Veggie of the Week...Padron Peppers

I am a volunteer for a great organization, CUESA (Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture).  It is a non-profit that runs the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market as well as a number of other educational programs.  A few weeks ago I helped out with a fundraising event, the Summer Celebration, where many of the best chefs and bartenders in San Francisco offered dishes and drinks using local, seasonal items.

I was working in the section that was highlighting foods from the nightshade family.  Lots of eggplant, peppers and tomatoes!  One of my favorites was from the chef at Contigo.

 

 

This was my first time eating padron peppers.  Originating in the Padron region of Spain, they are now commonly grown in California.  Usually the pepper is mild and sweet, but about 1 in 20 is hot...you never know what you are going to bite into!

 

I asked the chef for some pointers to re-create his dish at home and I was determined I was going to try to make it.  Surprisingly a few days later, the CUESA website posted the entire recipe!  You can find it here.  I cut the recipe in half, and made it without the paprika (I didn't realize I didn't have any), but otherwise followed it exactly.

 

I took the kernels off of one cob of corn, but wasn't quite sure how to "milk" it.  I just scraped off what I could with the back of a knife.

 

I sautéed the corn until it was caramelized, about 3 minutes on high heat.

Next, I sautéed the garlic in butter.  Then added the corn "milk", rosemary, salt and pepper, and cooked for about 5 minutes.  Then added the corn kernels and mixed everything together and set aside.

Here are the padron peppers:

These are then sautéed in a very hot pan with olive oil until they are blistered and slightly browned.  I didn't use nearly as much oil as the original recipe (a few tablespoons vs. 1/2 cup).

Toast some baguette with a little olive oil on each slice.  Then assemble.  Spoon the corn mixture on the toast, then add a slice or two of Manchego cheese, and place a pepper on the top.

 

I think mine look pretty similar...although I probably should have trimmed the stems first...I think they look like little mice!

 

 

And now for the close-up!

 

 

 

 



Best. Lunch. Ever.

I am really learning to appreciate how simple meals really are the best ones. 
No need for 15 different exotic ingredients and an hour in the kitchen.
Focus on the freshest items you can get and you really need little else.

I usually spend Saturday mornings at the Farmers Market at the Ferry Building.  This time the displays of heirloom tomatoes caught my attention.  With names like Brandywine, Green Zebra, and Cherokee Purple, what's not to love?

I don't eat a ton of bread...but I just can't seem to leave the Ferry Building without something from Acme.  Ahhh...bread love...

I have just recently discovered Burrata.  How did I live before it??  It is like fresh mozzarella, but softer and creamier and delicious!  I can always count on Cowgirl Creamery for this.

So here was my simple, but fabulous lunch.
I chopped up my tomatoes, drizzled them with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, added some fresh basil, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Stuffed Summer Squash

So it has been a little while since the last post...
I'm still visiting the farmers market and cooking as much as always, just haven't been making the time to write about it...

One of my favorite summer vegetables is zucchini.  Well, really, any variety of summer squash.  Usually I just brush them with a little olive oil and grill them, but I'm also a big fan of the zucchini boat!  I found these great yellow, globe-shaped squash in the market recently and thought they would make a delicious side-dish.

I have never really used a recipe for this before, so here is my attempt at quantifying what I usually do.

Stuffed Squash

2 medium sized squash
1-2 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 roma tomato, chopped
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
salt & pepper
2 tbsp. parmesan cheese, grated
4 tbsp. mozzarella cheese, grated

Instructions:
Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Wash the squash.  Trim off the tops and take a small amount off the bottom if needed so that the squash will sit upright.

Scoop out the flesh of the squash, leaving about a 1/4 inch thick shell.

Place the 2 empty squash shells in a baking pan and bake for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, chop the removed flesh so that the pieces are more uniform in size and set aside.
In a fry-pan, cook onion in olive oil over medium-high heat until soft.  Then add garlic and the chopped squash and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

Add chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper and dried oregano and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Turn off the heat.  Add basil and grated parmesan and mix to combine.

