Zucchini Fritters and Grilled Peach Salad, Summer on a Plate

We're rapidly approaching five months of working from home.  One would think that I'd have had plenty of time to blog.  Unfortunately, I've been busy listening to all kinds of economists chatter on about all this chaos in our world instead of blogging in my "spare time."  Now, that doesn't mean I've slacked off on trying new recipes.  Not at all.  We've been eating at home and trying new things regularly.  In fact, we've had a couple of dishes that have been so fabulous that we've had them again right away.  

Eons ago a gal who Connie played bridge with told him that she had a very close friend who also had a blog.  She introduced us and it turned out that Liz and her hubby, Bill, live across the street from a friend of mine from high school.  Steve and his wife Pam are two of Liz and Bill's best friends.  Small world.  The six of us have had some great dinners together.  Now, we're plotting and planning a cocktail party around Liz and Bill's pool so we can enjoy each other's company AND socially distance.  I'm bringing some skewers of fun.  Connie and I spent dinner brainstorming...  Narrowed a list of about 30 options down to ten.  Probably ought to narrow that more, eh?

The reason I bring up Liz is that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her blog.  Thatskinnychickcanbake.com.  And, boy can she ever.  She also is a magnificent cook.  Early this summer I'd printed off a recipe for zucchini fritters.  It stayed in the stack with my list of foods to use up and recipes to try.  But, it didn't get made.   Until I got the zucchini club from my friend, Shelli.  I'm serious.  I could've hurt someone using that thing as a club.  I knew it had to be shredded.  And, zucchini bread was out of the question.  Too ordinary.  I wanted something new and different.  Ah Ha!  Liz's zucchini fritters.  I made one small modification to her recipe.  We didn't have any green onions so I substituted a small shallot.  

Along with the fritters I was going to make a salad.  I had a bunch of kale to use up and a new recipe from my friend, Linda.  But, I also had a load of peaches from the Peach Truck.  So, on to the internet I went.  There, I found a grilled peach and apricot salad from Food52.  That one would be modified a lot before I was done.  But, the base was a fabulous idea.  You massage kale with olive oil, drizzle in some lemon juice then top it with prosciutto, grilled peaches and feta.  Since I was grilling the peaches, I also grilled the prosciutto and some red onion.  And, blue cheese sounded better than feta.  Especially since we both love peach halves grilled with blue cheese.  If I had the wedges of blue cheese ready to go, I could put them on top of the hot peaches and the cheese would get a bit melty...  

What did we think?  Both of these were make the next night recipes.  Absolutely fabulous.  I loved the grilled prosciutto because it added a subtle crunch to the salad.  Different textures are always fun in a dish.  And, the hot peaches with the slightly melty blue cheese were heavenly.  The peach juices combined with the extra virgin olive oil and lemon made a divine dressing.  

Zucchini Fritters

serves two

Ingredients:

1 lb (about 2 medium) zucchini, coarsely grated

salt

pepper

1 egg

2 scallions or 1 small shallot, finely diced

1/2 c flour

sour cream or yogurt

chives

fleur de sel

Directions:

Toss the zucchini with about 1 tsp of salt.  I used a fine colander with a plate beneath it and pressed on the zucchini several times.  I had to empty the plate a couple of times.  What you don't want is for the zucchini to retain too much water or you'll wind up with mushy fritters that won't brown.  

Beat the egg then add in the scallions or shallot followed by the flour.  Then, add the zucchini.  Heat oil (I used olive oil) to shimmering before you put the zucchini mixture into your skillet.  I used about 1/4 c per fritter and smashed it into about a 4" diameter round.  When the first side was nice and brown, I flipped them.  I served mine with sour cream.  Liz suggests chives and fleur de sel also.  

adapted from thatskinnychickcanbake

Grilled Peach on Kale Salad

Ingredients

serves four

one bunch kale

1/4 c extra virgin olive oil

1 T lemon juice

two large peaches, halved

six-eight slices prosciutto

four 1 oz wedges blue cheese or gorgonzola

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

Directions:

