yumpittsburgh

Of pumkins

Baby yum and I are carving pumpkins today, getting ready for the weekend’s festivities. One of the best parts of Halloween is toasting the pumkin seeds for snacking. These ‘pepitas’ are super nutritios and have been an important staple in Mesoamerican cooking for centuries.

So how is it done? Easy!

Just scoop out the pumpkin’s insides, and separate the goop from the seeds. Season with a sprtiz of eevo and your favorite dried herbs. Yum favors a bit of soy sauce and curry powder or a sprinkle of chili powder. Just a pinch of salt works too.

Spread on cookie sheet on a single layer, bake at 250 for an hour or so to dry them, then toast at 350 til crispy and crunchy. Stir them a couple of times to roast evenly. Store in an airtight container. Eat out of hand or sprinkle on salads or soup.

Ode to the brussels

The post about brussels sprouts from last week generated a surprising amount of feedback. This veggie, for better or worse, often falls into the unloved but not unlovely category.

This is just a quick post from the front lines, if you will, of the family table. Baby yum turned two over the weekend and the roasted brussels were a hit. Even grandpa yum who had started grumbling about the the fact that this veggie was even in the house ended up going back for seconds. It is yum’s opinion that there are a lot of closet fans of this fall treat out there.

I had purchased brussels still on the stalk and cooked half of them, thinking they were a kind of culinary experiment. At the end of the meal it was the ONLY side dish that was completely gone. Here’s how they were prepared:

Roasted Brussels with balsamic and toasted pine nuts

Enough fresh, trimmed brussels to fill a small baking pan

1/3 c pine nuts

olive oil, a good glug

2 T balsamic vinegar

salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar to taste

Trim the brussels, remove any tough outer leaves and cut in half from top to bottom. Wash, then lay them on a clean kitchen towel to dry. Toast pine nuts in warm pan until fragrant, this takes only a few minutes. Be careful to not burn them. Put clean, dry brussels in a large bowl, add a good glug of olive oil, enough to coat evenly. Add balsamic vinegar, salt pepper and a pinch of sugar, toss to coat. Arrange single layer in a baking pan, sprinkle pine nuts over and roast at 375, stirring every 10 minutes, until sugars caramelize and the sprouts are tender. They should be done after 30-40 minutes.

There are many recipes out there. Another one that looked good involved prepping the brussels in the same way, but simply sauteing them in butter until golden, then giving them a toss with some good grated parm and a squeeze of lemon. Yum will report back on how that turns out. What is your fav recipe?

Harvest recipes for all those zukes and peppers!

Yum is back after taking care of baby yum, who needed some intense TLC. The harvest is still going strong, despite cooling temperatures. This time of year is so great because of the sheer variety of produce that is available.

There are still hot weather crops like tomatoes, peppers and zucchinis to be had. Savor them, save them. Even if your kitchen is overrun with zuchinis, like mine, love every single one of them. After cleaning out my garden, then being given some additional zukes from my dad’s garden, I was a bit oerwhealmed by the forearm sized veggies. As well as bags of hot and sweet peppers. I was fantasizing about leaving them on the porches of unsuspecting neighbors after dark just to get rid of them. Then I stopped, took a good deep breath and realized that pretty soon these things are going to be at least $2 a pound in the store. So I rolled up my sleaves and got to work.

I shredded, sliced, diced and sauteed my way through about 10 pounds of zucchini. Now there are only about 4 forearm sized zukes left in the crisper. I try to avoid looking at them when I open the fridge. So what did I make?

Garlic Gardenia Mix, Chocolate Zucchini Bread, Curried Garden Vegeteables, Roasted Red Pepper Antipasti, Zuchini pancakes (baby yum didn’t even notice there were veggies in there!)

Here are the recipes, now go to the farmers market while you can and get to work in that kitchen!

Garlic Gardenia Mix

This is an old Italian solution to the problem of too many veggies, too little time! This is a flexible recipe that goes well with some good, crusty bread and a glass of wine. Add some nice cheese to the table for a light meal. (Those things fix most meals, though!)

