Zucchini Salad with Feta Recipe

Everyone I know is looking for a good recipe that uses zucchini. Enormous zucchini appear from behind large green leaves surprising even the most vigilant gardeners. It seems there is always too much of it. No one complains about too many peaches or too many tomatoes. Too much zucchini? It's likely to be left on a neighbors doorstep as a "present."

This salad is one of my favorite ways to cook and eat zucchini. It's based on a salad in Claudia Roden's The Book of Middle Eastern Food, a book I turn to again and again. I like it seasoned with toasted cumin instead of coriander and caraway and a little bit of scallion to add texture and oniony flavor. It's called a salad but it's soft, like a dip. The sweetness of the zucchini is balanced by the saltiness of the feta, the sourness of the lemon. If you want to make even the blandest vegetable taste good, I recommend dousing it in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and topping it with feta!

For a light Summer meal I'd serve this salad well chilled along with bread and other assorted vegetable side dishes like this Middle Eastern carrot salad, tomato salad, marinated mushrooms or with hummus and pita or grilled kebabs. It's a healthy dish to keep in the fridge for a little snack though you may find you polish if off pretty quickly.

Zucchini Salad with FetaServes 2-4

Ingredients

1 lb zucchini
Juice of 1/2 lemon
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon chili paste or harissa
1 clove garlic, pressed or finely minced and mashed
1/2 teaspoon toasted ground cumin
2 scallions, white and pale green parts only, minced
1/4 cup feta, crumbled
Salt

Instructions

Cut zucchini into about 5 pieces and place in a large saucepan; cover with water, add a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Cook about 15 minutes or until zucchini is very tender. Drain in a colander, while zucchini is still in colander, coarsely mash zucchini with a fork; pressing out the liquid but not the pulp.

Combine the lemon juice, olive oil, chili paste, garlic and cumin in a serving bowl. Add zucchini and minced green onion and mix. Taste for seasoning and salt, but don't use too much if your feta is salty. Top with feta. Chill before serving with pita or bread.

Enjoy!

Off the Grid

Last Friday night I was glad to join the street food revolution, at Off the Grid. Off the Grid takes place Friday nights from 5 pm until 9 pm in the Fort Mason Center parking lot, right near the entrance by the little guardhouse. It's a great mix of carts, people, food and drink. Families, couples and groups can be found mingling, eating, chatting and discovering deliciously affordable bites of food.


There was plenty of room to walk around, chairs and a few tables and there was even some live music. There was no overcrowding, significant waits or lines (Chairman Bao had a line but it moved quickly). The most difficult decision may be what to try because with about 10 vendors, there is no way to try it all. They ranged from traditional taco trucks like El Tonayense to the new fangled Creme Brulee cart.


I started with potato beef curry puffs from Malaysian Lacy Crepes. They were freshly fried to a crisp on the outside with a tender and mid curry on the inside. Like most things, the portion was good for sharing. I want to try their chai banana fritters next.


I was very impressed with Chairman Bao. I tried both a duck confit and mango bun and the pork belly bun, steamed, $2.75 each. Both were juicy and fresh but I think the crunchy daikon pickle in the pork version made it my favorite. They also have a baked version. Next time!


Lee had a cup of chai, which came in various flavors such as rose and vanilla almond. It seemed a bit pricey to me at $4 a cup. Most of the dishes were in the $2 to $6 range. He also approved of the lemon mochi and succulent adobo chicken.


The spiciest bites came from Curry Up Now. The Indian street food truck. The Kathi roll made from roti stuffed with pickled onion, chutney and chicken was hot stuff! In the future I'd love to see Chinese dumplings or some kind of noodle dish along the lines of the Noodle Fest in Chinatown. But the variety thus far is terrific and I will be back!

More on Off the Grid:

A Little Yum post

SF Weekly slide show

Yelp reviews

9 Stir Fry Secrets from Grace Young

Are you a stir fraud? Do you stir fry or do you stir faux? During a recent taping of You're Doing It All Wrong for Chow, I learned I was making some pretty big mistakes when it comes to stir frying hence my less than stellar results. The video is not quite ready yet, but to tide you over, here's what I learned from stir fry master and cookbook author Grace Young. Her latest book, Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge is out now.



* Use a 14-inch wok. Other sizes are too small to cook enough food or too large to heat properly on a typical home range. Find a carbon steel flat bottom wok. RESIST the urge to use a non-stick wok! It cannot be heated high enough to give you good results. If you must, use a 12-inch skillet. But again, not non-stick!

* When you marinate meat for stir frying, which only takes five minutes, add a little bit of oil.

