Size Matters-What a Gal Can Do With a Large Zucchini???

Never let your zucchinis get larger than about 12 ' long and 3" in diameter. If you do, you probably have a cooking challenge on your hands....When approaching the girth of a baseball bat, zucchinis just lose their sweet tenderness....what's a gardener/cook to do? If you've had the absolute pleasure of having your own veggie garden, you've probably met this challenge before. My answer in the past: Zucchini Bread, Zucchini Pancakes, Zucchini Soup, even a Zucchini Crust Pizza...


With tonight's harvest of  2 whopping Zucchinis, I made the following soup, which was so simple so creamy (without the cream) and delicious.
    

Never Too Large Zucchini Soup

2 Super Sized Zucchinis
1 Super Large Spanish Onion, chopped
1 Large Sweet Red Pepper, chopped

5-6 Cloves Garlic, chopped fine

2 Tbs Fresh Thyme
2 Tbs Fresh Basil
4-6 cups homemade****(or not) veggie broth
3 Tbs. Olive Oil

Saute the chopped onion and garlic in the oil for 2-3 minutes.
Chop the Red pepper and add to the onion and garlic.
Cut the Zucchini in half lengthwise and then across into smallish pieces
about the size of a thick nickel and add to the onion, garlic, red pepper.
Saute this mixture until just tender.
Add the veggie broth. and herbs.
Cook for 5 minutes.
Turn off heat and either use and immersion blender or a food processor
to partially blend the soup. You can blend it entirely if you choose but I
prefer some chunks of vegetables.
Add salt and black pepper to taste.

CHEAP and EASY Homemade Veggie Broth

****I make my own veggie broth thanks to my friend Pam who owns the Garden Cafe in Woodstock.
Not only do you save money by making your own broth in this fashion, but you get to use every part of the vegetable cutting back on waste and garbage...I love that!
Among the many priceless tips she has offered me, this one has been the most life changing!

She told me to save the vegetable ends when cooking and freeze them by saving them in a plastic bag in the freezer. When you have plenty, maybe 1 or 2 bags full, put them in a pot, fill it with water and cook for about 30 minutes. When cool, strain the broth, put it into freezable containers and save it in freezer for future use.
How easy can it be?

The following veggie ends are good to use:
Onions, carrots, cabbage, leeks, scallions, green beans, sweet potato, fennel, zucchini, mushrooms, winter squash.

You don't want to use:
Kale, broccoli, peppers, or any bitter type veggies or they will make your broth bitter.

I usually add about 6-8 black peppercorns and 2 bay leaves. It's also nice to add a whole sweet potato
to give it a little touch of sweetness. Beets can add a nice flavor but will turn your broth red which may
dominate the color of the food you want to make from it.

Having good homemade veggie broth on hand is one of the secrets to creating great vegan meals with EASE!

Enjoy!

Luv, R

ER /Vicodin Induced Thanksgiving Recipe Creation

So when you've just fallen on your face in your very own bedroom, causing one of your upper incisors to perforate the area just above your upper lip, your husband drives you to the local hospital emergency room.
This was a totally unplanned activity during an evening alone with my honey. But as I wrote the other day, my husband is very good at being very spontaneous, so off we went.

About 2 hours later, a Dr. Lowenstein was (artfully, I hope?) sewing 12 sutures into my inner and outer mouth. My lower face had been numbed completely and by the time the doc began his work, the vicodin had me softly sailing in a very calm sea...like maybe the Caribbean, or somewhere.

And guess what my thoughts turned to? Come on, it's a no brainer, makes total sense, a completely logical segue to the Thanksgiving Dinner Menu!

Somewhere between the second and third stitch, I'm thinking about the main dish...some kind of Tofu Napolean, layered with butternut squash and fresh thyme. Between the fourth and fifth suture, another layer of some kind of hearty grain laced with onions, pistachios, currents, mushrooms, sage. And I think there's gotta be a layer of greens. Maybe broccoli rabe or kale or even brussel sprouts. And then from stitch six through nine, I'm working on the sauce. Stitches nine through twelve prove to be too distracting for menu planning because they are on the inside of my mouth.  That's probably too much information? If so, I apologize.

My lip is swollen, I'm quickly recovering and I'm just so glad to have gotten a head start on Thanksgiving.

Hurry Up and Relax .....Sunset Sail Picnic Quickie on SKON

I have to confess that spontaneity has always made me a little bit queasy. Lucky for me, my dear hubby is the "king" of being in the moment, changing plans on a dime, and deciding at the last minute. Although my basic training in these areas was rough, I am now a (mostly) happy participant in the land of "spur of the moment fun"....( But, at times, I still  have to get out the oil can and grease up my wheels.)

When I called my dear friend Sheri to see if she and Dan wanted to attend the Grand Opening of the Rondout Music Lounge and hear our friend and neighbor, Harvey Sorgen play with his jazz trio, she, in turn, invited me and my hubby to go sailing and have a picnic dinner on their boat beforehand.