Take your garden surplus of hot and sweet peppers, zucchini, celery, cauliflower, cucumbers, etc. Rough chop all and put them in a non reactive bowl (ie, not metal). Add some olives or artichoke hearts, if desired. Add some whole cloves of garlic, as many as you like. Now add 1 cup white vinegar and 1/2 up olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste as well as a 1/2 tsp each of dried parsley and oregano, 1 T of each if fresh. Mix it all together and let it stand for at least an hour or two to develop taste. This keeps well in the refrigerator for several days. Use it as a condiment, salad or as tapas. Keep some mints on hand in case you are on a date.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

I use a recipe from Penzy’s, it is good.

Curried garden vegetables

I just love the heady taste and smell of Indian food. I find Indian food difficult to make, but finally found a decent solution for a quick, healthy and vegetarian curry. I’ve made this a couple of times this week and will play around with it more in the future, but this is a good starting point. It would be easy to sub different veggies or protein in or out of this recipe. I may try it with limes, coconut milk and fresh basil with Thai curry paste for an alt version in the future.

I take enough veggies to fill a large covered sauce or saute pan. This time of the year it is a large zucchini or two, sliced into 1/3″ slices. I slice up about a up of onions. I rough cut several peppers and a tomato or two. For protein, I open a can of chick peas and drain them.

I heat some oil in the pan and add the onions. As they  I add 1 T of my favorite curry powder (graham marsala would work too) 1tsp of turmeric and 1tsp of ground cumin seeds, and salt and pepper to taste. I  this around for 4 or 5 minutes then layer in the peppers. On top of this I add the chopped tomatoes. On top of this I layer the zukes, gratin style. Then I add 1-2 cups of water, put the lid on, and let it simmer for 30 minutes. Serve this up hot over some steamed rice or cous cous.

Roasted Red Pepper Antipasti

I’ve seen it done by TV chefs 100 times, but I didn’t believe it was this easy til I tried it. I turned the gas burner on, placed a whole, washed pepper on each grate, and rotated it carefully with tongs until the whole thing was charred. Then I put it in a paper bag for about 30 minutes.

When I took out that poor, tortured pepper I felt bad, thinking I might have ruined it. But I started scraping the charred skin off, de-seeded it and sliced it into thin strips. Then I sliced some garlic super thin and mixed the garlic and peppers together with some olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Excuse me, but they are delicious!

Zucchini pancakes

I had to hide the zucchini somewhere, how about in a pancake?

Grate about a cup and a half of zukes, and set them aside.

Beat 2 egg whites to a soft peak.

Beat 2 yolks, 1 cup milk, 2T vanilla 1/2 t salt and 1T cinnamon together. Sift 1 cup flour and 1tsp baking soda together. Add to the milk mixture. fold in egg whites and grated zukes. Fry them up on a griddle and serve with maple syrup or some home made pear or apples, chopped up and cooked down until sweet and syrupy. Yum!

Finished product

The verdict is in and the home made Graham crackers which were made with locally produced butter are yummy!

They have a much more grainy taste than commercial varieties. Here are changes to the recipe posted yesterday…

Add 1tsp cinnamon
Omit honey (only because I didn’t have any)
Add an extra 2 Tbs of milk
Added 1tsp oil

Graham crackers

The east end food co op is having a challenge this month where participants try to eat one meal a day using locally produced food. Bring queen of local foods (a self styled moniker) I thought,’this will be simple’.

Ha! My first attempt to simplify this challenge occured while staring in my fridge, whose contents were almost nil thanks to vacation and a mishap where the freezer was open for 10 days while we were away. In August.

There went the pork shoulder from Hileman’s Hog Farm and the whole pastured chicken from DuBios. Gross.

I digress, the challenge record sheet was pretty empty and I decided one ingredient at least one meal a day was enough. So tonight I realized neither our veggie dogs, baked beans or corn came from close to the burgh.

So I thought Graham crackers, made with local butter would count, no?

Here’s the recipe I used. The dough is chilling in the fridge so results will have to wait til tomorrow.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/05/graham-crackers/

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