Vacation Dinner

Miles away from home on the first day of our vacation.
Nothing to think about but the wind and the water and what to have for dinner.
Just off the ferry we popped into the grocery store on our beloved Island and came up with fresh dungeness crab plucked from the still icy Puget Sound waters, With onion, garlic, locally made butter, and plenty of broth that quickly became a "luxurious" (that's what James called it), easy crab meat risotto.
For a little peppery crunch I topped the rice with a salad of upland cress (watercress' dry land cousin -- quite a surprise to find in the store), Parmesan cheese (no apologies to supposed Italian purists) and tangy balsamic vinaigrette.
That's our kind of island style.

Summer Soup

Something a little different for us. Coconut shrimp soup. A little easy Thai flavor.

First I took out a good quantity of thin rice noodles and covered them with boiling water for about 10 minutes.

I fried about 1 1/2 TB of grated ginger, 1 minced jalapeno, 1/2 tsp of red chili flakes, and about 1/2 TB of minced garlic to some oil in a pan over medium heat and stirred it around. I added in about 2 cups of carrots (bright yellow carrots from our garden) sliced into thin -- almost matchstick strips and gave it all a good stir for about a minute. Next went in 1 can of low fat coconut milk, 1 can of Thai style chicken broth (I could have used any broth or even water), and 1/2 cup water mixed with 1 TB cornstarch. I brought the liquid up to a boil and let it simmer for about 4 minutes to cook the carrots through. Then I added in several handfuls of sliced oyster mushrooms and let them simmer for about 2 minutes. Next -- with the liquid still at a simmer -- went peeled deveined shrimp, the drained rice noodles, and about 1/2 cup frozen peas. When the shrimp were just opaque and cooked through I stirred in a few quartered small tomatoes along with about 1/4 cup of fish sauce (wish I'd had some limes instead) and served up our noodle soup topped with just a few fresh cilantro leaves.

Super quick summery soup.

Burger Time?

Okay -- not so pretty. But honestly, how pretty can a bun-less burger be? Besides the star of this dish were the homemade, home-grown fingerling potato chips -- sliced thin, cooked in hot oil and salted liberally. Burger? What burger?

Pastrami Reuben

That New York trip just keeps on giving. Today with some of the pastrami from Katz's deli I made James a quick toasted reuben, pan fried in a bit of oil and butter. I layered slices of rosemary bread with butter (James doesn't like Russian dressing), mustard, pastrami, sauerkraut, and nutty, fragrant, delicious Scharfe Maxx (kind of like an extra sharp Gruyere)-- a delicious cheese from Switzerland I "discovered" at Murray Cheese in NY and brought home for James.

Vegetarian Dinner For Two

I just couldn't think of what to make. My diet wanted me to eat brown rice and pesto for dinner so I was trying to come up with something we could both eat. I looked out at our yard full of yellow squash and decided on a quick squash curry -- a low key vegetarian dinner.

I browned the mustard seeds and cumin seeds in a bit of oil until the mustard seeds started to pop and added in 3 cloves of sliced garlic, a dash of garam masala, and about 1 tsp curry powder. I let the spices heat and then added in 1 chopped onion and let it simmer in the mixture for about a minute. Next came 4 sliced yellow squash, about a half dozen sliced mushrooms (because I had them in the fridge) and two handfuls of cherry tomatoes chopped roughly, I cooked the vegetables for about 4 minutes until they just started to soften. Next I added in 1/2 tsp of chili flakes, 1 TB of tomato paste, and a paste I made in the food processor of 2 TB roasted sesame seeds and 2 TB cashew nuts. I cooked that mixture for another couple minutes and added 1/4 cup of water, covered the pot and let the curry simmer until the squash was very tender -- about 5 minutes.

Served over brown rice that was a diet dinner I could share with James.

Let Him Eat Greek

This month Saveur Magazine presents an issue dedicated to the food of Greece. It's a rustic cuisine of fresh seafood, tangy cheeses, lemony sauces, and hearty greens. I'm a fan of Greek food and have been since I was a kid -- my mother used to take me to our town's Greek restaurant, Acropolis, where I learned to love feta cheese, all manner of eggplant dishes and taramasalata, the creamy dip flavored with fish roe. Aside from lemony chicken or spinach pie, I rarely make Greek food at home. So, I excitedly broke into this issue as soon as it arrived and am already planning a Greek style dinner party with the recipes. I may cook them all. But first, thinking about our Hearst Ranch beef in the freezer and how much James loves it, I decided to start these Greek meatballs which Saveur says are a typical meze (the small plates that start Greek meals) of Northern Greece -- usually served with fried potatoes or rice.

I still had some of our home grown potatoes, so I cut them in to small pieces and popped them in a 400º oven coated with lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, and salt.

The simple meatball recipe turned out to be another good canvas for our home grown produce. Our garlic, bay leaves, tomatoes, parsley, eggs, lemons, and mint all helped flavor the zesty dish. This was my first go around with Greek meatballs (unless you count NYC diners) so I'm not sure if the soft almost crumbly texture is what the recipe intended but I think it will make a pretty nice meatball sandwich topped with roasted peppers and feta cheese.

More Saveur inspired Greek dishes to come.

Another Try At Barbuto At Home

Our garden is full of lovely, fresh bright yellow and green zephyr squash.

Again, inspired by Jonathan Waxman and the delicious zucchini salad I had at Barbuto, I tried to make a garden fresh pasta dish for James. As the pasta cooked I mixed up an olive puree with just pitted kalamata olives, a pinch of salt, garlic, and olive oil. Thirty seconds before the pasta finished cooking I added in thin slices of squash to soften a bit in the water. I dressed the noodles with olive oil, dabs of the olive puree, a dollop of fresh ricotta, and a sprinkling of toasted pine nuts and fresh oregano.

To be honest I wanted to imitate Chef Waxman further and use toasted hazelnuts -- but, oops I wasn't paying enough attention and toasted the hazelnuts a little too far and had to make a quick substitution.

Hazel or pine this dish still made for summery pasta dinner fresh from the garden.