Tear the kale into bite-sized pieces.  Be sure to discard the stems.  Toss the kale with a tablespoon of the olive oil and massage it until it's softened.  Mix the rest of the olive oil with the lemon juice in a separate bowl.  Lightly brush the peach halves with olive oil.  Put them in a grill basket cut side down.  Add the sliced onions and prosciutto to the grill basket.  Grill over direct heat until the peaches are caramelized.  Crumble the prosciutto and scatter it over the kale.  Scatter the red onion slices over the kale.  Drizzle dressing over the salad.  Top with the peaches and then the wedges of the blue cheese.  Do all this asap so the hot peaches soften the blue cheese.  

adapted from Food52

Simple Recipes

Sometimes the simple recipes are just as fabulous as the complicated ones.  The chicken wings we made for the ARC of Indiana fundraiser.  Or the tomato, zucchini, yellow squash gratin I made to use up extra produce. 

Let's start with the chicken wings.  For years I made La Brea Tar Pit Chicken Wings.  They are fabulous.  Then, I found A Taste of Palm Springs and a wing recipe with sherry, brown sugar and soy sauce.  Our grandkids were coming over for a weekend.  I knew son David would want to watch football so I did an appetizer bar for lunch.  Everyone devoured the wings.  Since then I've made them half a dozen times.  My brother's mother-in-law declared she had never eaten a chicken wing and promptly demolished half a dozen.  They're that good.  The last time I made them was for a fund raiser.  You take 75-100 bites and folks wander around and nibble.  We sold out in 15 minutes.  Yup, 15 minutes. 

Next up is the gratin.  There's a produce stand down the road.  They have a $1 per basket close out shelf.  That's where I start.  I went in looking for tomatoes and wound up spending $4.  Six large tomatoes, eight yellow squash, seven peaches plus four plums and the most overloaded basket EVER - with seventeen bananas.  Yes, you read that correctly.  SEVENTEEN.  In addition to the jalapenos, goat cheese and cherry tomatoes to use up, I now had a full bag of other produce.  Research time.  Eatyourbooks.com, New York Times, recipes I've scanned in at home, recipes I've scanned in at the office.  Some really great recipes.  But, what to make for an actual dinner in an hour?  Had to be quick.  Gourmet's Quick Kitchen had this wonderful gratin recipe.  It called for grated parmesan on top.  But, my elbow hurt from all of the work on the computer at the office.  So, I chopped off a piece about 1" long and 1/2" square.  And, proceeded to chop the heck out of it.  That turned out to be the difference between a four and a five.  Remember, we score dishes one thru five.  This one was a five. 

Bananas.  Still had that mountain of bananas to work my way through.  And, I'd gotten some apples from our Imperfect Produce box.  There was a recipe for a banana, apple, walnut Waldorf salad.  Sounded perfect. 

Still needed a protein since I'd not had any all day.  Shrimp poached in white wine would be perfect.

Here are the recipes...

Taste of Palm Springs Chicken Wings

Ingredients:
5 lbs chicken wings (fyi - the Costco wings are pre-cut but there are only 12 per pack with three packs for 5 lbs - the recipe says it makes 50-60 pieces.  It does not.)
1 c brown sugar, packed
3/4 c sherry
1/2 t dry mustard
1 c soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced

Directions
Separate the wings into two pieces after you've cut off the tips.  Bake the wings at 350 for thirty minutes.  I usually use a piece of aluminum foil on the half sheet so the clean up is easier!  While the wings are starting, heat the sauce ingredients.  Pour the sauce over the wings and bake for another two hours.  You want the wings to be totally glazed.  There may be a bit of sauce left but there shouldn't be much.


Tomato Zucchini Gratin

Ingredients:
1 large tomato
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash
6 large leaves basil
1 t minced garlic
2 T olive oil
2 T freshly grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Cut the zucchini and yellow squash into 1/4" slices.  I got about 11-12 slices from each.  Cut the tomato into 1/4" slices then cut those in half.  Drizzle one tablespoon of the olive oil in a 9" pie plate.  Top that with the garlic.  Then layer over the vegetables.  The recipe called for one layer but I already had a baking dish for two so that's what I did.  On the first layer, sprinkle half the basil and half the parmesan.  Ditto the second.  Then drizzle the gratin with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.  Bake at 425 for 35 minutes. 


