Pesto Frittata

I have friends who always make a bunch of pizza dough during farm-share season.  I've kind of been meaning to do that.  But haven't.  I did watch a lot of television last week, and on some show they described "frittata" basically as an egg pizza.  And you know what's easier than making pizza dough and waiting for it to rise?  Making frittata.  (At least, I believe that for now.)

I was really worried, in my first frittata ever, that it would stick to the pan, so I used way more oil than I needed.  I also used way too much garlic and basil.  But that isn't actually a problem - it was delicious!  But maybe less garlic and basil next time.  What had really happened was that I had tried to make basil pesto but I couldn't find my nuts, so I ended up with basil-garlic-olive oil - which is a fine pasta sauce!  But not the same.  So I threw the mixture in here instead, but also added chopped basil and chopped garlic.  Whatever, I'm not complaining.

2 T olive oil (I used more but shouldn't have)
1/4 c chopped onion
1/4 c chopped basil
1/4 c chopped garlic
6 eggs
two sliced tomatoes
1/2 c shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Cook onion and garlic in olive oil until well cooked and very fragrant but not quite brown and crispy.  Add basil.  Beat eggs, turn down heat, and add to pan, creating a thin layer.  Top with sliced tomatoes, then cheese.  When eggs are only runny in the middle, place under boiler until browned.

Corn Chowder

Yes, that is a plastic spoon, I wash it and reuse every day.

Last week I got a dozen ears of corn, and I ate almost all of them boiled, with butter and salt, which is the best way.  Yum.  But, after eating an ear or two or three a day for awhile... you look to branch out, right?  I was actually thinking of cutting some off the cob and freezing it, and then I thought to myself (I must not have been feeling very smart that day) "I wonder if there is a good mainly-corn soup recipe out there.  I bet that would be good - mostly corn, maybe a little cheese..." and then I opened a cook book and slapped myself, because obviously I should be making corn chowder.

The cookbook author's recommendation was to use half and half, since this recipe is only made at the height of the corn season once a year, so live it up!  But then I was thinking, "if I approached every seasonal vegetable that way I would always be cooking decadently."  Luckily for my cholesterol I don't keep either milk or half and half on hand, so I walked down to the bodega and they didn't have half and half, so I used whole milk. They had a quart size - which was exactly how much the recipe called for.  Of course, I forgot to put half of it in, which means now I have to figure out what to do with all this whole milk.  (Probably make more corn chowder.  Or maybe mac and cheese with cabbage.  Or maybe just cheesy cabbage.)

In any case, here is the recipe, as it went for me:

Six ears of corn, kernels removed and cobs preserved
2 c water
1/4 c butter
1/4 c chopped onion
1/4 c whole wheat flour
1 quart milk  (But I used about 1/2 of that)
1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese (I probably used more than that)


Boil the cobs in the water for as long as you can with salt and pepper.
Heat the butter in a pan, add the onion and cook until tender.  Add the flour and cook until it no longer smells like flour.  Add the milk gradually and keep whisking, until it is more soup like than gravy like.  (In retrospect, I'd add the cheese while it's still gravy-like, and then keep adding milk until it's soup like.)
Remove cobs from water, leaving delicious corn broth.  Throw everything else in the pot.  Cook about 10 minutes, until corn is tender.  Yum.

Zucchini Frittata

I think I meant to post last week about my discovery of frittata.  It has basically replaced my previous obsession with baby quiche, and I will probably make another one before the week is out (probably featuring tomatoes, basil, onion, garlic, and cheddar, but we'll see).  I think next I will "discover" basic omelets.  Seriously.  But I like frittatas because I use less pans (just the cast-iron skillet), and the oven is used much less (which is nice in summer).

The only problem is that I still don't like eggs!  I should've just done egg-white, since egg-whites have a more tolerable flavor.  But I'm also going to experiment soon with tofu frittatas.  Should be fun.

It was recommended I drain the zucchini and squeeze out as much moisture as possible, but the zucchini was still pretty moist, and produced a lot of juice, which I tried to cook out.  Here's how it went -

2 T olives oil
1 lb zucchini, shredded and dried
1 large garlic clove
2 T fresh dill
3 T parmesan cheese
5 eggs

Use an oven-proof skillet.  Preferably cast iron.  Heat oil over medium heat, add zucchini and garlic, cook until zucchini has cooked and most moisture has evaporated.  Add dill, salt, pepper.
Meanwhile, beat eggs with cheese.
Lower to medium-low (do this a bit early if you're using cast iron like me), and gently add the eggs and incorporate into the zucchini.  (If you don't lower the heat early, the eggs may cook too quickly.)  Once incorporated leave undisturbed until mostly set, then place under the broiler in your oven to finish setting the eggs and brown.

pic coming eventually

Cold Cucumber Soup

I'm not the biggest fan of cucumbers.  I think it has to do with how I usually stumble across them, which has traditionally been a too-large piece in a Greek salad.  When making my own salads, I have realized it's best to cut all the vegetables into relatively similar sizes.  The whole purpose of a salad - bringing different flavors together - is achieved best when you can grab all of the flavors in equal (or appropriate) portions at the same time.

