Last Night’s Dinner

We picked up some of our favorite hot Italian sausage (from Flying Pigs) and a big bunch of broccoli rabe earlier in the week hoping to use them to top our first grilled pizzas of the season, but once again Mother Nature foiled our plans. With sporadic storms still coming through the area, we just didn’t want to risk ruining our meal, so we decided to go with Plan B: Orrecchiette with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe, a perennial favorite.

I stuck to my basic recipe and method, which I’ve written up here before, but since Mike had brought home two big bunches of Rocambole garlic – with the scapes still attached! – from Keith’s Farm on Wednesday, I decided to use that in place of the garlic scapes I used last time. (I was really eager to play with this particular garlic anyway – I’m in the middle of It’s a Long Road to a Tomato and had just finished the chapter about how their garlic came to be. It’s a delightful story.)

The only other differences in last night’s version of this dish were the substitution of white vermouth for white wine, as well as the addition of a couple of pinches of red chile flakes and a cup or so of chopped fresh tomato I had left over from Wednesday’s lunch, both of which I added at the same time as the garlic. The tomato cooked all the way down into the sauce and left a nice hint of sweetness, and the chile flakes gave it a nice little kick.

Neither the meal nor the day turned out quite as I had hoped – Mother Nature interfered in a number of ways, beginning with the ill-timed disappearance of our resident mama cat and her consort (just before we were scheduled to take them in to be fixed), and culminating with the strange weather that blew through last evening. We wanted to grill, we kept checking the skies and the satellite maps hoping we could squeeze it in between bursts of rain and lightning, and when what we thought was a good opportunity came, we jumped. The chimney starter lit, coals glowing red, and wouldn’t you know it, we had to scurry back indoors as lightning flashed overhead. Maddening. But we had committed. Our fire burned strong through the burst of rain and when the clouds passed, we rushed to get our food on the grill.

We have been stockpiling Copper River salmon in our freezer so we can stretch out its short season, and I had thawed two filets for our meal. I seasoned them with nothing more than a healthy amount of kosher salt and some olive oil, and Mike grilled them skin side down over indirect heat for about 8-10 minutes.

I’ve been eager to try this recipe for grilled fava bean pods, so when Mike was able to get some on Monday, I earmarked them for this meal. We placed the whole fava bean pods on the hot side of the grill until they were charred, then I tossed them with olive oil, chile flakes and kosher salt. Somehow we were out of lemons (this never happens at our place), so I added a little bit of sherry vinegar for acidity, and I used chopped spring onion tops instead of the scallions called for in the original recipe. I tossed some baby wild arugula with a mustard vinaigrette to go along with the salmon and favas.

I was mostly pleased with this meal, though I do think we left the favas on the grill a couple of minutes too long. Some of the pods got really black and weren’t particularly tasty, though the ones that were less charred and still showed a bit of green were quite nice. The beans themselves were delicious, creamy with a smoky, nutty flavor. When we do this again, I think we’ll still char the whole pods, but then I’ll pop the beans out of the pods and toss them with the vinaigrette – it’s a nice combination of flavors.

A quick dinner on a steamy night, prepared by my darling husband (who, by the way, shows up in the July/August issue of Imbibe - congratulations, love!). The green beans in the veg mix are the first batch from our little patch of Brooklyn garden, and man, were they good. There’s nothing like growing your own.

When my dad had a garden back home in Detroit, he grew zucchini and made a wonderful stuffed version with cheese, Italian sausage and lots of garlic and onions. Mike brought home a lovely avocado squash a few days ago, and its size and shape made my thoughts turn immediately to stuffed squash.

I’m always looking for good meatless entrees which don’t rely so heavily on pastas or other starches, so I thought I would stuff the squash with a mixture of chopped sauteed veggies and a bit of cheese to bind it all together. What I ended up with was hearty but light, and so tasty it is definitely going into regular rotation while summer squashes are in season.

Stuffed Summer Squash

One or two large summer squash, halved lengthwise and cored
One bunch spinach leaves (probably 4-6 cups raw)
1 cup chopped spring onion
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Red chile flakes
1 egg
1 tsp. each dried marjoram and basil
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
4 oz. sheep’s milk ricotta (can substitute well-drained regular ricotta)
1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, plus additional to top squash

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Season the squash halves with salt and rub with a little bit of olive oil. Place cut side up in a baking dish and set aside.

