ZUCCHINI HASH with POTATOES AND SUNNY SIDE UP EGGS

The combination of zucchini and potatoes tastes like summer plus comfort. 

The trick to this recipe is to have the potatoes and zucchini finish cooking at the same time so as to prevent the zucchini from overcooking. I solve this little problem by precooking the potatoes and combining them with the zucchini at the last minute. 

This recipe will be an excellent addition to a leisurely summer weekend breakfast. It serves four but the ingredients can be adjusted to serve any number of people coming to the table. 

And ... I love the way the egg looks as I cut into it and its yolk runs over the potatoes and zucchini. It tastes darn good too! 

Ingredients:


2 medium Yukon gold potatoes

2 small or one medium zucchini

4 eggs
extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons butter
one small onion, thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

1 or 2 scallions, sliced thinly, use only the white and light green parts  

a sprinkling of grated Pecorino Romano cheese (for garnish).

salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions:

1. Peel the potatoes and chop them into half-inch dice. Cook them in salted hot water until they get soft, then drain well and set aside to dry.
2. Chop the zucchini into half-inch dice. 
3. Heat some oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the zucchini and onion. Saute for a minute or two, then add the parsley and dill. Cook, stirring frequently until the zucchini is tender. Remove from the skillet and reserve. 
4. Over medium heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter to the skillet. Wait until the butter has melted and then add the potatoes and garlic. Cook, stirring, until the potatoes begin to turn a golden colour. 
5. Add the scallions and return the zucchini to the skillet. Combine well and cook no more than a minute just until the ingredients are incorporated. 
6. Season with salt and pepper and remove from the heat. At this point, you may want to transfer the ingredients to a platter if you'll serve them that way. Keep warm.    
7. Melt the rest of the butter in a non-stick skillet and cook the four eggs sunny side up. Season them with salt and pepper. Top the zucchini and potatoes with the eggs. 
8. At the table, divide the potatoes and zucchini among four plates. Each serving should be topped with an egg.
9. Garnish with the grated Pecorino Romano cheese right before passing the plates around. 

   

ROASTED PEPPERS MEZE

I made this mezé for my brother, who loves peppers. It was a small gift I took to his house, where he and my sister-in-law hosted this year's mothers day dinner. All the ladies got gifts and flowers, so I figured he should get a small something since he did a lot of the cooking. This is a popular mezé, or appetizer, in Greek cuisine, usually enjoyed with a slowly sipped aperitif such as ouzo. 

Ingredients:

10 peppers, cut in half, stem and seeds removed (have a combination of colours, such as red, green, and yellow)
1 head garlic, split in half horizontally, no need to peel it, but remove the excess skin
1/3 cup olive oil, divided in half
Salt and pepper to taste
4 tablespoon red wine vinegar
juice of a lemon
4 tablespoons parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon mint, chopped
2 teaspoons dried Greek oregano

Directions:
In a bowl toss the peppers and the garlic with half of the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Bake on a tray at 450° F / 200 C for about 30 minutes, or until the skin of the peppers is blistered and charred.


Remove from the oven and place the peppers in a plastic container whose lid you're pretty sure you can find. Cover with said lid. Let the peppers steam in the container until they have cooled. The trapped steam will help to separate the skin from the flesh of the peppers making the eventual peeling easier.

Peel the peppers and remove the roasted garlic from its skin. The garlic will be served with the peppers. Keep as much of it as you are comfortable using, and if necessary, discard the rest. 

Marinate the peppers and garlic with the remaining olive oil, the red wine vinegar, lemon juice, and herbs. The recipe can be made about two days ahead of time. Store in the refrigerator but bring to room temperature before serving. 

