Tag: vegetables

Stuffed Eight Ball Zucchini.

Published on by KellyInTheKitchen2 Comments

Recently I feel like I’ve been seeing eight ball zucchini everywhere! I guess that could be explained by the fact that they’re in season right now…but still. I noticed that a bunch of bloggers had interesting stuffed zucchini recipes to offer; then these pudgy little guys appeared on my roommate’s dad’s wedding menu 2 weeks ago, and (as if it weren’t a sign from the universe that I should give them a try myself), they were at my farmers market on Saturday. So I picked up a few. First of all, they’re adorable. Second, they’re so versatile! I love how they leave so much room for food-creativity. I just kind of made this dish up as I went along, and you can can do the same–just prepare them using whatever you’ve got hanging around your kitchen and these will come out beautifully!

INGREDIENTS

1 chorizo sausage, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
2 eight ball zucchini
salt and pepper to taste
5 leaves fresh basil, julienned
1/4 cup tomato sauce

DIRECTIONS

Heat a pan over medium high and add a splash of oil. When the oil is hot, add the chorizo. Cook until browned on the outside. It’s okay if it’s a bit pink in the middle, because it’s going in the oven in a bit. Set the chorizo aside.

Add the celery, carrot, and onion to the pan with the chorizo juices and cook until soft.

While the veggies cook, cut the tops off your zucchini and set them aside for later, and hollow them out. I used a mellon baller. Roughly chop the insides and set them aside.

Stir in the garlic and cook 1 minute. Then add about 2/3 of the zucchini insides, salt and pepper to taste, and stir.

Cook down the mixture until it shrinks a bit, letting the zucchini liquid cook off.

When the mixture has tightened up a bit and some of the liquid has cooked off, stir in the basil, tomato sauce, and the chorizo, and give it another 3 minutes or so. Then remove from heat and let cool 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 F.

When the mixture has cooled a bit, stuff the zucchinis. Place them in a casserole dish or other oven-safe pan and put their little tophats on.

Cover the pan with a sheet of foil and bake for 15 minutes. Then remove the foil and finish them off for another 15-20 minutes, until soft and tender.

That’s it! Take them out and enjoy. I buttered a piece of easy French bread and toasted it in a pan, and it was the perfect simple accompaniment.

Watercress and Radish Salad with Mustard Jalapeño Vinaigrette.

Published on by KellyInTheKitchenLeave a comment

The farmers market had some beautiful watercress and radishes on Saturday, so I picked up a few bunches of each, content in the knowledge that a yummy salad was in my future. Most of the time, I’m not a salad fan–or more accurately, not a lettuce fan. I’ve found that the salads in my life fall into two categories: boring or bad for you. That’s why, when I think of a salad like this one, which is neither boring nor bad for you, I get really excited and have to share it!

INGREDIENTS

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp mustard
1/4 tsp orange marmalade
1/2 shallot, minced
1/2 tsp jalapeño, minced
1/2 tsp fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 bunch watercress, rinsed
1 bunch radishes, rinsed and sliced
1/2 tomato, diced

DIRECTIONS

In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, mustard, marmalade, shallot, jalapeño, parsley, and salt and pepper.

In another bowl, combine watercress, radishes, and tomato. Toss all ingredients together.

Pile onto a plate and  sprinkle with more pepper. Enjoy!

Coq au Vin.

Published on by KellyInTheKitchenLeave a comment

Coq au vin, unlike revenge, is a dish best served hot. It’s a classic in French cuisine, with tender, fall-off-the-bone chicken in a rich, savory wine sauce with a hint of tomato, speckled with mushrooms and shallots and bacon. These flavors are just amazing! It’s a perfect dish for dinner parties, but this time, I’ve made it to have for lunch at work during the week. Lucky me. Totally impressive but actually very simple to execute, this recipe is definitely one worth mastering.

INGREDIENTS

3 lb chicken (I used 4 legs and 2 breasts)
salt and pepper to taste
1 pad butter
olive oil
4 strips bacon, cut into small strips or lardons
3 shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
8 oz. mushrooms, rough chop
1 cup stock, plush a splash (I used homemade chicken stock)
1 cup white wine (I used Chardonnay)
1/2 cup canned crushed tomato
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp flour (thicken with potato flour for a gluten-free sauce)
chopped parsley for garnish

DIRECTIONS

Rinse and pat dry chicken, then season with salt and pepper.

Heat butter and olive oil in Dutch oven or other large soup pot. Working in batches, brown chicken on all sides and then transfer to a plate.

In the same pot, cook the bacon. When the bacon is crisp, add shallots and garlic and cook until soft.

In a separate pan, saute mushrooms in olive oil until soft. Set aside.

Deglaze the chicken pot with a splash or two of stock and stir.

Then place chicken back in the pot. Pour wine and the rest of the stock over the chicken and add mushrooms, crushed tomato, and bay leaves. Cover pot with lid and simmer for half an hour.

When chicken is fork-tender, remove from pot. Remove the bay leaves at this point, too. Place half a cup of the sauce into a small bowl and stir flour into it with a fork. Bring the pot of sauce/gravy to a low boil and whisk the flour-thickened portion into it. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Spoon sauce over chicken and serve with rice or potatoes, and garnish with parsley. Makes for luscious leftovers too!

Borsch.

