro and cashews.