June Feasts
It's been a good month for creating yumminess in my kitchen. When the weather warms my urge to be in the kitchen, windows thrown open to let the fresh air in, cooking seasonal goodies and sipping chilled wine, is overpowering.
The weather has been mostly fantastic, with warm sunny days stretching into perfectly cooled evenings. Sunsets in my backyard are "pretty dope"! (I quote a friend here who uses this phrase often and it makes me laugh every time).
And though I fear bats more than a zombie apocalypse, they seem to be doing a fine job protecting my backyard from mosquito infestation, so dining al fresco isn't out of the question.
I've made a lot of tasty dinners over the past couple of weeks and I want to share some of them with you. I'm notoriously bad about keeping track of measurements and the like to create an actual recipe but I have a couple and I will include them.
A few weeks ago I made a White Gazpacho with shrimp, recipe below. I've never made white gazpacho, I generally prefer my gazpacho to be of the red variety but I thought I'd try something different, especially considering that tomatoes are not in season just yet. It turned out good, though I think I still prefer my standard tomato based gazpacho, but this was an excellent pairing with the wine I had on hand. The Clos del Pinell is 100% White Grenache from Spain. (See a theme here? Spanish wine, Spanish soup). The nose is clean, much like the gazpacho, and reminds me of a cool ocean breeze with notes of white-fleshed fruits. It's easy drinking with flavors of floral peach and lime.
I often have spontaneous dinners, which just means I haven't decided what to make and then boom it's 7:30, I'm starving and I have nothing but a few odds and ends from previous meals that need to unite somehow. Enter the frittata, like pizza or pasta, it makes a perfect foil for repurposing leftovers. Below is such an example, frittata with grilled asparagus, grilled ramps and mozzarella with a quick spring green salad and baguette with smoked tomato butter. The majority of those items starred in a grand dinner party I had had on the previous weekend. Paired with an ice cold glass of French Rosé it made for a lovely mid-week dinner.
Another mid-week meal came together simply enough. I repurposed some chilled pea soup and made it a sauce for a grilled chicken breast and served it with a steamed artichoke and melted butter. Not a heavy meal which means there was plenty of room for ice cream cookie sandwiches for dessert.
To satisfy my husbands craving for meat and potatoes, I grilled some steaks, seasoned simply with salt and pepper and topped with some melty blue cheese, and served them with some steamed broccoli and some fried baked potatoes. Yes, fried baked potatoes. Bake a potato, cut it into wedges, fry in oil until golden and ultra crisp. I happened to have a few leftover canned artichoke hearts that I thought ought not go to waste so they were quickly dredged in seasoned flour and dropped into the oil too. Hey, if you've got hot oil you might as well use it. This I paired with a robust, fruity Zinfandel from Neyers Vineyards. This was certainly a meal that my husband was especially fond of.
White Gazpacho with Shrimp:
(Recipe adapted from Food & Wine magazine)
6 slices white sandwich bread, crusts discarded, bread torn into pieces
1 cup whole blanched almonds, chopped
3/4 cup seedless green grapes, a few halved and set aside for garnish.
1/2 medium European cucumber—peeled, seeded and chopped
1 garlic clove, smashed
2 1/2 cups cold water
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
Salt
Cayenne pepper
1/2 pound shelled and deveined medium shrimp
Quick pickled red onion for garnish *See note
1. Fill a large bowl with ice and water. In another bowl, combine the bread, almonds, grapes, cucumber and garlic with the water, oil and vinegar. Working in batches, puree the mixture in a blender, then strain through a fine sieve into a large bowl set in the ice bath. Stir the soup until chilled; season with salt and cayenne. Reserve the ice bath.
2. In a medium saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the shrimp until opaque, about 2 minutes. Drain and set in the ice bath until chilled. Drain well, pat dry and cut into halves.
3. Ladle the soup into chilled bowls. Garnish with the shrimp and some grape halves.
*So this is a prime of example of me not having a recipe for something I do often, pickle red onion. So here's Anne Burrell's recipe....which is the basic way to do it.
To make the Pickled Onions: In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup cold water, 2 tablespoons kosher salt, 1 tablespoon sugar and 2 to 3 really good shots hot sauce (optional) toss in 1 red onion, sliced into very thin rings and let sit for at least one hour.
