Fried Squash Blossoms!

Yum!! Squash Blossoms!

I just discovered this super easy, very tasty recipe from a great Tuscan cookbook, Piano Piano Pieno. These delicately fried flowers make a scrumptious aperitivo. Unfortunately my garden has already suffered from a number of frosts and the zucchini season is coming to an end. But I'm still picking every flower those plants offer!

Pick the male flowers from any squash plant (the flowers attached to stems as opposed to those on the end of the squash), remove the pistil, wash and check for bugs. Leave a 1/4 inch of stem attached to use as a handle. Gently towel dry.

Batter
3/4 cup organic all-purpose flour
1 cup water
1/4 tsp. salt
pinch of grated nutmeg

Whisk all ingredients together and let sit for at least 30 minutes.

Heat olive oil up in a pot suitable for frying (you should have about 1 inch of oil in the pot).
When the oil is hot, dip squash blossoms in the batter and put into oil. Fry each side until golden brown. Do not crowd blossoms in the pot, they will stick together. When done place on towel to absorb excess oil. Keep warm in a 200 degree oven until all blossoms are fried. Sprinkle with salt and serve!!


Unfortunately this is not a recipe which can be made ahead. Best to fry and eat. When done I filter the oil and save it for the next time--but don't let it go rancid!

You can also stuff your squash blossoms if you pick them early in the morning when they are fully open. I stuff them with a sauteed zucchini tomato mix, with a bit of almost burnt onions and some Parmigiano.

Wine Suggestions: A white Italian of course! Try a Friuli white or other crisp light white. Save your chardonnay for something else!

Indian-Style Ratatouille

I came up with this recipe after talking about India with someone at the Glenwood Springs Farmer's Market. When I went home to make dinner I felt like diverging from my traditional Mediterranean based diet. (But not too far off, as you'll see!)

Ingredients
1 Onion (small), diced
1 Zucchini (large), cut into bite size pieces
1 Eggplant (small), peeled and cut into bite size pieces
Tomatoes, rough cut
Garlic, crushed
1 Cinnamon stick, whole
Turmeric
Curry powder
Olive oil
Cayenne pepper

Heat oil in a large cast iron skillet. Add cayenne pepper and cinnamon stick. Add diced onion and saute until soft. Add Eggplant and Zucchini and a bit more olive oil. Saute. Add turmeric and curry powder. Stir well. Add garlic and any other desired herbs. Add cut up tomatoes and continue to cook. Serve with rice and chutney.

Wine suggestions: What else but a riesling! (From the Mosel of course)

Ratatouille

Yum! Before summer runs out of steam, as it is quickly doing here in the Rockies, I have to profer up a directive for ratatouille. It is the simplest of dishes to prepare, and the most rewarding to freeze and rediscover in the heart of February.

Ingredients
1 Zucchini, peeled and cut into bite sized chunks
1 Eggplant, peeled and cut into bite sized chunks
1 Onion, diced
Alot of Tomatoes, cored and rough cut (maybe 10 or so, depending on size)
Olive Oil
A fair amount of Garlic, crushed
Fresh herbs of choice (I use basil, parsley and tarragon), cut
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 Bay leaves

Heat olive oil in a pot (I use cast iron dutch oven). Add onion and salt. Saute until soft, slightly golden. Cut and add eggplant and a bit more oil, continue to saute until soft. Cut and add zucchini. Stir. Cut and add tomatoes. Add crushed garlic, bay leaves and herbs. Simmer covered until cooked (at least one hour). Add more garlic and herbs, salt and pepper as desired.

This recipe is great when finished but even better the next day when all of the flavors have come together. Traditionally you would also add red and green bell peppers to this recipe. I peel the vegetables because I almost always make extra to freeze some and the texture works better if the veggies are peeled. If you have no intention of freezing any you need not peel the zucchini and eggplant. But why wouldn't you save some of this for those drab tomato-less days of winter?!

Wine Suggestions: Great with a rose from Provence or other Rhone varietal white (Roussane, Viognier...). Can also work well with a hearty, earthy red such as Gigondas or Vacqueyras

Summer

Ok, so I have been slacking in my posts and am feeling the shame of abandoning the Gourmande site. But not for a lack of cooking. So I will offer you all a few fun, easy, speedy recipes of summer!

Caprese Salad

Vine Ripened Tomatoes
Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella
Fresh Basil
High Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil
High Quality Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and Pepper

Slice tomatoes into slices. Slice mozzarella into slices. Place tomatoes and mozzarella on a plate alternating each slice of tomato with a slice of mozzarella. Overlap slices. Place a basil leaf on each piece of mozzarella. Place more basil in the center of the plate. Sprinkle everything with salt and pepper then drizzle with olive oil and balsamic.

Yum!!


Panzanella

Tomatoes
Cucumber (Waxless)
Red Onion
Basil
Chives
Olive Oil
Red Wine Vinegar
Salt and Pepper
Day-old Country Loaf of Wheat Bread

Make croutons: Cut bread into one inch cubes. Toss in olive oil and bake in a 350 oven for about 15 minutes.

