ReLocavore: Redefining "local"

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Monthly Archives: August 2014


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Korean Barbeque

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We got a lot, but still not enough heat putting the grill basket on the grate above the hot coals. So instead, we put the grill basket directly on the coals and got the heat we wanted. (Photo credit @MichaelERea)

It seems that korean BBQ is all the rage right now. I watched an episode of Mind of a Chef with Korean BBQ, then this month’s Bon Appetit magazine had a section on Korean BBQ, and lastly, a friend emailed me a feature piece from CNN on making kimchi. I guess I’m getting a pretty strong signal from the ether to make some Korean BBQ.

The components were:

  • Rice
  • Thin-sliced beef marinaded overnight in garlic, ginger, onion, pear puree, soy and sesame oil
  • Ssam sauce, a mixture of fermented soy paste (like miso), Korean hot chili paste, sesame seeds, onion, green onion, and sesame oil
  • Lettuce leaves for wrapping meat and ssam.
  • My home-fermented kimchi. SO GOOD!
  • Carrots quick-pickled in rice vinegar, sugar, and salt with black pepper and cardamom
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The banchan – the sides that go with the meat. I made quick pickled carrots, my home-fermented kimchi, and ssam, a dipping sauce.

We ended up having eight total for dinner. My guests brought Georgean (the country, not the state) walnut and chard balls, caprese salad, homemade fruit and chili salsa. And, of course, lots of beer. In cans.

Apologies for not taking more pictures and many thanks to my guests who did take pictures!


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Abundant Zucchini Recipes: Zucchini Chocolate Cake

Zucchini Chocolate Cake

Do you really have any zucchini left after all of these recipes? This is the BEST way to hide zucchini. You’ll never know it’s there… And POOF! Two zucchini will disappear without a trace.

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(Dry)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
(Wet)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
3 large eggs
(Other)
2 cups unpeeled grated zucchini, from about 1 1/2 medium zucchini
5 2/3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Heat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9″ round or square cake pan.
Whisk together dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, soda, powder, salt.
In the stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, then add Vanilla and coffee.
Combine the zucchini, chopped chocolate, and a third of the dry ingredients, making sure the zucchini strands are coated with flour.
Add the remaining dry ingredients into the wet. Keep the stand mixer on low to avoid a big mess.
Remove the bowl from the mixer. By hand, fold together the zucchini into the batter until just combined.
Pour into the cake pan and spread out flat.
Bake 45 mins, or until a probe comes out clean. Let cool.

Now, if you really need to get rid of some zucchini make two cakes, then make zucchini lemon curd, and chocolate frosting. Now ou you’ve used up about 5 zucchini!

After all of this, do you really still have zucchini left???


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Abundant Zucchini Recipes: BZLTs

Bacon, ZUCCHINI, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich. The BZLT. We pronounce it the BEE-Zult.

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The trick here is to grill the bacon, then cook the zucchini strips in the remaining bacon fat. We use the panini grill for cooking bacon because the fat runs off and the two-sided cooking makes for flat, crispy strips of bacon. Perfect! The zucchini picks up a nice bacon flavor and crispy grill marks.

Add toasted bread, mayo (homemade please), lettuce and tomato for the perfect summer sandwich.


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Abundant Zucchini Recipes: Zucchini Boats

Zucchini Boats: A Zucchini-Topped Zucchini

Image from Kraft.com

Image from Kraft.com

Three steps:

  1. Cut a zucchini in half the long way, hollow it out into a “boat.”
  2. Fill the hollow in the middle of the zucchini with tasty stuff that covers up the fact that you’re eating half a zucchini. Possible fillings include: pizza toppings, a mix of cheeses, ground meat (with or without cheese), other chopped vegetables (mushrooms seem popular), etc… Anything that doesn’t remind you of zucchini. To keep your filling together, add a binder like an egg, mayo or cheese.
  3. Finally, broil or bake so that everything melts and gets hot.


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Abundant Zucchini Recipes: Zucchini Bread

There are so many recipes for zucchini bread on the internet that there is NOTHING that I could possibly add…

Top Google Hits

  1. http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/06/18/award-winning-zucchini-bread/
  2. http://www.chow.com/recipes/30429-zucchini-bread
  3. http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/zucchini-bread/5f75d183-d3e9-431a-9a93-22f0c957b56a
  4. http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/zucchini-bread-10000001072157/
  5. http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipes/seasonal/zucchini-bread-recipe

Famous Chef’s Take

Puffing up to be “the best” 

Novel (Weird) Additions

Special Diets

If you can’t get rid of a few zucchini from these recipes, then there’s no way I can help you any more.


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Abundant Zucchini Recipes: Zucchini Fritatta

Zucchini Fritatta

(From KCRW.com)

This is a variant on the spaghetti-based Italian Fritatta. 