Apple Banana Waldorf Salad

Ingredients:

1 t orange zest
1 T seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 c mayonnaise
dash of nutmeg
1 apple, cored and diced
1 banana, peeled and sliced
1 stalk celery, diced
1/2 c chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted

Directions:
Mix the orange zest, vinegar, mayonnaise and nutmeg.  Either toss everything together or make a deconstructed version like I did.

Tchertma - Zucchini and Eggs

Every once in a while someone comes into your life whose taste is so very similar to yours that it's almost eerie.  Connie is one of those people.  He says he knew he'd found the right one when he opened the meat drawer in my fridge and it was filled with about 20 kinds of cheese.  LOL, we do love our cheese.  Christiane from Taking On Magazines, aka The Mom Chef, is another of those.  Over the years I must have tried a dozen recipes from her blog.  Every last one has been wonderful.  Our very favorite (and one of our top five salads) is her cucumber/herb/feta salad.  In fact, as I type this all the ingredients are happily nestled in my fridge awaiting their preparation.  During the summer it's a wonderful way to use our cucumber harvest.  During the winter I can close my eyes and imagine summer!

Because I know our taste is so similar, I knew I'd have a terrible time choosing a recipe.  I did.  I decided that I'd go to family favorites first.  Christiane is of French and Armenian descent so I figured I'd find some fun Armenian recipes in her family recipes section.  I did.  But, I also found too many to count others that I wanted to try.  The old saying your eyes are bigger than your stomach?  Well, my file folder was bigger than my time or energy OR my stomach.  Such wonderful choices.  Lasagna D'Italia.  Made with béchamel the way I remember the best lasagna I've ever had.  Side note - it was at a pub in Cork, Ireland.  I know, last place you'd expect but it was magnificent.  Four chicken recipes called my name.  One with a juniper berry/gin/cream sauce.  My goodness but that sounded magnificent.  Cognac glazed.  Honey ginger glazed.  Hubby Doug's favorite chicken rolls - his mom's recipe.  Then, there was the moussaka.  Eggplant is one of our favorites so that was a strong contender.  Pickled beets with star anise.  I can taste that one!  Finally, I came down to two choices.  Spiced lentils with poached eggs and Tchertma
- zucchini and onions with an egg on top.  I'll admit I was hungry for an egg.  And, both of these recipes had eggs on top... 

What did we think?  Connie's exact word was unexpected.  I know.  Not a word you normally associate with tasting a dish for the first time.  At least I don't.  But, I felt the same way.  This is pure comfort food.  The zucchini is wonderfully soft.  The onions add a lovely subtle flavor.  And, the eggs are perfect.  This is the kind of dish that you get home from the office bone tired and wander out to the garden and pick a couple of zucchinis and dinner is ready in a few minutes.  Of course, this time of year the garden is not quite producing and a trip to the grocery is in order - lol. I think I need to go to Christiane's for about a week for Armenian cooking lessons! 

Now, along with the Tchertama, Connie decided we needed a cocktail.  An Armenian martini, no less:

Since it's once again time for the Blogger C.L.U.E. Society, that means all the wonderful bloggers below have hunted for other fabulous recipes on their assigned sites.  We're trying to do something with potatoes.  So, I served this with a lovely dish of rosemary potatoes:

Here's where you can see Christiane's blog:  Tchertma

And, here's how you make it

Ingredients:

1 T butter
1 small - medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 zucchinis, cut into coins
4 eggs

Directions:

Melt the butter in a medium skillet on medium heat.

Add the onion and sauté until it's softened. 

Add the zucchini and cover it for about 15 minutes.

Crack the eggs on to the top of the zucchini. 

Cover and cook until your eggs are your preferred doneness. 

