What a Summer! {Grilled Vegetable Enchiladas}

As I sat down to write, I looked back at the previous posts and saw it has been quite a while since I've shared anything at all here. Following what was a Spring filled with a multitude of kid-related events etc, I had envisioned a summer filled with cooking and recipe testing and writing and family and fun. Summer had other ideas about what would be. Following a series of unfortunate events (minor illnesses for the kids & a seemingly small ankle injury that resulted in surgery for my sweet daughter), not much happened in the way of creative cooking.  While we did have an amazingly fun trip to the NJ/NYC area, the majority of the summer was spent in survival mode. Now,with the school year in full swing, we're just now acclimating to the school year schedule and all that it brings. Also, it is officially Fall, but here in Central Texas, temps are still reaching into the 90's so no sweater vests or cords for us just yet. 

With warm-weather cooking still on my mind, and summer crops still available at the local farmers' market, I set out to make a meal that was simple, tasty and not in our usual rotation. I love a good enchilada and have an excellent recipe for my Grandma's red sauce. However, that dish can be a bit heavy with the cheese-filled tortillas, sauce and more cheese. This dish is a bit lighter with all of the things required to be defined as an enchilada but with a bit of a twist --  the filling is purely grilled vegetables, the sauces, one red and one green, are also light and fresh and the cheese is a queso fresco which is lighter than the mounds of melted cheese found in the traditional version. Additionally, rather than a casserole type item, the final product is given a light fry in oil to crisp up the corn tortilla and give it some texture. It is a big like a flauta in a way, but not really...maybe it is a flauta-lada. Whatever you call it, it is so so good and made a fabulous re-entry into creative cooking here in my home.

Grilled Vegetable Enchiladas with Red and Green Sauces

adapted from Ruth Cosineau

• 1 lb of fresh zucchini squash; sliced lengthwise into 1/4" thick slices
• 1 large onion, peeled and cut into 1/4" slices
• 2-4 red sweet peppers, stems and seeds removed and cut into quarters
• 8 corn tortillas
• canola oil
• 8 oz of queso fresco, crumbled
• your favorite red salsa (fresh, table style preferably)
• your favorite green sauce (tomatillo salsa is a good choice)

1. Prepare grill or grill pan to medium high heat. While grill is heating, prepare vegetable slices and place on a grill pan/grill basket.
2. Place vegetables on grill and cook until slightly charred - about 6-8 minutes for peppers and squash and 10-12 minutes for onions. Turn as needed to have both sides even. (Cook to your taste, but let them cook at least until softened)
3. Once vegetables are done, slice into thin strips and hold until ready to fill enchiladas.
4. In a small fry pan, add enough oil to have depth of 1/4-1/2"of oil. Heat oil over medium-high heat. In order to soften tortillas for rolling, slide tortilla into the hot oil briefly and then remove to a papertowel lined plate. (Allow oil to drip back into saute pan before moving.) Once all tortillas have been softened move on to filling.
5. Spread a scant tablespoon of the green sauce on the surface of the pliable tortilla. Fill with strips of grilled vegetables being careful to not over stuff. Roll tortilla and then place enchilada into the hot oil; seam side down first. Once the enchilada has crisped a bit, use the tongs to flip and crisp other side. (I used a small 8 in pan(in an effort to reduce the amount of initial oil needed) so I did these one at a time. If you use a larger pan, you may be able to fit more at once.)
6. When crisped, move enchilada to plate. Drizzle with both salsas and crumbled queso & serve and enjoy!

Note: I used homemade salsas, but jarred salsas would do just as well. The local farmers' market has many high quality products that have more of the aspects of a fresh made salsa than the standard mass produced store varieties. Additionally, make sure that your rolled enchiladas aren't too wet with sauce as you will cause a flash fire when you place them in the grease - I learned the hard way with a couple of surprising flare-ups!

These were absolutely delicious and such a refreshing change of pace from our usual dinners. I'm hoping this sparked my cooking mojo and that it will stick with me into the fall season!

