Monthly Archives: August 2017

ZUKES! Zucchini Bruschetta and More Green Ideas

Summer’s Surplus, all fancied up and ready for company.

It’s that time of year when it’s perfectly ok to eat fresh corn every day, tomatoes appear at every meal, and zucchini magically appear on your doorstep. I’m NOT complaining about the zucchini bounty, especially now that I have my “as seen on TV” spiralizer (a brilliant gizmo everyone should own), but using it up does present a challenge.

You could go the zucchini bread route, but if you’re not in the baking mood or you’re not in to cranking up that oven on a hot summer day, here are some alternatives. First, is a brilliant zucchini bruschetta. I have long suspected that Martha Stewart cuts her recipes to fit the page, leaving out a step or an ingredient here and there. On the positive side, it cuts out the micromanaging of how to make your toasts. If you need a bruschetta clinic, I’ve got you covered. And if you need other ideas on what to put on them, try Funitella Bruschetta, Sicilian Caponata , this creamy crunchy pickled fig extravaganza or sooooo many more things. As for missing ingredients, the only thing Martha missed in this case was a squeeze of fresh lemon. The fact that she left off the fancy fresh herb chiffonades is just a pure gift to humanity.

Zucchini Bruschetta

Ever so gently adapted from Martha Stewart Living, July/August 2015. It’s a good thing, Martha. I promise. 

Pro move of the day: salting the zucchini before cooking it draws out water, eliminating sogginess.

Ingredients

  • 2 medium zucchini
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 
  • 1/4 cup minced shallot
  • 1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
  • a healthy squeeze of fresh lemon juice (not sure how Martha missed this!)
  • Toasted baguette slices
  • Extra-virgin olive oil, for serving (optional)
  • thinly sliced or grated cheddar cheese (optional)

Method

  1. Shred zucchini on the large holes of a box grater. (You should have about 4 cups.) Toss with 1/2 teaspoon salt in a colander set over a bowl. Let stand 10 minutes. Squeeze out excess moisture with your hands.
  2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add shallot; cook 1 minute. Add zucchini; cook until tender and golden, 5 minutes. Stir in red-pepper flakes; Squeeze fresh lemon over the whole shebang and season with salt and pepper. Serve atop baguette slices, drizzled with olive oil, if you must.

Double Zuke Roll-Ups

For the adventuresome (and truly zucchini laden) among you…Out of desperation for a suitable appetizer, I fell upon a brilliant way to put zucchini inside of zucchini. It seems a little cannibalistic, or like a vegetarian version of a turducken. But it all works and it’s tasty. It also uses pesto—preferably with fresh mint thrown in—to address other surpluses in your fridge or garden. Garnish with tomatoes because, well, August tomatoes. I am quite sure this would taste fabulous with some fresh corn stirred in. Yes go ahead try that! Blueberries? Easy now, let’s draw the line right there.

There are no amounts here because we’re using what we’ve got, right? Any leftovers are going into the spiralizer for a zoodle future.

Ingredients:

  • Whole zucchini, preferably on the larger side
  • Your favorite pesto. This Vegan one was darned good, but pick your fave and sub or add some mint for bonus points
  • Zucchini from zucchini bruschetta (see above)
  • Balsamic glaze (if you’re fancy, and I know you are)

Method:

Chop off the end of the zucchini and thinly slice into strips. Use either a mandoline (easiest), or bear down hard with a vegetable peeler. Spread some pesto on each strip, and then layer on some of the shredded zucchini mixture. Leave a little space at the end of each strip for a tidy closure. Roll up that bad boy and secure it with a toothpick. When you have all your roll ups on the plate, drizzle with balsamic glaze, if using, just before serving. You can also drizzle some oil on these and bake them to serve with the main meal. 

Do you have a favorite zucchini recipe? Or ten? Please let me know!

This picture right here is why you use balsamic GLAZE vs straight balsamic. Live and learn…

 

Best of Summer Simmer Chicken

Let’s be honest here about grilling and entertaining. Food that is hot off the grill is fantastic for everyone but the host, who is typically tied to said grill. If you really want to relax, it’s all about food that can be cooked long and slow with minimal effort and is very, very hard to mess up. Bonus points if it is good as leftovers. Some dishes that come to mind are crock pot pulled pork or carnitas and the king daddy of all picnic food: Chicken Marbella.

Ok, so maybe not pretty. But pretty tasty, which counts.

In case you have never met Chicken Marbella trust me when I say it is magical. It’s a Mediterranean classic, that even the most Mediterranean-averse eaters still love. That’s the magic. The only downside of Chicken Marbella is the long marinating time, and the longish list of ingredients.

With that in mind, this recipe is darned near perfect. It involves chicken that falls off the bone, and as much fresh basil tomatoes as you can handle. Even better, it takes easy to an impressively idiot-proof level. Any recipe that includes “throw” and “chuck” in the instructions has a place in my heart. With this recipe, and the supply of fresh corn coming your way, you’ve got summer dinners for any size crowd handled. While you’re figuring out what to do with your spare time, whir up a batch of ABC Summer Sauce to have on hand for the leftover chicken, veggies, pizzas, sandwiches, etc. I can’t count the number of times I’ve made it this summer, and it always gets raves.

Special slacker note: In three tries I have been foiled by bad pictures with this dish, but that hasn’t stopped me before. Honestly, though, a dish that makes even raw chicken looks somewhat pretty deserves some respect. Here’s hoping you get to step away from the grill and enjoy your summer evenings while they last!

Summer Simmer Chicken

AKA Jamie Oliver’s Tender and Sweet Chicken Legs with Sweet Basil and Tomatoes

From  Food52

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 4 higher-welfare chicken leg quarters
  • Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 big bunch fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped
  • 2 big handfuls red and yellow cherry or grape tomatoes and ripe plum or beefsteak tomatoes, cherry tomatoes halved, plum tomatoes quartered
  • 1 whole bulb garlic, broken into cloves (less works too)
  • 1 fresh red chile, finely chopped, or a big pinch of dried chile flakes
  • Olive oil
  • One 14.5-ounce/410 g can cannelini beans, drained and rinsed (optional)*
  • 2 handfuls new potatoes, scrubbed (optional)*

* I’m all for keeping it simple without the beans and potatoes, but if you need to extend the feeding power this is a great way to do it.

Method:

  1. Heat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Season your chicken pieces all over with salt and pepper and put them into a snug-fitting pan in one layer, skin side up. Throw in all the basil leaves and stalks, then chuck in your tomatoes. Scatter the garlic cloves into the pan with the chopped chile and drizzle over some olive oil. Mix around a bit, pushing the tomatoes underneath. Place in the oven, uncovered, for 1 1/2 hours, turning any of the exposed tomatoes halfway through, until the chicken skin is crisp and the meat is falling off the bone. If after an hour or so the skin isn’t crisping to your liking, you can turn up the heat and switch to convection, or just blast it under the broiler for a bit at the end, rotating the pan occasionally and watching closely, until you get the skin as brown as you like. Just don’t let the sauce simmer too vigorously or the meat might toughen up.
  2. If you fancy, you can add some drained cannelini beans or some sliced new potatoes to the pan along with the chicken. Or you can serve the chicken with some simple mashed potato. Squeeze the garlic out of the skins before serving. You could even make it part of a pasta dish—remove the chicken meat from the bone and shred it, then toss into a bowl of linguini or spaghetti and serve at once.