Summer vegetable frittata

A frittata makes a nice quick dinner (or brunch), and can easily be adapted to use whatever ingredients you have on hand - this is a great way to use up odd bits of vegetables you might have in the fridge. This one included zucchini, tomatoes, and bacon and was based on a recipe from Gourmet Today (seriously, this book is amazing). I made a bunch of substitutions with the ingredients, and really liked the resulting combination of flavors. You can certainly adapt this recipe to accommodate your taste, and a vegetarian version without bacon would be delicious as well. I'd love to hear about any variations you try!

This frittata is packed full of vegetables and isn't too eggy, which is quite nice. It is a bit watery because of the zucchini and tomatoes, but that isn't really a problem, just something to be aware of. The recipe below includes a couple tweaks that should help fix that. Also, the cheese topping is really tasty, but was a bit much for me - I'll probably cut down on the amount next time.

Corn and tomato gratin

I was over at Pinch My Salt recently, where I learned about a cool blog event called Summer Fest, which celebrates a different summer vegetable or fruit each week. Obviously, this fits in really well with the focus of my blog, and I'm excited about cooking and posting with the Summer Fest themes in mind. This week's theme is corn - corn is at its seasonal peak right now, and I've been cooking a lot with it (as you might have noticed).

Of all the corn recipes I've posted so far, this one really stands out. With corn, tomatoes, and basil all baked together into a bubbly gratin, this is the perfect taste of summer. I found this recipe in Gourmet Today, which is probably the best cookbook I own. Whatever kind of recipe I'm looking for, I can always count on finding something good in this book.

This is not a heavy gratin - the vegetables really shine here, and aren't at all overpowered by the milk and cream. The amount of cheese is enough to contribute good flavor but not so much that you feel like taking a nap after eating it. We ate this for dinner with a green salad on the side, but it would also be a nice accompaniment to any grilled meat.

Beans with citrus and chives

It's fun getting reacquainted with my cookbook collection as I look for new and interesting ways to prepare the many vegetables I buy each week. I came across this recipe in Super Natural Cooking, a book by Heidi Swanson, who also writes the blog 101 Cookbooks. Heidi focuses on cooking with natural, whole foods, and her recipes are always creative and inspiring. This one ended up being a nice, quick way to cook the three (three!) different colors of string beans that I had bought at the market. The beans are sliced into tiny rings and subtly flavored with lemon, lime, and chives. It's simple, bright, and tasty - Andrew even declared this to be his new favorite bean preparation!

If you've got the patience, you could certainly cut the beans with a knife, but I used my food processor. I used green, yellow, and purple string beans here - sadly, the purple ones turned green after they were cooked (I guess I should probably stop buying vegetables just because they're purple...)



Beans with citrus and chives
Adapted from Super Natural Cooking
Serves 4

3/4 pound string beans, trimmed
2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbs water
Grated zest from 1 lemon
Grated zest from 1 lime
3-4 tbs chopped fresh chives
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut the beans into approximately 1/8-inch slices. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and add the beans. Stir to coat beans with oil and then add water and cover the skillet. Cook for 2-3 minutes, tossing once or twice, until the beans are bright and tender. Remove skillet from heat and stir in zests and chives. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Summer succotash

This dish is a perfect example of the idea that foods that are in season together taste good together. Creamy beans, sweet corn, and crisp-tender zucchini, topped off with some fresh tomatoes and herbs - if you think of succotash as something that comes from the freezer section, it is time to think again. Succotash has been in my mind ever since I saw Deb's post about it, and I decided to try a version from Alice Waters's book, The Art of Simple Food. Alice Waters is an authority on local, seasonal cooking, and her recipes are a great place to find some ideas and inspiration. This book is one of the first places I look when I don't know what to do with a particular vegetable.

This was my first time trying fresh cranberry beans, which I used instead of the traditional lima beans. I used a leek instead of onion, because I had a leek that had been sitting in the fridge for two weeks, and desperately needed to be used. I hadn't originally planned on using tomatoes, but I got a bunch of cherry tomatoes from my mother-in-law and made a last minute decision to toss them in there. The tomatoes were a great addition - they add good color as well as some nice acidity. Overall, this is a beautiful way to use the produce that is overflowing at the markets these days.

