Endings and Beginnings

This time of year even though it is the heat of the summer, we begin to see changes in the harvest: the delicious and abundant summer squash and cucumbers have succumbed to diseases which spread like wild fire when humidity is high as we have seen in the past couple of weeks (our farmers have tried sequential planting later in the season so we can enjoy these crops through the month of August, but it is a "fruitless" endeavor because the plants succumb before even bearing a crop). But, we are receiving the first of the onion, winter squash and edamame so our meals will shift. For this past week, here is a bit of what we enjoyed:

Tomato, garlic, scallion, basil - we have been enjoying some version of tomato salad on most nights - sometimes with little pieces of fresh mozzarella, sometimes with goat feta or sometimes no cheese at all. On nights when I add a touch of balsamic vinegar in addition to the good quality olive oil, we will have a nice hunk of bread to soak up the juices at the end - I learned this as a kid and we would all fight for the juices at the bottom of the bowl - one of the most delicious things about local summer tomatoes!

Tomato, garlic - we spent a week in Barcelona in late spring and one of the iconic dishes there is called Tomato Bread. In eating that week we found every restaurant has their version of it, but one of the best and easiest ones is this: using a rustic loaf of bread, slice it into about 1/2-inch thick slices, and bake bread in a 450 degree oven until lightly toasted. When cool enough to handle, take a garlic clove and slice in half and rub one side of each slice of bread with the garlic. Then, take a nice meaty tomato, and do the same thing - you should have a light coating of tomato on each slice. Next, drizzle a good quality olive oil over each piece and top with a sprinkle of a nice flake sea salt. The bread is delicious eaten as is, or can be served alongside cured meats (Jamon in Spanish), cheeses and olives.

Eggplant, summer squash, tomatoes - grilled and made a big platter to have alongside grilled fish. For the tomatoes, we cut in half and just gently grilled and topped with a very light sprinkle of sea salt.

Eggplant - I have tried several baba ganoush recipes over the years and decided to try yet another one in which the eggplant is cut in half and grilled until the skin is blackened and the flesh is soft like pudding. Allow to cool and then proceed with your favorite recipe. You are left with blackened bits in the baba ganoush and that little bit of char is delicious. We had a guest tell me it was the best baba ganoush he had ever had- Yay! I do use a recipe from the Zahav cookbook, which has the cook take a prepared tahini and boost its flavor with garlic, lemon juice and cumin - if anyone wants the detailed recipe let me know - we find it is worth the extra time and I make from scratch hummus at the same time.

Tomatillos, scallions, garlic - I have told you about using the tomatillo sauce that I freeze over the year and then roast chicken with it. I had an idea last week of wanting to make some type of taco using the tomatillo sauce. The idea came from thinking about how to cook delicious recipes that come together quickly without heating up the house. I have a wonderful pressure cooker that was a Christmas present that I used all winter long, but had not used in months. This time, I seared chicken thighs in the pressure cooker then placed them all in and poured the tomatillo sauce over the top and mixed it all together. I set the pressure cooker for cooking chicken and let it go. I can't say how amazing this came out!! The chicken pulled apart, making it perfect for a taco-like preparation. We used soft corn tortillas that we had warmed up, spread some of the mixture on and topped with a few scallions and rolled them up. We then spooned more of the tomatillo sauce over the top, sprinkled with cilantro, chopped tomato and a little feta cheese - this meal was an 'aha!' moment!