Here's a list of the other bloggers:

• Bacon Wrapped Potatoes w/ Sriracha Sauce by Debra from Eliot's Eats
• Bacon-wrapped Smashed Redskin Puffs by Stacy from Food Lust People Love
• Balsamic Roasted Fingerling Potatoes by Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Basil Lime Gin Gimlet by Christy from Confessions of a Culinary Diva
• Cheddar Scallion Potato Buns by Lora from Cake Duchess
• Chicken Pot Pie by Heather from girlichef
• Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup by Kim from Liv Life
• Chocolate, Coconut, Butterscotch and Oatmeal Cake Cookies by Lisa from Authentic Suburban Gourmet
• Daisy's Noisette Potatoes by Janet from Cupcakes to Caviar
• Honey Dijon Roasted Potato Salad by Ramona from Curry and Comfort
• Irish Brown Bread by Kathy from Bakeaway with Me
• Irish Old Fashioned Cocktail by Christy from Confessions of a Culinary Diva
• Okie Peasant Potato Soup by Christiane from Taking on Magazines
• Potato and Celery Root Puree by Lea Ann from Cooking on the Ranch
• Potato and White Bean Soup with Sage by Kathy from A Spoonful of Thyme
• Potato Rolls by Kelli from Kelli's Kitchen
• Potatoes O'Brien by Azmina from Lawyer Loves Lunch
• Slow Cooker Beef and Guinness Pie by Anna from annaDishes
• Smoked Salmon Chowder by Jean from Lemons and Anchovies
• Tchertma (Zucchini and Eggs) by Kate from Kate's Kitchen
• Thin Crispy French Fries by Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake

Tomatoes Three Ways

It is finally tomato season at our house.  The best ones aren't ripe yet.  And, I'm not terribly fond of the one plant that's already producing.  The tomatoes are just a bit mealy for my taste.  My favorites of all time are still Black Brandywines.  All of that aside, I'm just happy to have real tomatoes and not the canned kind.  My Black Brandywines will be ripe soon enough and I'll just eat those with a bit of salt and pepper. 

A few days ago I picked the first ripe zucchini.  And, I had a handful of cherry tomatoes.  And, a container of buratta.  I was thinking a riff on caprese salad would be good.  Was it ever.  We've now made the salad twice in a week.  It's super simple and very flavorful.

Then, we had BLT's.  Of course.  That's summer food.  The only BLT I eat otherwise is the special one at the Barking Dog Café.  There they have home cured Bark Lard, tomato jam, basil mayo and lettuce on BLT's.  They're heavenly. 

Last, but not least, we had Boudro's Guacamole.  Boudro's is on the Riverwalk in SanAntonio.  They make this killer tableside guac.  Did I mention how well it went with the killer prickly pear margaritas?  Oh, yeah!!!

I had to try it for myself!  I've got to say that the real thing prepared tableside is better...  But, this is pretty darned good :-)

Zucchini Tomato Salad

Ingredients:

1 small zucchini
12 cherry or grape tomatoes
1 buratta
6 large basil leaves
extra virgin olive oil (I used blood orange olive oil)
balsamic vinegar (I used Sicilian lemon balsamic)

Directions:

Shave the zucchini lengthwise.  Because this was a really fresh zucchini from our yard, I didn't peel it.  I did, however, avoid the seeds.  Pile the shavings in the center of two salad plates.  Surround with halved cherry tomatoes.  Chop the buratta.  Divide it between the salad plates.  Chop the basil and scatter it on top of the buratta.  Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. 

Zucchini Carpaccio

Rachael Ray has a section in her magazine that's quick ideas.  I usually find a couple of nuggets in there.  This time, though, I found solid gold.  Zucchini Carpaccio. 


I know this time of year we're all looking for ways to use up zucchini.  Here's my secret - we never planted zucchini this year so we aren't buried in the stuff.  And, no, I"m not giving you my address so you can steathily drop bags of zucchini on my front porch.  Don't even think about it :-)  We actually had to BUY zucchini at the grocery to make this. 


