Zucchini Cakes with Dill & Feta

Just a quick recipe...something I've had bookmarked for a while and finally tried using a large zucchini from the garden. These cakes are crunchy outside and creamy inside.

Zucchini Cakes with Dill and Feta
adapted from Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries

1 large zucchini
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
3 tablespoons AP flour
1 large egg, slightly beaten
4 ounces feta cheese
1 tablespoon dried dill (or small bunch of fresh)
salt & pepper

• Grate the zucchini with a coarse grater (I used the grating disk on my food processor). Place zucchini in a colander over a bowl & sprinkle with salt. Leave it to drain for at least half an hour.
• Heat a few tablespoons of the oil in a pan. Cook the chopped onions until soft but not brown. Dry the grated zucchini or wringe them out lightly. Add the zucchini with the garlic into the pan. Cooking until almost pale gold. Stir in the flour, cook until the flour is well-combined and well-cooked in the mixture. Season to taste with black pepper and a pinch of salt. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
• Stir in the egg, feta, and dill. Refrigerate until chilled.
• Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a pan. Shape heaped tablespoons of the zucchini mixture into patties. Cook until golden, turning once (be delicate; the mixture is very fragile).
  
• Serve with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese, tomato sauce, or your favorite chutney.
  

Tuesdays with Dorie: Ginger Peach Galette

Michelle of Michelle in Colorado Springs chose the Summer Fruit Galette for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe (you can find the full recipe here). Since peaches are in season around here, I chose to make a ginger peach galette with local fruit I got at the farmers' market.

A galette, I've learned, is a rustic (and easy) pie. It involves rolling out one pie crust, spreading the crust with jam (I used The Ginger People's ginger spread), sprinkling on a layer of graham cracker crumbs (or plain breadcrumbs) to prevent the bottom from getting soggy, topping with fruit (simply peeled & sliced peaches), and folding the dough edges over. It was a piece of cake...err, umm...pie!

Dorie's recipe also calls for a custard filling. After the galette (which means wafer in French) baked for 20 minutes, a custard of butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla is poured in around the fruit. The galette continues baking until the custard is set.

So, I'll admit that I was a little hesitant about the custard addition. It didn't seem to be setting, even as I cooked it much longer than called for. But then I realized that all the bubbling and jiggling was due to the juicy peaches.

Nevertheless, I shouldn't have worried. The galette was amazing! The custard gave it a kind of peaches-n-cream vibe, the ginger provided a nice spiciness, and the bottom crust was crisp due to the crumb coating (which I will do in all pies from now on!).

I really just can't get over how easy this is! And now, I think I've finally mastered pie crust. I am completely confident whipping up a pie any ol' day.

Guess I'll have to tackle bread next....

Schmickle's Pickles

I know, I know. But with a last name like Schmickle, how could I resist?

So, I decided to make pickles for a few reasons:
1. I had a bunch of cucumbers from the garden that I needed to use.
2. Besides the spicy carrots I made earlier this month, I'd never made pickles before.
3. I was feeling particularly domestic.

And nothing makes you feel uber domestic than pickling...what with all the big jars and whole spices and the wafting aroma of boiling vinegar.

I felt like I should be barefoot, pregnant, living at a rural route address, and married to a burly fella named Jethro. Or something. Am I stereotyping? Sorry. The whole pickling experience was just so...country! Not that there's anything wrong with it.

I just didn't grow up in the kind of family that canned. I remember my Grandma Martin making wild blackberry jam, with the melted wax layer on top, but that's about it. And my grandparents were pretty country.

You see, pickling was a new experience for me.

I made another batch of carrots, then three batches of cucumber pickles: bread & butter slices, sour dill spears, and rosemary garlic. The bread & butters is Alton Brown's recipe. I sort of made up the sour pickles by improvising with the spices I had on hand, and the rosemary garlic pickles were an experiment to use up the rest of the cucumbers that wouldn't fit in the other two jars.

There are all "refridgerator" pickles in that they are not intended for long-term cellar storage. I didn't boil the jars and do all the proper canning techniques.

Sour Dill Pickles

2 medium cucumbers, cut into 8ths.

1 cup water
1 1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon grains of paradise * (or black peppercorns)
4 whole garlic cloves, smashed
1 tablespoon dried dill (or a small bunch of fresh dill)
4 bay leaves

• Place the cucumber, garlic, dill & bay in a large jar.
• Combine the remaining ingredients in a non-reactive saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 4 minutes.
• Slowly pour the pickling liquid over the cucumbers, filling to the top of the jar.
• Cool to room temperature. Top off the pickles with any remaining pickling liquid and refrigerate.

* Grains of Paradise is also know as or Melegueta pepper, alligator pepper, or Guinea pepper. According to The Spice House:

Grains of Paradise come from West Africa, where they grow on a leafy plant and are easily harvested. The name comes from Medieval spice traders looking for a way to inflate the price - it was claimed that these peppery seeds grew only in Eden, and had to be collected as they floated down the rivers out of paradise. Although Grains of Paradise are now rare and expensive, they used to be used as a cheaper substitute for black pepper. They have a zesty flavor reminiscent of pepper, with hints of flowers, coriander and cardamom.

