Thai Chicken Soup

This is a really light and flavorful soup. I recommend making your own stock, but store-bought is fine, too. 

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 lemongrass stalks, 1-2 hard outer layers discarded

2 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced 

2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced 

2 tbsp vegetable oil 

2 quarts chicken stock

1 14oz can diced tomatoes, drained but reserving juice

2oz tamarind paste

3 tbsp fish sauce

2 Serrano chiles, thinly sliced

A little lime zest

Roasted Eggplant with Saffron Yogurt

Here's another Ottolenghi. This was the first I tried and I was very impressed. It has the tartness of the eggplant, the brightness from the pomegranate seeds, the creamy yogurt, freshness from the basil, and the earthy pine nuts. I'd never tried anything with a yogurt dressing and it's great.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

a small pinch of saffron threads (thanks, Alice, for the Zanzibari saffron!!)

3 tbsp hot water

3/4 cup Greek yogurt

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

3 tbsp olive oil

coarse sea salt

3 medium eggplants, cut into 3/4" slices

olive oil for brushing

2 tbsp toasted pine nuts

Tomato Sandwich

Tom Robbins wrote a story saying how if he was on death row and he could request anything he wanted for his last meal, it would be a tomato sandwich.* (Man after my own heart.) One with white wonder bread, mayonnaise, and the best summer tomatoes. When you get it right, a tomato sandwich is unbelievably good. The tomatoes are the star and the tomato juice mixes with the mayo and oozes into the bread and it's amazing. Luckily, today, I had a whole bunch of ripe, colorful, bursting-with-flavor tomatoes (from the garden, of course), some good white bread, and some quickly whipped up basil mayo. Yum! This might have to be my lunch from now until my tomato plants die.

Quick Basil Mayo:
Ingredients:
A small handful basil leaves, finely chopped
Squeeze of lemon juice
1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp mayo
pinch of salt

Directions:
Mix it all together, add more salt if necessary.

*Tom Robbins is one of my favorite authors and this was from "Wild Ducks Flying Backward."

Prosciutto-Wrapped Peaches with Basil

It's summer and it's hot - apps that involve no cooking really appeal to me. This recipe from Epicurious looked so fresh and summery. I tried it out this week and it was great! Jamie loved them, and they couldn't have been easier. Kind of a fun switch from prosciutto with melon. The vinegar, sugar, cumin mixture adds a nice, subtle zing and the salty prosciutto and sweet peach go well together - and basil makes it all taste fresh and summery.

I think it would also probably be great thrown on the grill for a minute with some pecorino, but for now this is great and involves no cooking.

For 2 (1/2 peach per person, so just get more if you have more people!)
Ingredients:
1 yellow peach, core removed and cut into 8 pieces
4 pieces of prosciutto, cut in half lengthwise
8 basil leaves
1/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
big pinch cumin

Directions:
Mix the vinegar, sugar, and cumin and toss the peach slices with it in a bowl. Let them sit about 10 minutes. Wrap each peach slice with a strip of prosciutto, put a piece of basil on top, and secure with a toothpick. Done!

Squid with Watermelon and Basil

After a long weekend of lots of food, Jamie and I wanted something fresh and healthy for dinner. I saw this recipe in Simple, Fresh, Southern and immediately started drooling. Watermelon just sounded so refreshing and nice, and I love fresh calamari. It's pretty simple - you just need to have an hour or two so it can marinate. It's pretty with bright pink and green from the watermelon and basil and it tastes great. Put in more jalapeno to give it a bigger kick.

Serves 2, double it for 4
Ingredients:
kosher salt
1 lemon, halved
1/2 lb cleaned squid, cut into 1/3" rings and tentacles cut in half
4 oz seedless watermelon cut into 1x1x1/4" tiles (about 1 cup)
1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
1/2 a jalapeno, finely chopped
a little less than 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
leaves from 2 sprigs basil, roughly chopped

Garden Vegetable Pasta

After picking an eggplant, some zucchini, and some basil from my garden I came back to the city to make a summery dinner. I did go out and buy some tomatoes and garlic (my tomatoes aren't ready just yet). I also used rachette pasta because I knew Jamie would like it, but use anything you've got at home. This is great and summery and is a good way to use your veggies - or those you pick up at the farm stand!

Ingredients:
3 small zucchini
1 small eggplant
3 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp (or more to taste) red pepper flakes
4 plum tomatoes, cut into cubes
1 tsp tomato paste
2 tbsp water
Basil

Directions:
Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic. Cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch cubes and add to the pan. Saute until they start to soften.

Vegetable Garden Week 12

First, please excuse the truck and portapotty in the background - the house is under construction. My garden is doing so well! The zucchinis are huge and I got 5 little ones that grew from last weekend to this. (I picked them all since I'll be gone the next 2 weekends in Greece! Recipes to follow, of course.) I grilled them up and fried the blossoms. Sooo tasty.

Basil White Bean Dip

After checking on my garden and gathering up a heaping pile of basil, I wondered what to do with it. We had already bought a can of white beans to make some white bean dip, and I thought I would spice it up a little by adding the basil and making it a sort of pesto dip. It was delicious! So fresh and summery, and basil picked right from the garden is so pungent and flavorful. This dip takes about 5 minutes to make and is great to serve as an hors d'oeuvres.

Ingredients:
1 can white/cannelini beans, drained
1 large bunch basil

Vegetable Garden Week 11

Everything in the garden is growing so well. There was lots of rain this week and it seems to have made a huge difference. The pea vines were covered in peas.

The zucchini plants were full of blossoms and there was one little zucchini ready to eat and a couple babies that will be ready next weekend. The zucchinis I planted from seed are striped and those I planted from seedlings are regular green, so there'll be a little variety.

Garden Dinner

I picked my first veggies from my garden last weekend, but I didn't have too many so I had to supplement at a farm stand. I picked up local Long Island scallions and sugar snap peas at the stand. Then at my place, I picked some small Swiss Chard and some basil. I wanted to make a fresh, easy, summery pasta for Sunday night. I sauteed it all together and tossed it with pasta and it was delicious - a real fresh, simple, garden dinner. Feel free to substitute whatever fresh veggies you have!

Ingredients:
a handful of Swiss chard, chopped
4 scallions, halved lengthwise then cut into 1 inch strips
a bunch of sugar snap peas, bigger peas halved
olive oil
red pepper flakes
small bunch of basil, thinly sliced
grated pecorino romano (or parm)

Directions:
Heat about 1-2 tbsp of olive oil in a big skillet. Add the stems of the chard, the scallions, and the snap peas. Saute until they start to soften, then add Swiss Chard leaves, half of the basil, and pepper flakes to taste. Also add salt and pepper to taste and saute a little bit longer until leaves are wilted.

Meanwhile, cook some sort of bite sized pasta (I had elbows, so I used those). When the pasta is al dente, use a spider strainer (or just strain it and add part of the pasta water) and put into the skillet. Grate some cheese on top and mix it all together and serve!