The Great Cupboard Clean Out Extravaganza... continues!

As I mentioned on Sunday, I'm moving. Well, that's one week from today. I may be rather light with the posts this week, but I've taken some blurry photos I'd like to share with you. I had half a box of pasta. SO I made tomato sauce. I made that legendary Marcella Hazan tomato sauce.

Earlier this month I was talking about butter with someone... it escapes me who. I said something along the lines of "Nothing in the kitchen won't be improved by the addition of butter, bacon, or chocolate. " In the case of tomato sauce, mmmmmm butter. The above is one can of diced tomatoes, one onion (cut in half, simmered with the sauce and removed before serving) and about four tablespoons of butter. Just simmer in a pot, low, about 45 minutes. So freaking good. I'm taking the end of it for lunch tomorrow.

Last night Christy and Duncan and Adam and I feasted on barbecue chicken and grilled corn and also, Kathy Frontino's unbelievably good potato salad. There are those who would argue that lack of mayonnaise renders this a non-salad potato dish. I wanted to tease you with this picture, but this is delicious and deserves its own post.

Tonight I tackled the phyllo dough in the freezer. Actually, I thought of it yesterday and put it in the fridge to thaw overnight. I also had an eggplant and some feta cheese. This is what I made. I am calling them eggplant feta triangles. Because it is late, my room is a mess, and all my creative energy is thoroughly sapped. Moving is no fun.

This recipe is for the small triangles you see at the top of this photo. The big ones were too floppy.

Eggplant Feta Triangles
more leftover recipe fun!

One medium eggplant
1/2 cup feta cheese
phyllo dough (half package, thawed according to package directions)
black pepper
melted butter, a couple of tablespoons

Roast the eggplant: prick it with a fork a few times, roast it in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes until it deflates. Allow to cool enough to handle, then peel the skin off and spoon the pulp into a bowl. Add the feta and pepper to taste, salt if you think it needs it. Make sure this tastes good, it's the filling of these weird little snacky things.

Unroll the phyllo, cover with a damp towel. On a work surface, lay out one sheet and brush lightly with butter. Cover with a second sheet of phyllo, butter the second sheet, and add a third. Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut the phyllo the long way into 2 inch strips (depends on the size of the sheets how much you'll get out of one sheet. I cut mine into thirds.) Put a dollop of the eggplant mixture on one end, wrap it up like a table football - see photo above. Repeat until you run out of something. I ran out of filling first. Brush the tops of the triangles with the end of the butter and pop into a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. Wait before you take the first bite! They're hot!

Political Food Fight in Colorado

This is not a blog about politics, but I read a story yesterday that ruffled my feathers a little bit, and it has a political slant.

At the end of August, the Democratic Party will hold its Convention in Denver, where Barack Obama will be confirmed as the Democratic Presidential Nominee and many other (I'm sure) related and important things will be discussed. Among other activities, the conventioneers will have to eat. The host committee sent out a Request for Proposal to area caterers, and one Denver Councilman (amusingly named Charlie Brown) is less than amused by the provisions requested by the host committee. What provisions, you ask?

• Half of the meal or (50%) of the plate is made up of fruits and/or vegetables.
• No items are to be fried.
• A colorful meal – include at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white. (Garnishes not included)
• 70% or more of ingredients be precooked weight are certified organic and/or grown/raised in Colorado.
• 70% or more of ingredients by pre-cooked weight are fresh and not pre-processed.
  

Many of my meals (not all, but most) meet the above "requirements." They seem for the most part reasonable, especially for a group of the country's leaders or wannabe leaders. Ok, banning fried food entirely is a little extreme, but shouldn't they be leading by example here for the sake of national health? In a country facing an epidemic of obesity and rampant diabetes, why aren't we making an effort on every level to eat more fresh food, including more vegetables and fruit?

Councilman Brown's reaction was, "You can't turn red states blue, especially Southern states, without fried chicken."

I know he's just one guy, but it's interesting how seriously he has responded to this little bit of news. And I HIGHLY doubt that every Southern voter a) is definitely voting Republican and b) eats fried food every day or c) will be affected by this news. My guess is this to-be-determined menu will have little-to-no impact on the Southern vote, but I don't know how you would keep track of that. With this tidbit coming on the heels of the Wall Street Journal article about the candidates' favorite home town restaurants and what that says about them, I am totally intrigued by the way foodie-ism is becoming more mainstream.

More (less rambling) info from ABC News here and Epicurious commentary (with a rather incendiary title) here.