* Use a high smoke point oil such as peanut, canola, grapeseed. Grace said rice bran oil is good too and that's generally what I have on hand.

* Hot pan, cold oil! Do not add the oil to your wok until it is hot, hot, hot! Otherwise the food will stick, stick, stick.

* Use the highest heat possible!

* To get good caramelization, spread out the meat and really let it sear before stirring.

* Stir fry the meat only until it's 3/4 of the way done before removing it and adding the vegetables.

* Be sure vegetables are good and dry when they go in the wok.

* Don't crowd the pan! The amount of vegetables will vary depending on the type, but a rule of thumb is no more than 3/4 of a pound meat and maximum 4 cups vegetables.

But you want to know the most important thing I learned? You can make a better stir fry at home than you can get in a restaurant. Really. According to Grace, you are much more likely to use higher quality ingredients than your local Chinese restaurant. And if you do it right, your results should be better.

My thanks to Chow and Grace for inviting me to the taping. I'm only sorry I couldn't stay for lunch!



More tips on stir frying from Grace on Culinate

Aloha!

Tomorrow I will be heading to one of my favorite places in the world for a birthday celebration/vacation, Hawaii. It also just happens to be one of my favorite dining destinations. In addition to eating, swimming, exploring and shopping at my favorite island farmer's market, on this trip I am looking forward to attending an Obon festival and finally meeting my favorite Hawaiian food blogger.



Since this is my vacation, I will not be blogging from the beach. If you have any hot tips or favorite restaurants on Oahu, please feel free to leave a comment. In the meantime you can check out my Honolulu Dining Guide below.



I will surely be adding to it when I return...

Until next week,

Aloha!

Amy

Archway Cookies: A Nostalgic Review

When I was growing up we didn't have soda or candy in the house, or junk food like Twinkies, but we did have cookies. Sometimes my mom made cookies from scratch, and sometimes she bought them. The thing is, some cookies need to be fresh and homemade, like chocolate chip cookies or oatmeal cookies. They just don't taste right to me if they aren't. But then there are some commercially produced cookies that are just fine and dandy.

When I was growing up I can almost guarantee you would have found pecan sandies, lemon coolers, raisin biscuits, or almond windmills in the cookie jar. Oddly enough most of those cookies are not so easy to find these days. Pecan sandies are a kind of shortbread cookie, flecked with bits of nuts and are the only cookie I still routinely see in the supermarket (though reviews seem to say they aren't as good as they used to be). Lemon coolers were very tangy cookies coated in powdered sugar. Raisin biscuits were affectionately known as "fly biscuits" in my family. They were thin layers of cookie, filled with raisins. They came in long strips that were perforated. Almond windmills later became just "windmills", as the amount of slivered almonds was drastically reduced. Windmills are based on a spiced Dutch cookie called speculaas.

Recently I got an email informing me that Archway was launching an iced lemonade cookie. Was I interested in trying some samples? Little did I know I would receive 13 packages of cookies in the mail. 13. Packages. Of cookies. So for you, my dear readers, I opened virtually every package and tried them. Call it professional responsibility. Somebody has got to try all those cookies and it might as well be me! Not every cookie made the cut, but a few varieties rose above the rest. Here are the ones I think are particularly noteworthy:


Molasses Cookies
These are soft big cookies with a lingering molasses flavor and a bit of crunch from the decorative sugar crystals. Perfect with a mug of black tea and milk.


Ginger Snaps
I like these a lot. They really have a good bite of ginger in them and are not too sweet. They would also be great in desserts. I'd use ginger snap crumbs in place of graham crackers to make a press in type of crust or to top an apple or pear crisp.


Iced Molasses
You have to like molasses to appreciate these chewy little gems, but I enjoyed them even more than the larger soft molasses version.They are really good and strong like a bracing cup of black coffee.


Iced LemonadeThese are not my beloved lemon coolers, but I like them. They are tangy, not too sweet even though they are frosted. Actually I think most of the lemon flavor comes from the glaze. They are small and very crunchy.


Windmills
These are practically as I remember them, just light on almonds. From the photo it's impossible to see any almond flakes, but they are in there. The primary flavor is cinnamon but there are other sweet spices too. Windmills are hard cookies, but not as hard as the ginger snaps. They have an almost melting sandy texture. Are they that delicious or am I just being nostalgic? Hard to say. But I am enjoying them immensely.

You will find these cookies in various supermarkets.

What store bought cookies do you love or miss?

Free Healthy Recipes!