It was just a happy accident that this got made well before dinner so the dressing had an opportunity to get really happy with the zucchini.  This was so good that I'm tempted to go plant some zucchini this weekend.  Ah, wait, that'd mean weeding a garden bed.  And, the beds in the front of the house aren't finished.  And, there's this mountain on my desk.  And, the house desperately needs to be cleaned.  And, there are still several rooms to paint.  Ok, fine, I guess I'll just buy them at the farmers market!


A couple of notes.  I used lemon balsamic vinegar from Artisano's and lemon olive oil.  Together, they were sweeter than olive oil and lemon juice would've been.  If you don't have either, I'd try the dressing before drizzling and think about adding just a touch of sugar.


Zucchini Carpaccio
serves two

Ingredients:
1 small zucchini
1-2 T pine nuts. toasted
parmesan or romano cheese, shaved
extra virgin olive oil or lemon olive oil
white balsamic vinegar or lemon balsamic or lemon juice

Directions:
Slice the zucchini VERY thinly.  Use a mandolin if you have one.  Lay the zucchini slices out in a circular pattern on a plate.  Top with toasted pine nuts and shaved cheese. Drizzle with oil and vinegar or lemon.

Pork Tenderloins with Maple

This entire meal was a product of happy coincidences.  First, Connie and I went to Chef JJ's Local Local dinner last Friday.  We went with a colleague and his wife and had the best seats in the house. Chef JJ had six chefs and six brewers do the dinner. One of the highlights of the evening was a beer that Clay Robinson from Sun King Brewing had put in old bourbon barrels. OMG, that was fantastic beer!!! The food was amazing and most of the beers were equally amazing. But, Clay stole the show. Darren, from Bier Brewery down the road, was a pretty close second.  We were thrilled to hear that Darren and his cohorts just won brewery of the year in the initial State Fair judging.  The dishes ranged from those that I love like halibut cheeks marinated in orange to beef tongue bruschetta and sweet breads.  Our consensus favorite was Chef JJ's grilled vegetables.  He said he'd try and get the recipe posted on his website on Saturday but that didn't happen.  What did happen is that I paged through all of the recipes on his website and found about a dozen that I'd like to try right now.  One of them was a maple marinade for chicken.  Then, Sunday while I was taking a brain break from all the client files I had to work on, I read MomChef's blog.  She described pork chops with a maple ginger pan sauce.  My menu for the week included Chef JJ's maple marinade for chicken.  But, I'd bought pork tenderloins for a sandwich dish later in the week.  I wondered if I could mix and match here???

Under the Kate theory of what's the worst that could happen, I proceeded.  We'd bought wax beans at the farmers market and I had sweet onions and zucchini and shallots.  So, we were fine with the veggies.  The fingerling potatoes that needed to be used up went into a saucepan of water to be cooked a bit prior to being tossed in a grill basket and onto the grill.  The pork tenderloins went into the maple marinade.  The maple ginger pan sauce ingredients were put out in their mis en place.  And a marinade for the veggies was tossed together.  George was under foot making sure that anything suitable for a cat was duly shared.

The grill was hot so it was time for the tenderloins to go on the grill.  They looked beautiful with all of the lovely marinade.  And, that was the problem, I had about a cup of lovely marinade.  No way I needed all of that for basting the tenderloins.  Lightbulb above the head time - I had no idea what I was going to do with the potatoes once they went into the grill pan. How about a bath in the maple marinade? 

What did we think?  It was tough to pick the first place dish here.  They were all great.  We debated and debated and finally decided that our top two were the pork and potatoes.  I liked the potatoes best and Connie liked the pork best.  The potatoes were like little pieces of potato candy.  Normally, I'm not a big sweets fan.  But these were perfect.  Just enough sweet to make the potatoes sing.  The maple ginger pan sauce was fabulous.  MomChef comes through again with another fabulous recipe.  And, the veggies were great.  So are you ready for four recipes here?

Maple Marinade for Chicken or Pork

Ingredients:

1/2 c pure maple syrup
3/4 T dijon mustard
1/8 t maple extract
3 T white vinegar
1/4 t kosher salt
1/8 t cayenne pepper
1/8 t thyme
1 T minced shallot
1/2 c olive oil

Directions:

Use a blender to emulsify the ingredients.  If you want to top the cooked chicken or pork with some of the marinade, reserve it prior to marinating the meat.  Marinate the meat for 30 min to 4 hours. 

