Southwestern Corn Chowder

It's rather surprising how much really great produce we still have coming in from the garden and Farmer's market. Giant piles of tomatoes sit ripening on my counter top, and peppers keep sprouting up on the plants in our raised bed. Scott brought home a giant bag of sweet corn this weekend and decided to combine some of our own garden vegetables to make this Southwestern style chowder. Starting with a few slices of leftover bacon, he diced them up and rendered the fat from them in a large dutch oven.  He removed the bacon bits and sauteed some sweet red onions in the bacon drippings.  Then he diced up three sweet red peppers, and one anaheim chile with seeds and pith removed, and added them to the onions in the pot, along with corn off the cob from 5-6 medium sized cobs. He sprinkled a little flour over the sauteed vegetables to create a roux, and mixed them until they were lightly coated. He then covered the vegetables with chicken stock and simmered the soup for about 20 minutes until the corn was tender.  While the soup was cooking, he blanched 3-4 medium tomatoes and removed the skin and seeds,  mashing them lightly before adding them into the sauteed vegetables mixture.   Finally, Scott chopped  up about 1/2 cup of fresh de-stemmed cilantro and added it to the soup just before turning off the heat.  Prior to serving this zesty Fall soup, mix in a little light cream or half and half and season to taste with fresh cracked pepper and salt. Great with a warm ciabatta roll and a mixed greens salad! Delicioso!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Ironically the inspiration for this meal comes from the collection of random hamburger buns piling up in my freezer.  Hamburger buns always seem to come packaged in quantities we can't use.  By the time we want hamburgers again, the frozen hockey puck buns seem unappealing and consequently small quantities of unused buns continue to stockpile.  Scott started with the buns by thawing them out and cutting them into large cubes which he spread on a cookie sheet and toasted in the oven to dry them out.  While toasting, he sauteed some garden onions and fresh chopped celery in some butter on the stove.  After they softened, he added an assortment of herbs from the garden: sage, rosemary, thyme and a little salt and cracked black pepper. In a large bowl, he combined the sauteed herb mixture and bread cubes with chicken stock and one egg to bind the stuffing together.  All ingredients got mixed together thoroughly and placed in the refrigerator to wait for the bird. For this recipe, Scott used a four pound chicken.  This gave us a great dinner, one round of leftovers and enough remainders for a tasty chicken salad (recipe to follow).  Scott stuffed the chicken, then before he laid it in the roasting pan, he made a bed of coarsely chopped carrots and celery. The vegetables functioned as a raised bed for the chicken during the roasting process, keeping the chicken out of greasy drippings and contributing their flavours to what would eventually become the gravy.   Chicken goes into the oven at 450 for the first 30 minutes and then gets lowered to 375 for the rest of the cooking.  Our chicken took about 90 minutes, but you should check it with a meat thermometer to ensure the thickest part of the bird measures 170 degrees before removing it from the oven.

While the chicken roasted, Scott prepared some yellow new potatoes that he grew in his greenhouse.  When they were soft I riced them up and Scott added the standard milk, butter, salt and pepper until they were smooth and creamy.  We have an abundance of green beans already so he lightly blanched them first and then sauteed them briefly in a skillet with a little salt and butter.  Beans should never be overcooked, these were the colour of emeralds and still maintained their crispiness.  When the chicken was ready, Scott strained off the drippings into a small saucepan to make the gravy.  Adding a little more chicken stock and then thickening it with a bit of cornstarch mixed into water.  (Do this step conservatively, as you don't want to create a gravy with the consistency of glue).  The end result came out fantastic, and it was hard to believe that random hamburger buns could produce such an excellent stuffing.  Overall it was indeed, a winner winner chicken dinner!

Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplant Parmesan is one of my absolute favourite dishes that Scott prepares.  Actually, I don't think Scott much cares for eggplant, rather he makes it just for me.  To make this delicious low calorie dish, he started with two medium size eggplants.  We are growing eggplants in our garden this year, but they aren't close to ready, so these came from the Farmer's Market. Scott sliced up the eggplants at about 3/4 inch thick. Thicker than in the restaurant, they will take a little longer to bake, but stay firmer and taste better.  He sprinkled them with salt and let them "sweat" for a few minutes while he finely chopped up a melée of herbs from the garden (basil, oregano, thyme, chives).

Scott blended a little olive oil into the herbs as he mixed them together and pressed 1/2 of the herb mixture into both sides of the eggplant. Before setting  work to the eggplant he warmed a small amount of olive oil in a large skillet on the stove.  The assembly line requires 3 cereal bowls. Into bowl 1 goes flour, bowl 2 gets 1 egg, scrambled with a little milk, and into bowl 3 goes Panko bread crumbs, which are lighter and fluffier than regular breadcrumbs, and as a bonus generally healthier since they don't contain any artificial ingredients. Each slice of eggplant starts with a light coating of flour, then gets dipped into the scrambled egg and finally coated with Panko.  Scott seasoned the Panko with the other 1/2 of the herb mixture before he started to process the eggplant.

Once the slices have all been coated, they head into the skillet for a couple of minutes on each side until the coating is crispy and golden brown.  The eggplant will mostly cook in the oven, but this step is important to get a crispy crust and hold in the juices when it bakes. The eggplant slices then get laid into an ovenproof glass baking dish.  Slices should not stack on top of each other so choose a dish large enough to provide each slice ample room.  Scott covered the eggplant slices with two jars of our homemade spaghetti sauce. (Stay tuned for how to can your own spaghetti sauce in a couple of weeks when the tomato harvest rolls in) Any tomato sauce will work, but don't use the kind with meat, as it competes with the flavours of the eggplant.  The tomato sauce should completely cover the eggplant.  Lastly, he grated mozzarella cheese on top and finished the dish with some freshly grated parmesan.  The whole dish goes into a 375 oven for about 30 minutes. While eggplant parmesan is delicious all by itself, we enjoy it on top of pasta, you can use spaghetti, linguini or another long noodle.  Surprisingly, this dinner is fairly low calorie, as mozzarella is a low fat cheese, and the eggplant is cooked mostly in tomato sauce, rather than fried with lots of oil.  Easily one of my top 5 all-time dinner favourites.

Asian Kohlrabi Salad

It seemed the Kohlrabi became ready for harvest all at once this season.  After a slow growing start, the encouragement of longer days and warm sun took over, and Kohlrabi exploded right out of the ground.  Once a kohlrabi becomes ready for harvest, never delay as it quickly acquires the consistency of fire kindling  (very woody). Kohlrabi can be stored in the refrigerator if necessary for a couple of weeks, but like anything you put in the "crisper", the sooner it can be converted to dinner the better. Always leave the root on the Kohlrabi until you are ready to use it, as cutting it off accelerates the "woodification process". For this salad, Scott peeled and then sliced the kohlrabi into very thin sticks, (julienned?) He added some red onion, broccoli florettes and a little carrot to give the salad colour, you could easily substitute in a red or purple pepper, cauliflower or even some sugarsnap pea pods.  For the dressing he combined juice of half a lime, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, dried ginger, fresh garlic very finely chopped, Thai basil and a little white pepper. Cilantro could be used in this dressing, but the Thai basil made a nice option for those who find cilantro overwhelming, while still keeping the consistency with the Asian flavour.  Once the salad dressing was ready, he tossed everything together and mixed it well, to ensure the dressing coated all the kohlrabi.  This salad is best prepared one day in advance and refrigerated to allow the flavours to merge with the kohlrabi. For the brave at heart, drizzle a little Sriracha hot sauce across the top before serving.  This salad works well alongside grilled shrimp or chicken kebabs.