Warm a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a sauté pan. Add the chopped onion and a pinch of salt and cook until beginning to soften. Add a couple of pinches of chile flakes, cook until fragrant, and then add the spinach and another pinch of salt. Toss well, cover the pan, and allow to cook until wilted. Remove the spinach and onions from the pan, squeezing out any excess liquid. Set the mixture on a cutting board and coarsely chop.

In a bowl, beat one egg with the dried marjoram and basil. Add the spinach mixture and toss. Add the breadcrumbs, ricotta and Pecorino and toss until well combined. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Stuff mixture into squash halves, top with additional grated Pecorino, and bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes.

This was quite the fun- (and food-) filled weekend for us. We kicked things off with some fun cocktails made with St. Germain elderflower liqueur, and later dined on smoky, crispy soft-shell crab “BLTs” – I sandwiched the crabs between thick-slices of pancetta, and we grilled them over high heat until they were crispy all over. I spread slices of Bread Alone’s wholegrain sourdough with a garlic scape mayo, laid slices of ripe tomato on top, added the pancetta-wrapped crabs and finished each sandwich with a handful of wild arugula to add a nice peppery bite.

We picked up some grass-fed flatiron steaks from Elk Trails while on our regular Saturday food safari, which Mike grilled up for dinner that night. I made a crunchy chopped salad with red butter lettuce, chopped heirloom tomatoes and blue cheese vinaigrette, and I topped our steaks with a pile of onion rings – thin slices of red onion which I had salted and marinated with a tablespoon or two of Sriracha, then tossed lightly with flour and fried briefly until crisp.

I also spent some time on Saturday assembling items for a picnic lunch – we had plans to head to Central Park on Sunday to catch a Summerfest show and would need to get there early, so I wanted our stuff to be ready to go. Mike brought home a loaf of crusty sourdough which I sliced lengthwise and hollowed out. Rather than layering the ingredients as is traditional, I mashed few anchovies into a basic sherry-Dijon vinaigrette and tossed my chopped olives, tomatoes, and capers with that. I mounded it into the hollowed-out bottom bread shell, layered roasted red peppers and arugula on top, added the top of the bread and wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap and foil.

I also put together a pesto of garlic scapes, parsley and chervil to toss with rotini pasta and halved cherry tomatoes. When Sunday came, we grabbed our picnic blanket, packed up our sandwich and pasta salad as well as a lovely little wheel of Capriola cheese from Saxelby Cheesemongers, and set out for the park. The music was great, the food was tasty, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous – what a perfect way to wind down the first weekend of summer.

I was absolutely delighted to get Mike’s email yesterday morning detailing his Greenmarket haul: “CHERVIL, cherry tomatoes, rainbow trout, garlic scapes, snap peas, shell peas” it read, and I knew immediately what I wanted to do with the bulk of it. I was home from work yesterday and had spent some time in the afternoon cleaning and blanching the peas and favas we had left over from Monday’s shopping, so I was already halfway there.

My thought was that I would slice up some baby fennel bulbs we had in the fridge and sauté them with some of the garlic scapes Mike brought home, and then add a splash of white vermouth, some lemon juice, a pinch of salt and the peas and favas. I’d stuff some chervil inside each of the trout, and chop a bit more of the chervil up along with tarragon, chives and parsley from our garden to finish the veggies.

Mike grilled the trout over indirect heat for about 5 minutes per side, and the veggies took just a few minutes to sauté. I stirred in the fines herbes off the heat just before I plated the veggies up, and then placed a whole trout on top. The rich flavor of the trout was a lovely match for the tender, aromatic veggie/herb blend.

A note about the trout: We get our trout from Max Creek Hatchery at the Union Square Greenmarket, and when Mike was there Wednesday morning, Dave Harris, the owner, told him that the only fresh trout he had available was his farmed rainbow trout because he had lost 600 brook trout to mink this week. This is obviously a big dent in his livelihood, so if you’re a fan of trout or would like to give it a try, please go see Dave at the Greenmarket next Wednesday and buy some of his excellent fresh or smoked trout.

