I found a very large Odessa squash in my garden last week. I was inspired by the cool weather and the largeness of the squash to make a stuffed squash. I did some searching in cookbooks and on line and adapted several recipes to create this simple dish. I used a leek and parsley from the garden in the recipe.
Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa, dry
2 cups water
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 large leek sliced thinly
1/2 tsp.dried hot pepper/garlic/herb mix
1 large squash
1 large summer squash, cut in half and scooped of its squashness
1/4 cup sour dough breadcrumbs
Several slices of muenster cheese (as per taste)
Directions:
1. Prep quinoa in a rice cooker combined with 2 cups water. If you do not have a rice cooker, simply simmer quinoa and other ingredients over medium heat on stove top for 20 minutes until tender.
2. In the meantime, cook leek, squash and herb mixture in a little olive oil; stir in cooked quinoa.
3. Fill Odessa halves with mixture, top with cheese and bread crumbs
Picked a few peppers, and used the sauce made from my tomatoes to make pizza tonight as a send off for Joe. We ate the pizza as we downloaded files, uploaded movies and music, printed photos and packed suitcases. Joe is off to Ghana tomorrow and he is well fed and ready to go!
These wonderful young eggplants have been sprouting from my plants. And I decided to make Eggplant Parmesan minus the breading and frying. So I sliced the eggplant lengthwise, oiled them and put them on the grill skin and all. While they were on the grill I made a fresh tomato sauce using my standard recipe:
Put a few chopped cloves of garlic and one or two chopped hot peppers to cook in hot olive oil in a frying pan, do not let the garlic burn! but after 2 minutes, add 2-3 cups of fresh chopped tomatoes into the oil with 1/2 salt and 1/2 cup of chopped fresh basil, turn up the heat for a few minutes, and then let simmer on a lower heat for 5-6 minutes to let the sauce thicken. Once it has thickened, add more (1/4 cup) of basil. It is done!
Next, begin to make the Eggplant Parm. Layer the grilled eggplant in a casserole dish, starting first with a few spoons of the sauce. Sprinkle each layer with grated Parmesan and grated Romano. Repeat for three or four layers. Bake in a 350 oven for 20-30 minutes. Delicious!!!
I had a great variety of vegetable coming out of the garden and some cold brown rice in the fridge. I found a great recipe on the blog http://www.ecurry.com/blog/rice/spicy-singapore-fried-rice/. It resulted in a delicious, slightly hot, tasty, fried rice. I added my changes in parenthesis.
Spicy Singapore Fried Rice:
Ingredients:
1 cup long grained rice
2 cloves of garlic – chopped fine
1/2 onion chopped
8 -10 Whole Dry Red Chilis (I used 6 chilis which gave us just the right heat)
1 teaspoon freshly ground black peppercorn
1 teaspoon very thinly sliced ginger
4 tablespoons oil preferably 100% Pure Sesame Oil
2 teaspoons oil, to use when boiling the rice
2 teaspoon white vinegar
2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1/2 green bell pepper chopped
1/2 cup peas (I used my green beans)
1 Big carrot chopped
3 sprigs of green/spring onion chopped
1 tablespoon cilantro chopped
1/2 cup shredded cabbage (I used chopped mustard greens)
Salt to taste
Any vegetable like beans, celery may be added to this.
Preparation:
*Wash the rice very well to wash off the starch. Soak it in cold water and let it sit for about 15 minutes.
Boil 1.5 cups of water, add 2 teaspoons of oil to it and and add the rice. The oil will help the rice not to stick to one another. Cook it so it so they are long and done but separate. If there is till some water left and the rice it done, strain the water.
Spread the cooked rice in a thin layer on a plate and sprinkle vinegar on it. Let it cool
(* I used my plain cold brown, basmati brown rice. I skipped the above steps and sprinkled some rice vinegar on the rice before adding it to the wok or frying pan below)
Heat oil in a Wok. Once its smoking hot, add the crushed black peppercorns and the dry red chilis. The chilis will soon turn dark and sizzle. Add the garlic and the onion. Fry at high heat till the onion starts to brown. Add the peas, carrots, bell pepper, and ginger and fry at high hear till all the moisture dries off. This should not take for than 3-4 minutes.
