recipe Archives - Page 7 of 30

recipe

World on a Plate: the cult of New Mexico chile peppers

Posted on August 28, 2020August 29, 2020 by Pat and David

It was a very different August when we stumbled onto the Santa Fe Farmers' Market (santafefarmersmarket.com) on our way back from Abiquiú, and the scent of roasting green chiles transported us to a kind of nirvana. (We're happy to report that the market is open and following careful health and safety protocols to protect against COVID-19.) There are chile peppers and then there are New Mexico chile peppers. They are in a league of their own, balancing heat levels from mild to mildly scorching. Many chileheads think in Scoville units—the scale that measures perceived level of chile burn. They nibble habañeros and bird chiles with macho abandon, insisting through the tears washing rivulets in their faces that ‶this ain't hot.″ They're probably the same folks...Read More

Fassolia Piaz: Greek bean salad for summer

Posted on August 25, 2020August 24, 2020 by Pat and David

Back in March, when no one knew what the pandemic food supply chain would be like, we reflexively purchased bags of dried beans. They were cheap, shelf-stable supplies that could guarantee a source of quality protein if we were suddenly faced with food insecurity. In hindsight, we overreacted. On the bright side, we have a lot of beans on hand to make summer salads. Fassolia piaz is the Greek variant. In its simplest form, boiled beans are mixed with chopped parsley, lemon juice, and olive oil. We like it expanded a bit to include chopped tomato, chopped cucumber, and skewers of fresh tuna cooked over hardwood charcoal. That makes it the Greek cousin to Salade Niçoise. You could add Kalamata olives or even sliced hard-boiled...Read More

Olympian Greek laurels for swordfish kebabs

Posted on August 18, 2020August 17, 2020 by Pat and David

This is a spectacular time for fish in New England, so we've decided to take our Greek culinary research seaside. Well, not really seaside, since our backyard grill is a good mile from the ocean. On a recent market run, we were surprised to see fresh swordfish steaks, since this is mainly yellowfin tuna season in New England. But asking the fishmonger, we found that the sword was caught in Canada and landed in New England—close enough to home for us. When we discovered that the same market had fresh bay leaves—European bay laurel leaves, not the more eucalyptus-scented California bay—we knew we were in business. (They were from Goodness Gardens: goodnessgardens.com/bay-leaves.) Greeks love to thread fresh bay between pieces of swordfish for grilled kebabs....Read More

Greeks beat the heat with watermelon salad

Posted on August 11, 2020August 12, 2020 by Pat and David

Even Hippocrates, the ancient Greek father of medicine, was apparently a watermelon fan, prescribing the fruit as a diuretic. (He also suggested treating children with heat stroke by placing cool, wet rinds on their brows.) But the good doctor had nothing to say about watermelon as food. That could be because watermelons of his era were still at least as bitter as an overgrown cucumber. A half millennium would elapse before farmers were raising the sweet modern watermelon. But the Greeks made up for lost time. One of the quintessential summer delights of Greek cuisine is some variation of watermelon salad. There are really only three essential elements: pieces of watermelon, mint leaves, and crumbled feta cheese. Personally, we like to add cubed pieces of...Read More

Greeks know elemental simplicity of kebabs

Posted on August 4, 2020August 2, 2020 by Pat and David

We can just imagine the invention of the kebab sometime in the Paleolithic era. Stone-age Barbecue Bob was grilling a whole haunch of ground sloth impaled on a tree branch over an open fire. As the haunch began to cook, it would eventually fall off the stick into the fire. And Bob would throw a cursing fit. A woman at the cave no doubt looked up from grinding wild grass seeds into flour. She observed that if Bob cut the haunch into smaller pieces, he could thread them on a stick and they would cook faster and remain ash-free. Ta-da! Bob's Kebabs was born. He got all the credit around the cave complex for this wondrous new invention. She got a break from his whining,...Read More

Finding a Greek solution to the zucchini problem

Posted on July 28, 2020July 27, 2020 by Pat and David

Every gardener knows the zucchini problem. When you ordered seeds in January, you were dreaming of ratatouille—maybe even of zucchini bread with sunflower seeds that turn inexplicably green. Then the reality hits about this time of summer. Zucchini sounds like a great idea. So does keeping rabbits—until you're suddenly overrun with rabbits. Or squash. Pre-pandemic, you could invite friends over, get them well lubricated, and send them home with a bag of zukes. Or bunnies. Such solutions don't work in the COVID era. The Greeks take a more pragmatic attitude toward zucchini proliferation. During the season, they throw zukes into everything. One of the tastier light dishes is a bake that falls somewhere between a frittata and an unfussy souffle. There are zillions of different...Read More

One more Greek meze spread: baba ganoush

Posted on July 21, 2020July 18, 2020 by Pat and David

Not quite as ubiquitous as tzatziki and tirokafteri (see July 14 post) on meze platters in Greece, baba ganoush is one of those spreads that you'll find all around the eastern Mediterranean. The origin of the name is Arabic, and we suspect it found its way to Greece during the Ottoman occupation. But the Greeks have embraced it wholeheartedly—and so have we. Spread on pita bread, it might be our second favorite way to eat eggplant (after ratatouille). Too often homemade baba ganoush is shy on the smoky flavor that distinguishes the dish. Most recipes we've seen call for roasting the eggplant whole in the oven, then chopping up the flesh. Since eggplant season is also grilling season, we prefer to light up the Weber...Read More

Something Greek to spread on that fresh pita bread

Posted on July 14, 2020July 12, 2020 by Pat and David

We've been practicing pita (see July 7 post) until we got it down just right. Sure enough, our loaves stay nice and pliable and puff up with an air pocket from edge to edge. The key is searing the first side when you start cooking. But with all that pita, we needed something Greek to spread on it. Wherever we went in Athens, every meze platter had pita with four spreads: hummus, tzatziki (cucumber yogurt), tirokafteri (whipped feta with red pepper), and baba ganoush. We have yet to tackle making our own hummus and we're reserving baba ganoush for next week's post. But here are our recipes for the yin and yang of Greek dips or spreads, tzatziki and tirokafteri. TZATZIKI This utterly refreshing dip/sauce...Read More

Going Greek: the pleasures of homemade pita bread

Posted on July 7, 2020July 6, 2020 by Pat and David

Greece was the last place we were able to visit before the worldwide pandemic struck. The Parthenon, Delphi, and all the rest fulfilled that bucket-list desire to see the origins of western civilization. And we really enjoyed the food—everything from simple salads with slabs of feta to roasted whole fish. We had never really tried cooking Greek dishes at home, but as long as we're in a travel holding pattern, there's no time like the present to remedy that. We're focusing on some of the staples we enjoyed on our sojourn in Athens last winter. That begins with the simplest of breads. Pita isn't a quick bread, but it takes very little time to make Except for the fresh strawberries with super-thick yogurt we ate...Read More

Simple roasted asparagus, a Diana Henry gem

Posted on June 16, 2020June 15, 2020 by Pat and David

Every year about this time we work our palates into a state of frenzy trying to enjoy the fleeting season of local asparagus. The farm at the head of the post is one of those legendary growers along the banks of the Connecticut River in Hadley, Massachusetts. Until verticillium blight struck after World War II, Hadley grew much of the country's best asparagus. Good tillage practices and more resistant varieties have helped revive the asparagus industry in the Pioneer Valley, though it's never going to be what it was. It does mean that even 90 miles east in greater Boston, we enjoy a surfeit of the noble spears for a short time each year. And granting that one cannot live on asparagus risotto alone (hungrytravelers.com/remembering-italy-3-asparagus-prosciutto-risotto/),...Read More