summer evening samplers

i've got a little smokey joe kettle grill, the kind that's only a bout a foot wide and sits right on the ground. it is dedicated veg, and flesh will never approach it. but upstairs on the deck is the big gas grill, which has been used to grill meat, and still is once or twice a year when there's family in town that eats that sorta stuff. now the little grill is great because i can sit out on the patio and drink and smoke right next to the food, it's the most relaxed form of cooking in the world. but i don't always have the forethought to get the charcoal going, and sometimes i just can't be bothered, so when it's too hot to put on the oven i'll use the gas grill kinda like an oven or a range, with pans or a grill grate to keep things kosher. last night was one of those little bit of everything summer meals, you can never have too many salad. there was potato salad, tomato basil salad, roasted tempeh (which kinda tasted like soggy bread - i don't think i like tempeh), stuffed jalapenos, beet greens, and fresh from the garden! courgettes and blossoms just lightly heated in olive oil.
a couple nights ago i tried my hand at socca, which is an italian flat bread made with chick pea flour. i did it on the gas grill with a heavy cast iron skillet. it was alright, but a little dry inside, and i've read it's meant to be creamy like a good french fry, which it certainly was not, so i'll know for next time. i topped it with a simple green salad and served it with a celeriac/kohlrabi slaw.
and last week sometime i tried my hand at mapo tofu again, but this time made no attempt to make it authentic, i just cooked in a way that i thought would taste good to me. my major objection last time being the texture of the tofu, this time i used extra firm, which i pressed, marinated, and seared off before adding to the sauce along with many more vegetables. it was much more satisfying to my palette.

country fried tofu with roast onions, mashed potatoes, and gravy

delicious comfort food. all very satisfying. the tofu is from ann jackson's cookin southern, vegetarian style, which is a great depository of tips and tricks for adapting classic dishes, as well as treats no health food cookbook would touch with ten foot pole. i've had these little golf ball size onions from the farmers' market that wanted using up so i cooked them in the style of a dish i like to do with shallots for thanksgiving. the mash was simple, unadulterated, and i'm always trying to come up with a nice, hearty gravy.
for the tofu: mine was leftover from some spring rolls i made the other night, just extra firm tofu sliced about 1/2 inch thick, pressed, and marinated with a bit of sesame oil and tamari. ms. jackson's trick is to dredge it in nutritional yeast and pan fry it low and slow in cast iron till it's beautifully golden all over.
i've talked through good, proper mash a couple times already, but to reiterate: boil potatoes whole, peel, pass through a food mill or ricer, mix with butter and cream.
for the gravy: this was sort of a thickened mushroom gravy, lots of chile, but didn't taste that hot - adjust to your own taste.

• 4 small fresh onions, minced fine, any of the good looking green bits included
• 1 jalapeno, minced fine
• 1 habenero, minced fine
• 3 cloves garlic, minced fine
• small handful dried porcini and
• small handful dried chanterelles, soaked for twenty minutes, minced fine, liquid reserved
• small sprig rosemary, minced
• small handful parsely, minced
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 cup mushroom stock (i like 'better than bullion,' they have it at whole foods)
• 1 tbs. cornstarch

suatee the onions, garlic, and chiles in olive oil until softened, then add the mushrooms. cook, stirring often, until it starts to stick to the bottom of the pan, then deglaze with the white wine. add mushroom stock, bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 1/2 hour. combine about 1/2 cup of the reserved mushroom liquid with the cornstarch. when ready to serve add slurry and bring to a full boil to thicken.
now for my favourite, the roast onions; i used:

• 3 small fresh onions
• 2 shallots (yes looks like four, sometimes you peel a shallot and there are 2 inside!)
• 3 tbs. butter
• 1/3 cup brandy
• 1/2 cup water
• ~1 tsp. marmite
  

suatee the onions in butter until golden brown all over, a little black is ok, then...


add brandy, enjoy fire! watch for eyebrow singing/arson charges.
add the water and the marmite, then place in a 350 degree oven for ~1/2 hour till the onions are soft and the liquid is reduced to a sweet syrup. yum. the liquid left over after making this is pretty incomparable as a gravy itself, but not enough for all those mashed potatoes.
everything put together and garnished with some basil made for a very satisfying meal.

