More Zucchini

Well I guess since zucchini is green it falls into the category of greens, and farmer John did say there would be lots of greens in our Ranui CSA boxes. This is the third week straight with zucchini.

What to do?  At least it’s the Roman varietal zucchini in our boxes; Costata Romanesca does have more substance and real flavor than the brunt—of–jokes classic green zucchini .

Zucchini Ideas:

Grill zucchini simply, with olive oil and salt and pepper, which is what we did last week.

Or bake up some Chocolate Zucchini muffins—a variation from the Chocolate Zucchini Bread in my Chocolate Snowball cookbook.

Go to fellow blogger Gwen’s  terrific recipe for stuffed zucchini—and read her funny comments about zucchini.

This post from another blogger has ideas for the top 10 best things to do with too much zucchini. As I read Cheryl’s ideas I was giggling out loud—“lol” in internet vernacular.

This summer I’ve been writing monthly for Catalyst Magazine here in Utah. Go to Catalyst’s July issue to learn fun zucchini facts and trivia as well as my advice to pick and enjoy the blossoms before they turn into the green phallic fruit.

Here is a variation on the recipe for Squash Blossom Soup from that same Catalyst article. Enjoy this soup hot or cold.

For efficiency, use an immersion blender to puree the soup, it stands right in the soup pot and eliminates the muss and fuss of hot soup transfer and exploding out of the blender. An immersion blender is a purchase worth every penny.

Cotija cheese is a Hispanic-style cheese–somewhat salty and doesn’t really melt–you may substitute any cheese you want or skip it altogether.

Squash Blossoms on the Grill

Zucchini Soup

1 tablespoon canola or grapeseed oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

About 5 cups grated zucchini

3 cups veggie broth

1/4 cup cilantro, basil or parsley leaves

Dash cayenne pepper

Real Salt or sea salt

1/2 cup crumbled cotija cheese, optional

1/4 cup lightly toasted pumpkin seeds, optional

Avocado slices, optional

In a large saucepan, heat the oil on medium heat and sauté the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and the broth, cilantro and cayenne. Cover and simmer 10 minutes, until the zucchini is soft. Puree in a blender, or with an immersion blender.

Season to taste with sea salt and more cayenne.

Serve garnished with garnishes of crumbled cheese, pumpkin seeds or slices of avocado, if you wish.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

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Rosemary Oatmeal Scones

This week’s CSA box

This recipe comes from my cookbook, Chocolate Snowball: and Other Fabulous Pastries from Deer Valley Bakery. Fresh rosemary is a must here; make these only when you have fresh rosemary on hand—like we Ranui Gardens CSA members this week. If you are questioning pastry with rosemary, you will find its strong, pungent, lemony, slightly piney and distinct flavor a delightful surprise. After all, rosemary is a member of the mint family, and we incorporate mint in desserts all the time.

Trivia: ancient Greeks and Romans used the dark grey-green needles as a culinary and medicinal herb and considered rosemary a symbol of fidelity, friendship and remembrance; brides wore garlands of it in their hair, as did Greek students during their examinations.

To impart the rosemary’s fragrance, strip the needles from the stem, chop them very finely, and steep in hot cream. When the rosemary infusion is cold, mix it into the dry ingredients. At Deer Valley we form the dough in rounds and freeze until needed.

Rosemary Oatmeal Scones

1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary

3/4 cup half-and-half cream

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut in 1/2-inch pieces

3/4 cup golden raisins

2 tablespoons milk or heavy cream, optional

1 tablespoon crystal or granulated sugar

Heat the rosemary and the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until very hot but not boiling. Refrigerate until the cream is cold, about 30 minutes.

Sift the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder into a large bowl, and stir in the rolled oats. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients, using your fingers or a pastry blender, until the mixture resembles coarse meal. With a fork, stir in the cold rosemary cream and the raisins, and mix until the dough comes together. It will be quite sticky. To form this soft dough into a round, line a 9-inch round cake pan with plastic wrap. Put the dough into the pan and fold the plastic wrap over to completely cover the dough. Form the dough into an even round disk, about 1/2 inch thick, by pushing the dough around under the plastic wrap. Refrigerate or freeze about 1 hour, or until cold enough to cut.

Preheat oven to 375˚. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, or coat lightly with butter or cooking spray. Cut the scone dough round into 10 pie-shaped wedges. Arrange on the prepared pan at least 1 inch apart. Brush with milk or cream, if using, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until the bottoms are light golden brown and your finger doesn’t leave an indentation when you touch the tops.

Makes 10 scones.

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Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Muffintalk is when you get together with foodie friends and your conversation is all about food, its flavors, types, ingredients, you name it, much to the boredom of someone who gravitates to conversation over sports, or motorcycles, or the book they are reading or what happened last week on Survivor. This blog is mostly about vegetarian cookery and recipes using your CSA veggies, but every once in a year I feel the need to post a muffin recipe. After all, a blog named muffintalk should include some literal muffin talk, especially when vegetables are one of the ingredients.

The actor Jim Davis who played Jock Ewing on Dallas was once quoted, “Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie.” That’s Mr. Davis’ idea, not mine, though you can find recipes for all three in my cookbook, Chocolate Snowball. These muffins appear in Chocolate Snowball as Chocolate Zucchini Bread. As with most breakfast quick breads, you can bake the batter in muffin tins instead of a loaf pan.

