Month: July 2011

Sometimes in the summer, it’s just too hot to cook.  We eat salads almost every day for lunch, so in the interest of a varied diet, I don’t want to also serve salad for dinner all the time too.  I am increasingly turning to my grill as a heat source for everything.

I was inspired by some beautiful peapods I brought home from a friend’s garden, so last night I made an Asian stir fry on the grill.

Unlike my woks, the grill pans I have are full of holes.  To make sure I was getting as much flavor as possible from my sauce, I tossed each of the first few vegetables in the sauce and then poured a bit over everything at the end.  Here’s the story:

Sauce:
Dark sesame oil, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, a small squirt of sriracha, a tiny bit of rice vinegar

Veggies, in the order in which I added them to the grill pan:
Kohlrabi, zucchini, green pepper, garlic scapes, sweet peas, swiss chard
*It’s worth noting that all these veggies were grown locally, either by farmers or friends (thank you Sara and Britta!)

I added each vegetable, tossed it a bit, closed the grill. Tossed the veggies, added the next item, tossed again, closed the grill…add, toss, close, toss, add, toss, close…you get the picture.  I think the trick is to close the grill to keep it as hot as possible, just like you would with your wok.

Serve over Rice:
Brown rice, boiled in water, ponzu and sauteed onions

Yes, yes, yes, I know that sugar snaps are a more traditional option, but Sara’s peapods were so tender that I could not shell the peas and toss the pods.  That would have been a grave injustice and a terrible waste.  And chard is probably not all that prevalent in stir-fry, but I also combined sriracha (which has Thai and Vietnamese origins) and soy sauce (Chinese).  Oh, and I used ponzu (Japanese) in my brown rice.  So I wouldn’t say I was terribly focused on authenticity here.  Just in keeping the heat out of the house.  And in that, I would call this a success!

It was a little breezy and chilly here this morning, so despite the fact that it’s summer, I made hot soup for lunch.  I have been trying out a cookbook that Chuck seems particularly attached to, but, as usual, I varied it quite a bit.  Here’s how it goes:

1 6 oz jar marinated artichoke hearts
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 small leek, minced
1 medium celery stalk, minced
1/2 green pepper, diced
3 small red potatoes, skin-on, chopped
6 oz. shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, washed and sliced
1-1.5 quarts vegetable stock
Handful of beet greens

Drain the artichoke hearts, pouring a couple tablespoons of the marinade into a medium sauce pan.  Add a touch of olive oil and heat to medium-high.  Saute onion, pepper, garlic, leek and celery in olive oil and the marinade.  Add mushrooms and potatoes.  Saute for 5 minutes.  Add 4-5 cups vegetable stock.  Add more to taste or if you have a larger party to serve.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes.

While soup is heating, coarsely chop artichoke hearts.  Add to soup and simmer another 10 minutes.  Just before serving add salt, pepper and a dash of lemon juice.

Add washed beet greens to bottom of soup bowls.  Tuck in roots to ensure they are covered with broth.  Pour soup into bowls.  Allow to rest for 2-3 minutes to soften beet green roots.  Serve!

The result was not quite as mundane as I anticipated, and I liked it.  It had more depth than I expected.  You can, of course, use another type of mushroom or other greens, but if you do use beet greens, be ready for the broth to turn orange.  It’s actually quite pretty.

Note: You can find the original recipe for Inspiration Soup in The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen.

I try to have a pretty varied lunch selection throughout the week, and sometimes that means using leftovers.  Here is a particularly successful creation.

I started with orzo that I had used as a side dish for grilled lamb and minty beet carrot salad (not my favorite).  I cooked the orzo and added some olive oil, kalamata olives, green pepper and feta.  So a couple days later, it didn’t seem like such a jump to add a couple more veggies, keeping the mediterranean flavors but enhancing it a bit.  And then I hollowed out a couple tomatoes, put some sharp provolone in the tomato cavities, along with some breadcrumbs to soak up the juices and put them in the oven for a few minutes.  Once they were softened, I put them on a bed of mesclun greens and filled them with the orzo salad, letting the extra salad overflow onto the greens.  It was a beautiful and delicious presentation.  A pretty perfect lunch.

The only thing I will do differently next time is take a photo.

My third attempt at rye in a week was not completely disastrous.  Nor was it a rousing success.

I followed the same method as Attempt 2, but did not melt any plastic wrap or bowls.  A small victory.

The bread rose each time I expected it to.  Baby steps.

However, the final step in no-knead bread is to put the dough into a pre-heated 2 3/4 quart dutch oven.  My dutch oven is slightly larger, 6 quarts, I think.  But I had made this bread before and it worked, right?  Wrong.  My rye oozed across the bottom of the dish.  And that’s how it baked.  It tasted good, but you can’t make a sandwich out of a puddle of bread.  So we came close, but for now I’m taking a break from rye.  When I revisit it in a few weeks, I have a plan:

Step 1: Borrow bread book from my dad.  Indefinitely.  Follow a recipe until I better grasp how to work with rye flour.  Then improvise.

Step 2: Buy a small dutch oven.  I’ve already picked one out.

I don’t think I’m admitting defeat, but I do think I may need to be less stubborn.  It’s not about Bread vs. Elizabeth.  Well, not today.