Copious Amonts of Zucchini

It’s a bumper crop for zucchini this year - at least from our CSA.   I’m almost running out of ideas on how to process it.  Storkbite is consuming her fair share, it was her first “real” food after all.  I’m not sick of it yet, but it’s getting real hard to be creative.  There has been an overload of eggplant as well.  I’m doing better with it than last year, the last one is going into a baba ganouge today.  I don’t think we will see the end of it though now tomatos are abundant.  My new breakfast is toast, grilled tomato and a friend egg.  Here are a few highlights from the past few days:

Eggplant Rollatini

This was a really easy dish that was prepped over the course of a few days.  One thing I’m learning is take time to prep when you can get it. Storkbite doesn’t allow me time to actually enjoy what I’m doing in the kitchen now that she slithers.  On the day I got seven eggplants, I sliced them all the long way and grilled them with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper.  When they cooled, I neatly piled them into a plastic container and stashed them in the refrigerator.  A few days later (not sure how many) I pulled out my eggplant and made the rollatini.

Simply use a small container of ricotta cheese, mix in an egg, salt, pepper and chopped parsly. Combine it in a mixing bowl and set aside.  Add a ladle full of some sauce (in this case my very own Basic Sauce) to the bottom of your olive oiled baking dish and begin to roll your eggplant.  It doesn’t have to be pretty and sometimes it’s easier to put two eggplant peices together laid flat.  Add a dollop of cheese and roll.  Once you have all your rollatini in the dish, cover it them with sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes until the cheese is golden brown.  This was a Papa pleaser - he loves cheesy baked goodness and it’s a great way to use up your eggplants.

Salmon Loaf

I have no idea what to call this except “Salmon Loaf” which sounds horrible because it was so delicious!  I realized that I had nice grilled salmon left over from the onigiri which was just sitting in the refrigerator calling my name.  Storkbite’s Papa was so taken with this that he wants it worked into our regular menu.  It was very easy so that is fine with me.  The filling consists of chopped grilled salmon, chopped scallions, chives, black sesame seeds and a dash of sesame oil to combine it.  Then I wrapped the filling in sheets of puffed pastry dough available in the freezer section of any super market.  Once it was nicely rolled up I put slits on the top to let the steam out, brushed them with a little oil and sprinkled with black sesame seeds.  I baked these at 425 (as indicated on the dough package) for 30 minutes until golden brown and puffy.  I served by slicing these through the pre-sliced slits which helps to keep the pretty puff pastry in tact.  With a simple salad these were a huge hit, and made great room-temp leftovers for lunch.

Mini Burgers

One of my favorite things is a mini burger. It satisfies my itch for a burger and doesn’t weigh me down after eating 1 lb. of beef.  I like to buy mini dinner rolls at the bakery and make them at home.  In this case I used ground turkey, doctered it up with an egg, salt, pepper, chopped scallions and diced green peppers which I combined in a mixing bowl.  I grilled zucchini chips for toppings and cut up tomatos.  Once I formed my mini burgers into balls, I grilled them on my trusty grill pan.

These got assembled on a toasted bun with olive oil mayo, grilled zuccs, cheddar cheese and fresh tomatos.  They knocked my socks off and were probably on the healthier side of things too.

Two Delicious Sandwiches

It’s been a hot week in NYC and since we forwent our CSA box last week we almost had to eat mac n’ cheese this week. Instead I got creative with my sandwich making skills. The first night we had variation of a BLT with A (for avocado) and no L (for lettuce) and the next night we had a hummus and avocado masterpiece. The key to these great sandwiches is this amazing Turkish bread which is spongy on the inside yet toasts up crunchy on the outside. It’s SO delicious and versatile. Every time I ask the folks at our local Turkish grocery about this bread they only tell me that it’s called “Turkish bread”, not very helpful for those who do not have a local Turkish grocery. That’s one of the many beauties of living in ethnically diverse Queens. Anyhow, for consumers out there - foccacia is a similar type of bread and can be used to build this sandwich.

Tuesday night we built the following sandwich: bacon, sprouts, tomato, avocado, cucumber (no lettuce) and olive oil mayonnaise. The particular brand I used was called Mayoliva which I first bought in Argentina and then subsequently found at a bakery in Corona Queens.

Wednesday night it was more of the same: avocado, tomato, sprouts, hummus and olive oil mayonnaise. It really hit the spot and the cucumbers cool things down after a hot day. It’s CSA night tonight and I’m feeling a big pizza coming on. We will see if we can swing it and if Storkbite cooperates tonight.

Start to finish -This sandwich can be prepped and ready in 10 minutes.

Just a BLT?

Sometimes I get really lazy and find it hard to be clever in the kitchen night after night. Sometimes I run out of time and have a really busy day wrangling Storkbite. On all the days when I can’t take it anymore, I serve BLTs and sometimes BLTEs. That would be the classic bacon, lettuce, tomato and the bacon, lettuce, tomato, egg respectively. I try to sex them up a bit with some olive oil or lime mayo, colorful tomatoes, Texas sweet bacon or whatever. This time the only thing sexy about these BLTEs was that I used red and orange tomatoes and leftover hamburger buns from the weekend. The only secret to a good BLT is to toast the bread!

In last night’s dinner, you will see a reprise of the ingredients from the classic spinach salad. I used some of my hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes and bacon. It’s a great quick meal and can be done in a variety of ways. There is no shame in eating a good old BLT.