1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese

1 1/3 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup canola oil

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups grated zucchini

3/4 cup plus 1/4 cup sliced almonds

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper cupcake liners, or coat the tins with melted butter and dust lightly with flour, or spray generously with cooking spray.

With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix in the oil and vanilla extract.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to the cream cheese mixture, blending well. Mix in the zucchini, 3/4 cup of the almonds and the chocolate morsels. Divide batter among the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup of almonds. Bake 25 to 35 minutes, until the tops of the muffins spring back when touched with a finger or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool about 5 minutes, then remove from the tins.

Makes 12 muffins.

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Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

Chocolate Snowball, my cookbook of pastries from Deer Valley is now out in paperback and promoting and signings filled my December days off. Here is a link to my Seattle appearance in December. My two younger sisters, a niece and a nephew, a cousin and an aunt  all make their homes in Seattle and came as my fan club in the audience. The Lemon Thumbprint cookies were a hit. And as you see in the video–you can cleverly fill the “thumbprint” depressions with jelly or jam as well.

Deer Valley Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted Darigold butter, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup walnuts, toasted and finely ground

Lemon Curd (use the recipe in Chocolate Snowball, or your own.)

Beat butter and sugar in mixer until light and creamy; add vanilla and beat to blend. Sift flour, cornstarch and salt into separate mixing bowl; add walnuts.

Add flour/nut mixture to butter mixture and mix just until blended.  Refrigerate dough at least 1 hour. Preheat oven to 325°F. Roll dough into 1-inch balls (or scoop with a #100 ice cream scoop) and place on lightly greased (or spray with non-stick cooking spray, or line with parchment paper) cookie sheets one inch apart. Press down center of each ball with thumb. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from oven; place on wire rack to cool.  Fill hole with Lemon Curd once cookies are cool.

Makes about 66 Thumbprint cookies.

A full time job living in the land of excellent skiing doesn’t leave much time for blogging. Wouldn’t you rather go skiing than sit at the computer? It’s not that I haven’t been cooking–there is plenty yummy in our house. Just tonight I made “creamless” cauliflower soup, gingery spiced rice and mung bean stuffed acorn squash and for dessert–a feathery olive oil cake withe sliced vanilla pears. It seems I’d rather cook it that take photo and tell you all about it. A fellow CSA member and neighbor remembers my Minestrone soup and wants the recipe–but have not prioritized to post it.  I do think of you, my readers, and my brain dreams of ideas to post. Currently in my car, as I travel from work to home and back, I am listening to The Omnivore’s Dilemma–yes I am finally reading this important book thanks to recorded books on CD. Did you know that xanthan gum, used in many of our favorite store-bought salad dressings, is likely made from corn? So much to blog–and so little time.

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Tortilla Soup

I love the hearty warming qualities of tortilla soup this time of year. Serve it for a casual party meal, with a tossed salad of lettuce, jicama, sliced oranges and grapefruit, dressed with cumin-spiced vinaigrette. For dessert serve a tangy lime tart. If you own my Chocolate Snowball Cookbook make the Margarita Tart.

Let your guests decide which and how much of the additions they want (or don’t want) from the assortment of options you arrange on the table. Because I follow a plant-based diet, I make the soup with vegetable broth: my version uses canned tomatoes and chopped chipotle chiles to season the broth. To gratify meat eaters, shredded chicken can be one of the garnish choices.

The broth:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
6 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels, optional
2 to 3 teaspoons chipotles en adobo
Sea salt
The garnishes:
6 corn tortillas, cut in strips about 3/8-inch thick
1/4 cup peanut or canola oil
1/4 pound cheese, cut in cubes or strips (queso fresco, sharp white Cheddar or jalapeno jack)
1 large avocado, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1 cup shredded poached chicken (optional)
For the soup:
Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan. Sauté the onions about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook and stir until the onions are soft and translucent, a few more minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and cook about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Then add the broth and the corn, if using. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Chop the chipotles and add them. Season to taste with sea salt.
For the garnishes:
In a large skillet heat the peanut oil over medium heat. Fry the tortilla strips until they are just beginning to get crisp. Drain on paper towels. Put the tortilla strips, the cheese, avocado, cilantro and chicken in separate bowls.
To serve:
Put some cheese and tortilla strips, a couple of avocado slices and the cilantro in each person’s bowl. Add the chicken, if desired. Ladle the hot tomato broth over the garnishes.
Makes about 6 servings.

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Pumpkin Muffins

This recipe is really the Pumpkin Pecan Bread from my Chocolate Snowball cookbook, varied and baked in a different shape. Did you know that most sweet bread recipes can be made into muffins?

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

2 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups (15-ounce can) pumpkin puree

1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels (optional)

3/4 cup plus 1/4 cup chopped pecans (the second amount is for garnish)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper cupcake liners, or coat the muffin tins with melted butter and dust with flour, or spray generously with cooking spray. To make sure muffins release with ease, coat the top of the pan as well as the inside of the cups when you grease the tins.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in a large bowl. In a second bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, vinegar, vanilla and pumpkin puree.

Using a wire whisk, mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir in the rolled oats and 3/4 cup of the pecans. Divide into the prepared muffin tins. Sprinkle with the remaining chopped pecans. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until the tops of the muffins spring back when touched with a finger. Cool for about 5 minutes, then remove from the pan.

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