Grill over direct heat. 

We prefer our pork pink so use a thermometer to make sure.

recipe courtesy of Chef JJ

Maple Ginger Pan Sauce

This recipe is actually for pork chops which are dredged in flour then pan fried.  They're removed from the pan and a sauce is made with the drippings. Instead, I made a sauce with a little butter and olive oil instead of pan drippings.  I also chose to omit the mint and cilantro topping.

Ingredients:

2 T butter and/or olive oil
1/4 c flour
3/4 c chicken broth or stock
2 T dark rum
1 T pure maple syrup, grade B
1 T olive oil
1 T minced fresh ginger
1 medium clove garlic, minced

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet.  When it's shimmering, whisk in the flour.  Allow it to cook for a couple of minutes then slowly whisk in the chicken stock.  Add the rum and maple syrup. 

The sauce with thicken as it cooks.  Whisk it regularly.  While the sauce is thickening, saute the ginger and garlic in the last tablespoon of olive oil. 

When they're softened and the sauce is thickened, pour the sauce into the pan with the ginger and garlic.  I poured the drippings from the tenderloins in also. 

recipe adapted from MomChef, originally from FineCooking -- Breakfast

Maple Fingerling Potatoes

Ingredients:

fingerling potatoes
maple marinade for chicken or pork

Directions:

Trim potatoes.  Put the potatoes in a small saucepan.  Cover with water. 

Simmer gently for about 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  Remove from the water with a slotted spoon.  Toss with 1/2 c of the marinade.  Put the potatoes in a grill basket. 

Grill over direct heat for about 10 minutes.  Turn the potatoes regularly.  You want them browned, not burned. 



Chef JJ's Beer Veggies

Chef JJ served these with nine different vegetables.  Not only could we not remember what all of the vegetables were, we would have been eating leftovers for the next week.  So, we stuck with four of the nine.

Ingredients:

1 sweet onion, cut into quarters, then sliced
2 shallots
handful of wax beans
1 medium zucchini, quartered, then cubed
1 beer (I used Fat Tire)
1 T dijon mustard
1/2 T worcestershire sauce
1/3 c olive oil

Directions:

Mix the marinade ingredients.  Marinate the vegetables for 15-20 minutes prior to grilling them. 

Grill over direct heat in a grill basket.

Egyptian Cucumber Salad

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I LOVE our new CSA.  On Saturday, we picked up two zucchini, a cucumber, some garlic, a huge bag of new potatoes, a head of cabbage and two huge bags of basil.  Then, we went to the Broad Ripple Farmers Market and got some kale and komatsu from Seldom Seen Farms and a tomato from another vendor and a box of strawberries from another. 


Six entrees and ten sides were on the menu brainstorming list for the week.  But,they didn't all play together well.  So, I numbered all the entrees and lettered all the sides and started pairing them up.  The duck ragu wound up the a salad I'd made up with cucumbers, zucchini, red onion, cherry tomatoes, basil, feta, Sicilian lemon balsamic and extra virgin olive oil.  Then, I started reading Best American Recipes 2005-2006 and found the Egyptian Cucumber Salad.  It was very similar to the one I'd planned but instead of basil it had dill and mint.  That was an interesting twist.  And, one I wanted to try.  Not only that, it was originally from one of my favorite cookbook authors - Joann Weir and her from Tapas to Meze coookbook.

What did we think?  This was fantastic.  It's very refreshing.  The feta, lemon balsamic and evoo make an incredible dressing.  The dill and mint add such a different taste.  Since we'll probably get a lot of zucchini and cucumbers from the CSA this year, we'll undoubtedly be making this again.  Not only that, but it was equally good the next day for lunch.  I did make a couple of changes.  Shocking, I know.  I cut down on the herbs by half and that's reflected in the recipe below. I added the zucchini and switched Sicilian Lemon Balsamic from Artisano's for the lemon juice called for in the recipe.  If you don't have lemon balsamic, I'd use half white balsamic and half lemon juice to soften the edges a bit. 