Lower the heat and add the soy sauce. Mix it with all the vegetables and add the rice. Stir it around to mix it and keep frying at medium heat. Increase the heat to high again. When all the rice is coated, with the sauce, add the cabbage and cook for a couple of more minutes tossing it around fast and sprinkling few drops of water on the wok for the sizzle and the smoke. Switch off the heat. Add the cilantro and spring onions and cover it for 5 minutes for the heat and the smoke flavor to be absorbed. The smoky flavor is a very distinctive flavor to this dish.
Serve hot with with Hot Oil, or with Vegetable Manchurian, Gobi Manchurian, Chili Chicken, or Chili Paneer.
Last year I learned how to identify the male from the female blossoms on my squash plants (male have thin stems and female have baby squash plants as stems). That meant I could attempt to prepare squash blossom recipes using the male blossoms. I tried stuffed, fried blossoms and although they were tasty, they were also very rich and heavy. This year I tried squash blossoms in pasta. I picked about 15-20 male blossoms, and actually included 3 female blossoms that had small, very tender squash attached. Of course I bought some fresh rigotoni pasta from my favorite place, The Pasta Gallery. I made 1 pound for us gluten eaters and made a seperate dish for Will using gluten free pasta. I served this with a green salad and London Broil to appease the meat eaters. But Carey was correct in stating that this pasta dish would be great with freshly grilled Salmon.
Spaghetti with squash blossoms
by Erika Kerekes May-14-2011
A simple springtime pasta. Look for zucchini flowers at farmers’ markets or specialty produce markets – or, if you’re a gardener, on your zucchini plants.
Ingredients
1/2 pound spaghetti (I used rigatoni)
6 ounces goat cheese
3 Tbsp grated Romano cheese
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
3 Tbsp olive oil
large handful zucchini flowers (squash blossoms), chopped and chop and add the female blossoms and squash
1/2 cup garlic chives, chopped ( I used lemon basil and parsley)
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Cook the spaghetti according to the package directions.In the bowl in which you’ll serve the pasta, crumble the goat cheese. Add the Romano cheese, lemon juice and zest, olive oil, and 1/2 cup of the pasta water from the pot. Stir until the goat cheese has melted and the sauce is creamy.Drain the spaghetti and add it to the serving bowl. Toss to coat with the goat cheese sauce. Add the squash blossoms and garlic chives, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Serve immediately.
Details
Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 10 mins Total time: 15 mins Yield: 2 servings
No, not together! But I prepared two dishes the other day. I began to harvest these unbelievably sweet, luscious plums from our tree in the back yard. Well, once I ate 2 or 3 of them, I realized that this was about all one could eat at one time, but I had about 2 dozen absolutely ripe plums. The answer…make a spicy, hot plum sauce to use with meats or a side dish. It was very easy, I pitted the plums, added garlic, onion and several hot peppers just picked from the garden. I used the food processor to grind them up. After adding in sugar, vinegar and five spice, I let it cook slowly on low most of the day. It was delicious!
Garlic and Basil for Pesto
And with the newly harvested garlic and just picked basil, I made pesto using pignolia nuts. I have always used walnuts to make pesto because of the cost of pignolia nuts. But I have to say, the taste was less bitter and somehow smoother than with walnuts. And with the addition of olive oil and reggio pargmigiana it was the real thing. Served it over freshly made cavatelli from the Pasta Gallery in Oakville. Just great!
Plums, garlic, onions and hot peppers for Hot Plum Sauce
I read this recipe in the New York times magazine for using beets in making a chicken tikka dish. Well of course I knew I had beets in the garden and had to get the other ingredients at the store. This morning I picked the beets and one bulb of garlic right out of the garden…the garlic was moist with a kind of a garlic dew! The chicken is marinating as I write and I will prepare the dish for supper tonight.
Basil, garlic, garlic scapes, hot pepper, oregano from the garden, into the fresh tomatoes (bought from March Farms) and throw in the fresh pasta from my favorite pasta place, Pasta Gallery and the result…the first fresh sauce from my garden (almost) for this season. I have been waiting all year for that taste and it did not disappoint.
mybethlehemgardenandtable 