Remove squash shells from the oven and stuff with this mixture.
Sprinkle the top with mozzarella cheese.

Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until tender.
Here is the final melty dish!

The Cute Veggies

I love checking out all of the different varieties of produce at the market.  Every week, I'm guaranteed to see something that I haven't seen before.  I have noticed that I seemed to be drawn towards the "cute" vegetables.  There is something about mini versions of veggies that attracts me.  Just an FYI...mini versions of broccoli and cauliflower taste exactly the same...maybe not worth the premium price.  But they were fun!

This week I found these great summer squash.  The green ones are called starships and the yellow one is a flying saucer.  I'll probably just slice them up and grill them with a bit of olive oil.

I also decided to try some lemon cucumbers.  They don't really taste different from your standard varieties.  Their name only refers to the shape...they really do resemble lemons.  Here they are with a few heirloom tomatoes.

 

I decided to make a quick Mediterranean-style salad.  So easy.  It can be thrown together in just a few minutes.

Salad:
2 lemon cucumbers
3 small tomatoes
about 1/2 cup each red onion and yellow pepper
2 oz feta

Dressing:
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. dried oregano
3 tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper

Instructions:
Chop all the vegetables into similar sized pieces and combine them in a bowl. 
In a small bowl, whisk together all dressing ingredients.  Toss the vegetables with the dressing and then crumble the feta on the top.  Best if you can let the flavors come together for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Fabulous Favas

The last few weeks there have been a number of vendors at the farmers market with fava beans.  They really are big ugly-looking beans, but I decided to make them my new-food-of-the week.  Another round of Googling to figure out what to do with them.  And I had no idea how much work they were!

I'm going to share with you what I think is the ultimate springtime salad.  It is so green!  Favas and peas are at peak season right now and easy to find.  I had to search all over for the asparagus.  Definitely past the peak for the local farmers market, and my usual grocery store only sells Mexican asparagus (How sad is that?  California has the best produce in the US!)  Anyways...Whole Foods to the rescue...and don't even ask how much I spent on it...but at least it was from California!

First, here is the list of ingredients.  I found the recipe on bonappetit.com

Pea, Asparagus, and Fava Bean Salad

1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tbsp. Parmesan
1/2 tbsp. lemon juice
salt and pepper
1 cup fresh fava beans
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed
1/2 cup shelled fresh peas
1/3 cup red onion
2 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Instructions:
Shell the fava beans.  Here are my before and after shots.

Then do the same for the English Peas.  I really had to try hard not to eat them all as I was shelling them.  I love them!  I only had one or two...OK...maybe a few more...

Cook the favas in boiling water until they are tender, for about 4 minutes.  Drain and transfer them to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.

Then, do the same for the peas, but they only need to be cooked for 2 minutes.
Here are my peas taking an icy cold bath.

Instead of boiling the asparagus, I decided to steam them.  It only takes about 3 minutes because you want them to be just tender.  Drop them into an ice bath as well.

So this was the part I didn't know about fava beans - you have to peel them again!  Now there are people online who claim you don't have to, and of course you don't, it's perfectly fine to eat them as is, but the texture seems a bit tough to me.  I set out to peel them all again.  I think I peeled about 3 or 4 and then decided that I needed some help...

I was happy I only had a cup of beans to peel.  In the end, I had a small amount of very tender, bright green beans.

Next sauté the onion and the bacon.  Then make the salad dressing (olive oil, parmesan, lemon juice, salt and pepper).

Combine all vegetables in a large bowl and mix in bacon and onion.  Add dressing and toss to coat.  Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.

And here is the final salad.  Of course, I added a bit more Parmesan.  Tastes great!  Favas are on my shopping list again next week.

Baby Artichokes

My favorite place in all of San Francisco is the farmers market at the Ferry Building (I think that officially makes me a food geek).  It offers up such a wide range of produce and many varieties of fruits and veggies that I have not even seen before.  Why buy a regular zucchini when you can buy some crazy multi-colored striped one?  I have decided that every week I am going to try to buy at least one item that is new to me or that I very rarely eat.  This week = baby artichokes.