I’ve been spending a bit of time each week preserving our favorite late spring/early summer produce by cleaning, blanching and freezing things in small batches, so we have been trying hard to make space in our freezer by using up many of our stockpiled proteins. During a recent freezer inventory, I discovered a bag of cubed pork shoulder left over from the piece Mike bought for his last batch of chili. Since the pork was already cut into nice big chunks, I thought it would be fun to season them with a smoky rub, skewer and grill them, and serve them in warm corn tortillas - pork tacos influenced by the ones we get at Matamoros Puebla in Williamsburg.

The cilantro in our garden had gotten so tall that it was beginning to tip over, so I also decided to make my first batch of salsa of the season. While the tomatoes around here aren’t quite good enough yet for a fresh salsa, they work just fine in this version, where the main ingredients are charred over hardwood before being blended to a chunky puree.

To season the pork, I combined a half teaspoon each of garlic powder, onion powder, ground coriander, chipotle powder, smoked paprika and dried oregano, along with one teaspoon each of ground cumin, kosher salt, and adobo from a can of chipotles. I added the pork (about 1 lb.) to the spice mixture and tossed it to coat all sides well, and then let it sit in the fridge until we were ready to grill it.

For the salsa, we placed two whole poblano peppers, four medium-to-large whole plum tomatoes and one red onion (peeled and halved but with the stem end still attached so it wouldn’t fall apart) directly over the hot side of the grill. I also peeled two large garlic cloves, drizzled them with a teaspoon of olive oil, wrapped them up in a small piece of foil and placed that on the grill with the other veggies. We cooked these for about 10-12 minutes total, turning them occasionally. When the skins of the peppers were blackened on all sides and the tomatoes were charred and beginning to split, we pulled them off the grill and I took them inside to cool for a few minutes.

I placed the onion and garlic into a mini chopper and pulsed it until it was chopped pretty fine, then set it aside. I quartered the tomatoes and added them, along with their juices, to my blender. When the poblanos were cool enough to handle, I peeled most of the blackened skin off of them, removed the seeds and stems, and tossed those into the blender as well. The chopped onion/garlic mixture went in next, along with the juice of a lime, a healthy pinch of kosher salt, and a splash of sherry vinegar. I pureed this for just a minute or two, so that it would be relatively smooth but still have some texture, and then I poured the salsa into a bowl and stirred in a handful of chopped cilantro.

While I finished mixing up the salsa, Mike skewered the pork and grilled it (about seven minutes a side, he tells me). He also warmed a stack of tortillas, sprinkled with a little bit of water and wrapped in foil, over indirect heat for a few minutes until they were soft and pliable.

When the pork was done, we pulled it off of the skewers and placed chunks onto our warm tortillas. We topped each taco with a little bit of grated cotija cheese, chunks of radish, and a spoonful of the charred salsa. On the side, I served cumin-spiked black beans, a couple of wedges of lime to squeeze over our tacos, and cold Mexican beer.

The pork and salsa definitely had some heat, but the smoky flavors imparted by the grill, plus the freshness of lime and crunch or radish mellowed them out just a bit. As spring winds down and we head into summer, this was a nice taste of things to come.

Fresh fava beans are yet another item I have come to love and eagerly anticipate each year. As soon as I heard that they were showing up at the Greenmarket, I had Mike keep an eye out for them, and I was thrilled when he told me he snagged some.

Favas can be a little labor-intensive, as they have to be removed from their spongy pods and the individual beans peeled, but as with shelling peas, I don’t mind the work, and find the reward well worth it. Most people blanch the shelled favas before peeling off the skins, but I usually just peel them before cooking.

I ended up with about two cups of favas, and then came the hardest part – trying to decide what to do with them. I had a bunch of ideas in mind, and had looked at several recipes throughout the course of the day for inspiration, but I was still torn. I finally narrowed it down to two preparations, and Mike made the final decision – a light pasta dish with blanched favas, arugula and lemon.

