Summer Dinner: Grilled Steak, Fairy Tale Eggplants, and Garlic Scapes

Isn't that so pretty? I bought garlic scapes and fairy tale eggplants at the Union Square farmers market Monday night for dinner. I love eggplants and these little guys are so pretty and aren't bitter at all. Dinner was simple and summery and delicious - I'd love to have people over and serve the exact same thing. The eggplants were soft and tender and the scapes were sort of like a garlickly asparagus.

Porchetta Pork Chops

 

I was away for a wedding this weekend - congratulations, Chip and Siobhan! - and wasn't doing any cooking, so yesterday I was anxious to make dinner. I saw this recipe on the Times for pork chops and thought it sounded great. I also picked up some avocado squash at the Union Square Market. I'd never had avocado squash it before but the sign said it was like zucchini only smoother and more buttery and holds up better on the grill. Yum! Both were great. The pork chops have a wonderful flavor with the rosemary, fennel, lemon, and garlic. Jamie loved them. The squash was perfect just tossed with olive oil, salt, garlic, and pepper and thrown under the broiler.

I also grabbed some shishito peppers for an hors d'oeuvre.

Sunday Night Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables

Yesterday was a rainy Sunday and I was just really in the mood for a nice roast chicken. Roasting a chicken on top of root vegetables is always an easy 1-pot dinner, and I had some extra time, so I brined the chicken, too. (You don't need to brine a chicken if you buy a kosher chicken.) I think it added some flavor and made it juicier. This is a really nice Sunday dinner, hearty and with good flavors. Feel free to change the root veggies and do carrots or potatoes or butternut squash - whatever you like.

Ingredients:
1 4 lb chicken

Brine:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup salt
4 garlic cloves, crushed
tbsp black pepper corns
water

Week 11

The garden looks amazing! Everything is really starting to grow quickly. There were some peas (it seems the "pea wando" peas I planted in the first bed are actually snow peas not snap peas because they're flat). Next weekend we should have a lot more, and there were some babies forming.

I was impatient and pulled out a beet and a carrot. It was so satisfying! The chioggia beet had these beautiful circles on the inside, and the little baby carrot was crunchy and tasty.

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.

Moussaka

Moussaka is one of my favorite Greek recipes. I love eggplant and the great flavors of cinnamon and onions and garlic in the tomato-meat sauce. This is a great alternative to lasagna and is good for feeding a large group (there were six of us and we ate the moussaka twice - once the first night and then another night we ate the leftovers, yum!). It's a bit of a labor of love, so you have to set out an hour or two to make it, but it's well worth it. It also tastes even better the next day.

Ingredients:

4 eggplants

Olive oil

4 medium onions, chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 cinnamon stick (or 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon)

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (maybe more to taste)

2 pounds ground beef

1/2 cups dry white wine

Black pepper to taste

mojo pork

It may be because it's Groundhog's Day and I'm told winter's almost over, or how much Dexter I've been watching lately, but I'm in the mood for some citrusy Cuban food. I've always wanted to try to make mojo, and I'm expiramenting on a small scale since it's a Wednesday and only two of us will be eating. I made the marinade last night, then added garlic this morning. Below is my method so far... will add cooking methods and reviews later...
Ingredients:
2 boneless pork chops
3 large oranges
2 limes
6 cloves garlic, divided (4 crushed, 2 sliced into little spears)
1/4 white onion, sliced

Directions:
Juice two of the oranges and zest half of the third into a sauce pan. Squeeze in the two limes, add the crushed garlic cloves and the onion slices and cook until reduced in half. Squeeze in the third orange and salt to taste. Once cool, poor over the pork in a bag or shallow dish and marinate over night. In the morning, flip the pork chops and with a skewer, poke holes in the meat and insert the garlic spears to fill the holes. Put back in the marinade.


Here's the rest!

Take the chops out of the marinade and pat dry. Salt and pepper and then sear them in a hot skillet w/ some olive oil. Take out the chops and pour the marinade and a little water into the pan and scrape up the brown bits. Put the chops back in and cook about 5-10 minutes each side. Serve them with some sauce on top.

