It's normal to make a big pot of soup when your air conditioning breaks at the end of July, right? The heat of the stove certainly doesn't increase the temperature of the kitchen and surrounding rooms to the point that you just want to leave your house.
I'm not sure making soup in the summer is a good idea even with functioning central air, but I had a significant number of vegetables to work with, and wasn't creative enough to think of another use for them. I chopped potatoes, scraped corn off cobs, cut ribbons of Tex's chard, sliced carrots, and minced garlic in preparation.
To start, I sauteed the garlic in olive oil in my dutch oven, added the carrots and potatoes to brown them a bit, and then dumped in a mixture of chicken stock, water, and some diced tomatoes that were taking up freezer space. Rosemary, thyme, and a parmesan rind went into the broth to add some flavor, and I let everything simmer for a couple of hours. When I turned off the heat (to Davy's relief), I stirred in a can of rinsed cannellini beans, corn kernels, and the chard.
The soup rested in the fridge over night, and on Sunday, I made a cross between gremolata and pesto by blending lemon zest, basil, garlic, and olive oil to add a little bit of freshness and citrusy tang.
What I should have made, instead of soup, was something like the Vietnamese chicken salad that we ate earlier in the week. I don't have the source of the recipe, but it includes chicken, napa cabbage, scallions, cilantro, and peanuts. I added grated carrots, and the dressing contains fish sauce, sesame oil, and sugar. It's quick, light, and especially satisfying served over rice noodles.
To go with the salad, we tested out the Padron pepper method I mentioned, and it worked beautifully.
On average, about one in every ten pepper is supposed to be extremely hot, and the bunch that we got fit that standard. The few that were spicy hit me in a surprising rush of heat and saltiness, which only made me want to eat more.
Luckily, Amy had more Padrons available this week, and Davy and I made another round on Tuesday night. In the interest of not turning our kitchen into a room-sized oven, we ate Hungarian salami, a few cheeses from Caramont, and a makeshift bruschetta with yellow cherry tomatoes and basil marinated in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
I will admit to making pasta a few times, despite the unofficial stove ban, but all of our tomatoes were practically begging me to make fresh pasta sauces. There may have been a few tomato and feta sandwiches thrown in as well, which only require the brief, contained heat of a toaster oven.
We're leaving for the Outer Banks tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to bringing the rest of our share and using a kitchen to its fullest capacity without worrying about the temperature ramifications. Have a wonderful week!
I don't fall for all of the pumpkin frenzy that goes on in October, though I'm not opposed to it. I love squash and pumpkin; I just wouldn't choose them to flavor one of my daily treats if I had chocolate as an option.
The overabundance of sweet potatoes hanging out on our bakers rack inspired me to bake outside of my comfort zone. Jamie at Home, one of many in my collection of Jamie Oliver cookbooks, includes a recipe for Butternut Squash Muffins with a Frosty Top that I've had in the back of my mind since I saw him make them on his show.
Sweet potatoes are close enough to butternut squash that I thought I could make the substitution work. I used the same amount of potatoes by weight that Jamie calls for in his recipe, and steamed them for about five minutes to soften them a little before pulverizing in the food processor.
I also cut back on the sugar (I used a scant two cups instead of 2 1/4) and used vegetable oil instead of olive oil. The olive oil flavor would probably be a nice foil for the sweet potato, but Jamie made muffins, and I was making cupcakes, and vegetable oil just seemed more appropriate. It made the cupcakes less orangey, which was a little surprising, but I found the color to be appealing. They were fluffy but not too light in texture, and held up well to the icing.
I love Jamie, but my cupcakes were not going to have a frosty, citrusy "top" like his muffins did. The frosting I made was thick and flecked with cinnamon, and the base was cream cheese instead of sour cream.
We may or may not have dipped gingersnaps in the extra frosting after the cupcakes were gone - I tried to pile as much of it on top of the cupcakes as I could, but we still had some extra.
To counter the indulgence of the cupcakes, I made a veggie soup with the collard greens. Until my mom made soup with collards, I didn't think they were a viable soup ingredient. The leaves are tough, but as long as they're cooked long enough, they are delicious in soup.
I sauteed chopped onion, carrots, and the greens in a little olive oil. When they wilted down, I added chicken stock and a big cheese rind to the pot. Everything simmered together, and sat overnight. Before dinner the following evening, I added the remainder of a box of orzo and a can of white beans, and let the soup boil softly until the pasta was cooked through. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph the finished product, but it was a hearty and pretty soup.
The roasted broccoli from earlier in the week turned out beautifully, and tasted as great as it looked. I had it with some pasta and pesto when I was on my own for dinner one night.
We ate the sweet peppers raw, cut into slices and dipped into hummus with the last of our homegrown cherry tomatoes.
I ate both of the Asian pears for my mid-morning snack, and I wasn't blown away by them. The smaller one definitely had more flavor, but they were both fairly bland and it wasn't easy to get used to the texture. I like them better than, say, eggplant, but wouldn't go out of my way to eat them again.
Our kohlrabi and turnips were neglected for over a week, so I decided to roast them with the massive sweet potato. When I was chopping the turnips, I was surprised to see how beautiful they were inside.
I wish I could say that I liked them better than I have in the past, but I'm still not a big fan of their bitter taste. Davy and I both preferred the sweet potato to the kohlrabi and turnips after everything was roasted.
We ate them with roasted red snapper and sauteed spinach.
I wish I could say that the subsequent meals were as healthy as that one, but the only vegetable we've eaten at home since them is sauteed broccoli rabe with leftover Belmont pizza. Don't worry though, I'm still getting my daily (plus) dose of chocolate.
If I can help it, I like to make one pot meals, or at least use multiple types of vegetables in one dish. Surprisingly, Davy and I don't eat a lot of salads, even though they lend themselves to using a variety of ingredients.
Soup, on the other hand, is one of my favorite things to make and to eat, even in hot weather. Last Wednesday I used the garlic scallions, kale, and broccoli rabe from our to make a vegetable soup. Sauteed carrot and celery, along with the scallions, formed the base. Once they were cooked through, I added a little wine, then homemade chicken stock, and petite diced tomatoes.
I blanched the broccoli rabe separately from the soup pot, fearing that the bitter flavor would leach out into the broth. The contents got a good hour or so to simmer together before I added the greens (broccoli rabe and kale) and a can of cannellini beans.
I flavored the soup with some rosemary sprigs and parmesan rinds, but it still needed salt, pepper, grated parmesan, and oil to make it really tasty.
Thursday was the exception to the rare salad rule. I was on my own for dinner, and decided to make use of the nice lettuce mix. Pistachios, a hard-boiled egg, feta, and a sliced radish made the salad more interesting and substantial.
I blanched the remaining greens, which consisted mustard greens, mizuna and a few other Asian varieties. I froze about a quarter of them, and used the rest to lighten up a big bowl of sesame noodles (my uncle's recipe), along with frozen edamame.
The turnips from Fertile Crescent Farm have been large and gorgeous this spring. Normally I don't get excited about turnips, but I was intrigued when I realized I could mash them and then make them into cakes to pan fry.
As you can see, the cakes weren't overly sturdy, and I didn't do a great job of flipping them, but they were very tasty. Despite the fact that they were cooked in butter, I still felt healthy eating them alongside of a salad.
We're left with some nice-looking radishes and some salad mix, but considering all of the extras Adam and Darbi have been giving us, I feel good about how many vegetables we ate in a week. One dish dinners are a convenient and easy way to consume a lot of produce, even if you have to resort to a salad to do so.