  • 2 to 3 medium,  1 to 2 large, or 1 jumbo zucchini
  • 4 to 6 eggs
  • 1 cup grated cheese like parmesan or cheddar
  • 2 tbsp Butter or oil
  • Garlic or onion powder

Heat the oven to 400F and place a 10 to 12 inch cast iron skillet in in the oven to get hot. 

Run the zucchini through the mandoline and cut into long julienne strips. If you don’t have a mandoline, cut into uniform slices, then cross-cut into julienne strips or grate the zucchini. Toss the zucchini with salt and pepper, garlic or onion powder, and 1/3 cup of grated cheese. Beat the eggs. 

Once the oven is hot, add butter or oil to the hot skillet and swirl to coat the bottom. Remove the skillet from the oven and loosely pile the zucchini in the hot skillet. Return to the oven and cook for 8-12 minutes until the zucchini smells toasted and fragrant. Remove the skillet again from the oven and pour the eggs over the zucchini. Cook another 8-12 minutes until the center of the eggs are firm. Top with 2/3 cup of cheese and cook about 5 minutes longer, until the cheese is brown and bubbly. 

Remove from the oven and let set for 5 minutes to firm up. Slice into wedges. 

 

 


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Anybody else sick of zucchini yet?

Late August is the only time that New Englanders lock their car doors. If you leave your car unlocked, somebody will leave you a box of orphan zucchini on your front seat. (Photo from greenstag.net)

We have the first week of our CSA where we don’t have lettuce and do have more zucchini (and other summer squash) than we expect to eat in a week. This marks a big move in our Summer eating. Up until this point, we have new vegetables trickling in for the first time – the first cucumber, the first tomato, the first zucchini. We’ve now reached the peak of novelty and descended into bounty. We must smash tomatoes into jars because there are just too many to eat. The cucumbers get huge, bitter, and neglected on the vine. The lettuce, spinach and other greens have gone to seed and are bitter and inedible. We now have to hide zucchini in other foods. We now move into crisis mode. There are vegetables coming out our ears.

I have a lot of strategies for handling the bounty. Of course, you’ve read about my adventures with canning, drying, and other odd types of preserving. I also have strategic approaches for cooking that use up lots of vegetables. I went through some of  my recipes for using lots and lots of greens, and now over the next few days, I will let you in on my secrets on how to cook a lot of zucchini. 

Yes, I will share my recipe for chocolate zucchini cake. 

Until then!

 

 


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My Fermenting Adventures

Even given my kvetching, Sandor Katz fermenting workshop had a strong influence on me. I guess I may be developing my skills as an amature fermento. I have now fermented:

The Kimchi is clearly my biggest fermentation success. Yummy yum. I think I got the balance of spice and saltiness, and since we had the space to let the stink dissipate, I was able to let it ferment for a month and get very sour. Next time – more ginger, for sure. I have enjoyed eating my kimchi on pizza. The flavors of kimchi are very similar to the flavors of pepperoni and pepperoncini: hot, tangy, and salty. In fact, some pepperoni are actually fermented by being inoculated with flavor-enhancing molds!

Mixed vegetable kraut we made at the Katz workshop. It’s shredded carrots, radishes, white turnips and onions. I have let it sit for a few weeks and flavors have mellowed and gotten more sour. The onion smell was initially very strong – I was slightly worried I would get a charge on my hotel bill for cleaning out the stank. But over a few weeks the onion smell has become milder and richer with more umami. We have been eating it all along the fermenting time and I think it gets better every time I eat some.

Blueberry Soda was demoed at the workshop, so after picking blueberries, I used some to make my own soda. I used about 1/2 cup of sugar, a pint of blueberries and about a quart of water. I mixed it together without crushing the berries and kept stirring over 4 days. The final product went into a growler and has been hanging in the fridge. It’s a light pink color with a mild effervescence, kind of like kombucha. It’s OK, but I wouldn’t want to drink a lot. I’m not a big fan of sweet drinks, but it would be a good mixer.

I found an accidental glut of cucumbers in the garden last week and decided to try to make half-sour pickles. The cukes were too big for whole pickles, so I cut them into spears. Whole cucumbers will ferment for weeks or months and still stay slightly crisp, but fermenting cucumber spears will inevitably lead to mushy pickles after a week or so. I decided to make half-sour pickles, which are in a stronger brine and fermented for a short period. Into big quart jars I added two crushed garlic cloves, a big sprig of fresh dill, and a 3% salt brine – about two tablespoons of salt for a quart of water. They hung out on the kitchen counter for 4 days. They came out crisp, yet salty and a little tangy. Sam seems to be a big fan of them.