Cut tomatoes into bite size pieces, peel cucumber leaving alternating strips of skin present. Cut into 1/4 inch thick quarters. Slice red onion into thin slices, halve. Chop basil and chives. Mix all ingredients into bowl. Let sit so the bread absorbs the juices and becomes soft.
Serve!!

Wine Suggestions (for both dishes): Sauvignon Blanc, dry rose, or Tocai Friulano from north-east Italy.

Blood Orange Sorbet

OK, so admittedly there are no blood oranges in this sorbet. Unfortunately blood orange season has come and gone before I got the idea to try this recipe. And there is a very likely chance that even in season not a single blood orange would make its way into the Roaring Fork Valley. Alas, this is just plain old orange sorbet... But should you have access to quality blood oranges substitute them and Yum!

1 1/4 cup Water
3/4 cup Sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Organic Orange zest
2 1/3 cups Organic Orange juice and puree (approximately 6 Valencia oranges)
4 tablespoons Buttermilk

Dash Cointreau

Mix water, sugar and orange zest and refrigerate overnight (the overnight is not absolutely necessary, it's just how I happened to make this).

In a medium sauce pan bring sugar mixture to a boil to melt sugar. Stir and remove from heat. While cooling, cut peel from oranges and segment them into a bowl, making sure not to include the membrane. (I juiced half of them and peeled half). Puree the orange segments in a food processor until broken up, approximately 20 seconds. Add orange juice, Cointreau, and buttermilk to sugar syrup and refrigerate until cold. (The Cointreau will keep the sorbet from becoming to icy.)

Process in your ice cream maker according to directions.

Enjoy!

Serve with a sweet muscatel from Spain.

Wild Asparagus: Ambassadors of Spring

It is wild asparagus time again here in the Rockies and I have taken to scouring road-side ditches and fence lines. The green stalks, members of the lily family (along with onions, garlic and leeks), can grow up to ten inches a day under ideal conditions and can be harvested for a period of 6-7 weeks. There is no discernible difference between wild and cultivated asparagus, except of course the taste and enjoyment offered by a hard sought feast. The wild shoots grow in a variety of sizes, making them more difficult to cook in large quantities than your standard cultivated asparagus. The most tender of these wild creatures are the thicker stalks.

Simple Asparagus Ideas
Steam or boil in salt water for 5-8 minutes until just tender.
Drain, put on a serving plate and drizzle with:

*An elegant, herbaceous olive oil and fleur de sel
Or
* A Sauce of olive oil, lemon juice, a pinch of brewer's yeast (flakes), salt and pepper
Or
*Olive oil, shaved, aged Pecorino Romano, fleur de sel, crushed white pepper.

Remember, simply prepared asparagus highlight the flavor of this hard sought wild and tender shoot.

Wine Suggestion
A light rosé, a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, or an Austrian Grüner Veltliner.

In Defense of Food

In his latest manifesto, In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan makes the claim for eating real food. The first half of the book is a viable and just argument against eating food based on health claims. As Pollan astutely points out, fruits and vegetables rarely come with packaging professing their innumerable benefits, yet it is these foods in their simple, unprocessed state that have fed and nourished generations of healthy individuals. Unfortunately as Pollan pleads against the reductive nutritionist argument (nutritional information found on packaging) he does so in the very manner he is advising against: using numbers and statistics that are anything but unprocessed. While his points of contention are clear, they are certainly not concise. As the book progresses it begins to read more and more like someone's biology thesis than an enthralling work of non-fiction. (Yes, I did find myself skimming large sections of the book: Come on, get on with it already).

The second part of the book comes as a welcome relief from the statistical crunching of the first half. It offers Pollan's opinionated justification and how-to for eating real food, and does so in a manner much more accessible than his own reductive arguments of the first half.

The book can be summed up by Pollan's own words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." It is a valid and worthy premise; unfortunately Pollan proffers up way too much processed, nutrient-by-nutrient information for his book to stand up to his own standard of eating.

Recommendation: Read the cover and dust jacket and then move on to something more worthwhile.

Comge is a Reckless Girl.

Warning * Tapioca ball must chew before swallow * Children under 5 not suggest to eat

Thus wrote Mr. Bubbles, on his tea.

Clams with Fettuccine

This is a great, simple recipe in which the finished dish appears to have involved a bit more work than was actually required. Enjoy!

Ingredients
Clams
3 Shallots sliced
3 Cloves garlic roughly chopped
1 pint Cream
1/4 cup Parsley finely chopped
Fettuccine
2 Tbs. Olive oil
1 Tbs. Butter
2 Tbs. Flour

Put on a large pot of water to boil.

In the meantime, heat a large cast iron skillet over medium-low heat, add about two tablespoons of olive oil and shallots and garlic, saute (making sure they do not burn) for about two minutes, add butter and mix. Add flour and stir until thickens. Add parsley and half of the cream; mix thoroughly. Add rest of cream and mix. Add clams and coat with mixture. Cook until the clams open and release their juice. Taste and add salt and pepper. Turn down heat enough to keep clams warm.