How would you like to receive 50 free "brain healthy" recipes? Food bloggers from around the world contributed to a special recipe collection called ThinkFood, put together by Posit Science, a leader in brain training interactive software programs, designed to help users think faster, focus better and remember more. Posit Science takes an integrated approach to brain health that includes brain training and now brain healthy eating.

Visit the website to sign up for a recipe of the week. After signing up you'll be able to see the recipe online as well. This week the recipe is for Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies and includes brain healthy ingredients such as chocolate, banana, flax, and walnuts. It's from food blogger Tina Haupert of Carrots 'n Cake and it looks great! On the web site you'll get the recipe, cooking tips, meet the food blogger and learn about brain healthy ingredients.

You will also be able to purchase a copy of the hard cover book when it is available in July. I'll let you know when my recipe is available in August.

Here is the complete list of sites that contributed recipes:

Ambitious Deliciousness • Anne’s Food • Apples and Butter • The Arugula Files • Best Fruit Now • Brown Eyed Baker • Carrots ‘N’ Cake • Chocolate Shavings • Closet Cooking • Cooking with Amy • Daily Unadventures in Cooking • Dash and Bella • Dine & Dish • Dixie Caviar • Eclectic Recipes • eCurry • Fake Food Free • Food Blogga • Food Loves Writing • For the Love of Cooking • Gourmet Fury • Greedy Gourmet • Hangry Pants • Healthy Everythingtarian • Herbivoracious • Katiecakes • La Note Restaurant • Laurel On Health Food • The Leftover Queen • Lisa’s Kitchen • Local Appetite • The Lunchbox Bunch • Make Life Sweeter • My Cooking Hut • My Sweet Vegan • Napa Farm House 1885 • O-Cookies • Off the Broiler • Off the (Meat)Hook • Pink Bites • Project Foodie • Sassy Radish • Seriously Good • Shelteriffic • A Southern Fairytale • Stone Soup • Sugar Bar • Super Healthy Kids • Tastes Like Home • Wild Yeast

Asparagus Hot Brown Recipe

When I was in Louisville Kentucky a couple of weeks ago I tried the famous Hot Brown sandwich at the Brown Hotel. It's a rich combination of dreamy Mornay sauce, hearty turkey, a couple of tomato wedges and crisp bacon on top. Broiling the sandwich makes the tomatoes and sauce even tastier. But it's a monster! I really don't know how anyone can finish it. If you go to Louisville, by all means do try it. If you don't have an enormous appetite, you can order a smaller portion of the Hot Brown. It's not on the menu but it is available upon request.

All over Kentucky you will find different versions of the Hot Brown. Some have ham instead of turkey or a combination of both, or seafood and no turkey or ham. When I got home I decided I would try my hand at making a slightly lighter version of this delectable sandwich. But I figured why not try it with asparagus? After all, asparagus and cheese sauce is already pretty tasty. While I love Mornay sauce, I rarely have heavy cream on hand so I made a simpler cheese sauce. I kept the bacon because I think the salty, smoky flavor and crunch really are important in this mostly soft fork-and-knife style sandwich. I also like the juicy tomatoes so I kept them in the mix.

The Hot Brown was created as a late night snack for dancing, partying Louisvillians who craved something other than a midnight breakfast. But actually I think it makes a great breakfast or lunch. I know my other half would it eat it for breakfast if I put a fried egg on it! Then again, he would eat just about anything with a fried egg on it. A sandwich smothered in cheese sauce is a yummy thing indeed and I think there are probably endless variations...

Asparagus Hot BrownServes 4

Ingredients

3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons flour
2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
Salt to taste

4 thick slices white bread, such as Pullman or Texas toast, crusts trimmed, bread lightly toasted

1 lb. asparagus, trimmed and steamed
4 teaspoons grated Parmesan
1 -2 ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into 8 wedges

8 slices bacon, cooked

1/4 cup parsley, chopped

Instructions

For the sauce:
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour and cook, whisking constantly, until pale golden, about 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and quickly whisk in milk and cheese. Return pan to heat. Cook sauce, whisking constantly, until smooth and creamy, 1–2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and season sauce with salt to taste.

Preheat broiler. Trim the asparagus spears in half, so they are no more than 4 inches long and cut the toast into triangles. Put 2 pieces of toast in each dish, and cover with 1/4 of the asparagus and spoon 1/2 cup of sauce over it. Sprinkle a teaspoon of cheese over each portion. Garnish each dish with two tomato wedges, tucked next to the sandwich. Broil sandwiches until sauce is browned, about 1-2 minutes. Put 2 pieces bacon on each sandwich and sprinkle with parsley before serving.

Enjoy!