Confession...I have never cooked artichokes before...no idea what to do with them.  I've only ever had the jarred variety on pizza or that creamy artichoke dip.  The big softball sized globe artichokes in the stores always were a bit intimidating to me, but I decided that I could probably handle the babies!

So, here are my 6 little artichokes.  Yes, only 6.  I wasn't sure how this experiment was going to turn out...

After much Google searching, not only did I find out that artichokes are a part of the thistle family, and are a good source of folate, magnesium and vitamin K too, did I realize that these babies are definitely the way to go when it come to prep.  You don't have to deal with removing the inedible fuzzy choke because it hasn't fully developed yet.

I can't give specific credit to anyone for this recipe.  I probably looked at 25 different recipes and how-to pages for cooking artichokes, then combined my favorite parts of all of them to come up with this one.

Sautéed Baby Artichokes

6 baby artichokes
1 lemon
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tomato, chopped
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
salt and pepper
parmesan cheese

Instructions:
The first step is to fill a bowl with cold water.  Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon.  Artichokes start to turn brown very quickly so you want to toss them in the acidified water as soon as you begin peeling them.

Wash the artichokes.  Start peeling back the outer dark leaves until you get to the smooth pale green leaves.  It feels like you are throwing away most of the artichoke, but you really just want to eat the tender inner leaves.

Then chop off the top 1/2 inch or so.

Trim off the stem, cut in half and toss into the lemon-water.  I didn't see a choke on most of the artichokes I was using.  I had one that was slightly larger, so I scooped out some very fine fuzzy hairs out of the center.  I'm thinking it probably didn't matter because they were so small.

 Heat 1 tbsp. of olive oil over medium-high heat.  Drain the artichokes, pat them dry on some paper towel and add them to the pan.  Sauté for 2 minutes before adding the garlic and then sauté for another 1-2 minutes.

Then I added in the chicken broth, chopped tomato, red wine vinegar and salt and pepper.  I reduced the heat to medium-low and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.  Then I squeezed in the juice from the remaining lemon half and let it cook for another couple of minutes.

I finished it off with some freshly grated parmesan.

This made the tiniest amount... but ok for just the two of us.  Great new side dish!  It didn't take as long to prepare as I thought it might, but I think it is well worth the time.  I'm still not sure if I'm ready to tackle the large artichokes yet, but I am going to go searching for more babies next week before the season is over.

Empanada Party

Yesterday I had the opportunity to learn a little more about South American cooking with one of my Meetup groups.  Our gracious hostess Geraldine held a cooking party in her home, and gave us a hands-on lesson about making Argentinian empanadas.

I was a bit disappointed that we were not going to do the traditional beef/egg/olive filling (she thought it would be best to stick with something vegetarian to appeal to everyone), but they were still delicious.

I was happy to find out that many people will purchase the empanada wrappers already made (I am a terrible dough-maker!) as this will make it so much easier to try to make them on my own.  This is Geraldine's favourite because it comes frozen and it designed specifically for baking (Horno) vs. frying.

We made two different fillings for our empanadas.  The first was blue cheese.  We mixed together equal parts of finely mashed blue cheese (about 8oz) and diced mozzarella.

 

 

Then mixed in about 4 tbsp. each of finely chopped walnuts and celery along with some salt and pepper.

Our second filling was made up of approximately equal amounts of diced tomatoes (seeded) and mozzarella.  We added in some chopped fresh basil, salt, pepper, and a couple of tbsp. of olive oil and let it all marinade together for about 30 minutes.

Geraldine gave us an expert demo in empanada assembly and then threw us in to try making our own.  You want to add as much filling as you think will fit into it.

Then rub water on the outer edges so that they will stick together.

Then seal it up and fold the edges of the dough over on itself to make the repulgue.  The nicely crimped edge not only looks good but holds everything in place.

 



 

 

Poke holes so that it doesn't explode in the oven and then brush a wash of egg yolk on the top so it will get golden brown when it cooks.

 

 

And here is the finished product! 

Thanks again to our fabulous teacher Geraldine!
Now I'm ready to try this at home.