When water boils add salt and pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and add to clam sauce.

Wine Suggestions
I had this with a good cold Sake and it was perfect! You can also enjoy with a rosé or a French or New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Crab-Boil Soup, Or Recipe for a Misplaced Cajun

This recipe is a variation of traditional vegetable soup. I discovered this soup one night when I was feeling under the weather and wanted nothing but soup in my system (in addition to a little o.j. of course). As it first starts cooking the soup smells almost exactly like crab-boil--without the crabs!!


Olive oil
1 Russet potato, cubed
2 Slices onion, medium dice
1 Stalk celery, small dice
1 Stalk Swiss chard, chopped
3 Cloves garlic
A lot of cayenne pepper
2 Bay leaves
4 Tbs. Parsley
Salt & Pepper
2 Fistfuls each of pink and yellow lentils

Put all of the ingredients except the lentils into a pot over medium heat. Mix to coat with oil then add enough water to thoroughly cover (you may need to add more as the soup cooks). Add lentils. Boil for 15 minutes and then reduce heat & simmer until ready to eat. Drizzle with a nice, flavorful olive oil once spooned into a bowl. This soup is quite tasty!

*Next time I'm thinking of making a roux first! Yum--It'd be like lentil etouffe! (That's a joke, dear Cajuns)

(Easy) Onion Parsley Tart

The easy is an aside because the tart is so good regardless of its ease to make. I cooked this tart as an appetizer for the first time last night and it turned out quite well. The trick is getting the crust down, but once you do you can use it for anything (split it in two and you can have a pizza appetizer and an apple tart dessert, or you can use it to make crawfish pies!). The flavors all come together nicely and make it an irresistible, mouth-watering meal opener.

Crust
1 1/2 cups flour
7 tbs. unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1 tbs. olive oil
5-9 tbs. ice water

Cut the butter into small squares. In a medium size bowl, using your hands, mix the butter in with the flour until the butter is flattened into small pieces about the size of dimes. Add the olive oil and mix. Make a well in the middle and add the ice water. Mix until the dough forms a ball. You should use just enough water for the mixture to hold together (at high altitude I am using almost 9 tbs. of water). Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Topping
Olive oil
2 large yellow onions, halved lengthwise and sliced thinly
5 tbs. parsley
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper

In a skillet put a couple of table spoons of olive oil and add the onions, salt and cayenne pepper, saute over medium heat until onions are soft and translucent, add pepper and parsley and saute for one or two additional minutes.

Putting It Together
Creole Mustard (or Dijon Mustard)
Olive Oil
Crust
Topping
Parmigiano Reggiano

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Roll out the crust on a lightly floured surface. Fold in half and roll out again. Repeat two or three additional times (the more times you fold it and roll it out the flakier your crust will be, so adjust according to desired flakiness!). Put finished crust onto a flat, very lightly floured baking sheet. Put a dollop of mustard onto the center of the crust and drizzle olive oil over the mustard. Mix the oil and mustard with a brush and brush over the surface of the crust, covering the entire surface (add more mustard if necessary). Distribute the onion mixture evenly over the crust (there should be enough onion mixture to cover the entire crust without leaving much open crust; cut off excess crust if you have too much and use for something else (like that apple tart!)). Grate enough Parmigiano over the onion so that you can barely make out the onions.

Cook for thirty-five minutes or until the smell is too tempting to resist.

Wine Suggestion
Equally versatile with a light, fruity red such as a beaujolais or a more peppery Cotes-du-Rhone.

Enjoy!

Vanilla Bourbon Ice Cream

Yum!
2 cups cream
2 cups whole milk
14 tablespoons sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
splash of vanilla
10 egg yolks
5 tablespoons bourbon

Mix cream, milk, half of sugar, vanilla and bean (split and seeds and all) in sauce pan and heat to a simmer. Remove from heat, cover and set aside for 30 minutes.

Mix yolks and remaining sugar in a bowl. Reheat cream sauce. Add 1 1/2 cups of cream sauce slowly to yolk and sugar mixture to temper it. Pour this egg mixture slowly back into cream mixture and heat on low-medium heat to 170 degrees or until a wooden spoon comes up with a thicker custard on its back and a finger drawn through the custard leaves a clean line. Pour through a strainer into a metal bowl which has been sitting over ice bath and stir occasionally until cooled. Add bourbon and mix. Place vanilla bean back into the custard and cover and refrigerate overnight.

Remove vanilla bean and pour into frozen ice cream machine and process according to machine instructions (about 20-30 minutes). Eat or freeze to harden.

Serving suggestions: With Pecan Pie. Or in a Profiterole. Or straight up!

Have a glass of A.H. Hirsch Reserve 16 year Bourbon with it, the perfect after dinner Bourbon (regardless of what the New York Times may say).

Click here for a New York Times article on Bourbon