Gazpacho

Here in the United States, I notice that gazpacho often veers toward salsa. And I like salsa. A lot. But sometimes I don't want to eat it with a spoon. And really, it's not that hard to fit your soup into the gazpacho-only half of the gazpalsa Venn diagram. Simply: don't add salsa-y ingredients like cilantro and lime; do add vegetable stock.

4 tomatoes, seeded and roughly chopped
1 sweet onion, roughly chopped
1/2 red pepper, roughly chopped
1/2 green pepper, roughly chopped
1/2 cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup parsley
2 tablespoons chives
1 cup or more vegetable stock
salt + pepper
paprika
olive oil

Put the vegetables in a food processor and chop. Pour this mixture into a large bowl and stir in vegetable stock to the thickness you prefer. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and paprika. Drizzle a little olive oil on top of each bowl just before serving.

Baked Barbecue Tofu with Pac Choi Slaw and Sweet Corn

We have a CSA now. This was our first delivery, as we chose the late Summer option and -- sads! -- it's already late Summer now.

When I put this meal together, I kept in mind some advice from my father-in-law who suggested to me once that when you want to use a new ingredient, or use an old ingredient in a new way, you should think about the kinds of flavors that ingredient is traditionally featured with, and then move forward. For example, cabbage is often paired with smoky, sweet flavors (ham, barbecue, etc). And not for naught!

My box contained pac choi (a Chinese cabbage), sweet corn, and anise (along with some other things). I had some tofu, fennel, and carrots in the fridge. I really love corn with barbecue, so I set on the idea of making a barbecue sandwich of some kind. Enter the tofu. But that sandwich needed some crunch. So I thought I would try to make a slaw. The pac choi was much tangier than red cabbage, for example, so I thought to add the sweet anise to it. Anise reminded me of fennel, so I chopped some of that up, along with some carrots, and made a pac choi slaw that echoed the Asian origins of the tofu.

This challenge turned out to be a three-recipe meal. End of Summer feast! Here we go...

Corn

4 ears of corn
4 tb butter
juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon (or to taste) cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes

Boil or grill 4 ears of corn until the little kernels appear darker and less opaque. Grilling is really superior here, but I left my charcoal, and my heart, in Michigan. So I boiled.

Melt the butter and stir it together with the remaining ingredients. Brush it onto the cooked corn.

Tofu

1, 16 ounce block of extra firm tofu, cut into four pieces
barbecue sauce
olive oil for the baking sheet

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Brush a little oil onto a nonstick baking sheet. Pat the tofu dry. Salt and pepper both sides. Brush both sides liberally with barbecue sauce and bake for about an hour, or until the sides of the tofu are crispy.

Pac Choi Slaw

2 heads pac choi, chopped
1 fennel bulb and its fronds, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
a few leaves of fresh anise
1-2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon mayo

Mix the ingredients together.

Brie Sandwich

There's this great French bakery in Hyde Park that makes a delicious and simple sandwich of brie and mustard, with lettuce and tomato if you wish. They sort of roll the bread around the cheese, cradling it with the lettuce and tomato. That's the idea here. Not as good as Bonjour, but pretty great for a weekday lunch.

PS. The Bonjour bakery made my wedding cake and it killed me with delicious. Killed me right dead.

Blueberry Granola Quick Bread

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 16 pieces
1/2 cup granola*
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon orange, lemon, or lime zest (I used lime)
1 egg
1 cup (or a little more) blueberries (if frozen, toss them in some flour before adding them to the batter)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

Stir together the first five ingredients, then cut the butter into them as you would for pie dough. Stir in the granola.

In a separate bowl, beat together the milk, zest, and egg. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Carefully fold in the blueberries.

Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan and bake for approximately one hour.

*I used a very simple oats-only granola. Consider that whatever granola you choose will add flavor, so select something that will compliment the blueberries. Also, if your granola has a lot of nuts, you may get a denser bread, since you won't have all those oats dissolving into the batter.

Pasta Salad

I had a problem with pasta salad. I liked it in theory, but I didn't like it in really. So I this is me, trying to like pasta salad. A recipe in problems.

Problem: Dairy.
Solution: I love mayonnaise, and I love cheese. But I don't love it in pasta salad. Mayonnaise pasta: that's something other. And cheese in pasta salad, well that's whatever. If anything I might cube it small and use a dry cheese, but really, I just don't think it belongs.

Problem: Too many or too few flavors.
Solution: I chose harmonizing herbs but kept the emphasis on one (basil). I also chose only a few vegetables to chop & add, but I made sure they had strong, balanced flavors.

Problem: Sauce/dressing that never sticks to the pasta.
Solution: I picked pasta that holds sauce well. Second, I made a sauce with some thickness, some heft. Third, I made sure not to wash the pasta after cooking so the starch could help bind.

Problem: Wanting a pesto-y sauce that could distinguish itself from pesto and work for a cold, bright pasta salad.
Solution: Pesto, adjusted. I chose several bright herbs for the puree and skipped the thickening nuts and cheese. I also added some vinegar and capers for some tanginess, and extra water to thin the sauce out.

Problem: Going raw, without going rough and with flavor.
Solution: Raw vegetables in pasta salad are requisite. It is a salad afterall. But they're often too contrasty in texture or flavor. Think chunk of carrot. Too-sharp onion. And they tend not to absorb the flavor of the sauce the way the pasta does, making them like pauses in the dish, separate, suspended. So, I chopped these vegetables up really thin, but kind of long. I wanted them crunchy and present, but also permeable and integrated. I used a microplane with teeth (dentata?) for the carrots, and sliced the fennel and shallots very thinly. I also tossed the vegetables into the sauce and let them sit while the pasta cooked, so they had a head start on absorption. And finally, I spooned the cooked pasta into the saucy vegetables while it was still hot and let it cool slowly on the counter, so the tender threads of the raw veggies cooked just barely.

