lemon parmesan potato and salad

We had the grill blazing the other night, and we really didn't have a side dish for what we were making. I took a look around the pantry and found some Long Island grown fingerling potatoes, and remembered that I had noticed that our green beans needed some harvesting when I was watering the garden earlier. I grabbed a few other things we always keep on hand an BAM! an amazing warm salad (which was pretty freaking awesome cold too) was born.

Ingredients:
2 lbs. fingerling potatoes
1/2 lb. green beans, trimmed
1 lemon, sliced
2 shallots, sliced
3 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated (optional, but very tasty. Pecorino Romano or Manchego would also be awesome.)


Grab two nice size sheets of foil. Put the green beans on one and the potatoes on another. Add the shallot and the lemon and then drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Seal them up really tight and toss them on the grill, preferably on the not as hot side. Cover the grill. After 10 minutes the green beans should be done, don't open the foil when you take them off though, they will continue to steam and get all lemony. The potatoes should be done after another 15 minutes (25 minutes of total cook time). Mix both with all of their liquid in a big dish, toss them together, and sprinkle with cheese. Time to nosh!

fajitas

You know what I like about fajitas? Everything! But I especially like the fact that they require almost no cooking, are super fast, and that there is only one pan to clean. So, it's kind of like the perfect meal. You can use whatever vegetables you want for this dish, the method just makes it special, and totally adaptable to anything you want to throw in the pan. (If you want to do something with meat in it, I would recommend cutting the meat into small pieces to assure proper cooking.) But anyway I digress. Let's fajita!

Ingredients:
1 package of seitan, roughly chopped
1 can of black beans, drained
2 peppers, julienned
2 carrots, julienned
1 yellow squash, julienned
1/2 onion, juli- gotcha!, sliced
1 scallion, sliced
3 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
4 Tbsp. safflower oil
2 Tbsp. lime juice (2 limes)
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste

OK, here it goes in 50 words or less: Heat pan smoking hot. Mix oil and juice with spices. Toss with other ingredients. Add to pan, cook for four to six minutes, tossing constantly. Serve on warm tortillas. Top with cheese or sour cream. Eat fajitas! Only wash one pan!

stuffed zucchini blossoms

Hell yeah zucchini blossoms! These were super simple, ridiculously delicious, and left us wanting more. We used garbanzo bean flour to make the batter for these. It adds a really nice nutty flavor, and makes a great crunchy crust. Mixed with the extra crunchiness of corn starch, its kind of like Tempura meets Falafel, or Tempurafel coating. Yeah, something like that...

Ingredients:
Zucchini Blossoms, as many as you can get!

Filling:
4 oz. Goat Chevre
1/4 cup Divina Roasted Tomatoes, in liquid (Can't find these? Just substitute Sundried Tomatoes in Oil.)

Batter:
1 cup Garbanzo Bean Flour (Don't have it? Use a mix of AP Flour and Breadcrumbs.)
1/2 cup Corn Starch
2 Eggs
2 Tbsp. Water
Salt and Pepper

Toss the goat cheese and tomatoes into your blendy machine and buzz them until they are smooth. Add a little water if you need to, just not too much, you don't want this to be runny. If you are fancy, transfer the mixture into a piping bag. If (like me) you will probably never have a piping bag, just put it into a ziplock bag, push it into one corner, and then cut a little bit of the corner off. Now fill your blossoms! (See above.)

Put about 1/4 inch of oil into a frying pan (got cast iron? use it!) and turn it on to medium high heat. Mix the cornstarch and flour in a dish and season it with salt and pepper. Beat the eggs in another bowl with the water, this will help the batter to be lighter and not so eggy, these are delicate little flowers and should be pampered, at least until we throw them in hot oil, and then fight over them. Shake off any excess flour and drop them into the now hot oil. Cook them about 2-2.5 minutes on each side and then take them out and let them sit for just a minute before noshing, or you can burn the hell out of your mouth with molten lava filling like I did...
Enjoy!

weekly pickup 07/25

1 dozen eggs
2 leeks
1 bunch something kenny doesn't remember the name of
1 head red leaf lettuce
4 ears corn
1 cabbage
2 lbs plums
1 bunch mint
4 nectarines
2 green squash
1 bunch spinach
1.5 lb potatoes
1 bunch scallion
3 plums

ps - i know we have not posted any recipes lately - we have been stupid busy but are still cooking like crazy. stay tuned for NINE new recipes!

weekly pickup 07/18

1 bunch radishes
2 red onions
1 bunch lemongrass (kinda hidden behind the squash, oops!)
2 summer squash
1 bunch kale
1 bunch carrots
1 head romaine
1 bunch basil
1 white onion
1 head celery
1 bunch cilantro

fruit share starts next week for us!

weekly pickup 07/11

1 bunch beets
1 bunch celery
1 bunch carrots
1 head romaine
1 bunch kale
1 white onion
2 red onions
2 summer squash
1 bunch sage
1 dozen eggs
1 bunch lemongrass

weekly pickup 07/04

1 bunch parsley
1 bunch beets
1 head red leaf lettuce
4 globe zucchini
2 white onions
1 bunch carrots
1 bunch papalo