BANANA BLUEBERRY BREAD WITH DATES TASTES GREAT WITH A NICE CUP OF TEA

"Banana Bread," is one of the more searched for recipes on the Internet. Why? What's so sexy about banana bread? Is it an aphrodisiac? To answer my own question, no, it's not. It's just that people tend to be "banana affluent." They buy more bananas than they can possibly consume. What to do with the ones leftover? Use them to make banana bread perhaps? It's an option, and here in this post of posts, I share a recipe with you for banana bread.  

This banana bread recipe is one have been making for years and years and years. It's slightly adapted (I include blueberries in mine) from the original "Banana Tea Bread" in Craig Claiborne's "New York Times Cook Book." I bought the cookbook right when I was beginning to learn how to boil water and I learned an enormous amount by studying its pages.

I ask you: do you have displayed on your countertop some bananas that have ripened way too much? You know you really aren't going to eat those darlings ... Instead of throwing them out, why not make banana bread with them? Overripened bananas?  Not very appetizing on their own, but excellent when used to make banana bread! This recipe will make one loaf.

However, before we go on to the recipe, let's talk politics: bananas are grown thousands of miles away from the US shores, and yet they are plentiful and much cheaper to buy than the apples, or oranges, or peaches that are grown locally. How come? Doesn't that sound odd? At the end of this blog post, I include an excerpt from a New York Times op-ed which discusses why the enigma. Definitely worth a read. And now, on to the recipe: 

Ingredients:

1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Sift the above ingredients together and set aside.

1 cup softened butter

2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted

3/4 cup finely chopped dates
3/4 cup fresh blueberries

Directions:

• This recipe will make one loaf. Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Prepare a bread pan by greasing it well. 
• With an electric mixer beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. 
• Add the eggs and vanilla extract; beat well.
• Add the flour mixture alternating it with the bananas. Beat only until smooth - do not overwork the mixture.
• Fold in the dates, blueberries, and nuts.
• Turn into the pan and bake for about one hour.

• For easy slicing, the banana bread must be cold. Let it cool well before removing from the pan. Banana bread slices can be frozen for up to a month. Take a slice out of the freezer when you want one, bring it to room temperature, and enjoy it with a nice cup of tea!

Banana Politics 

Here's a little something about the United Fruit Company and the economics of bananas:

Dan Koppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, wrote an Op-Ed in The Times that is packed with interesting stuff about the Freudian fruit. The economics are particularly interesting:

That bananas have long been the cheapest fruit at the grocery store is astonishing. They’re grown thousands of miles away, they must be transported in cooled containers, and even then they survive no more than two weeks after they’re cut off the tree. Apples, in contrast, are typically grown within a few hundred miles of the store and keep for months in a basket out in the garage. Yet apples traditionally have cost at least twice as much per pound as bananas.

Americans eat as many bananas as apples and oranges combined, which is especially amazing when you consider that not so long ago, bananas were virtually unknown here. They became a staple only after the men who in the late 19th century founded the United Fruit Company (today’s Chiquita) figured out how to get bananas to American tables quickly — by clearing rainforest in Latin America, building railroads and communication networks, and inventing refrigeration techniques to control ripening. …

Once bananas had become widely popular, the companies kept costs low by exercising iron-fisted control over the Latin American countries where the fruit was grown. Workers could not be allowed such basic rights as health care, decent wages, or the right to congregate. … Over and over, banana companies, aided by the American military, intervened whenever there was a chance that any “banana republic” might end its cooperation. … Labor is still cheap in these countries, and growers still resort to heavy-handed tactics.

The final piece of the banana pricing equation is genetics. Unlike apple and orange growers, banana importers sell only a single variety of their fruit, the Cavendish. There are more than 1,000 varieties of bananas — most of them in Africa and Asia — but except for an occasional exotic, the Cavendish is the only banana we see in our markets. … By sticking to this single variety, the banana industry ensures that all the bananas in a shipment ripen at the same rate, creating huge economies of scale. The Cavendish is the fruit equivalent of a fast-food hamburger: efficient to produce, uniform in quality, and universally affordable.

