What I've Been Cooking

I'm trying hard to cook more often, and along the way to eat more vegetables. I get a lot of inspiration from the daily newspaper, the Washington Post and especially the New York Times. Here are some things I've made recently. (Very few pictures, but most of the linked recipes have their own pictures.)

deconstructed roasted ratatouille

This was inspired by the Washington Post recipe for Ratatouille Galette. Eggplant, zucchini, red onion, and tomatoes are sliced on the mandoline and laid out in a pattern. To make a galette, it should be done on puff pastry. I actually bought some frozen pastry, and then decided not to use it. This was yummy just baked like this. A spatula scooped up intact rectangles for serving.

One oldie-but-goodie recipe I made for a family dinner is from one of my old cookbooks, the Silver Palate Goodtimes Cookbook. I made grilled shrimp with prosciutto and basil. The shrimp is marinated in lemon, olive oil, garlic and basil, and then wrapped in basil leaves and prosciutto, skewered, and grilled. The marination and the wrapping keep the shrimp from drying out. It's very time consuming to do the wrapping and skewering - I bought the largest shrimp I could find. I grow very large-leafed basil, so they worked very well in the wrapping.

I'm trying to eat less processed food, and most sausages are considered processed meat. (Though I wonder if fresh, uncooked sausages are?) I love sweet Italian sausage, and so I got a recipe for flavoring your own ground turkey (or chicken or pork). There were several recipes on-line. Of course the magic ingredient is fennel. I ended up using this one from AllRecipes.com. I like to just use the meat sauteed anyway, usually with onions and perhaps zucchini and tomatoes.

A recurrent meal I make is this Braised Chicken with Lemon and Olives. It's a casserole cooked in the oven (no stovetop browning) with whole Meyer lemons cut up and in the pot. You eat them skin and all when cooked. My store doesn't always have Meyer lemons, and when they do, I snap them up and make this. It smells so good! And tastes that way as well.

It's eggplant and zucchini season and I've had several edible zucchinis from my very own garden! I did this recipe for air fried zucchini, and it was excellent. It uses mayonnaise to make the coating of herbs and breadcrumbs stick. There are many recipes for roasted eggplants; I settled on this one which I've made twice. No salting the eggplant in advance. (One school of thought is fresh eggplant has no need, it's old ones that are bitter.) The recommended coating of olive oil, garlic, salt, and herbs and spices is brushed on both sides in the roasting pan just before cooking, and then the slices are flipped halfway through. The first time I made it I used the recommended cumin; the second time I wanted a different flavor family and chopped the garlic and then fresh basil leaves in my mini-food processor before adding the other ingredients and applying with a basting brush. Both versions were very good - I found myself picking up browned slices right from the pan and juggling the heat in my fingers before popping them right in my mouth. 

I generally only buy corn on the cob at the farmer's market. I usually just microwave the unshucked ears for 3-4 minutes and then eat them as a separate course with butter and salt. But I also like various sautees with the kernels stripped from the cobs and cooked briefly on top of the stove. So I made this chicken, marinated with basil and lime and then grilled, and served it with the recommended lime butter on the side, and a saute of corn, zucchini, and shallots, also flavored with basil.

On a similar note, since I loved the lime and corn combination, for a family dinner that needed to include a hearty vegan dish, I made this corn and chickpea salad. I kept the arugula on the side to be added at the table, because there were substantial leftovers of the main chickpea-corn mixture, which kept for a few days and only got better. 

Summer is inspiring! I've got a few more zucchini recipes stacked up, notably different types of frittatas. The basil supply is in no danger of running out. I think I'm going to slice off some branches and dry them, since I'm out of dried basil in a jar in the kitchen. Seems silly to go buy any!