Yum, Squash?

Neither R nor I are that fond of zucchini and summer squash. I think in my case it's because there was always so much of it from my dad's garden every summer, so much that I even got sick of all the recipes for hiding squash. So when we get squash in our CSA box, I'm always tempted to just give it away.

But this week our zucchini came with a neat little recipe called Greek Taverna-style Summer Squash, from an old SF Chronicle Food Section (05/06/98). The squash is supposed to be cut into large chunks and boiled to a softness in salted water, then dressed with garlic, oregano, black olives, EVOO and lemon juice. I decided to roast largish bite-size pieces at 425 degrees, dressed in EVOO, salt, pepper, some coarsely chopped garlic and some crumbled dried oregano. Once it was done, I stirred in coarsely chopped oil-cured black olives, and squeezed lemon juice over all.

It was delicious! Our table of four adults all liked it, although MZ still refused to try it. She insists she doesn't like squash, although it's probably been more than a year since she last tried the stuff.

I may try quartering the squash next time and preparing according to the original recipe, but the roasted squash will definitely come into the rotation again.

A Matter of Convenience

So many recipes to catch up on: there was a fabulous shrimp scampi pasta, a carnivore's take on Greens' Zuni stew (add pork), and the return to turkey burgers, this time vaguely South Asian/mid-East-style with Hamati bread, sweet and sour carrot sauce, a very tasty yogurt sauce, and thinly sliced cucumbers from our *new* CSA box.

Our major challenge lately has been getting food on the table quickly. I'm working more and we're inevitably rushing. We try not to rely on take-out and I'm constantly trying to redirect my brain from involved Cook's Illustrated dinners to quick, tasty sustenance.

The latest discovery is Trader Joe's pre-cooked rice. I wouldn't dream of heating it in the plastic pouch with all the phthalate hoopla these days. But a little diced onion, sliced mushrooms and water with the jasmine rice/quinoa/flax seed blend made for a great 7-minute pilaf on Saturday night -- a great product to have around for a quick side, and it went well with the more time-consuming roasted baby artichokes I inherited from my sister's fridge before she left on vacation.

I've also recently discovered the Asian American Food Company, source of delicious and convenient Chinese dumplings. In a little storefront on Noriega, they make the dumplings in the back room and sell them out of enormous freezers in front. The owner is incredibly nice and his website details the cooking instructions for all his products. We've had the boiled dumplings for breakfast with some fresh fruit, and for dinner with a stir-fried vegetable. Tonight I'm making a quick soup of their Shanghai wontons, some defrosted chicken stock and leftover sauteed pea shoots. If you open my freezer, you'll find bags of chicken and chive, pork and napa cabbage and lamb dumplings, as well as xiao long bao and a tryer pack of pork and cabbage potstickers. Delicious!

Petrale Sole again, with Indian Spices

Petrale sole is cheap and good right now. Halibut? $17.99/lb. Wild King Salmon? $19.99/lb. Sustainably fished Chilean Seabass? A whopping $24.99/lb. But fresh, wild Petrale sole is a mere $12.99/lb. And it is much tastier, in my opinion, than tilapia, The Other Cheap White Fish.

So we had it again tonight, this time I added 2 t. of curry poweder to the dredging mix of matzo meal and flour. Unable to look at any more potatoes or rice, I made whole wheat orzo, then McGiver'd a bechamel out of the dredging flour and the reserved pasta water, in the pan in which I'd cooked the fish. It came out surprisingly well!

The veg was charred cauliflower with chiles, onions, cumin, coriander and turmeric, finished with some yogurt and lime juice. Wow, I actually found hot serrano chiles, this was no dish for MZ. Good thing she likes salad now, her veg was the juice from chewed dressed lettuce (she spits out the mangled leaves), as well as tomatoes, cukes and shredded carrots from the salad.

Tomatillo Pork Stew, A Steak and a Soup

I made a pork and tomatillo stew earlier in the week, a variation from a real recipe in a slow-cooker cookbook. I had Niman Ranch pork shoulder and decided to go the easy way with jarred salsa and a can of green enchilada sauce. I should have known better, it was good, but kind of flat and one-dimensionally salty in spite of the browned onions, chile and 1/2 bottle of beer I added. I won't take that many shortcuts in one recipe again.

Tonight was skirt steak, grilled out in the wind, and Beets Two Ways. This is what we call it, I habitually buy beets with the greens, and we make a roasted beet with blue cheese salad as well as sauteed beet greens. I roasted the beets during MZ's nap, and sauteed the greens while the meat was resting. R. grilled the meat and made the salad, so it was a pretty easy dinner, along with some roasted purple potatoes.

I've been trying to get a grip on our refrigerator. It was good to get those potatoes used up, as well as some russets that have been sitting around since Chanukah, a bunch of leeks, some chicken stock left over from stretching S's fabulous matzo ball soup, and a ham steak I bought, then rejected, for my New Year's black eyed peas. I started off making potato leek soup, rustic-style with the potatoes lightly broken up rather than fully pureed. I added some ham and then couldn't resist throwing in some frozen spinach. No dairy, and it's hearty enough for a meal with some good bread and a salad. A keeper.

Starting off to a sweet new year

Having MZ in our lives has changed the way we approach the holidays more than we imagined. We used to plan carefully for our hosting or guest duties, but now we are more haphazard, as we juggle her needs with getting the food to the table. At the same time, we think more of her impressions and the family traditions we're creating, how to make her understand that these days are different from all others, and to be looked forward to from year to year.

I'm betting the food traditions make the most impression at this age, and the High Holy Days are filled with foods that make few appearances during the rest of the year. When else do we eat bagels for dinner except when we are breaking our fast? And lokshen kugel, there's a dish I don't make every day. It's a dairy fest, full of rich milky ingredients. The first few times I made Grandma Nora's recipe, I fiddled with low fat and nonfat ingredients, and found myself underwhelmed with the results. Now I just make it once or twice a year, and enjoy the warm, rich, custardy joy of it. The only flavorings are a touch of good vanilla and a light sprinkling of cinnamon. It's perfect comfort food after fasting all day.

There are two tricks to this recipe than might run counter to the way many people cook today: use old-fashioned egg noodles, nothing fancy, and cook to doneness. The kugel should meld into a soft pudding, and al dente noodles add nothing to this effect. And never, ever use whipped cream cheese -- your custard will never set.

Grandma Nora's Noodle Kugel

12 oz. wide egg noodles, boiled in lightly salted water and drained
4 oz. cream cheese
8 oz. small-curd cottage cheese
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. sour cream
1 c. milk
1 t. vanilla
6 T. melted butter
Corn flakes, crumbled
Cinnamon-sugar

Cream eggs and cream cheese together. Add cottage cheese, sugar and sour cream, stir to combine. Add milk and vanilla, stir. Add noodles and melted butter, stir. Pour into a greased 9"x13" baking dish. The kugel can be refrigerated overnight from this point.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle top of kugel with corn flakes crumbs, dust lightly with cinnamon-sugar. Bake for 40-60 minutes, until custard is set. Serve warm or at room temperature topped with sour cream and apple sauce or other stewed fruit (strawberry-rhubarb is lovely).