It’s not the fanciest meal. No refined ingredients or exotic preparations. Just simple, fresh food from the garden. There’s a distinct pleasure in knowing that most of the food on my plate came from my garden, picked just minutes before cooking.
2 small zucchini ½ onion, sliced thin 4 garlic cloves 2 tablespoons olive oil Salt and pepper to taste 1 – 2 cups stewed tomatoes ¼ cup white wine (optional) 2 tablespoons butter (optional) 2 tablespoons fresh herbs such as basil, parsley or tarragon (optional)
1. Slice zucchini into 1/2” thick circles.
2. In a large skillet, over medium flame, add olive oil. Sauté onions and garlic, the edges barely browning, about 5 minutes. Add squash slices, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Continue cooking and stirring until squash begin to soften, approximately 5 minutes.
3. Add stewed tomatoes. Continue cooking as long or as briefly as you like; this is traditionally cooked until fully soft but need not be.
4. Add the optional fresh herbs at the very end.
From the garden: zucchini, garlic, broccoli, basil, tomatoes Garden to Table: 30 minutes
I planted broccoli once before this year, and the yield-per-square-foot ratio was not favorable. Unlike tomatoes, cucumbers or eggplants which produce multiple fruits per plant, this gave me one small head per plant. I don’t recall the flavor one way or the other, so I imagine it was no better than the supermarket.
Nonetheless, I decided to try again. People reminded me that after I harvest the main head, there are secondary sprouts that are worth eating. And I read somewhere that fresh broccoli is a whole different beast.
Yesterday, I cut off the first two spears. I usually eat only the florets (I know, terrible in the food waste department), but given the low yield, I decided I couldn’t afford to waste an ounce. I also didn’t bother to peel the stalk, even though some say they are tough and fibrous. Given how fresh and tender they were, I chanced that the stalks didn’t need a peeling. I tasted them raw and their sweet crunch had a slightly bitter aftertaste. I knew this would melt away when cooked. The stalks, as predicted, were perfectly tender.
Back in college, one of my staples was broccoli steamed with soy sauce, butter and lemon over brown rice (the other was eggs scrambled with tom yum paste). Not wanting to fuss too much with the flavor of the broccoli, I opted for this old favorite. This time, I used quinoa instead of brown rice – it worked perfectly, and more importantly, cooked quicker, making this a perfect Monday night dinner! It was so good, in fact, that I made the same thing for lunch the next day using kale instead of broccoli.
In favor of future broccoli plantings: The broccoli was deliciously sweet and earthy. I planted it in April and harvested in Mid-July – freeing up the soil for fall plantings of beans and lettuce. On the downside, the yield was low, though I have yet to see what sort of shoots I get. For about $2 in seedlings, I got about $2 worth of broccoli. Overall, this year’s experiment was wholly successful, though
I’m still on the fence as to whether I’ll plant again next year.
Last summer, I dated a man I affectionately called Fred Flintstone.He garnered this nickname because of his caveman-like eating habits.He had many wonderful virtues, but his palate was not one of them.His diet consisted of three things: chicken parmesan, pizza and kung pao chicken.
Since eating out is one of my favorite pastimes, I wanted to expand his repertoire and expose him to new flavors so we could eat together at a greater variety of restaurants.I had a plan: start with the basics and refine them.I thought, “I’ll make him the best friggin’ chicken parm he’s ever eaten!”
Off to Whole Foods: I bought organic, free range chicken, fresh mozzarella, Parmigiano Reggiano, and brioche for homemade bread crumbs.For the sauce, I had organic, heirloom tomatoes that I canned. I proudly served him my masterpiece:The chicken was cooked perfectly, properly seasoned and juicy.The mozzarella had a light golden crust and the crunchy bread crumb crust with seasoned with the parmesan cheese and olive oil.
He said, “Your sauce could use a little tomato paste.”
He ate more broccoli than chicken, which was a particularly bad sign since vegetables were not part of his regular diet.I was thoroughly demoralized.
I wouldn’t tell him this, but he wasn’t completely wrong. The sauce was watery.Tomato paste was not necessarily the answer but it did need thickening – either by longer cooking or by using a less juicy tomato.
Out of this came a new way of making tomato sauce that does not require long simmering and stirring.I roast roma tomatoes, sliced in half, with garlic cloves and shallots.When everything is slightly browned and caramelized, I puree it all with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar and fresh herbs.