Also, I'd love to see a side by side comparison of the DNC and RNC convention menus... What do YOU think?

Zucchini tart, and cleaning out the cupboards

So. I'm moving in ten days. I'm pretty psyched about it, because it'll cut my commute by about two thirds. There's just the thing about packing up everything I own and putting it on a truck, hoping it doesn't get broken in the half hour between here and there and then figuring out where it all goes in a new space... anyway.

What this impending shift in location means is that I need to lessen the volume of stuff I'm putting on the truck. So it's time to clean out the cupboards, figure out what to bring with me and what to scrap together into a meal of some sort. Today, I took a peek at the freezer and I discovered a box of phyllo dough, two bags of frozen peas, about 10 shrimp, and a box of puff pastry.


I also had a zucchini and some ricotta cheese left from a pizza I made late last week and I basically made the same thing on a different crust. I believe using puff pastry means I should call it a tart, so voila! Behold my zucchini tart. (And prepare yourselves for more recipes using things like frozen ravioli, a half a pint of cherry tomatoes, a tube of prepared polenta and a snack sized bag of pretzels... or something.)

Zucchini Tart
I'm sure this would also be delicious with summer squash or small eggplant, sliced very thinly, or some kind of soft, herby cheese like boursin, if you wanted something punchier.

one sheet frozen puff pastry (I had Trader Joe's in my freezer)
1/2-3/4 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup pecorino romano or parmigiano reggiano, or another hard cheese, finely grated
one medium zucchini, thinly sliced
about a tablespoon of fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
zest of 1/3 - 1/2 a lemon
salt and pepper

Follow the package directions for defrosting your puff pastry - I put mine in the fridge for a few hours and then on the counter for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry until it's about 1/8 inch thick. Or, if you can't find your rolling pin because your house is slightly in shambles, press out the dough with your fingers as best you can. Place the dough on a parchment lined sheet pan.

Spread the ricotta over the pastry, but don't go all the way to the edges. Season the tart with salt and pepper, then scatter the mint and half the grated cheese. Layer on the zucchini, then zest the lemon over the whole thing and scatter the other half of the grated cheese.

Fold the edges of the tart over and place in the pre-heated oven for 25 minutes, rotating the pan half way through, or until the edges are golden brown. Wait five minutes for the tart to set a bit before slicing.

Figs and summer evenings

We have been having truly glorious weather here in Boston lately. It's supposed to be ridiculously hot and humid this weekend, but for now the nights are cool and the days are warm and breezy. Perfect weather for an outdoor concert, but I'll get to that in a minute. First, Figs!

I'm not sure who took a bit out of that sign... I guess they were hungry? Anyway. This is the second of Todd English's Boston area restaurants I went to over the course of two days (I had a lunch meeting at Kingfish Hall on Tuesday.) It was an interesting experience. The food was good, but the space is sort of weird. It's very narrow, and I was sitting with my back up against a tray of silverware so there were constantly servers hovering around, setting up other tables.

We started with the "Asparagus Frites" which I was not expecting to be breaded, but it was fairly light. The salad underneath was over-dressed but the arugula was tasty. I probably would have eaten all the greens had the over-zealous server not taken the plate away as soon as the asparagus were gone.

They let you split the pizzas down the middle so we had two, which was good because the name of the restuarant had given me a hankering for the combo you see above: figs, prosciutto and gorgonzola. There was a fig/onion/balsamic jam underneath it all. Frankly, there were too many figs. I am a huge proponent of the sweet/salty combo but this was so much fig it almost felt like desert. Adam thought the prosciutto was too salty, but I was pretty glad it was there as a foil for the figs. Also, those strange green things on top? Yeah, I still dont' quite know what they are. Green onions, maybe? Very odd and they kept falling off the pizza.

The other half was their special of the day, artichoke and spinach. Also delicious, this was more traditional. Yep. Hm. That's about all I have to say about this one. One more note on the pizza: the crust. It was crispy but suuuuper flour-y. My face felt gritty at the end of the meal. In conclusion, this was an ok meal, reasonably priced (pizzas are $13-$18 and feed two people), and I'd probably go back again. It was conveniently located (42 Charles Street) for the next activity on the evening's agenda:

The Landmark concert series at the Hatch Shell is not a bad way to spend a Wednesday evening.
Just make sure you bring a blanket.

Or some camp chairs.

Or you could improvise.

OR you could just sit there and curl your toes. Next week's concert schedule is for Gershwin and Gospel. If I can convince Adam that George and Ira can be fun, maybe we'll picnic. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, hi, um, did you...?

