Zucchini Blossoms

We planted our first ever vegetable garden this year. We obviously don't know anything about planting zucchinis, since we have about 7 or 8 planted within a 6 sq. inch piece of land. A month later, our zucchini plants are growing like crazy! And now we have about 40 blooms. We'll be eating zucchini till the cows come home.

I figured I cut down on the zucchinis by eating a few blossoms. I later realized that there is a male and female flower. The male ones grow directly on a stem, the female has a zucchini attached to it. So I guess the ones I did pick weren't going to turn into zucchinis anyway. Oh well...

 

I washed out the blossoms and filled them with a mix of goat cheese and ricotta.  Twist the petals up top and dip in a slurry of flour and soda water. Then I'm supposed to deep fry it. Supposed to. Instead I attempted to do a "shallow" fry in about 2 tablespoons of oil.

 

This was the shot I got before the fiasco. It stuck to the bottom of the pan. I ripped the blossoms trying to flip them over. It was a big mess. After a minor hissy fit, I managed to get them all out. It looked bad. But it still tasted quite good. The cheese had soaked up a bit more oil than necessary though.

Next time, I'll just bite the bullet and deep fry it.

Cabbage Slaw

This weeks CSA box brought us a giant head of cabbage. And I mean huge - bigger than my head. What does one do with cabbage? Slaw was the only thing I could think of. I turned to epi to see if I can find an interesting use for this ginormous space eater. All I found was salads and slaws. I didn't want to make a slaw. I wanted something different. Slaw is not different. But then again, I can make it different. So I grabbed random things from the fridge and made a dressing of sorts. 

garlic scape

scallion

jalapeno

parsley

whole grain mustard

salt

honey

cider vinegar

balsamic vinegar

pickle juice

Blend it all in a food processor. Pour over sliced cabbage. I used green and red, since I had both. Toss and chill. 

No mayonnaise, no oil. Very light and crispy. Tart and spicy. Great for a light summer meal. 

I paired it with pan-fried panko crusted catfish. This would work great in a fish taco too. 

Grilled Pizzas

Now that I don't have easy access to a New York slice around the corner, I've reverted to making my own pies. I haven't yet ventured into making my own dough. But Metcalfes and Trader Joes has great fresh dough in a variety of "flavors" - plain, whole wheat, pesto, sun dried tomato. I've tried all but the sun dried tomato one. Sounds like that should be on my to-do list now. 

Today's plan was to grill the pizza. I've watched Bobby Flay make pizza on a grill, and just knew that if I ever put dough on the grill like he does, it won't come off. To my surprise, it was amazingly easy. And so fast! I didn't even have a chance to take pictures till after they were done. 

Roll out the dough and break off a piece big enough for your needs. Pull from the center out and keep pulling to make an even (and not necessarily round) base. Carefully place on the center of the grill, without any folds. It barely needs 4-5 mins to start blistering. The dough slipped right off when it was done, with perfect grill marks. Flip over and start topping. Have all your toppings ready before you throw the dough on the grill. Another 4 mins and you're done. 

I have two different pizzas going. The first one was a Greek pizza, with a light layer of tomato sauce, topped with fresh spinach, green peppers, onions, tomatoes, olives and feta.

The 2nd one was a mushroom pizza. I had my husband grill a portabella and some fresh oyster mushrooms and garlic scapes on the grill with a dash of garlic powder, Italian seasoning blend and olive oil. All of this got chopped up. The grilled dough got a spread of pesto, the chopped 'shrooms and dollops of goat cheese. (The mushrooms and goat cheese was delectable.)

Breakfast Pizza

I'm on a pizza roll. I still had some of the pesto dough left. And it was a saturday. Brunch came to mind, and what could be better than a bacony-eggy pizza creation? All that went upon this delicious pesto dough is:

pesto (cause you can never have too much pesto)

fresh mozzarella

bacon

and an egg (well, one each)

I added the egg after the pizza was pretty much done. The egg gets about 5 mins of oven time. The crust is great to dunk into the oozy yolk.

I don't know how I would portion out this though. Good thing it was just the 2 of us, so I just spilt it down the middle. It would be nice to make little individual pizzettes with eggs on top. That would look super cute. Maybe next weekend...

Till then, enjoy this one.

Shaved Asparagus Pizza

I recently made a trek out to Allen's asparagus acres and learned how asparagus grows. It was amazing. I had no idea the stalks just stuck out of the ground like that. So with a brand new insight for this vegetable, I set out to find some equally interesting uses for it, and found this one at Smitten Kitchen. I was intrigued by the idea of "shaving" asparagus.


I gathered up the ingredients. I didn't realize till later, that all my ingredients are locally made or grown. This makes my pizza even greener!
Asparagus (from the farmer's market)
Scallions (also from the farmer's market)
pizza dough (pesto dough from Metcalfes)
mozzarella (fresh, BelGioioso from WI)
Applewood smoked bacon (Nueske's, also from WI)

Assembling the pizza was quick and easy.
Roll out the dough. I don't have a pizza stone. I use my all purpose baking sheet, lined with foil.
Brush the dough with a bit of olive oil.
Spread on hunks of cheese.


Pile on the shaved asparagus and some sliced scallions.

The bacon is optional, but I highly recommend it.


The pizza bakes for about 20 mins at 375º, or till crust is nice and crunchy.