Why did we break up, you ask?Because he was a hopeless caveman, and I couldn’t convince him to try foods beyond his basic three dishes.Perhaps, I had diminished his culinary trust in me with watery tomato sauce. He never did try the improved version.But I have a new red sauce recipe to remember him by.
Fred Flintstone Tomato Sauce
3 pounds plum tomatoes, cut in half, lengthwise 2 shallots, peeled and cut in half 6 garlic cloves, peeled 2-3 stalks fresh thyme ½ cup olive oil 2-3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1 sprig basil Salt and pepper, to taste
1.Toss tomatoes with shallots, garlic, thyme and oil.
Roast the tomatoes in the oven for 30 minutes at 400F or until tomatoes are tender and the garlic is lightly browned.
3.Puree the tomatoes with garlic and shallots in a food processor.When smooth, add basil and puree for 10 seconds more just to chop. Adjust seasoning with balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.
Broccoli that even a Caveman will eat
1 head broccoli, cut into florets 1 tablespoon chopped garlic 2 tablespoons olive oil 1//4 teaspoon chili flakes 1 squeeze lemon juice.
Heat a large skillet over high heat.Add garlic and chili flakes.When garlic starts to brown add broccoli.Stir to coat in olive oil and garlic.Add ¼ cup of water to steam broccoli.When water evaporates and broccoli is bright green, season with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Jennifer 8. Lee, author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
describes Chinese Cuisine in America as “the biggest culinary joke played by one culture on another.” General Gau’s chicken tops that list in that it appears on nearly every Chinese menu in the US as a chef specialty.While the General was real – a soldier from the Hunan region in China – his chicken is wholly an American invention.
The dish varies from restaurant to restaurant, but the theme is consistent: crispy fried chunks of chicken tossed in a sweet and spicy sauce.Despite its inauthentic origins, it’s still a personal favorite.
My favorite Chinese cookbook, The Chinese Kitchen by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo features a recipe that continues to receive rave reviews from my dinner guests. The sauce is nicely balanced, not overly sweet, and fragrant with ginger and chilies.My continual challenge – which most restaurants mastered – is frying the chicken nuggets so they stay crunchy after they’ve been tossed in the sauce. The chicken, marinated in egg and corn starch, is dusted with more corn starch just before frying.I’ve experimented with the oil temperature, twice frying and even trying to caramelize the sauce, to no avail.
When I was in China a few years ago on a summer internship from business school, I broke away on several occasions to take cooking lessons.The top technique on my list was learning how to get the crispy chicken nuggets even after they were tossed in sauce.My cooking instructor in Beijing happily obliged me.
The first secret is in the corn starch.He used “wet” corn starch.To make wet corn starch: combine ½ cup of corn starch with enough water to make a slurry, about ½ cup.Let the mix sit for at least ½ hour until the water and starch separate.Pour off all the excess water.What you’re left with is the wet corn starch.It’s slightly chalky, but dissolves into liquid when you run your fingers through it.It is this mixture that he tossed the chicken cubes in before frying.
The second secret, which really isn’t as critical as the first, is in cooking the sauce.The sauce must be reduced until almost all the water has evaporated.It is then reconstituted with a little oil.
General Gau's Chicken
adapted from Eileen Yen-Fei Lo
4 chicken thighs, cut into cubes ½ teaspoon salt 1 egg 2 tbs dry corn starch 2 ½ tablespoons dark soy sauce 2 tablespoons hoisin 1 tablespoon sugar 1 tablespoon white vinegar 1 ½ teaspoons Shao-Hsing Wine ½ cup wet corn starch 3 cups plain oil 1 teaspoon chopped garlic 1 tablespoon chopped ginger 8 small dried chilies 1 bunch scallions, cut into rings.
Marinate chicken with salt, egg and corn starch for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the sauce by combining the soy sauce, hoisin, sugar, vinegar and wine.
In a large pot, heat the oil to 350F.Toss the chicken in the wet corn starch and then add to the hot oil.Cookuntil crispy, about 5 minutes.
While the chicken is frying, heat a large skillet over high heat.Add 1 tbs. of frying oil to the pan.Add ginger, garlic, scallions and chilies and cook until aromatic.
When chicken is crispy drain and add to ginger mix.Pour in sauce and reduce.
by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo features a recipe that continues to receive rave reviews from my dinner guests.