Alton Brown seems to favor these for Okra, as seen on his recent show "Okraphobia", where he makes okra and tomatoes with grains of paradise. We LOVE them mixed with Tellicherry black pepper, put in a pepper grinder and then used to encrust steaks as slight variation on steak au poivre. Grind over any dish where you would normally just grind straight black pepper to add a wonderful shake-up-your-table-condiments twist!

A New York Times article written by Amanda Hesser has popularized grains of paradise. She wrote, "I put a few between my teeth and crunched. They cracked like coriander releasing a billowing aroma, and then a slowly intensifying heat, like pepper at the back of my mouth. The taste changes in a second. The heat lingered. But the spice flavor was pleasantly tempered, ripe with flavors reminiscent of jasmine, hazelnut, butter and citrus, and with the kind of oiliness you get from nuts. They were entirely different from black peppercorns and in my mind, incomparably better."

The seeds can also be chewed to aid in digestion and to warm the body.

This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, which I am hosting this week. If you would like to submit a recipe for this week's round-up, post a recipe on your blog sometime between now and August 2, then email your name, blog title, post permalink, location, and photo to me (kelly AT barbaricgulp DOT com) before August 2. I'll be posting a round-up here on the evening of the 3rd. See HERE for more guidelines.

Sher's Lentil & Spinach Patties

Sherry of What Did You Eat? passed away last Sunday. Since Sherry was a regular participant in Weekend Herb Blogging, the event's founder Kalyn postponed this week's round-up and suggested we make and post recipes from Sher's blog as a tribute to her. (You can see more tributes here.)

Though I'd only recently discovered Sherry's blog, I had already bookmarked a few of her recipes. I chose to make the lentil & spinach patties, a recipe she posted for WHB earlier this month, for lunch yesterday.

Lentil And Spinach Patties
(with just a few small adaptations)

1 cup Puy lentils
8-10 ounces spinach, stemmed and sauteed
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg
2 tablespoons oil

• Cover lentils with water in a medium saucepan and boil for 2-3 minutes, then reduce the heat and simmer until tender (about 10 minutes).
• After cooking the spinach, be sure to squeeze all the liquid out. The easiest way to do this is with a potato ricer.
  
• Mix the spinach, lentils, cumin, oregano, & bread crumbs together in a bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix in the egg and chill the mixture in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
• Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan. Form the patties by forming a ball in your hand, then carefully patting it into a patty. Large, thin patties will not stay together, so make them smallish. Slip each patty into the skillet and press the patty together with a spatula if they break apart. Brown on each side over medium high heat, then carefully remove each patty to a plate.
  
• Top with salsa or sauce of your choice. I topped each patty with a bit of crumbled feta cheese and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.
  

Kelly's notes:

• This is really good; the lentils get kind of crunchy on the outside.
• Next time, I'll chop up the cooked spinach.
• I used a small disher to form balls that I flattened slightly before frying. Be careful not to squish the patties while they're cooking; they'll fall apart.
• This would have been extra tasty with chopped tomatoes or roasted red pepper sauce on top.
• I also think the mixture would be good just cooked in a bit of olive oil (maybe with a bit of sausage or something), without being made into patties.

Chocolate Sorbet

Speaking of food blog trends...

There's been a lot of buzz about chocolate sorbet lately. It must have been Smitten Kitchen's recent post about David Lebovitz's recipe from Perfect Scoop that got everyone so excited about frozen chocolate. Because, really, that's all it is...well, chocolate melted with water, sugar & cocoa powder and then frozen.

Chocolate Sorbet

2 1/4 cups water
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (I used Scharffen Berger.)
Pinch of salt (whoops, I forgot to add this!)
6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• In a large saucepan whisk together 1 1/2 cups of the water with the sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Let it boil, continuing to whisk, for 45 seconds.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate until it’s melted, then stir in the vanilla extract and the remaining 3/4 cup water.
  
• Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend for 15 seconds (I didn't do this either; I just made sure I whisked until it was smooth. I figured a rogue chocolate chunk or two wouldn't be the end of the world.).
  
• Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If the mixture has become too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to thin it out.

Whoa! For having no cream or eggs, this sorbet is unbelievably rich! I agree with Peabody: "This stuff is better than brownies. It’s awesomer than the fudgiest chocolate ice cream. It makes chocolate truffles taste like they’re not trying hard enough. It could send that brandied ganache home with its tail between its legs."

A couple suggestions:

• Since I never have room in the fridge to chill ice creams before churning, I simply fill my sink with some ice water and set the pan (or bowl) in it to cool. In this case, I took the pan right off the stove into the sink.
• Even after churning in the ice cream maker for 1/2 an hour, the sorbet was pretty soft. So, I just put the whole canister in the freezer. It's firmer after freezing overnight, but still easy to scoop out.
• The cocoa powder and chocolate are the key ingredients, so don't skimp on cheap shit (that means NO Hershey's!). Really. Buck up a few extra dollars for the good stuff. (Kitchen Conservatory in St. Louis sells the cocoa powder for $8.95 and Callebaut chocolate at $6.95 a pound.)