Voila! This is by far the most delicious pizza I've ever made. The slinky slivers of asparagus are still nice and crunchy and the bacon gives it that extra oomph! The only thing I would change on this next time (and there will definitely be a next time) is to chop the asparagus shavings into 1 inch pieces. That way when I bite into a slice, I don't end up stripping my pizza of shavings and have all of them dangling out of my mouth!

Its a great summer pizza, and as Smitten Kitchen recommends, I wouldn't mind trying it out on my grill someday.

Good Eatings!

Mini Lemon Cheesecake with Lemon Curd and Blueberries

Following up on my cupcakes...I mean, mini cheesecakes...


After some more google-surfing, and the link Jen sent me - I had enough recipes to finally make up my mind and pick my components. I ended up with Martha all the way, with some tweaks. 


For the cheesecake part I went with this basic recipe. I didn't like the idea of a chocolate wafer crust. Graham crackers didn't sound appealing either. I browsed the cookie aisle and came upon Nilla wafers. And not the regular kind - mini Nilla wafers! They're about the size of a quarter. Munchable by the handful. 

 

I didn't measure the cookies. Just dumped a bunch the the food processor. I figured if anything I'll end up with cookie crumbs I can eat by the spoonful. Unfortunately that didn't happen. I blended them up with half of the amount of melted butter (1.5 tablespoons) and no sugar. 

 

Spoon into cupcake molds, press down with a glass (or spoon) and bake at 350º for 7 mins. 

 

 

For the cheesecake:

1 lb (2 packages) cream cheese, softened

1/2  tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tbs lemon zest

1 tbs lemon juice

pinch of salt

Reduce oven temperature to 275 degrees. Beat cream cheese with a mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add remaining 1/2 cup sugar, then vanilla. With mixer running, add eggs slowly, scraping down side of bowl. Add sour cream, lemon juice, zest and salt. Pour batter into muffin cups, filling almost to the tops.

Bake until sides are set but centers are wobbly, about 15 - 20 minutes. Do not over bake. Even if it looks like its not done, it is. Let it cool.

Lemon curd recipe came from the link Jen sent me, which essentially is Martha's recipe as well. The curd is very simple to make, and extremely refreshing. You might be tempted to just eat those cute cheesecake on their own, but resist the urge and make the curd! I cut some sugar out of the recipe to make it extra tart. And the butter in the end seemed unnecessary, so that didn't make it in either. 

Lemon Curd

3 large egg yolks
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, (from 2 lemons)
4 tablespoons sugar

Combine the yolks, zest, juice and sugar in a medium saucepan.I strain the curd into a bowl before adding the butter. I always seem to overcook the eggs somewhat. No one likes cooked eggs in their curd.

Whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat, whisking continuously, until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 5-7 minutes. 

Press it through a sieve just so it looks nice and smooth. 

You're curd it ready.  If you're cheesecakes are cooled off by now, go ahead and top one with a dollop of lemon curd. I added a dash of color with fresh blueberries soaked in their own juice. 

End result: Delicious!

Pork/Shrimp Dumplings

These dumplings evolved out of a failed recipe for what I called "shrimp balls". In my head they were going to be delicious pillows of minced shrimp infused with garlic and ginger, crunchy on the outside, mealy on the inside. So I minced my garlic, ginger and shrimp. Rolled it out into little shrimp meatballs, and shallow fried them. It didn't turn like I wanted at all. Not even close. What it ended up being was a big oily mess of extremely salty mush. I had to find another use for all this salty shrimp paste. 

I needed to tame down the salt, without adding much more to it. I didn't want to make it into a bigger mess than it already was. So I added a bit of ground pork to the mix. Along with some scallions. Went out and got some won-ton wrappers and decided to make dumplings. Mind you, with all the salt I had added to my first experiment, it was still salty. I figured once the plain wonton comes into play, it should be tolerable. 

I proceeded to individually place a dollop of meat-mix on the wonton and wrap it up.

After I had them all done, I set out to steam them. That's when I realized I don't have a steamer. No worries, I have a colander that has holes! I didn't have cabbage leaves to line my make-shift steamer, so I lined it with lettuce. (Note-to-self: DO NOT use a nice powder coated colander as a steamer. Steam and nice red powder coating don't seem to go well together. I ruined my colander. Get a steamer.)

Dumplings steam in about 15 mins. I could have just eaten them as is. But why eat them steamed, when you can pan fry them! So I did.

No soy sauce or fish sauce. I had enough salt to begin with. So just a dash of siracha. I little garnish of scallions, and voila!

Bon appétit! 

Cupcake Day

This week is my turn for our newly formed weekly "Cupcake Day" at work. Jen has already pushed the bar WAY up with a delectable re-creation of Martha's Chocolate Graham Cracker cupcakes. I've been searching and digging around for recipes all weekend long. My idea is to make something light and fruity - considering its in the high 80's outside. My searches brought about plenty of fruity cupcakes and fruit tarts, but nothing caught my fancy. Then I came upon mini cheesecakes! Now that could be refreshing and tart. SOLD! I've built up in my head a picture of a mini lemon cheesecake topped with lemon curd and blueberries. Now I have to find a recipe for this.

Martha has a nice cupcake recipe for mini cheesecake, but I wanted one with lemon in it. I found this one, but again, not exactly what I'm looking for. Great picture though - I want mine to look like that! So I'm just going to mix and match and find two separate recipes: Lemon cheesecake and lemon curd. Then top it off with blueberries. How could I possibly go wrong, right?

Stay tuned.