Quiche with summer greens

I buy a lot of vegetables that have greens attached, like turnips, beets, radishes...these greens are all edible and have interesting flavors, and I try hard not to waste them. But I'm really not that good at cooking greens and often struggle with finding ways to use them. Well, I have officially found one really, really good (albeit time-consuming) way - I ended up using last week's turnip and radish greens in a variation of Julia Child's spinach quiche recipe, and it was so good. This preparation took the bitter edge off the greens, embedding them in a creamy custard baked in buttery pastry - it's hard to go wrong when cheese, cream, and butter are involved.

I'm pretty new to Julia Child's recipes, and to French cooking in general. I received Mastering the Art of French Cooking as a wedding gift a few months ago and so far have only made the quiche recipe. That recipe alone is enough to convince me that this book will be a great addition to my cookbook collection - not so much for everyday cooking, but definitely for guests and weekend cooking projects. I made the blue cheese quiche a couple months ago, and had made some extra pastry dough which I stored in the freezer. I thawed it in the fridge for this quiche, and it tasted every bit as good as the freshly made version. I also used 50% whole wheat pastry flour for this dough, which worked really well. This pastry dough requires blind baking (pre-baking, weighted down with dried beans, so that it doesn't get too soggy when you add the filling), which is a bit of a pain - make sure you budget enough time for everything.



 

Moroccan carrot salad

I've been on a lookout for good carrot recipes lately, since I tend to come home from the market with at least one bunch every week. This is one of the more interesting ones, and led to my first taste of harissa, which is a very delicious chile paste that would be a welcome addition to a great many dishes. The harissa gives the dish some heat, which is balanced by the coolness of the mint and the sweetness of the carrots. Nothing is too overpowering here - the salad has a really nice blend of flavors. I found this recipe over on Smitten Kitchen, and thought it would be a good way to use some of the mint that my mother-in-law gave us from her garden. The original recipe calls for feta cheese, which is great, but I didn't have feta around, so I tried using olives to contribute some saltiness, with good results. A combination of olives and feta would be good too. I've been mentally toying with the idea of trying a variation using these spices with either roasted or sauteed carrot coins, to change up the texture and shape of the vegetable a little here, or maybe just wilting the shredded carrots a bit in a saute pan. Let me know if you try any variations on this. This salad keeps really well, and I've enjoyed it for lunch in a pita with some hummus.


Moroccan carrot salad
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Serves 4-5
3/4 pound carrots, peeled*, trimmed and coarsely grated
4 tbs olive oil
1 crushed clove of garlic
1/2 tsp caraway seeds or 1/4 tsp, ground
3/4 tsp cumin seeds or about half as much, ground
1/2 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp harissa, a North African chile paste
1/2 tsp sugar
3 tbs lemon juice
2 tbs parsley, finely chopped
2 tbs fresh mint, finely chopped
1/3 cup chopped olives or feta cheese (or a combination)

In a small pan, cook the garlic, spices, harissa and sugar in the olive oil for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant. Remove pan from heat, discard garlic, and add the lemon juice and a generous pinch of salt. Pour oil/spice mixture over the carrots, add olives, and mix. Add the herbs and mix again. Make sure to salt to taste before eating. This salad keeps well for a few days in the fridge.

*I usually don't bother peeling carrots unless the skins are especially thick or rough

Pesto and fresh tomato pizza

I'm the kind of crazy person who thinks it is completely acceptable to heat the oven to 500 degrees on a hot summer day. It's totally worth it for homemade pizza...right? However, if you are less inclined to spend time in a sweltering kitchen, this could also be done on the grill - I've heard that grilled pizza is fantastic.

We made the pizza dough using Peter Reinhart's recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. This dough is really tasty, plus the recipe makes enough for 6 pizzas (9 to 12 inch, thin crust), and you can freeze the dough to use later. This makes it easy to have homemade pizzas a lot more often.

About the pesto - homemade is definitely much tastier than store bought. Right now is a great time to make some, with all the (cheap) fresh basil that is available. We make ours in big batches and then freeze it in ice cube trays. That way we can take out a couple cubes whenever we want it.