Zucchini Noodles with Ham and Peas

My mom got me a spiralizer for Christmas and I've been having fun trying out new recipes with it. We had some leftover ham so I made a ham and pea pasta with zucchini noodles - really tasty, and a lot lighter than a big bowl of pasta. (Get ready for more recipes like this - I just found out I have gestational diabetes so goodbye carbs for the next two months.)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 zucchinis, ends trimmed

1/4 cup chopped up ham (feel free to use bacon if you don't have ham)

1 cup of frozen peas

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 clove garlic, peeled and minced

1 pinch red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

Pecorino or parmesan cheese for grating

optional: basil leaves for garnish

Zucchini Carbonara

I got out to Southampton Friday night and we didn't feel like going to the grocery store, but needed dinner. If you have eggs, bacon, parm, and onion (and pasta), you can make it. I went out to the garden and grabbed some zucchini and parsley to lighten it up a little. It was so easy and really tasty, and the zucchini gives it a bit of a summery bent - and it's a good way to use up zucchini if you have a lot.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

5 strips of bacon, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces

2 small zucchini, cut into match sticks

1 large leek (or onion) thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/3 cup parm or pecorini

2 eggs

small handful of parsley, chopped

salt and pepper

Pasta

Garden - Week 6, April 20

The garden is coming along! The snap peas, peas, radishes, and lettuces were all sprouting. The chard was coming up a little bit, but not as quick as the others. It's so satisfying to see!

Easy Oven Tomato Sauce

Oh wow. This is a game changing pasta sauce. It was so tangy and bright and rich, and the best part, EASY. So easy. You just throw it all in a baking dish and put it in the oven. I was inspired by this recipe, but tweaked it a little to give it a little of a puttanesca feel. We finished dinner in record time. Yum! It would also be great for a big group. Lasagna has that great smell and flavor of slightly burnt tomato sauce from the bits that stick to the pan and brown up - this has it too and it's delicious. Your kitchen/house/apartment will smell like heaven.

Vegetable Garden June 22 (Week 14)

Garden's looking great! We have a ton of snappeas and lots and lots of zucchini blossoms. (Fried zucchini blossoms are one of my very favorite summer treats.) Also got our first zucchini, and our first cherry bomb pepper (but it's still green, so I'm waiting on it). Some deer have been nibbling on the tomato and zucchini plants, which has never happened, so I sprayed extra deer spray on. Hopefully this week they'll be okay.

Cherry Bomb Pepper

Vegetable Garden Week 4

After being away for about a month, I went back out to the country last weekend and got to see my garden. Apart from being super dry, it looked great! (Especially once I watered it.) Four of the five brussels sprouts I planted sprouted, a perfect line of beets popped up (I'll need to thin them next weekend), and all the peas had sprouted! So exciting.

Brussels Sprouts

Beets

Peas

I planted another row of beets and carrots, a row of swiss chard, zucchinis, and cucumbers. I also set up a little trellis for the cucumbers and planted some lettuce underneath.

Fried Jalapenos and Zucchini

I had some fresh vegetables from my garden (an eggplant, some zucchini, and some jalapenos) and was trying to think of new ways to eat them. I made a pasta with zucchini, eggplant, garlic, bacon, and tomatoes, but I wanted to try a new an hors d'oeuvres as well. I sliced the smallest zucchini into very thin discs with a mandolin, tossed them with flower, and quickly shallow fried them. I then did the same thing with a few jalapenos. So good! I don't know why this isn't a regular bar option. The fried jalapenos were so tasty - they were spicy, but not overwhelmingly so, and had a great crunch. Mixed with the little zucchini discs (which were crispy and a little sweet) it made such an amazing snack. I definitely want to make this next time I have people over. Also, it's so cheap! A couple zucchini and a couple of jalapenos will cost like $2 tops. Can't wait to make it again!

Ingredients:
One (or more) small and firm zucchini, sliced into very thin rounds
2 (or more) jalapenos, sliced into very thin rounds

Vegetable Garden Week 17

After being overloaded with zucchini last weekend, this weekend I only had one little baby! These are the fruits of the garden this week. There are still a few little rainbow Swiss Chard, although most of them have been smothered by the monster zucchini plants. The Green Grape Tomatoes are doing really well and taste amazingly sweet and delicious (I'm planning to make salsa tonight with the Green Grapes and the jalapeno - hopefully it'll carry the same kick as its predecessor.) The eggplant will either be marinated in olive oil and garlic and grilled in slices or made into babaganoush tonight, not sure which yet. This is the second eggplant I picked this weekend - the first was a little bigger and we tossed it with olive oil and salt and grilled it - tangy, fresh, and sweet. So much firmer than those you get at the grocery, but as I've said, watch out for the thorns up top!

I've also been having fun with my hipstamatic app on my iPhone and here is my adorable niece Grace proudly holding the eggplant (looks better on the small iPhone screen). I wish I had a video because she was waving it around in the air saying, "Robot robot, robot robot," for no apparent reason - so cute.