All in all, this was a good pasta salad. I'd recommend spritzing and tossing it with some additional water right before you serve it.

1 pound pasta
1/2 cup fresh basil
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1/4 cup chives
fronds from one bulb fennel
2 tablespoons capers
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup water plus more
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil
1 fennel bulb, sliced thinly
1 carrot, peeled and sliced thinly
2 shallots, sliced thinly
salt + pepper

Cook the pasta until just-almost-done.

Meanwhile, drop ingredients 2 through 7 into a food processor. With the machine running, pour in 1/4 cup water and the vinegar, followed by the olive oil, until a thin but not-runny sauce has formed. Pour this into the bottom of a large mixing bowl. Toss in the chopped vegetables and let them sit while the pasta finishes cooking. Spoon in the cooked pasta, straight from its cooking water. Toss and season to taste. Allow the salad to come to room temperature on the counter, then refrigerate.

Cutting Edge

Object post! Take a look at the totes amazing cutting board Mike and I received as a housewarming gift from our friends Jenny and Ali.

Back to food soon, friends...

Peach-Plum Galette

I'd never made a galette (a/k/a "crostata") before. If only I'd known how srsly easy they were! If you're new to pie-baking, or trying out from-scratch dough-making for the first time, this might be a good place to start. (Imperfections welcome, nay, encouraged).

For the crust, I followed this recipe, but halved (1 1/4 cups flour, etc), and with the addition of some egg wash brushed, and some large grain raw sugar sprinkled, onto the final filled dough.

And for the filling:

3 ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced
4 methley plums, peeled, pitted, and sliced
2 large golden plums, peeled, pitted, and sliced
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons sugar (more if your fruit isn't super sweet; mine was PEAK SEASON, friends)
2 tablespoons flour
dash of salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Toss the filling ingredients in a large bowl. Roll out the dough until it's about a 12 inch round. I rolled the dough on a piece of parchment paper, which made the transfer to the cookie sheet super simple. Fill the rolled-out dough with the fruit filling, then fold the sides of the dough up and not-totally-over the filling, leaving some of the lovely fruit exposed. Egg-wash and sugar-sprinkle the dough as I mention above. Set the galette on a baking sheet and bake for about 55 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Cool, eat.

Cucumber Brie Sandwich

I was literally awoken from a dream by this sandwich. I dreamed that I was going to eat it, woke up, and realized I had no brie, no cucumber, no honey, no proper bread. Normally, I would have just gone to the store for these things, then made the sandwich an hour later, but in this tiny Michigan town, it took three days to amass these ingredients. Stores run out of things here. The bakers don't bake on Mondays or Tuesdays. So I waited.

Was it worth the wait? Yes, definitely. I am crazy for this sandwich. Get yourself some real spicy mustard, and mix that (about 50/50) with some real good honey. Spread that onto some real fresh bread. Slice some cucumbers very thinly and stack them on the real-fresh-bread. Slice some brie very thickly and spread it onto the real-fresh-bread.

And! Keep an eye on those plums; they'll be the (co-)stars of Wednesday's post.

Summer Drinks

Two favorite Summer Drinks


Lemonade is hard to take a picture of. Luckily I had these classy plastic cups to jazz things up.

If you haven't made lemonade, you really should. It's terribly easy and so so delicious. I like mine pretty tangy, so feel free to tweak the proportions if you like yours sweeter. Mix the following and chill:

2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 8 lemons)
4 cups water
1 cup simple syrup

Simple syrup adds an extra step, but is also very easy to make and is endlessly useful.

2 parts sugar
1 part water

Boil the water, stir in the sugar until it dissolves completely, remove the pan from the heat, and let cool. Don't stick your finger in it or try to taste it until it's cool. You've been warned.

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Tinto de Verano (translates literally to Red Wine of Summer), or Red Wine Spritzers, in English, are perfect for summer nights. I learned this crazy-simple cocktail in Sevilla, where it's a popular thing to drink at botellonas (How to translate? Basically, botellonas are standing around with a large group of people in a plaza, parking lot, or other outdoor space drinking and chatting. Isn't it wonderful that they have a word for that?)

No one in Sevilla who wasn't a tourist drank sangria. I don't know about other parts of the country, but in Sevilla, they drank Tinto de Verano, which is a mix of red wine and lemon soda (typically lemon Fanta over there; I usually use grapefruit Jarritos in the States since I can never find lemon Fanta, with its super-tart tartness, here). The drink is an approximate 50/50 mix of wine and soda, or whatever proportion suits your taste, + ice. And it's really refreshing. Try it this weekend. Tell your friends you'll be "spritzin''til dawn." (My friend Lynn coined this expression, and I must say, it adds considerably to the enjoyment of this drink. Say it over and over, and try to make it to dawn.)

PS. That's my husband in the background, playing the mini guitar, another star of Summer.

Zucchini Ricotta Cheesecake

I made a version of this once in the early days of Meals; for Moderns, when I thought I was just making a fancy grocery list of a blog to help me chronicle my experiments in the kitchen. Here we are, almost a year later, and I've made it again, with basil, chives, and parsley subbed for the dill in the original. Also, I used a 10 inch pan, and cut the cooking time by about 1/2 hour.

Speaking of blogoversaries, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who reads this thing. It's been a wonderful education cooking new meals all the time, and I appreciate that you've been here, following along with me.

Cheesecake recipe here.

Bagel Sandwich

Just a simple sandwich. Cream cheese, tomato, onion. This would be great with honey mustard. I was out of honey, but maybe you aren't.