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Fresh fruit salsa

July 29, 2011 by knitting a life

We’re away on vacation, but of course that doesn’t mean we aren’t cooking. We’ve rented a small cottage on an island and one of the main selling points was the “fully equipped gourmet kitchen.” While the collection of pots and pans doesn’t provide us with the usual variety of cooking utensils we have at home, I wouldn’t describe what we are doing as “making do.”

Luckily, there’s a reasonably good grocery store on the island, and we were able to lay in plenty of supplies on our first full day here. Among other things, there were some ripe, white-fleshed, nectarines

that just insisted on being made into a fresh fruit salsa — perfect to serve with the bar-be-que’d chicken thighs we grilled up tonight.

This salsa is one of the easiest condiments around — you can use ripe peaches, or nectarines, or even mangoes — and takes only a few minutes to whip up. Even better, the taste only improves if you make it early in the day and let it macerate for a few hours to let the flavors develop.

It also doesn’t require a lot of complicated ingredients, and it can be served with fish, shrimp, chicken, grilled vegetables or even tofu! Just about anything you can grill will taste good with this salsa on the side.

Fresh fruit salsa with cilantro and lime

(makes about 1 ½ cups salsa – enough to garnish 4 people’s plates)

2 ripe nectarines (or peaches, or one ripe mango)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 scallions, finely chopped

½ cup finely chopped cilantro

juice from ½ a juicy lime (or more to taste*)

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeño (optional)

*if the fruit is very sweet use more lime juice, if it is not too sweet, use less.

Chop fruit into small dice (about ¼ inch dice is good) and put into a small mixing bowl.

Add garlic, scallions, cilantro and lime juice and mix well.

Flavor to taste with salt and pepper.

Add jalapeño, if using, and mix well again.

Set aside (not in the refrigerator) for at least 15 minutes to let the juices from the fruit mix with the lime and other flavors; mixing well again before serving.

Serve at room temperature alongside grilled meats, fish or vegetables.

Posted in cooking, food | 1 Comment »

The best roast zucchini. Ever.

July 17, 2011 by knitting a life

It’s here.  That part of the summer when the piles of zucchini start getting bigger and when (at least in the midwest) you have to be careful to lock your car so that no one can leave a bag of garden-fresh zucchini on the front seat.

At least that’s the joke they tell.  Funny thing is, I actually like zucchini.  My brother, though, that’s another story.  He’s famous in our family for refusing to eat zucchini and for smuggling it out to the trash in a napkin whenever it was served.  I’m not sure he would like this zucchini, but so far, everyone who has tried this version has loved it.

So, I thought I’d share it here. Just in time.

It’s not a hard recipe.  The trick is to make sure the oven is hot enough (I like it at about 450 degrees) and that the zucchini is cut into thick slices (1/2 to 3/4 inch thick).  The rest of it doesn’t seem to matter as much.

(Note:  the beautiful, ripple-edged zucchini in this picture were a gift from SV who grew them in her garden.  Thanks!)

Easy roast zucchini

(serves 2-4 people as a side dish)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

About 2 pounds fresh zucchini

1 tablespoon Aleppo pepper

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon Nanami Togarashi assorted chili pepper* (or cayenne pepper to taste)

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon kosher salt (or more to taste)

Spread 1 tablespoon of the olive oil on a sheet pan.

Slice the zucchini into rounds ½ to ¾ inch thick and place them on the oiled pan, sliding them around to ensure that the undersides are coated with olive oil.

Brush the tops of the zucchini slices with the rest of the oil.

Mix all of the spices together in a small bowl and sprinkle them as evenly as possible over the tops of the zucchini slices.  I sometimes use the brush I used to spread the oil to more evenly distribute the spice mixture.

Put the pan into the oven.  Check it after about 20 minutes and shake the pan a bit to make sure that none of the zucchini is sticking.

Put the pan back into the oven and check it again after about 5 more minutes.  If the zucchini isn’t browning yet, put it back for another few minutes.

When the edges of the zucchini start to brown, flip the slices over and return the pan to oven for another 5 or 10 minutes, until all the slices are turning brown around the edges.

Slide the zucchini into a serving bowl, spiced side up.

Serve straight from the oven or at room temperature.

*available at Asian food stores (I got this jar at Uwajimaya)

Give this recipe a try and let me know what you think.

Posted in cooking, food, ingredients | 2 Comments »

Kim Boyce’s Oatmeal Sandwich Bread

May 8, 2011 by knitting a life

It’s not on the James Beard Foundation website yet, but it’s official, Kim Boyce has won the JBF award for Best Baking and Dessert Cookbook with her wonderful 2010 book Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-grain Flours.

To celebrate that fact — and to express my delight that she has relocated to Portland — I decided to take some time this afternoon to bake something from the book.

One of the great things about Good to the Grain is that, in addition to the recipes, which range from sweet to savory and include things like pancakes, puddings and granola as well as breads, muffins and scones, Kim includes a lot of helpful information about each of the flours she uses.  So, if you are worried about baking with something like teff, you can count on Kim to allay your fears with the background information she provides.  When I first got the book, I was so inspired I immediately went out and bought a few whole-grain flours (in addition to the whole wheat all-purpose and bread flours I keep on hand anyway) so I knew I had graham, buckwheat and oat flours in my pantry.

Today I spent quite a bit of time flipping pages and reading about ingredients and techniques before settling on Oatmeal Sandwich Bread.  It’s probably not the most unusual recipe in the book (and not even one that requires any unusual flours, using only whole wheat flour, bread flour and rolled oats) but definitely the one that spoke to me this afternoon.

The recipe is straightforward and the instructions easy to follow.  I love the fact that Kim uses the autolyse method where you mix together all of the ingredients except the salt and let them rest together for 30 minutes before adding the salt and kneading the dough.  This allows the dough to begin to form gluten on it’s own (without kneading) and to more fully absorb the liquid.  All in all it creates moister dough, better texture and flavor in the finished bread, and also increases the life of the loaf.

The loaf that emerged from the oven smelled wonderful and tastes great.  The molasses and oatmeal both come through, as does the sweet, nutty flavor of the whole wheat flour.

So, congratulations Kim, on your well-deserved award!  And thanks for adding another recipe to my collection of favorite breads; I’ll be making this one again.

And congratulations also to my friend Betsy Amster, Kim’s literary agent and new Portland resident as well.

Posted in baking, books | Leave a Comment »

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