Zucchini Pickles

So another zucchini recipe to make use of my plethora of squash! I also found this recipe from Martha Stewart and it comes from Zuni's Cafe in San Francisco. I altered it a little bit. After waiting a few days so that the flavors mingled and marinated I tasted the pickles - delicious! So much flavor. They have much more depth than store bought pickles. Admittedly, they are't as crunchy as cucumber pickles, but such a great tang and sour bite to them. I also don't like sweet pickles, and I think these have a perfect amount of sugar (I wouldn't want them any sweeter). These little pickles are also great on burgers - I tried on a juicy Trader Joe's wagyu style burger recently. The turmeric gives the brine (and pickles) a great yellow color. If you have a canner, I think you can properly can these and then you don't need to refrigerate them until you open the jar.

Ingredients:
2 medium zucchinis, thinly sliced with a mandolin
1 yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced (I also used a mandolin)
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 tsp mustard seeds, crushed
1 1/2 tsp dry mustard

Vegetable Garden Week 16

Attack of the monster zucchini! I picked all of the zucchinis last week on 6 days later, look what I found bursting out all over the garden. 10 zucchinis, several of which were enormous. The big one in the foreground had to be 6 pounds. My mom says those are zucchini bread zucchinis (recipe to follow). Now I'm thinking up and researching all sorts of recipes to use this plethora of courgettes.


Also ripe and happy this week were my little green grape tomatoes! Look at this beautiful plate of them. They make an excellent salad. They're colorful, sweet, and juicy. If there are tons next weekend, I'm going to try a salsa. Below, I just sliced them and tossed them with very thinly sliced Vidalia onion, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and a little julienned basil. It's so summery and fresh.

Everything else in the garden was pretty happy. The rest of the tomato plants are covered in green tomatoes, and the yellow brandywine has a few big green tomatoes that I suspect will be turning yellow very soon. I can't wait to try them! There are three pretty good size eggplants but I'm letting them get a little bigger this time. More next week - hopefully the zucchini will be a more manageable bunch!

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 15

After my hiatus in Greece, my garden was booming! The peas were finished and turning brown and the Swiss Chard were taken over by zucchini, but everything else was super happy. The yellow brandywine tomato plant is about 6 ft tall with a few big, green tomatoes. The thing is like a tree! It got so heavy I had to go buy steaks to position on either side of the garden and tie the cage to them with twine - hopefully soon those green tomatoes will turn yellow so we can eat them! The three better boy tomato plants were covered in green tomatoes (I've learned with heirlooms the plants tend to get pretty big but you get less fruit, so the yellow brandywine is huge but just has two tomatoes on it while the better boys are smaller but each had about 6-10 tomatoes already) and the green grape tomato plant has tons of little green tomatoes, some of them already edible and sweet ad delicious.

There were 4 eggplants on the eggplant plant - 1 ready to eat - so sweet and tasty. I was surprised. I've never grown eggplant before and I was kind of expecting to just get one eggplant all summer. This little plant seems to be pumping them out, plus it has really pretty, light purple flowers. Watch out for little purple thorns on the flowers and eggplant stems!

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.

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.

Vegetable Garden Week 9

Look at my wonderful garden! Everything is growing well and looks happy and healthy. The peas have grown a foot since last weekend and have a few flowers on them, so hopefully pea pods will be soon to follow. The eggplant looks happier than it did, the zucchini grew a ton and has its big leaves stretched out. The green grape tomato and the yellow brandywine tomato have grown a lot - the green grape especially (right in the middle).

Jamie next to the peas (to show how high they've grown)

Pea flowers

I finished up the planting this weekend, so now it's just a matter of watering and making sure the herbs don't go to flower. I planted thyme, mint, nasturtium, amd marigolds. The nasturtiums and marigolds are good to plant near tomatoes and zucchini (and other veggies) because they keep bad bugs away. Apparently the smell of the marigolds along with a chemical they put into the soil keep bugs at bay. Plus they add great color to a vegetable garden. I watered the garden heavily and applied a layer of mulch which made it look much neater, and also helps the soil hold the moisture and keeps weeds from sprouting. The Swiss Chard looks about ready to start taking a few leaves off to put in a salad, but I'm going to let them get a little better. Of course, before I left to come back to the city, I doused the whole garden with heavy dose of the awful smelling (and miracle working) deer/rabbit repellent. Can't wait to see how big they are next weekend!

Vegetable Garden: Week 7

 My Swiss Chard, Zucchini, and Peas - all from seeds!

After not making out to Long Island for two weekends, I was a little worried about my garden. Luckily there had been a lot of rain. I went out on Saturday and am happy to report that everything is happy! The peas are two feet high and clinging to the trellis, the tomatoes plants look good - not too much change, two zucchini plants emerged from the seeds I planted, and the Swiss Chard finally came up! Aside from a large bunch of weeds, I couldn't have been happier.