Happy Cooking!

sld

Fresh, Seasonal, Local Produce

From the TGK Mailbag, Lisa comments that she would like more information about the CSA that I've mentioned

So here's the deal, we try to eat as much fresh, local seasonal produce as we can. In order to make that happen, there are a few choices.

1. Grow it yourself - which, to some extent, we do by planting a tomato garden and other asst. vegetables (to varying degrees of success) Because our success depends on a wide variety of factors some fully within our control and others not so much, we also source produce from much more expert sources.
2. Farmer's Markets - the Austin area has quite a few choices for weekly farmer's markets. Most have rules about who can sell and what they sell at these markets. It is important to ask questions of the farmers/vendors to understand if they are an actual producer or if they just happen to be selling some corn they picked up from "a guy down South" or such. The various markets happen on a variety of days and times throughout the area and if you're close to a location, then you're lucky. If not, it can take some planning to make sure to fit it into your weekly schedule. 
3. CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) - there is a lot of variance in what this model looks like depending upon the guidelines set up by the particular farmer. Basically, though, it works like this: a farmer offers a certain number of "shares" to the public. Typically,  the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a "membership" or a "subscription") and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week (or biweekly) throughout the farming season. The one to which we subscribe, Johnson's Backyard Garden, allows a lot of flexibility re: the length of the term you sign up for and allows you to access an online schedule tool to postpone your share delivery etc. 

By joining a CSA, we have found that the quality of the produce is excellent and lasts so much longer than the stuff we purchase at the grocery store. Additionally, because the box contents depend upon what is being grown at that point in time, it has become sort of a challenge to use things that we've never before eaten (Your very own home version of the show "Chopped") We also particularly love that we're supporting the local economy at a very basic level. We've found that for our family, biweekly pick-ups are perfect. On occasion we'll supplement with a run to the farmer's market to pick up extra items that we'd like to have more of *and* for the past 2 years, I've made a large bulk purchase of canning tomatoes to do just that - put up are own canned tomatoes for use in the "off-season" 

I'd highly recommend you try it out for a few weeks and see if it makes a difference in what your family eats. I am a firm believer that the better you stock your home pantry and fridge, the better you'll eat. Sure, it takes a bit of planning to make sure you actually use all of the vegetables that you receive, but the reward is well worth it. If you do sign up with a CSA and you get something in your share that you have no clue how to use, just remember, I'm always up for a food challenge - send me a message and I'll pull together some ideas for using the item!

Happy Cooking!

sld

Far Better than Anticipated {Turnip Pancakes}

I had no intention of posting about this particular dish. I didn't take any blog-worthy photos. But, just so you don't get the wrong impression, and think that every night is a big drawn out pasta-making, or dumpling-making kitchen equivalent to a Busby Berkeley musical number (imagine whisks and spatulas instead of coins.), there are times when I have some of our less favorite ingredients to use.  Take, for instance, last night - I had been wanting to clean out the fridge and happened upon a big bag of root vegetables (turnips, kohlrabi, and potatoes) stored up from a few past CSA deliveries. God love the root vegetable as it is nearly impossible for them to go bad even when you want them to  accidentally forget them in the bottom of the vegetable drawer.

Usually, turnips and kohlrabi are strictly cold weather offerings. I will roast them in the oven and serve them along side of a pork tenderloin or such. Warm, heavyish, decidedly not Summer. I needed to find something that was a bit more fitting to the current season. Somewhere in the depths of my foggiest memories, I recalled turnip cakes being on the dim sum carts at T&S (a fabulous albeit quite dive-y Chinese restaurant here in Austin). I searched the internets for a recipe, but all of them required ingredients that would mean a trip to the Asian grocery store, and I had no intentions of that type of effort for these turnips, etc.

Instead, why not make a potato pancake (latke or kartoffelpuffer or rosti depending upon your cultural persuasion)? So , this is what I did.