These were really tasty and a great, new way way to have pork chops. They had a citrusy, fresh taste and the sauce was a sort of citrus gravy. I served it with a slice of orange and a slice of lime.

Sautéed Calamari

I've always seen calamari on menus as grilled or fried. I went to dinner at Supper last year on the Lower East Side and they had sauteed calamari. It was delicious and I've been making my own ever since. (Calamari is cheap and it cooks in no time.) It's a great appetizer or side dish and it seems impressive but is super easy. Last weekend I had some chorizo grease left in a pan and I thought it would go really well will calamari--it was a hit. Any time you make chorizo, save the grease for calamari! (I used leftover from the chorizo for a grilled pizza.)

Ingredients:
2 calamari, cleaned (or more if you have more people), sliced into thin rings
grease leftover from sauteeing loose chorizo in olive oil
1 clove of garlic

Directions:
Heat up the leftover grease and add the garlic (on high heat.) Sautee it until fragrant. Then add the sliced calamari and toss it all together. Cook until the calamari looks opaque, only 1-2 minutes. You really don't want to over cook it because it will get rubbery.
Take them out of the pan and serve.

(If you don't have chorizo grease, you can just use olive oil and add a bunch of crushed red pepper flakes.)

Chicken Chili

When it's a beautiful day like today, chili may be the last thing on your mind. However, while feeling last week's cold, dreary, end-of-winter blues I thought a rich bowl of chili might warm the cockles of my sun-starved heart. I do enjoy a beefy, greasy chili once in a while, but this chili is healthy, even though it tastes sinful. I took lots of pictures to go with the steps--it's easy and spicy and hearty and everyone who tasted it seemed to love it.

Ingredients
1 can dark red kidney beans and 1 can of blackbeans (use any beans you like) drained and rinsed
1 package of ground chicken (you can also use turkey, but I think chicken has more flavor)
1 1/2 onions (I used a combination of yellow and white, but just yellow works too) chopped
3 cloves of garlic (gives it a good kick) finely minced
1 can whole tomatoes (crushed my sticking your hand in the can and squeezing them, or however you like to crush them)
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 red bell pepper roughly chopped
1 green bell pepper roughly chopped
cumin
coriander
chili powder
paprika
hot pepper flakes

I got everything ready before I started cooking because often I'm supposed to stir something for 2 minutes and then quickly add something else, but I find it's not ready and I'm making a huge mess trying to chop an onion while searing a pork chop and measuring water--so, chop/drain/get out all the ingredients first to make your life easier.

First, heat up some oil in a skillet. Then add about 2/3 of the onion and about 2 teaspoons of coriander, cumin, paprika, and chili powder and about a half tsp of hot chili flakes. (It helped release the flavor if you rub them between your hands before you put them in the skillet.)

Mix this all together and saute until the onion begins to soften and then add half of the garlic, stirring until fragrant. Once you smell the garlic, add the chicken. Separate the chicken with your spoon while it sautees and cook until it is browned.

Once the chicken is uniformly browned, but not overcooked (it will continue to cook in the chili), add sald and pepper to taste, and then put it into a bowl.

Next, add the remaining onions and peppers into the pot with a little oil and the same mix of spices as before. Sautee them until they get a little soft, then add the tomato paste and mix until all the vegetables are coated. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Now pour the contents of the skillet, and the chicken, into a large pot and mix them together. Then add both the canned tomatoes and their juices to the pot, along with the same mix of spices as before, along with the remaining garlic. (It helps if it's mashed into a paste with a little salt.) Stir this all together and bring it to a boil. Bring it down to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until it thickens up a little. Then season to taste with salt and pepper and add as many hot pepper flakes or cayenne as you like to give it heat.

I like to garnish it with a few pieces of extra sharp chedder. The bright peppers give it a great freshness. Also, this makes a lot of chili, so either serve it up at a dinner or save whatever you don't eat in your freezer for a cold day.

Good luck!