This morning I noticed that the older couple across the street (well, across the dead-end street behind my house) were outside, so I went down in my bare feet and wet hair and inquired, every so innocently about my plants.

Me: Hi, I'm Adrienne, I live in that house over there. I think, um, that someone took some potted plants out of our yard yesterday, they usually live on the deck, but they're, um, refinishing it and they moved everything, and, um, did you happen to see anything? [Gosh I'm eloquent.]
Kindly neighbor: Oh, these plants?
Me: Hey! Yes! Those are mine!
Kindly neighbor: Oh I thought they were Fran's and I didn't know when they were coming back so I didn't want the weather to destroy them.
Me, sheepishly: Oh, um, yeah, it was, uh, supposed to rain today...

OKAY, so I didn't water my plants yesterday. It was SUPPOSED to rain! The mint came right back to life when I gave it a little drink. Anyway, the babies are home. See:

BTW, yes, I know the plants in that brown pot are yellowing from crappy drainage. I'm workin' on it. In conclusion, I wrote you a haiku:

Plants were MIA
I overreacted some
They're back on the porch

On OUTRAGE! and soup.

Dear reader, do you notice anything missing from this photo? Say, three bare spots where potted plants used to live? Three botanical babies, lovingly cared for by moi? *sigh* Someone stole two of my plants today. They had been moved down to the yard with all the other stuff you see by the guys refinishing the deck. I got home from work and headed around the back to water (the promised thundershowers did not show up today) and two of my three pots were missing. Including the beautiful raku pot I bought on clearance at the end of last summer. And someone has absconded with it! Not to mention the parsley, thyme, basil and tarragon living in it! And the rosemary in the green pot next to it. My mint in its mustard yellow pot was left. I watered it and brought it up on the porch, then I raged a little bit and yelled. And then I made soup.

A couple of weeks ago in Maine, just before getting on the train back to Boston, we had lunch at Walter's, where I had not been before. They had a special of Coconut Split Pea Soup, and although my fish taco's were delicious (grilled fish, not fried, yum!) the soup was really a standout.

I knew I had half a bag of green split peas in the cupboard, so I picked up a can of coconut milk and two carrots, oooh about ten days ago. Those poor little carrots were languishing in the crisper drawer getting a little floppy, but after a crappy day and the herb heist, I decided it was time for a project.

In the end I sauteed some shrimp, chopped it and served it on top of the soup, but it was absolutely delicious (and vegan) on its own. AND I didn't even have to blend it. Split peas get creamy on their own. Who knew? You know what would have looked nice on top of this? Parsley. Or maybe basil. Harumph. I hope you like this soup, too.


Coconut Split Pea Soup
inspired by a soup special at Walter's in Portland, ME

1 1/2 cups green split peas, rinsed and picked (I bet this would be pretty with yellow peas, too!)
2 carrots, diced
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
1-2 tbsp red curry paste
1/2 - 1 tsp ground cumin
1 14 oz can coconut milk
salt
pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
4-6 cups water

Optional:
Shrimp, peeled & deveined - I used five jumbos (size 24-28/lb) per bowl of soup - sauteed with a clove of minced garlic in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.

In a large pot, heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the carrots, onions, and garlic and sweat a couple of minutes. Don't let them brown, just warm them up. Add a tablespoon or two of red chili paste. I used one, but I think next time I'll use two - there wasn't quite enough heat for me. Add the cumin.

Add the split peas and four cups of water. You could use vegetable or chicken stock here if you want; I started with 4 cups because I knew I would be adding more liquid at the end, but I had to add a cup of water when I turned the heat down. Bring to a boil for 2o-25 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste (I used about a teaspoon and a half of salt and about 10 grinds of pepper), then turn the heat to low and simmer for another 20, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Fifteen minutes before the soup is done, stir in the can of coconut milk and taste the soup. Mine needed another hefty pinch of salt and more pepper.

If using, chop the shrimp and add it to the soup in each bowl. Slurp happily.

Edamame for Your Sunday Night Blues

This is what I had for dinner tonight. You know those days when you just don't do anything? Well. This was one of those days. I took a little walk this afternoon, but mostly I alternated between reading on the porch and West Wing dvds when I got too hot to sit outside. I had a bag of Cascadian Farms Organic Edamame in the freezer - just boil some water, toss the pods in there for 3 minutes, drain and add sea salt. I know they look fuzzy but you split them open and eat the beans inside and it makes a happy little bowl of tasty nutritious dinner. Just the thing to prepare you for the week ahead.