Turnip Pancakes

• 1 lb turnips (can combine turnips and kohlrabi with good results)
• 1/2 lb potatoes
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C flour
• 3 Tbsp green onions, minced.
• 1/4 C peanut oil (my new go-to pan frying oil - high smoke point= no black sludge at the end of your frying)

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Peel and cube all of the root vegetables. Add to boiling water and cook for about 15 minutes (until the vegetables are tender when pierced with a fork.)
2. Drain water from the pot and return vegetables to the pot. Mash with a fork or a potato masher. Add green onions and mix well. Stir in beaten eggs, flour and salt and pepper to taste. (At this point, my mixture looked very similar to a very moist and very mashed potato salad.)
3. In a large, heavy skillet, heat 1/4 cup oil over medium high heat. Using a 1/4 cup measure,  scoop the mixture into the pan and flatten a bit with the back of the cup, forming a flattened pancake. Cook about 4 minutes per side and remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper and serve.

These were far better than I anticipated. I'm always a bit tentative in offering some of these more unusual dishes to El Syd, but he loved these and commented that they reminded him of crab cakes - not so much in flavor (the turnip flavor is cut by the potato and kohlrabi, so it isn't aggressive at all) but in texture. A vegetarian "crab"cake is the way he described it. Just as with traditional potato pancakes, we served these with a dollop of sour cream and they were really quite good. We have found our new "go-to"preparation for turnips!

Try them out and let me know what you think.

Happy Cooking!

sld

Tuscan Stuffed Artichokes

Since we've really made an effort to eat as much locally sourced produce as we can over the course of the past 2 years or so, that means taking advantage of vegetables during their actual season. It is now or next year for many vegetables with a relatively short growing season.  

Recently,a local farm was offering bulk artichokes.  For $32, they were offering a half-bushel of these unusual vegetables. Based on general size-grading, that is 24 artichokes per count. As I had just been to the local grocery store and had seen artichokes priced at close to $5 a pop, I couldn't pass up this opportunity to try these super fresh, locally grown gems.

I messaged the farmers and asked how to make arrangements to get the goods. Lucky for me, they were able to deliver direct to my door. Either they are incredibly nice, or just that they are trying all means necessary to get rid of this bumper crop of 'chokes, but when they were delivered to my door, they gave me an extra half dozen artichokes (a farmer's bushel rather than a baker's dozen, I guess?)

So, with giant bag o' overgrown thistles in hand, the gauntlet was thrown. Let the games begin! 

The first night was easy - simple steamed artichokes. They were absolutely wonderful. Even though they are rather large in size, they are quite young as none of them that I prepared that night had the unpalatable furry choke at the center. That meant that other than the tough outer leaves, the rest of the vegetable could be eaten straight down to that delicious heart.

The next night, these Tuscan Stuffed Artichokes were the featured item. El Syd has fond memories of his mother making a similar dish when he was a kid, so it was fun to make them for him. 

In order to make these, you must first prepare the artichokes for stuffing. 

• It is important to thoroughly rinse the artichokes and even give them a light brush with a vegetable brush as this will help to remove the natural light film that the artichoke produces as it grows. This film can give the artichoke a bitter taste if not removed. 
• If you're planning on standing the artichokes up in a pan, you'll need to trim off the stem. Since the stem (or at least the core of it) is a continuation of the artichoke heart (the best part of the whole thing), only trim it if absolutely necessary. Also, trim the top off about one inch down from the top of the artichoke. To pretty the whole thing up, use scissors or kitchen shears to cut the tips of each of the leaves as they typically have a small thorn on the top. If you're going to cook them later, rub the cut edges with a lemon to keep them from browning, or you can submerge them in lemon water until you're ready to cook them.
• To get them ready for stuffing, I like to remove the center leaves to make a hole or pocket for a bunch of filling. For larger, more mature artichokes, it is easier to lightly steam them and then remove those center leaves and that fuzzy choke before stuffing. For young, tender artichokes (like the ones I have now) a sharp tug at those center leaves have them coming out and with no fuzzy choke, they are ready for stuffing.