The weather has been mostly fantastic, with warm sunny days stretching into perfectly cooled evenings. Sunsets in my backyard are "pretty dope"! (I quote a friend here who uses this phrase often and it makes me laugh every time).
And though I fear bats more than a zombie apocalypse, they seem to be doing a fine job protecting my backyard from mosquito infestation, so dining al fresco isn't out of the question.
I've made a lot of tasty dinners over the past couple of weeks and I want to share some of them with you. I'm notoriously bad about keeping track of measurements and the like to create an actual recipe but I have a couple and I will include them.
A few weeks ago I made a White Gazpacho with shrimp, recipe below. I've never made white gazpacho, I generally prefer my gazpacho to be of the red variety but I thought I'd try something different, especially considering that tomatoes are not in season just yet. It turned out good, though I think I still prefer my standard tomato based gazpacho, but this was an excellent pairing with the wine I had on hand. The Clos del Pinell is 100% White Grenache from Spain. (See a theme here? Spanish wine, Spanish soup). The nose is clean, much like the gazpacho, and reminds me of a cool ocean breeze with notes of white-fleshed fruits. It's easy drinking with flavors of floral peach and lime.
I often have spontaneous dinners, which just means I haven't decided what to make and then boom it's 7:30, I'm starving and I have nothing but a few odds and ends from previous meals that need to unite somehow. Enter the frittata, like pizza or pasta, it makes a perfect foil for repurposing leftovers. Below is such an example, frittata with grilled asparagus, grilled ramps and mozzarella with a quick spring green salad and baguette with smoked tomato butter. The majority of those items starred in a grand dinner party I had had on the previous weekend. Paired with an ice cold glass of French Rosé it made for a lovely mid-week dinner.
Another mid-week meal came together simply enough. I repurposed some chilled pea soup and made it a sauce for a grilled chicken breast and served it with a steamed artichoke and melted butter. Not a heavy meal which means there was plenty of room for ice cream cookie sandwiches for dessert.
To satisfy my husbands craving for meat and potatoes, I grilled some steaks, seasoned simply with salt and pepper and topped with some melty blue cheese, and served them with some steamed broccoli and some fried baked potatoes. Yes, fried baked potatoes. Bake a potato, cut it into wedges, fry in oil until golden and ultra crisp. I happened to have a few leftover canned artichoke hearts that I thought ought not go to waste so they were quickly dredged in seasoned flour and dropped into the oil too. Hey, if you've got hot oil you might as well use it. This I paired with a robust, fruity Zinfandel from Neyers Vineyards. This was certainly a meal that my husband was especially fond of.
White Gazpacho with Shrimp:
(Recipe adapted from Food & Wine magazine)
6 slices white sandwich bread, crusts discarded, bread torn into pieces
1 cup whole blanched almonds, chopped
3/4 cup seedless green grapes, a few halved and set aside for garnish.
1/2 medium European cucumber—peeled, seeded and chopped
1 garlic clove, smashed
2 1/2 cups cold water
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
Salt
Cayenne pepper
1/2 pound shelled and deveined medium shrimp
Quick pickled red onion for garnish *See note
1. Fill a large bowl with ice and water. In another bowl, combine the bread, almonds, grapes, cucumber and garlic with the water, oil and vinegar. Working in batches, puree the mixture in a blender, then strain through a fine sieve into a large bowl set in the ice bath. Stir the soup until chilled; season with salt and cayenne. Reserve the ice bath.
2. In a medium saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the shrimp until opaque, about 2 minutes. Drain and set in the ice bath until chilled. Drain well, pat dry and cut into halves.
3. Ladle the soup into chilled bowls. Garnish with the shrimp and some grape halves.
*So this is a prime of example of me not having a recipe for something I do often, pickle red onion. So here's Anne Burrell's recipe....which is the basic way to do it.
To make the Pickled Onions: In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup cold water, 2 tablespoons kosher salt, 1 tablespoon sugar and 2 to 3 really good shots hot sauce (optional) toss in 1 red onion, sliced into very thin rings and let sit for at least one hour.
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