Some readers may recoil at this description and vow to never eat another banana. Others may thank their lucky stars that free markets are able to deliver a tasty, healthy, peel-intact fruit to their corner stores at very affordable prices.

Koppel’s larger message is that the Cavendish banana is under fungal threat and may disappear. And, because Koppel seems to endorse the locavore movement (unlike some of us), he doesn’t sound all that sad:

In recent years, American consumers have begun seeing the benefits — to health, to the economy, and to the environment — of buying foods that are grown close to our homes. … [B]ananas have always been an emblem of a long-distance food chain. Perhaps it’s time we recognize bananas for what they are: an exotic fruit that, some day soon, may slip beyond our reach.

from:

http://freakonomics.com/2008/06/19/the-economics-of-bananas/

MUSHROOM RISOTTO with PEAS

I guess you can tell from looking around this blog that I love rice. I truly do! (The funny thing is that rice was one of my most hated foods when I was growing up). Here is a wonderfully tasty risotto recipe I adapted from the "Food Network" web site. It is creamy and comforting, and oh, so good. Just what you need after a hard day at work!

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons olive oil 
1 large onion, minced
4 large garlic cloves, minced

1 medium tomato, peeled, seeded and very, very finely chopped

2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup white wine
7 cups vegetable stock (or chicken stock), heated, divided

3 tablespoons olive oil

about one pound of mushrooms, a combination of varieties

1 cup frozen sweet baby peas
4 tablespoons butter, chilled, and cut into small pieces

1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons Italian parsley, finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Remove the mushroom stems from the mushrooms and reserve. 

Slice the mushrooms and reserve. 

Place two cups of the stock in a saucepan. Add the stems from the mushrooms and cook over medium heat until the mushroom stems have given off their liquid and the stock is filled with mushroom aroma. Reserve the stock but discard the mushroom stems. Add the thyme to the mushroom stock, and combine the mushroom stock along with the rest of the stock.

In a saucepan heat the four tablespoons of olive oil. Over medium-high heat, sauté the onion just to soften, stirring all the while, about four minutes. Add the garlic and rice and continue to stir with a wooden spoon, coating the rice with the oil, garlic and onion.


Deglaze with the cup of white wine and cook until the liquid is absorbed, stirring often. Pour in enough stock to cover, about 3 cups. Cook over medium heat, stirring often until the liquid is absorbed.

Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, heat the three tablespoons of olive oil. olive oil. Sauté the mushrooms over medium heat, just to soften, about 4-5 minutes. Remove from the heat, mix in the peas and the parsley, and reserve.

Pour another 3 cups of stock into the rice, turn the flame to medium-high, and stir in a pinch of salt and the tomatoes. Keep stirring until the rice is tender.

Add the mushrooms and peas, stir, then slowly add the rest of the stock as needed. It may not be necessary to add this last cup of stock, or you may need to add just a bit or all of it. The best way to tell is to taste and judge for yourself. The risotto should be creamy, not runny.

Remove from the flame, vigorously beat in the chilled butter and 1/2 cup of the Parmesan until completely dissolved.

Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve immediately.

MARINATED MIXED OLIVES

This is a nice way to serve olives. The marinade is a delicious and colourful combination. It's served as a "mezé," which in Greek means something to nibble on: An appetizer to be served with an aperitif before dinner. 
This recipe can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator. 

Ingredients:

1 cup Kalamata olives
1/2 cup oil-cured olives
1/2 cup green olives
2 tablespoons of capers
the peeled zest of 2 lemons

the peeled zest of 1 orange
1 tablespoon dry red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons olive oil 

2 tablespoons good vegetable oil 
3 tablespoons chopped dill
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon dried oregano
a few sprigs of thyme

Directions:

• Make sure all the olives are pitted. They can be purchased that way, or if you like, you can do the job yourself.
• In a large mixing bowl, add all the ingredients and mix well. 
• Serve the olives as an appetizer. They are delicious when accompanied by slices of crusty bread or warm pita slices.
• This dish can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator for about two days prior to serving.