Last week I managed to use all my farm-share cucumbers by canning pickles, which I can then enjoy all year.  I love pickles.  This week I decided to try something new - I found many recipes for cooked cucumbers but I was not convinced, so I went with raw but blended cucumbers, in this refreshing soup.  I actually had it for breakfast on Sunday.  And although it was quite delicious, and I'd probably make it again, I would not say it is earth-shattering.  I would say it's better suited to a blender than a food processor, unless you enjoy cleaning up messes.

3 medium cucumbers, peeled and seeded

2 cups yogurt

1 T lemon juice

2 T mint

2 T dill

garlic salt (or raw garlic and salt/pepper as desired)

Blend.

Pickling, and my dislike of "sweet"

I was cat-sitting for a friend who has HBO and also said, "use my beets".  So, I did.  It was a pretty sweet deal.  I also had tons of beets from my own farm share, so I ended up with something like 18 jars.

The hardest part was finding a pickled beet recipe.  Every one I found online called for insane amounts of sugar.  Even my friends who pickle beets (all men, interestingly enough) said to use a little sugar.  Searching for a sugar-free recipe, I came up with recipes that called for artificial sweeteners.  As if. My entire point was that I didn't *want* sweet-tasting pickled beets.

I like the flavor of beets, and it's slight sweetness adds to its depth.  But, and I may sound a little ranty here, I think too often people use sweet vegetables as an excuse to eat more sugar in their dinner.  I have trouble understanding this.  Recipes for already incredibly sweet-tasting vegetables like winter squash and sweet potatoes often call for massive amounts of refined sweeteners.  I've had carrots and green beans that are so sweet they taste more like dessert than dinner.  I'm all for having sweetened vegetables for dessert (pumpkin pie - yum!) but call it what it is - dessert.

Okay, fine, I admit it.  I am not a dessert person.

The simplest solution, to me, was to just use a cucumber pickle recipe.  Mostly because I also had cucumbers to pickle last week.  So I found a recipe for dill pickles, and used the same pickling solution for the beets and the cucumbers, only 'sweet' spices for the beets, and savory (dill and garlic) for the cucumbers.  My only worry is that they all might be too salty, but I think they turned out delicious.

I boiled the beets before peeling and chopping them (while watching HBO), and then used this solution, which I had heated until the salt dissolved:

8 1/2 cups water
2 1/4 cups white vinegar
1/2 cup fine sea salt (they were out of pickling salt)

I packed cucumber jars with a garlic clove and some sprigs of dill.
I packed beet jars with cloves and anise stars, since those were the whole sweet spices my friends had.

I boiled the jars in a water bath for awhile until they sealed.  I've never actually done this before.  But I'm thinking of buying a pressure canner, and then I can preserve my beets in cans, ready for deep winter borscht.

This is not what I picked, it is what I ate while pickling.  Cabbage cooked with garlic scapes and yogurt, corn on the cob - yum.

The wait is over! Zucchini Coconut Soup

I've received numerous requests (from the same person, my only blog reader) about the recipe for the coconut zucchini soup I referred to in an earlier post.  I probably wouldn't have remembered that I liked it so much if I hadn't gotten requests, as I definitely didn't remember where the recipe came from.  It was easy to find, though, and here it is:

one small onion

1 T fresh ginger

1 very large clove garlic

1 t turmeric

3 T curry powder

1 c chopped tomatoes

1 large zucchini, chopped (about 2 cups)

1/4 c flaked coconut

1/2 c lentils

1 can coconut milk

4 cups vegetable broth

The original recipe calls for okra, which is one of the few vegetables I despise.

Only 2 full days until I get my next farm share, and I have about 3 lbs of beets, an entire bag of salad greens (or maybe they're cooking greens?), three cloves of garlic, a small eggplant, 2 cucumbers, and one bunch of oregano.  

I plan to use the cooking greens in peanut sauce, and the cucumbers in sparkling water (for flavor), and who knows about the rest.