This called for changing plans, which had included eating dinner out. My immediate response?  "Picnic Dinner for a Sunset Sail? OMG! I'll never be able to do it in this limited time!" See what I mean about me and spontaneity? I had about 1 hour to get it together.

Luckily, I had made a Swiss Chard salad that very morning. This is a NY Times Magazine recipe, part of a healthy selection of other salad recipes, most not vegan but very adaptable to the vegan palate. This recipe is quick and easy so I could have made it within the time limit if I had to.

The Teriyaki Tofu is a breeze when you use a delicious product called "Soy Vay"....and your toaster oven.
While there is more than a healthy dose of sugar in the bottled "Soy Vay", it is made of pure, no preservative
ingredients and is great as a last minute marinade for just about anything.

The Cucumber salad, very simple, is also from the NY Times. I just looked at the date the recipe was published in the paper. It is from June 2005 and I have been making it every summer since. If you own a mandolin (no, not the stringed instrument!) you can make uniform very thin slices of an entire large cucumber in about a minute. If not, get out your sharpest knife and focus....

The green beans (haricort vert) and carrots came out of the garden today. They too were quick and easy, done by briefly blanching then dressing them.

I have no excuse for the Cape Cod Potato Chips. I just love them, and as my family will attest, I have a "problem" with chips. Crunch crunch.mmmm, mmmm.

As a summer drink, a dry/brut Proseco is impossible to beat. It is light, crispy, bubbly and as intoxicating as a waterfall on a hot afternoon.

Picnic Dinner Quickie (for 4)


Cooked Chard Salad w/Lemon Caper Vinaigrette
Homegrown Haricort Vert and Sliced carrots Salad w/Sherry-Shallot Vinagrette
Sweet and Sour Dilled Cucumber Salad
Veri Veri Teriyaki Tofu Steaks

Cape Cod Salt and Pepper Potato Chips /Appetizer

Proseco-preferably Brut

Fresh Strawberries for dessert

Cooked Chard Salad w/Lemon Caper Vinaigrette 

1-1-1/2 lbs Rinsed and Copped Swiss Chard
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tsp capers w/a drop of their brine
1 Tbs chopped fresh parsley

Blanch the chard in boiling water 2 minutes.
Drain, and squeeze out liquid.
Combine remaining ingredients is a small bowl
Drizzle vinaigrette over chard, toss, chill and eat!

Haricort Vert and Sliced Carrot Salad with Sherry Shallot Vinaigrette

1/2 lb. haricort vert
2-3 carrots
1 small or 1/2 large shallot, minced
1 tsp Country style Dijon Mustard
1/4-1/3 c extra virigin olive oil
2-3 Tbs Sherry Vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste

Rinse and trim Haricort Vert
Peel and thinly slice Carrots (at an angle so they're pretty)
Blanch Haricort Vert and Carrots 2-3 minutes
Run them under cold water to stop the cooking.
Drain and place in bowl.
Toss with Vinaigrette and Masticate!

Sweet and Sour Dilled Cucumber Salad

2-3 large Cucumbers, peeled
2 Tbs sugar
1/4 c white wine vinegar
1 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 c finely chopped fresh dill

Thinly slice cucumber w/a mandolin or lots of patience and attention.
Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl.
Toss dressing with Cucumbers
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, up to 4 hours.

Veri Veri Teriyaki Tofu Steaks


1-1/2 lbs Tofu, drained (I place the tofu between 2 plates, place weight on top, and spill water off, turn over plates and tofu and repeat.)
1/2 cup Veri Veri Teriyaki Soy Vay
Organic Canola cooking spray

Pre-heat toaster oven to 350
Spray toaster over pan/tray with canola oil.
Carefully slice tofu (You should be able to get 5-6 tofu steaks per cake of tofu.)
Place tofu on pan/tray.
Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, turn over, spooning sauce onto second side and bake for another 10 minutes.

Cape Cod Salt and Pepper Potato Chips

Open at your own risk.
Eat them up and try to share.

The food was really good, the company was wonderful and the Sunset over the Hudson GRAND and beautiful!!!  Skon and crew provided a smooth silky sail, complete with colorful, billowing spinnaker, wing on wing... Like we were saying as it was happening, "just like a mini vacation!"....Thanks Dan and Sheri!

(Harvey's trio at the Rondout Music Lounge was superb. This venue used to be the old dark "Sturgeon". The new owners have done a really great job of bringing out the old architectural details, including brick walls, wide board floors, tin ceilings and large windows. The staff was super nice. But...the menu needs a makeover. I imagine it will develop beyond the 5 or 6 meat dominated items now on the menu.....good for the owners that I'm not a food critic.)

Overall, I loved and totally enjoyed this evening out....and we stayed out past midnight!