Breakfast Omelette

One of the advantages of working the Farmer's market is easy access to organic produce.  Scott always brings home the most interesting mix of ingredients from Harmony Valley Farms where he works.  The neighboring stands also give him merchandise at the end of the day, so we had this giant bag of organic oyster mushrooms, sheeps milk fresh feta cheese and some herbs from the raised bed garden to work with when he made breakfast today.  For anyone who has never seen an oyster mushroom up close, they are a work of art.  Oyster mushrooms remind me of coral reefs, as there are many fans of mushroom that extend from a single base.  They are delicate, slightly chewy mushroom, and are milder in flavour than a shitake.  Oyster mushrooms come in a wide range of colours, yellow, pink, white and a greyish tone.  All of them that I have tasted so far are delicious.
So, to make the breakfast omelette, Scott scrambled together two eggs and poured them into a lightly buttered sauté pan, then he added some oyster mushrooms, separated from the base, some chopped chives and fresh basil from the garden and some crumbled sheep's milk feta.  The end result was restaurant good, and very easy to make!

How it all began...

Scott is my boyfriend of nearly two years now.  We met at our neighbourhood dog park where we walked around endlessly in circles together for several months talking about food. I would mention an ingredient I hoped to prepare for my dinner, and Scott would tell me some incredible new approach of what to do with it.  Scott knows an awful lot about food: how to grow great food, where to buy great food and most importantly, how to make great food.  Our friendship began over a conversation about growing tips for how to seed great tomatoes in the middle of winter.  Two years (and unfortunately 10 lbs) later Scott and I eat together almost every night.
One of my close friends who shared a meal with Scott and I recently, suggested I start a blog, and Scott Cooks! was born.  Each meal presents a brand new culinary adventure, sometimes inspired by a theme, a particular ingredient in season or just whats left to work with in the refrigerator.  Every meal has something in common, they are all memorable and there are no recipes.  So, this blog marks my attempt to share my amazing dining experiences, and hopefully present great ideas for food, which might serve to inspire you, or your partner to try something new for dinner.

July 20, 2011

• GRILLED TURKEY BURGERS WITH ANAHEIM CHILES, BACON & GREENS.  
• MINI-FARFALLE PASTA SALAD

Scott planted 60 pepper plants this summer in the garden.  None of them are labeled, so right now its a complete surprise what kinds of peppers will dangle off each plant. We picked a couple Anaheim chiles this week and that became the centerpiece for tonight's dinner. Take a package of ground turkey, 85% lean works better than the 93% version on the grill and shape it into burger patties. Remove the seeds from the chiles and cut them up into small squares.  Sautée them in a skillet with a little butter or olive oil for a few minutes until they are tender but still green and firm.  Set them aside.  Fry up some bacon and break the strips in halves.  When you flip the burgers over for the first time, lay the chiles and bacon on top of the cooked side and cover with grated cheddar cheese.  Monterrey Jack would also work well, but be careful, Anaheim chiles can be quite spicy and you don't want to overdo it! When the burgers are cooked through, remove from grill and garnish with mixed salad greens or baby arugula and a little bit of mayonnaise. 

  

FOR THE PASTA SALAD: Most any raw vegetable would work well, but Scott made sure our salad had a rainbow of colour and variety of texture. Furthermore, he used things we had already growing in the raised bed out in the back yard.  Cook the Mini-Farfalle and then rinse thoroughly in cold water.  Chop up some fresh cauliflower, tomatoes (seeded first), fresh basil, chives, purple sweet peppers (you could substitute a red/green/yellow pepper) and a zucchini into bite size pieces and toss them into the past with a little vinegar, olive oil, cracked pepper and kosher salt.  Chill it for 30 minutes before serving.  This refreshing cold pasta salad makes a soothing contrast to your flaming mouth from the Anaheim Chile turkey burgers, believe me! 

People who live in very hot climates often eat a lot of spicy food.  The hot taste that lingers in your mouth and the sweat you produce from eating spicy food cools you off on hot days.  These turkey burgers were no exception, deliciously spicy, juicy and flavourful, they paired beautifully with the cold salad.