After admiring all of my little seedlings, I got to work planting the newcomers. I stopped at the farmer's market on Friday and picked up a 3-pack of Better Boy tomatoes, a 3-pack of zucchini (I didn't know if any of mine had sprouted), and a 3-pack of jalapeno peppers. I also got 2 little basil plants. I planted the tomatoes with cages around them (it's better to put them in early as not to damage the roots) and planted the two basils in between the tomato plants - apparently growing basil with your tomatoes improves the tomato flavor. I planted the new zucchini next to those that I planted, so my zucchini patch will be a bit larger than anticipated. I left plenty of room around the chard because I know they'll get a lot bigger - provided they don't become bunny food. I planted the peppers with lots of space in between. There's a fare amount of free space right now which I think I'll fill with herbs, nasturtiums (pretty and edible), and marigolds (to keep the bad bugs away, also adding a little color).

It's so satisfying to see things you've planted from seeds growing. (My little peppers in the egg shells are growing, just a little slowly. They might stay in the city in pots.) I can't wait to get out there again next weekend to mulch, water, and plant herbs/flowers. Stay tuned!

Grilled Branzino with Sauteed Summer Squash

I wanted to make something healthy last night and decided on Branzino - it's small enough to roast or grill a whole fish for just two people. It cooks pretty quickly, and in a grill pan, the skin gets nice and crispy. Stuffing it with lemon, thyme, and a bay leaf give it some extra flavor as it cooks. I also grilled the lemon wedges I served with the fish which made them extra juicy and sweet. The spicy summer squash was a great accompiniment.

Branzino
Ingredients:
1 Branzino, head and tail removed (or leave on if you'd like)
3 lemon slices, plus 2 wedges (1 wedge for each person)

Mahi Mahi, grilled and ceviche, with christophine and zucchini

All the restaurants in St. Barts have some sort of mahi mahi on the list, but the prices are usually pretty high. I heard about the fish market in town and went in to get my own mahi mahi. (The fish market is right at the entrance to Gustavia and is open from 5am to noon.) The grocery stores on the island have great food and are very reasonably priced, and I love to cook, so dinners at home are just as fun, and tasty, as dinners out.

The piece of fish I got was enormous, so I decided to grill most of it but also make an appetizer of mahi mahi ceviche. I had a side of christophine (a local squash) and grilled zucchini. (All finished with some awesome coconut ice cream!) Recipes below!

Ceviche Recipe
Ingredients:
Mahi Mahi, cut into small, bite sized cubes
Juice of several limes
Cilantro, chopped up
Red onion, thinly sliced and a little chopped
1 serrano pepper

Directions:
Put the mahi mahi in a bowl and pour enough lime juice to just cover the fish. Salt lightly and refrigerate for 50 minutes.
Drain most of the lime juice and add the remaining ingredients. Salt to taste and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes and up to 2 hours. Serve plain or with thin toasts.

Grilled Mahi Mahi with Mango Salsa Recipe
Ingredients:
One filet of mahi mahi, lightly salted
half a mango, chopped into small cubes
half a red bell pepper, chopped into small cubes
1/4 red onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 serrano pepper (more or less to taste), chopped
1 lime
cilantro, chopped

Directions:
To make the salsa, mix the mango, red bell pepper, onion, garlic, serrano pepper, and cilantro. Add salt and lime to taste.
Heat a grill to high and grill fish on both sides until opaque. Cut into smaller filets and serve topped with mango salsa. (Also great to accompany with a little piment sauce.)

Christophine Recipe
Ingredients:
 3 Christophines, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup milk + water
butter

Directions:
Put the christophine in a pot and add milk. Add water until just covered and bring to a boil. Simmer until they are fork tender. Drain and return to pot. Mash with a potato masher and heat gently to evaporate some of the water. Add butter and salt to taste.

Grilled Zucchini Recipe
Ingredients:
4 zucchinis, cut in half lengthwise 
olive oil
4 garlic cloves, crushed
salt

Directions:
Toss the zucchini with oil, salt, and garlic. Let sit at least half an hour. Grill until tender. 

Easy zucchini salad

I made myself some not so healthy pasta the other night and wanted a light side dish. I found a great way to have zucchini in a salad sans cooking. Salt tenderizes the zucchini and it's crisp and refreshing.

Ingredients:
Zucchini
Shallot
Salt
Red wine vinegar


Directions:
Slice the zucchini with a mandolin into very thin slices. Put the zucchini slices into a strainer and cover them liberally with salt (you’ll rinse it later). Toss the zucchini with the salt and let sit in the sink – they will sweat. Meanwhile, slice the shallot with the mandolin.



After about five minutes, or once you see the zucchini has tenderized, rinse it with cold water to wash off the salt. Toss the zucchini with the shallots and top with a drizzle of red wine vinegar (lemon would also work well) and some salt. Feel free to add some olive oil. Very easy, refreshing side dish/salad!