Keeping it Together-the Art of The Vegan Babycake

I was inspired to make a dish that would go with my brother in law Tom's Tomatillo Salsa (now officially named "Tom Tom Salsa") since he was kind enough to send some of the tasty stuff back home with us. AND! I had some home grown broccoli and green beans that I blanched earlier today as well as some corn on the cob leftover from last night's dinner.

The question then becomes, how do you put it all together with other foodstuffs that you have in the house to make something yummy? Veggie Fritters came to mind, especially since I already  had carrots (always have carrots in the fridge), zucchini, scallions and garlic.

Then, the predictable, yet Very Difficult Vegan Dilemma!!!! How do you hold it all together without eggs?

Time to call in the expert! So I call my dear friend Pam, chef-owner of the Garden Cafe. She generously offers me priceless tips on a regular basis. (Pearls of her wisdom gleaned from her maybe millions of hours of expert cooking.)  How lucky can a food obsessed vegan girl get? 

Priceless Tip #1: Chop all veggies Very Small or they can break up the pancake.
Priceless Tip #2: Get the oil nice and Hot and have the batter Very Cold so it sizzles nicely in the pan.
                          (Cast Iron pans are great...we'll talk more about it soon.)
Priceless Tip #3: Make the batter about the Veggies, not the flour/pancake part = More veggie, less pancake.

Pam suggested I use unbleached white flour and a little leavening.  A few recipes I found on Google under "vegan veggie fritters" had similar suggestions. So here is what I came up with:

Savory Garden Babycakes w/Tom Tom Salsa

1 small to medium zucchini, grated
2 carrots, grated
1 cup blanched broccoli chopped fine
6 or so blanched haricort vert (skinny green beens) chopped fine
1 or 2 blanched corn cobs (kernals removed with sharp knife after blanching)
1 small head local garlic, roasted***
3-4 scallions minced
2 TBS fresh thyme minced
1/2 cup unbleached white flour (I substituted 1/8 c with cornmeal as I love the grainy texture)
1 tsp baking powder
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1/4-1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil for frying

***To roast garlic:
Slice the tippy top off of a whole head of garlic(..just enough to expose the top of each clove)
Place garlic on a small piece of aluminum foil. Drizzle with 1 tsp olive oil. Close top of
foil over garlic head and place in 350 degree (toaster) oven for about 35-40 minutes. It is
done when garlic cloves are very soft and garlic oozes out of the skin when pressed.
This is soooo goooood as it is. You can spread any extra on a cracker and have an
unbelievably delicious treat, just save enough for the babycakes!

WARNING! Once you try this easy way to roast a head of garlic, you may not be able to stop. My friend Karen (a fine and beautiful cook, baker and gardener) served whole roasted heads of garlic broken open with crackers so that dinner guests could squeeze the oozy garlic onto a cracker themselves as a simply made and delish appetizer.

Back to the recipe:

-Grate, mince and chop all veggies and combine in large bowl
-Squeeze garlic out of the cloves and mix into the veggies
-Refrigerate for 1/2 hour or so
-Mix flour and baking soda in separate small bowl
-Sprinkle flour mixture over veggies and add 2 TBS rice or soy milk
-Toss mixture together
-Season with salt and pepper
-Do not over mix or it will become too pasty

-Heat the oil in the Cast Iron Pan till it sizzles when a (little) drop of water hits it.
-Form the small a little less than palm sized babycakes with your hands and lower them gently into the hot oil.
-A good size is about 3" in diameter...less likely to break.
-Move them around a bit with a spatula so they don't stick.
-Turn over when brown and crisp on the first side. Then repeat on second side.
-Place done babycakes on paper towel lined platter while cooking the rest.

Serve topped with a generous dollop of vegan sour cream , Tom Tom Salsa*and Curried Hot sauce (We were lucky enough to have Tom's home grown, homemade but a wide variety of hot sauces are locally available in health food and other food stores.) If you're thinking a little pretty and fancy, serve them on a bed of fresh greens.

We had them with a green salad simply dressed with extra virgin olive oil, and a sprinkling of sherry vinegar, salt and pepper.

* Recipe for Tom's Tom Tom  Salsa in Blog dated Aug 1, 2011.

You can use almost any combination of veggies, chopped, minced or grated small, depending on what's in your garden, what you have at home and what is available locally/seasonally. Veggies amounted to about 3 cups total.

Same with herbs..experiment with what you have fresh. Babycakes can also be made with a Mexican, Indian or Asian flare by changing the type of herbs, spices and other elements such as adding beans or grains....I will share  my experiments with these other elements in the future. Meanwhile, have fun improvising!

These babycakes were outrageously delish and the condiments lent coolness (sour cream), lightness and sweetness (Tom Tom Salsa) and spiciness (curried hot pepper sauce) to the crispy "vegginess" of it all. The only problem was not enough. The above recipe serves 3. I suggest doubling it because they are light, bursting with flavor (the roasted garlic...?) and easy to eat.

Even my daughter gave them a "Wow, these are good, Mom. Can you make them again tomorrow?"...and that's saying something!

Luv to u all.