Curried Zucchini and Tomatoes with Chick Peas

Yet another recipe that makes good use of piles of zucchini and tomatoes - it must be August! I hadn't made curry in a while, so this made a nice change from all the Mediterranean type things I've been cooking lately. This makes a good sized batch--you can halve it if you like, or freeze some for later. Serve this over rice.

1 Tbsp canola oil
6-8 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 Tbsp minced ginger root
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 medium onions, chopped
1 1/2 lbs paste tomatoes, seeded and chopped
2 lbs zucchini, diced
3-4 cups cooked chick peas
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp flour for thickening (optional)

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or large pot. Add the garlic and ginger and saute for about a minute over medium heat. Add the cumin, coriander, and some salt and pepper. Continue to saute, toasting the spices, for another minute or two. Add the onions and saute for 3-4 minutes, until soft. If things are sticking a lot, add a small splash of water. Stir in the tomatoes, zucchini, and chick peas, then cover and simmer until the vegetables are a bit soft, 15-20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.

When the vegetables are soft, stir in the cilantro. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed. If you want to thicken the curry a bit, scoop out a bit of the liquid into a small glass or bowl. Stir in about 1 Tbsp of flour to form a paste, then stir the paste back into the curry.

Serve over rice.

Serves about 6.

Pizza with Fresh Tomatoes, Basil, and Feta

This is a great way to enjoy and show off heirloom tomatoes. Local feta is available from Chase Hill Farm.

1 14-inch pizza crust
olive oil
1 large tomato, in 1/4-inch slices
3/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
4 oz crumbled feta

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Paint the crust with olive oil.

When the oven is hot, pre-bake the crust for about 7 minutes. Remove from the oven, leaving the oven on.

Spread the tomato slices over the crust, then scatter the basil over then. Top with the crumbled feta. Bake or another 10-12 minutes, until the cheese begins to brown.

Serves 3-4.

Romesco Sauce

So here's what I did with the fire roasted red peppers. Romesco sauce is a traditional Spanish sauce. This recipe is adapted from many, many recipes that can be found on the Internet, all conceptually similar and none quite the same. It's one of those sauces that everyone's grandmother has a special recipe for. The result is sweet and pungent at the same time. In Spain it is typically served with grilled meat, seafood, and grilled vegetables. But you could also use it as a dip with veggies or pita chips, on bread or toast slices as an appetizer or tapa, even on pizza or with pasta (with pasta you might want to add in some roasted tomatoes).

8 oz. fire roasted red peppers
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup almonds, lightly toasted
2 large cloves garlic (or more to taste)
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp chili powder (or more to taste)
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a food process or blender and process until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

If you want to freeze this, it takes well to the same storage method I use for pesto: place single-meal quantities into freezer bags and press flat.

Packaging for the freezer

Makes about 2 cups.

Requested: Parsley

What to do with huge bunches of parsley? You can freeze it, of course - either in ice cube trays or simply chopped and sealed in freezer bags. But one of my favorite things to do is to make Parsley-Mint Pesto. The addition of mint is great but you can skip it if all you have is the parsley.

You can use the pesto on pasta (1 cup for 1 lb cooked pasta), where it is great on its own or with the addition of chopped red pepper, dried tomatoes, and/or shredded chicken. It's also good on pizza with whatever you like, tossed with potatoes, and even with winter squash.

You can make big batches of pesto now (and this goes for basil pesto, too, of course) and freeze it in single-meal quantities. Put 1/2 cup or 1 cup of pesto in a quart freezer bag, flatten it out, and stack them up in the freezer. You can thaw and warm it in a bowl of warm water in about 10 minutes.

Requested: Beets

In addition to cabbage, requesters have been asking for things to do with beets. I'm afraid I won't be as much help with this one - I don't much like beets, and neither does my husband, so we neither grow them nor buy them. When a bunch showed up in our fall CSA box last year, we gave them to our neighbors!

But, all that being said...I do have some basic ideas you might want to pursue, perhaps via Google. Summer beets can be eaten raw, for starters. Peel and slice. In fact, at Mag Pie in Greenfield a couple weeks ago, there were sliced Chioggia beets included in a bowl of raw veggies served to each table. The flavor was mild, a bit like a salad turnip. You can also grate raw beets and use them in salad. In fact, I bet some raw grated beets would work pretty well as an addition to any of the slaws listed here.

Beets can be pickled, either lightly for near-term eating or more heavily for storage.

You can roast beets, either alone or with other root vegetables. Try olive oil, garlic, and dill for seasoning. For that matter, try par-cooking them (boiling or steaming) and then grilling with the same seasonings.

And of course there's always borscht.

Good luck!

Fire Roasted Red Peppers

With the first ripe bell peppers ready to harvest from my garden, this weekend it was (lost past) time to deal with the last few packages of ones I froze last fall. I couldn't bear to just chuck them in the compost (note to self: this year, don't freeze quite so many peppers). So I stuck them all the grill. Fire roasted red peppers are incredibly tasty and can be used in a variety of ways. I'll follow up with another recipe for turning them into a sauce, but you can also use them as is on pizza, sandwiches, with pasta, etc. They have all the flavor you love in regular roasted red peppers, plus a little something extra from the grill. Thick-walled peppers work best for this; thinner ones get hard to peel.

You can, of course, do this with fresh peppers! But if you happen to be using frozen, you can also put those straight on the grill, no need to thaw first. They'll just take a little longer to grill.

2 lbs red bell peppers, stems and seeds removed

Cut the peppers into halves or quarters, so that the pieces are more or less flat. You want as much surface area right on the grill as possible.

Heat up the grill nice and hot. Lay the peppers out, skin side down, over the fire. Grill until the skin is well charred - you want it almost entirely black.

Fresh pepper halves lined up on the grill

Remove the charred peppers from the grill and let them cool. Once you can comfortably handle them, use a sharp paring knife to remove the skin. It should peel off easily; you can get it started by piercing a charred blister with the knife.

Charred peppers ready for peeling

Store the peppers in the fridge, where they will keep for at least a few days. If you would like to freeze them, either tray freeze them first or separate them with layers of waxed paper so you can remove individual pieces later.

Makes 1/2 lb roasted peppers.

Requested: Cabbage

Three commenters posting requests so far have all mentioned cabbage. At this time of year, in my opinion, the best way to use cabbage is in salads and slaws. (You can make these through the winter, too, with storage cabbage, when salad greens are harder to find.) Here are three good ones:

Red Cabbage and Apple Slaw (Clarkdale has its first apples in now)

Sesame Mustard Slaw

Spice Green and Purple Korean Cabbage Salad