Published on by KellyInTheKitchen2 Comments

Borsch is so misunderstood. It’s a classic in Russian/Ukrainian cuisine, but despite my Russophile tendencies, I avoided borsch for years because I thought it sounded so…awful. But college is a time for experimentation, right? So during my senior year, I finally gave borsch a try, and it totally won me over! It’s a super hearty vegetable and beef stew that gets its characteristic garnet color from its most notorious ingredient: the beet. If you’re not a beet lover, you’ll probably still like borsch (it’s really good, I swear!),  just make sure to puree the cooked beet and tomato mixture before adding it to the broth pot. Old-world peasant cooking at its finest!

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 lbs. stew beef, cubed
3 bay leaves
small onion, chopped
3 small red beets, scrubbed clean and cut into bars
14 oz. canned crushed tomatoes
1 tsp vinegar
2 carrots, peeled and cut into bars
2 celery stalks, chopped
large onion, chopped
2 medium potatoes, cubed
1/2 medium head cabbage, shredded
butter
olive oil
salt
pepper
2 cloves garlic, diced

DIRECTIONS

Fill a large pot or Dutch oven 3/4 of the way full with water and add beef and bay leaves. Bring to a boil.

When boiling, turn down to medium low heat and simmer. Skim off the fatty, foamy impurities that rise to the top.

When you’ve gotten most of the fatty bits out of the broth pot, add the small onion. Cover and simmer for an hour. Then remove the bay leaves.

Meanwhile, add butter or olive oil to a pan and heat over medium. When hot, add beets, crushed tomato, and vinegar. Stir well and simmer for an hour.

Fifteen minutes before the beets are done cooking, start the other veggies. Heat butter or olive oil in another pan over medium flame and add large onion, carrot, and celery. Cook for 15 minutes.

After you start the onion-carrot-celery mixture, turn up the heat on the broth and bring it back to a boil. Add potatoes and cabbage to the broth pot.

When the beets and tomatoes have finished cooking, add them to the broth, along with the sauteed veggies. Add salt, pepper, and garlic, stir well, and simmer for at least half an hour.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and garnish with fresh chives or dill. Priyatnogo appetita!

Vichyssoise.

Published on by KellyInTheKitchen1 Comment

There is a lovely vegetable soup called vichyssoise, named for Vichy, the spa town in central France. Whether the soup is French at all is up for debate, though; Julia Child claims the recipe is an American creation. Questionable authenticity aside, this potato and leek puree is an easy, elegant dish that’s pretty simple to make. Served either cold or hot, it’s a versatile dish perfect for unpredictable spring days.

INGREDIENTS

2 large leeks (or 3 medium ones), white and light green parts only, sliced and rinsed thoroughly
1 medium onion, rough chop
2 stalks celery, chopped
4 medium potatoes, washed, large dice; peel if desired (I leave the skins on–see below*)
chicken stock or water (I used homemade chicken stock)
salt and pepper to taste
butter
half and half or heavy cream

DIRECTIONS

Heat a Dutch oven or other large soup pot on medium and add a pad of butter. When butter is melted, add leeks, onion, and celery, and cook until softened but not browned.

Add potatoes and just enough chicken stock or water to cover the vegetables. Season with salt, and don’t skimp on the pepper!

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cooking until potatoes are soft. Remove from heat and puree in batches; I like to pour the pureed soup through a strainer so that there are no lumps, just a smooth, thick soup.

*If you left the skins on your potatoes, like I did, you’re getting a second dish out of your vichyssoise! While straining into your soup bowl, reserve some of the potato puree in a separate bowl–say, 3/4 cup. After you’ve strained the soup, all the potato skins will be caught in the strainer. Scrape them out and mix them into the reserved potato puree for leek mashed potatoes!

Back to the soup. Whether you’re serving it cold or hot, there’s one last step before you dig in. Just before serving, stir in a healthy splash of half and half or cream and add a dash of salt and pepper. Garnish with parsley or chives. Croutons would be good, but I was fresh out. Oh well. Bon appetit!

Zucchini Latkes.

Published on by KellyInTheKitchenLeave a comment

Passover, which began yesterday, is a very cool holiday. Growing up, I loved to read the story of Moses and the Jews in Egypt. I’m not sure why Christians don’t celebrate Passover, too; it is in their Bible, after all. Anyway, potato latkes are traditionally served during Hanukkah, not Passover…so these zucchini latkes are pretty much as non-traditional as it gets! That doesn’t really matter–it’s always the right time for frying.

INGREDIENTS

3 medium zucchini, washed, with the ends chopped off
1 carrot, peeled
1 shallot
2 eggs
3 tbsp bread crumbs (obviously use gluten-free bread crumbs here if you need to)
2 oz. feta cheese, finely crumbled
1 tbsp parsley
1 1/4 tsp dill
1 1/4 tsp coriander
salt and pepper to taste
vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS

Grate zucchini, carrot, and shallot into a strainer or colander. Toss with salt and let sit for 20 minutes, to drain off water. Then rinse the mixture, press out excess water, and pat dry with paper towel until no longer wet, but only damp.

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Place mixture back in strainer and let sit for 10 minutes.

Heat vegetable oil in a pan. Form mixture into patties and place in the pan.

Fry until brown and crispy on the bottom, and then flip.

When both sides are browned and the middle is cooked through, remove from pan and cool slightly on a paper towel, to wick away excess oil. Serve as is, or with a scoop of sour cream. Yum.