GOLDEN ZUCCHINI: A TASTE OF YELLOW

It is almost impossible to find a person whose life has not been touched by cancer. Whether friends, family members or co-workers, we all know someone who either battled this disease and hopefully beat it, or sadly, someone whose life was cut short by it.

A Taste of Yellow is a food blogging event that started through the initiative of Barbara from “Winos and Foodies”, who is herself a cancer survivor. You can read her touching tribute here.  She launched this event in support of  The Lance Armstrong Foundation, an organization with the goal of increasing cancer awareness in society.

Food bloggers participate by sharing their stories and a recipe with a yellow ingredient; Barbara assembles all the links and publishes them in her website. This year the event was postponed until October 2nd, to fall on the 10th anniversary of Lance Armstrong’s cancer diagnosis (LiveStrong Day). As everyone knows, he not only won that medical battle, but went on to win the Tour de France seven times! And after taking some time off from competing he went back at it this year and finished in third place.   Of course, he did run a few marathons while away from the “Tour”…   Talk about an inspirational story!

This is my first time in “A Taste of Yellow”. I chose yellow zucchini to convey the “LiveStrong” message.

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Even though yellow is often associated with lemons, a nice golden zucchini also says yellow in all its glory… This past week our farmer’s market had such beautiful golden zucchini for sale that I had to bring some home with me!

I went with a mix and match of recipes, joining the method from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and my favorite yogurt sauce from Mediterranean Fresh.  I tweaked the yogurt sauce ever so slightly.  Both cookbooks are amazing, by the way…

ZUCCHINI DUO WITH YOGURT SAUCE

(receita em portugues na proxima pagina)

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for the veggies:
2 golden zucchini
1 green zucchini
1 T olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper

for the sauce:

1/2 cup Greek style yogurt
1 T olive oil
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 T fresh mint leaves, minced
pinch of cayenne pepper
salt to taste

Remove both ends of the zucchini; slice them in half crosswise, then lengthwise in 1/3 inch-thick slices. Cut each slice again, into sticks, also 1/3 inch thick, as shown in photo. Sprinkle the slices with salt and place them in a colander for 20-30 minutes. Rinse well and drain, pat dry.

Prepare the sauce by mixing all the ingredients. If using regular yogurt, then drain it for a couple of hours, because you need thick yogurt for this recipe.

Heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan, and add the zucchini sticks when its very hot. Cook them undisturbed for a couple of minutes to get the pieces lightly browned, then move them around, cooking for a total of 5 minutes.

Transfer the zucchini to a bowl and spoon some of the sauce over it when serving. Garnish with fresh mint, if you like.

ENJOY!

To print the recipe, click here.

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A Souffle’ to Remember… Julia Child

August 15th, 2009

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Today Julia Child would turn 97 years old. Last week many food bloggers wrote about “the movie“, but I will not add my comments, as the list is big enough already. Go see it and form your own opinion…

But many bloggers and non-bloggers alike will probably feel inclined to cook something from “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” on her birthday. I gladly join this party, as she is one of my two “cooking idols”, the second being Jacques Pepin. Confession: I drool over Ming Tsai on a regular basis, but  I am not sure his cooking is the only reason. 🙂

But, I digress.  To celebrate Julia, I made a souffle, using her recipe as the guideline, and I turned it into an appropriate dish for this time of the year and the place that we live: a corn souffle’…

If just the thought of making a souffle’ makes you hyperventilate, then I urge you to try Julia’s method. I was a certified souffle-phobe, but her book solved my handicap. Too bad that she never wrote about golf. 😉

CORN SOUFFLE
(adapted from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking)

6-cup mold, buttered and sprinkled with grated parmiggiano cheese

3T butter
3T flour
1 cup hot milk
1/2 t salt
1/8 t pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
4 egg yolks
5 egg whites + pinch salt
3/4 cup corn kernels (see comments)
1/8 cup feta cheese, crumbled

Melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes, don’t allow it to brown.  Remove from the heat, and when the butter stops furiously boiling, add the milk all at once. Return to medium heat and cook, stirring constantly for a couple of minutes more. The sauce will thicken considerably. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne.

Remove from heat, allow it to cool for 5 minutes or so,  and add the egg yolks, one by one, mixing very well after each addition. This sauce can be prepared to this point and refrigerated; bring it to lukewarm before continuing. If you decide not to refrigerate it, then dot it with butter, cover it with a plastic wrap and go work on the egg whites.

Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until firm peaks form – depending on your mixer or the strength of your biceps it will take 2 to 5 minutes. Add 1/3 of this mixture to the sauce, to thin it slightly – add the corn kernels and the feta cheese, mix well.

Now, add the remaining egg whites and fold into the sauce. You don’t need to mix it until it is all incorporated and totally homogeneous, because the “lift” of your souffle’ depends on the air present in the beaten egg whites. If you deflate it, you won’t have a well-risen souffle (it will still taste good, though).

Fill the souffle’ mold to 3/4 of its volume, place it in a 400F oven, reducing the temperature immediately to 375F. Cook the souffle’ for 30 minutes – do not open the oven door during the first 20 minutes. If you like it moist inside, serve after 30 minutes. I prefer to cook for 5 additional minutes, then the texture inside is perfect, not too dry, not too creamy.

Souffle’ waits for no one. Serve immediately and enjoy the compliments of your guests!

BON APPETIT!

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AVOCADO THREE WAYS

This post is a courtesy of my husband…

I think you will all agree that he is a natural-blogger! 😉


We have little time to cook, but we’re always seeking something wonderful. Avocados meet us in the middle. Especially the rich, creamy Hass and Calavo avocados, from California and Mexico. Here are three quick and easy ways to enjoy them!

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1.  Avocado Appetizer. Hungry for something delicious and healthy? My aunt Millie showed me this one.  If the avocado’s just right, then it’s hard to top.

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Acquire a perfectly ripe avocado.  How can you tell?  Squeeze the avocado…it should be very firm but not hard, soft enough so that it yields to moderate pressure. Knock out the stem-plug and look for a green (not brown!) core.

Slice the avocado in half,
douse it with lemon juice,
sprinkle it with salt and pepper,
enjoy the solar energy!

2. Green Caprese Salad.

This is my Americanized  rip-off of the continental classic.

Assemble the following (fresh) ingredients:
tomatoes,
mozarella
avocados
basil
1/4 cup olive oil

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Cut the the tomatoes, cheese and avocados into slices or chunks; shred or chiffonade the basil and let it sit in the oil for 5 or 10 minutes.

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Assemble the components on a salad plate and drizzle-spread the basil-oil mixture over them, using a fork to help distribute the basil.  Season with salt and pepper, VOILA!

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3.  Gabriel’s Guacamole. Once while returning, exhausted, from a day of skiing at Los Alamos, we stumbled into Gabriel’s restaurant north of Santa Fe, and encountered the best guacamole we’ve ever tasted.  And the beautiful thing was that our waiter prepared it right in front of us, at our table.  I couldn’t help but remember the EIGHT components, that he added according to our specifications:

Guacamole2_optgreen onions
garlic
lemon juice
cilantro
serrano peppers
salt
tomatoes
avocados

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It’s a little time consuming to prepare all the ingredients, but worth the effort.  Note that I’ve pressed a garlic clove into a couple of tablespoons of  olive oil: use just the oil for a milder garlic flavor, or throw it all in for garlic lovers.  We also discovered, on a day when the avocados ran short, that the other components together make an outstanding fresh salsa!

now for the fun part….

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