ROAST LEG OF LAMB AND POTATOES GREEK STYLE FOR EASTER! ARNI PSITO

For this year's Easter Sunday dinner we roasted two legs of lamb. Very easy to make. The lamb was out of the way once it started to roast, and that freed us up to do so many other things...The recipe given below is for one leg of lamb. Since I cooked two, I doubled it. Sometimes I make this same recipe with lamb that's off the bone. Works just as well. I cook lamb the low and slow way which makes it very juicy and meltingly soft. If you scroll down, don't get discouraged by the length of the recipe. I give detailed instructions, that's why the length, but let me reiterate that this is an easy recipe. And boy oh boy, no tough, fatty lamb for dinner with this one!

Ingredients:

1 leg of lamb on the bone (about 6 pounds) 
salt and pepper to taste
6 cloves garlic, peeled and cut in half
4 or 5 celery stalks
3 carrots  
6 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
4 sprigs rosemary
2 tablespoons dried oregano
6 sprigs thyme
Some grated pecorino Romano cheese
olive oil
1 large lemon
water
1/4 cup lemon juice


Directions:

• Trim some of the fat from the lamb. How much? As much as your conscience wants you to. 
• With a small knife make about 6 slits in the lamb and insert a piece of garlic into each one. Twist some kitchen twine around the lamb. Three rounds will be enough. I have devised this method so that I can keep the herbs attached to the meant as it cooks. 
• In a small bowl, add two tablespoons of olive oil and the juice of one lemon. Whisk to combine, and rub the mixture over the surface of the lamb. Season with salt and pepper and with one tablespoon of the oregano.
• Leave the carrots unpeeled; place them along with the celery on the bottom of a heavy baking pan and add the lamb on top. These vegetables are meant to serve as a rack, therefore arrange them accordingly, letting them rest mostly beneath the lamb. They are to be discarded once the lamb finishes cooking.
• Pour one cup of water around the lamb.
• Place in a preheated 450 F oven and roast for 20 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven, turn the lamb over, and roast for another 20 minutes. 
• Lower the heat to 300 F and remove the pan from the oven. 
• Arrange the potatoes and any remaining cloves of garlic around the lamb. 
• Season with salt, pepper, the remaining oregano and with a small portion of the thyme and rosemary. 
• Add the rest of the rosemary and thyme on top and underneath the lamb, wedging it in the twine. 
• If the water was evaporated, replenish it so that it measures about 1/4 of a cup. Add the lemon juice to it.  
• Sprinkle the Pecorino Romano cheese on top of the meat and potatoes. 
• Cover with parchment paper and aluminium foil and place back in the oven. If the pan has a lid, add the lid on top of the aluminium foil. This will give you an exceptional seal, and that's what you want. 
• Bake at 300°F for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until the meat can easily be pulled away from the bone.
• Remove the aluminium foil and parchment paper and raise the temperature to 400°F; allow the lamb and potatoes to brown some more (about 20 minutes, but you be the judge with your own oven).
• Take the lamb out of the oven, cut the twine and dress with some olive oil and if you like lemon juice, get yourself another lemon and go to town squeezing its juice over the lamb. 
• Let rest before serving. 

Hints:

1. It will be more convenient to slice the lamb on a cutting board and then place the meat onto a platter; it's just easier and more efficient to do this in the kitchen and not at the dining table. 
2. Remove the potatoes to a serving dish. None of that fancy surround the lamb with them! Forget about it! Make things easy for yourself on this busy day.
3. For those who want jus, strain the fat out the pan juices, then pour them into a gravy bowl. 
4. This year we served everything buffet style by placing all the dishes on the server in the dining room. We had two tables set for guests, and both tables were within close proximity of the server; everyone helped themselves. One of the best ideas ever!!!!! It was informal and a lot of fun. And it was also more enjoyable for moi, the hostess!!!