Tuscan Stuffed Artichokes 

• 4 medium artichokes
• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 Tbsp fresh, toasted breadcrumbs
• 1/8 C fresh flat-leaf parsley, minced
• 3 Tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Prepare artichokes for stuffing. Spread the leaves open slightly so that you have more nooks and crannies into which the stuffing can fall.
2. Combine all ingredients, except the artichokes. Using a small spoon, fill the cavities of the artichokes with the stuffing mixture. 
3. Place stuffed artichokes into a baking dish (if you pared off longer stems, you can use them as supports at the base of the artichokes - make a grid).
4. Add 1/2 inch of water into the bottom of the dish and add a tablespoon of olive oil.
5. Tightly cover the dish with foil and bake until the artichokes are tender (time will vary depending on if you slightly steamed them or not, and their size. For a medium to large artichoke that was totally raw, allow about 45 minutes. ) 
6. Serve warm or at room temp. To eat: To eat, pull off the leaves and scrape them along your bottom teeth, picking up stuffing as you go. For the outer leaves, you're just removing the pulp and will be tossing the very fibrous tops. As you get closer to the center, the leaves will become more and more tender and you'll be able to eat more and more of the leaf. Once you eat all of the leaves, cut the heart into chunks and eat with remaining stuffing on the plate.

If you've only ever had artichokes that have been frozen or from a can, I highly recommend this way of preparing the fresh variety. The crispy savory seasoning is a fabulous match for the natural sweetness of the artichoke flesh. Once you get the hang of it, they aren't nearly as scary as they seem at first look. 

Seven down; 23 more to go....ideas?

Happy Cooking!

sld

Pasta Primavera

Ahhhh...the first day of Spring....the leaves are peeking out of every branch of our trees and the grass is starting that familiar change from dormant hay to vibrant green. It's calling to me. Over the weekend, I planted, or replanted I should say, my herb beds and am getting ready for a Spring and Summer filled with light, bright food where fresh, lush vegetables are the focus. I've turned the corner from the root vegetables and the heaviness of winter squashes to the succulent, light, vibrancy that is on its way - tomatoes, eggplant and corn won't be far off now.

So, what better way to signal Spring than with the eponymous dish. Primavera is Italian for Spring and while this dish isn't truly Italian at all, being invented at Le Cirque in the 1970's, it is still a delight. It makes frequent appearances in our home all Spring and Summer. This version, adapted from Giada DeLaurentis, cuts out the blanching of the original and instead features roasted vegetables (what else?!) The results are a sweet, caramelized showcase of the vegetables' natural flavors.

Pasta Primavera (adapted from Giada DeLaurentis)

• 1/2 lb carrots, peeled
• 1/2 lb summer squash (your choice - zucchini, yellow squash, a mixture)
• 2 ripe sweet peppers (your choice - red, yellow or orange, a mixture)
• 1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 C olive oil
• 1 Tbsp Italian herbs or herbes de Provence
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 lb dried bow-tie pasta
• 20 cherry tomatoes (either halved, if large or left whole if small)
• 1/2 C shredded Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 450F. Cut carrots into 1 in rounds(on diagonal if you want to get "Fraunchy"); cut squash into 1/2 thick half circles; cut bell peppers into 2 in strips. On a large baking sheet, toss the vegetables (including onions) with the oil and dried herbs; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix until well coated. Transfer half of the vegetable mixture to another baking sheet. (I like to line my pans with foil to help cut down on the clean up mess.) Arrange the mixture evenly over both sheets and bake in the oven. Stir after first 10 minutes and continue cooking until the carrots are tender and the other vegetables begin to brown lightly (about another 10 minutes for a total of 20 minutes.)
2. While the vegetables are roasting, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the bowties and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, but still firm (al dente), about 9-10 minutes. Drain, but reserve about 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Return the pasta to the pot, toss in the roasted vegetables to combine. Add the cherry tomatoes and just enough of the reserved cooking liquid to moisten. 
3. Transfer to serving bowls; season with additional salt and pepper if you like. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve.

Happy Cooking!

 sld