Egyptian Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:
1 small zucchini, diced
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
1 small red onion, diced
1/2 T chopped fresh mint
1/2 T chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1/2 T chopped fresh dill
5 oz feta cheese, crumbled
1 T Sicilian Lemon Balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 T Extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Mix the cucumber, onion, zucchini and herbs together well. 

Crumble the feta over the top of the vegetables.  Drizzle the vinegar and olive oil over the feta. 

Toss well.  A  lot of the feta will turn into a wonderful dressing.  But, don't toss the salad until all the little chunks of feta are gone!  Garnish with fresh lemon wedges and sprigs of dill.

Lemony Zucchini with Basil

We're always on the hunt for new, easy and light zucchini dishes.  This year, unfortunately, we didn't get much zucchini from our CSA and we didn't get any planted.  So, having a lovely zucchini was a treat.  I know, not something you normally hear from someone who gardens AND belongs to a CSA!!  Lemony zucchini with basil was in the October Food and Wine that I've been blogging about.  Remember when I started this project and said one of the misconceptions about Food and Wine is that their recipes are all complicated and have weird ingredients?  This recipe is proof positive that they've got some wonderful and very easy recipes. 

What did we think?  We loved it!  This would go with so many entrees.  The flavor was so fresh and the dish was so light.  Just about perfect!

Lemony Zucchini with Basil

serves 4

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil

2 medium zucchini

finely grated zest of one half lemon

salt and freshly ground pepper

2 T thinly sliced basil

Directions:

Using a vegetable peeler, slice the zucchini into long, thin strips

Zest the lemon

Heat the oil and add the zucchini.  Cook until it's just tender, using high heat.  Remove the skillet and toss the zucchini with the lemon zest, salt and pepper.

Serve the zucchini with the basil scattered on top

adapted from Food and Wine

FOOD and WINE is giving away a year-long subscription to a lucky reader from Kate's Kitchen. Click here to enter and read official rules here.

This post is part of a series featuring recipes from the FOOD and WINE archive. As a FOOD and WINE Blogger Correspondent, I was chosen to do four recipes a week from FOOD and WINE. I received a subscription to FOOD and WINE for my participation.

Zucchini Involtini

We're had a Foodbuzz week at our house.  While I was going through my mailbox there, I came across so many great ideas that I ran out of days to fix them...  So, Sunday night we made an incredible salad for Monday's lunch along with peanut dipping sauce that we wound up serving with pork fingers later in the week.  We also made a Turkish lamb soup that was lunch on Wednesday.  Monday night we made corn risotto and roasted beets. Last, but not least, we made these incredible zucchini involtini.  The recipe was perfect because I had just a bit of goat cheese leftover and this mongo zucchini camped in my refrigerator.  Our main dish was some leftover beef tenderloin that had been in my freezer for way too long.  The way I served it was pretty rich so I didn't want too much in the way of a side dish.  This was perfect.  We loved the combination of the goat cheese, olives and zucchini.  The little bit of smokiness the grilling provided.  The flavors from the different herbs.  This recipe is thanks to the Cookin' Canuck (Dara Michalski.)  Her blog is at:  http://cookincanuck.blogspot.com/ 

Zucchini Involtini

Ingredients:

1 large zucchini
6 T goat cheese
oregano
rosemary
basil
garlic
kalamata olives, finely chopped
olive oil


Directions:

Slice the zucchini VERY thinly, lengthwise.  You'll need six full slices.

Brush the slices on both sides with olive oil.

Grill it for about three minutes a side - just until it's nicely softened and has great grill marks.  You don't want it so well done that it falls apart.

While the zucchini is grilling, mix the goat cheese with the herbs (to taste,) garlic and olives. 

When the zucchini is grilled, put about a tablespoon of the goat cheese mixture on the broad end of each slice. 

Roll the involtini up and serve.

adapted from the Cookin Canuck