The pasta we used was a delicious golden beet and goat cheese ravioli from Casa Tua in the Essex Street Market. I decided to make an arugula and lemon puree as a base for the pasta in addition to the fresh arugula I would add on top; a couple of garlic cloves, some kosher salt, the juice and zest of a lemon, and a big handful of young wild arugula leaves went into the mini chopper, I pureed the mixture until smooth, and then blended in about 1/4 cup of olive oil to finish it.

I spooned the arugula and lemon puree onto our plates, reserving a spoonful or so to toss the blanched favas with. I placed the ravioli on top of the puree, spooned the favas on top of that, and added a small handful of arugula leaves to each plate. A few crumbled walnuts, a little more lemon zest, and some thick shards of Pecorino Romano cheese were the finishing touches.

This turned out even better than I had hoped. The colors of the beet pasta and the favas and arugula were gorgeous on the plate, the dish was light but very satisfying, and the flavors complemented each other beautifully. This is definitely one to keep in our repertoire for fava bean season.

As my husband points out, we’ve had quite a bit of excitement over the last several days. As a consequence, we didn’t do our usual weekend “food safari,” so our meals this weekend were sort of thrown together on the fly.

On Thursday night, I stuffed a whole black sea bass with sliced lemons and baby fennel, and we grilled it along with skewers of sweet, juicy cherry tomatoes. Mike brought home gorgeous shoulder chops from Tamarack on Friday, which we grilled and ate with my mustard and dill spiked potato salad and grilled asparagus. The Rioja was a stellar recommendation from Troy at Vine Wine.

On Saturday, after a day spent in the hot sun extracting the kittens from the neighboring yard, we were both pretty wiped out, so I decided to follow the lead of some fellow food bloggers and make a garlic scape pesto. It was delicious and easy, and something I look forward to doing again while scapes are in season.

We adopted the last two kittens out late Sunday afternoon then headed back out to our yard to spend some quality time with the mama cat. I had forgotten to take anything out to thaw for dinner, but we were able to waterbath some Flying Pigs sausages (Mike’s Grandma’s Hot Italian), and we threw those on the grill with a red bell pepper. I sauteed a bunch of red chard and tossed some cannellini beans with minced green garlic, chopped fresh parsley, and lemon vinaigrette to go alongside - a tasty meal but not terribly photogenic.

Now that things have settled down a bit, I’m looking forward to getting back in the kitchen and taking advantage of all of the delicious things the season brings.

It has really been one of those weeks. We’ve had lots of stressful stuff going on, not the least of which is trying to find homes for our resident kittens, and the weather this week has been completely out of whack. The stress and weather have made my health problems flare up, and unfortunately, the meals I had sketched out for the week after our usual weekend food safari have ended up getting postponed or scrapped altogether.

Our intention was to skewer these dayboat scallops on some rosemary branches and grill them for dinner on Tuesday night. If you were in the New York Metro area on Tuesday night, you probably know why that didn’t happen - buckets and buckets of rain, not to mention temperatures more suited to mid-April than mid-June. It was great for the garden, not so great for my joints, and definitely not the kind of weather you want to linger outside in.

Nothing we had on hand was inspiring me, and I was bone tired anyway, so I tossed a salad, plated up some cured meats, cheeses and olives, and we had an indoor picnic. This is a fine meal in a pinch, but all of the good fresh ingredients we had in the fridge were haunting me. I didn’t want them to go bad before we could use them.

Tuesday was still chilly and overcast, but I was determined to do something with those scallops. I decided that if we couldn’t grill them, I’d sear them indoors with herbs and a little tomato butter. The chill in the air proved to be a plus as far as our side dish went. I sliced up some baby fennel and greenhouse-grown red bell peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, and a variety of tomatoes and layered them in a lightly-oiled baking dish, seasoning each layer with a generous sprinkling of salt and Herbes de Provence. I splashed about a quarter cup of white vermouth over the veggies, sprinkled some dry breadcrumbs on top, and added a light drizzle of olive oil, then baked the veggies in a 400 degree oven for about half an hour.

I was incredibly pleased with the texture of the vegetables - they were soft but not mushy, and their flavors were sweet and concentrated, accented nicely by the aromatic herbs. As well as we liked this as a side dish, I think it would also make for a great meatless entree.