summer squash soup

a very simple soup. i find that soups are one of the easiest things to make magnificent and memorable with only a gentle touch. other foods can be 'good' even 'great,' but a sublime soup shows up much more often, i think. our own zucchini are not quite harvest ready in the little back yard garden we've got going, but squash is dirt cheap at the farmers' market since the plants produce a huge amount. one of the doctors at my work grew up on a farm in wisconsin and she related this adage, 'you can tell the people who have no friends if you see them buying zucchini at the grocery store.' which didn't sound dirty at all at the time, but when i repeated it to some friends at the bar that night all context had evaporated away leaving only a single and crude entendre - and me not getting what i had just said. anyway, i sauteed three or four fresh (golf ball size) onions, roughly chopped with any of the good looking green bits thrown in as well, with two or three cloves of garlic until soft and fragrant. then, i added four pattypan squash (mine were about fist sized, but a little more or less will not this recipe break), roughly chopped, and sauteed for another 10 minutes on medium heat. at this time i added a tablespoon of dried dill (fresh is fine, i had none) and enough vegetable stock to cover everything up. bring to a boil, cover, and let simmer for 20 minutes or so before having at it with an immersion blender. i served garnished with chives and sour cream. also delightful chilled.

mum's cheese pies

to say i learned everything i know about cooking from my mother would not be entirely true, but i learned a hell of a lot from her, and more importantly she imparted to me a passion for cooking -how to wrap the day up with a fine meal like putting a bow on a present. as french gourmand tallyrand put it, "show me another pleasure like dinner, which comes every day and lasts an hour."
this is one my favourite recipes of hers, all the better for its simplicity. she says to have learned it from an old, greek friend of the family, dora.
first you mash up some feta or goat cheese with a beaten egg. in this particular incarnation some suateed spinach was added as well. defrost some filo dough and cut it into strips about 3 inches wide. layer them 2 or 3 sheets thick. place a teaspoon of the filling on one end of the filo strip and then fold up like a flag, sealing the last fold with a little water. fry in olive oil until golden brown. there's no need to grease the filo because of the frying. quite a treat!

rumbledethumps

made this more for the sake of the name than anything else. basically it's just bubble and squeak baked with cheese on top. now i've got no roast dinner's leftovers to use up, but this combines two of my favourite things, mashed potatoes and greens, and is totally worth making in it's own right. in my csa box last week i had some savoy cabbage (i think) so i decided to use that as the green component. i also had garlic scapes, which i didn't even know existed - and now that i do i guess i'll have to wait until next year to get them again. the guy at the farmers' market told me that the green parts of fresh onions and scallions were edible, which i had been uncertain about before, so i threw those in as well.

these are the garlic scapes above, very tasty. i used:

• 4 baking potatoes
• 3 tbs. butter
• 3 tbs. heavy cream
  
• ~6 garlic scapes, roughly chopped
• green parts of 3 fresh scallions, roughly chopped
• 1 small white onion, diced
• 1 small (fist sized) head of broccoli, roughly chopped
• 1/2 head savoy cabbage, or any other dark green, roughly chopped
• cheddar cheese to top
• oil to saute

wash the potatoes then place them in cold water and bring to a boil. simmer 30 min or until cooked through. cool enough to handle, then peel and pass through a ricer or food mill. mix in cream and butter, set aside. in a saucepan over medium high heat saute the onion, scapes, and shallot greens for ~5 minutes until translucent. add the broccoli and cabbage and ~1/3 cup of water. cover tightly and let steam for 10 minutes or so. when everything is cooked through mix into the mashed potatoes. place in a casserole dish and cover with shredded cheddar cheese. bake at 375 f for 15-20 minutes until bubbly and starting to brown on top.
one of my favourite cookbooks, vegetarian entertaining for friends, by simon hope, has a great recipe for cheesy bubble and squeak where, instead of baking, egg and cheese are added to the potato/greens mix with some bread crumbs and flour, formed into patties and then fried. delightful. great recipe and infinitely adaptable. any dark leafy green or cruciferous vegetable can be brought into the mix. this week's rumbledethumps was great, but i've made a most delicious version with brussel sprouts and mustard greens.

grilled salad

one of my favourite summertime meals. who says you can't put everything on the grill? pretty much anything you'd normally put in a salad - grilled. i have here a head of romaine, quartered lengthwise, four slices of bread, one tomato, quartered, and three shallots, quartered lengthwise. - all drizzled with oil and seasoned. the shallots and tomatoes take the longest while the bread and lettuce just need a couple of minutes per side. dressed simply with olive oil and vinegar.