My favorite summer recipe (Zucchini Skillet recipe)

I know it's only April, but it's been in the 90's for the past three days. So I am feeling very summery.

This is my favorite summer recipe. The basic recipe is four simple ingredients and some spices. However, there are endless variations and additions you can make. I don't think I've ever made exactly the same dish twice with this recipe even though I've been making it for almost 20 years. It's a great recipe to use up leftovers in the frig. Tonight's variation has leftover canned black beans, spanish rice, and black olives.

Here's the basic recipe.


Zucchini Skillet

4 to 6 medium sized zucchinis (or more or less depending on how much you want to make and how zucchini-y you want it to be)

1 16 oz can small diced tomatoes

1 cup frozen corn

1 pound ground beef

Cumin

Chili Powder

Garlic

Salt and pepper

Cook the ground beef crumbling it up as if for taco filling. Add salt, pepper, and garlic to taste. Slice the zucchini into small bite sized pieces. Add the zucchini to the skillet when the ground beef is no longer pink. When the zucchini is about half cooked to desired degree, add can of diced tomatoes with the juice and frozen corn. Season with cumin, chili powder, more garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Feel free to add other spices as well. Cook until the zucchini is done. And Viola!

Here's what I did for tonight's variation.

I was using leftover taco meat, so I started with cooking diced onion and green bell pepper with crushed garlic and leftover diced fresh tomato. After about five minutes I added 6 quartered and sliced zucchinis and some salt and pepper. When the zucchini was half cooked, I dumped in the leftover taco meat, spanish rice, frozen corn, 1/2 can of black beans, 1/4 can of small black olives I crumbled up as I put them in the pot. To that I added more salt and pepper, some garlic powder, powdered thyme, oregano, chili powder, and cumin. There wasn't quite enough tomato for my liking and The Boy likes lots of corn, so I added a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies liquid and all and a drained can of corn. Now there wasn't enough seasoning so I added a second round of all the spices I had already added. I cooked it over medium heat for about 5 minute. Yummy.

Eggs and Pasta

My obsession with poached eggs continues on. This is a quick easy recipe for a pasta dinner for one.

I got the recipe from Epicurious.com
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Peppery-Pasta-Carbonara-with-Poached-Egg-355422
I've made a few adjustments to the original recipe. So here is what I did:

Quick and Easy Pasta Carbonara


1/4 lb angel hair pasta
2 slices bacon, cooked and diced
1 egg
2 T butter
3 T parmigiana cheese
2 T fresh basil
Freshly ground pepper


Boil a large pot of water for the pasta and egg. While that's coming to a boil, microwave two strips of bacon for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. Be sure to cover with a paper towel or you'll have a big mess in the microwave. Dice the bacon after it has cooled.


When the water boils, place the egg in the shell in the water. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. When done, drain the egg and pasta, saving 1/2 cup of the pasta liquid. Set the egg and pasta aside. On low heat, return the reserved pasta water to the pot. Add any remaining bacon drippings from the microwave dish and butter. Toss the pasta back in and cook down until it has thickened slightly.


Dump pasta into a dinner bowl. Top with parmigiana, basil, and bacon. Grind pepper on to taste. Peal the egg. Rinse to make sure all of the shell is off. Place on top of pasta. Voila!


I cut the egg up into the pasta and stirred it all around. So good. And quick!

Garden Project

Two summer ago I planted my very first vegetable garden. I had fresh tomatoes and squash to feed me and a dozen acquaintances for a months. I'm not much of a gardener. I hate pulling weeds; I hate mowing; I'm not even real excited about planting flowers; and if it's not on an automatic watering system, it dies. But a vegetable garden! For some reason, that's a whole different story. But things got in the way, my Master's degree, my new job. I just didn't want to worry about anything taking my focus off of these big events.

Now! Now, I'm getting my life settled into some sort of normality. (I use that term loosely.) I have time for a vegetable garden again this summer. Two weeks ago, The Boy, my friend and I got my pretty little garden plot all ready.

We planted three tomato plants of different varieties;

two squash plants, one zucchini and one yellow squash;

and a row of six little baby corn plants.

Ever since, I've been obsessed. I go out and check the progress every day. I pull the little weeds that creep up through the ground daily. I have fixed the irrigation twice to get it just right. I check the weather report and cover my babies if there is a chance of frost. There's something about a vegetable garden that makes it completely different than a flower garden and yard. Maybe it's because with the vegetable garden there are literal fruits to my labor, instead of just labor that keeps needing to be redone.

Bibimbap

I've never actually had Bibimbap before today. I have seen it on TV cooking shows, and recipes and pictures online. It looked fabulous. And given my poached egg obsession, now seemed like a good time to try it. I can't vouch for the quality of this recipe compared to other, more authentic Bibimbap recipes, but it was good. Here's what I did.

Ingredients:
4-6 oz cooked steak
2 small zucchini, cooked
1 1/2 cups shredded cabbage, cooked
2 carrots, cut and cooked
1 cup bean sprouts
2 green onions, sliced
3 cups cooked rice
2 eggs, poached
Spicy chili sauce

While the rice was cooking and the egg water was coming to a boil, I prepped the toppings. I had leftover trip-tip steak, sauteed cabbage, and roasted zucchini from dinner a couple of nights ago. I added to that carrots which I cut into small sticks and braised in chicken broth, sliced green onions, and bean sprouts which I cooked briefly in chicken broth in a skillet.

Scoop even amounts of rice into large bowls with plenty of room for toppings and stirring it all together.

Divvy up the toppings on each bowl of rice. Gently place a perfectly poached egg (technique to follow) in the center of each. Top with green onions and chili sauce if desired.

Voila! Beautiful Bibimbap.

Successful poached eggs

As I said in my previous post, I have tried several different methods of poaching eggs each with teir own problem. Well, today... Success! It's pretty simple, with very little mess.

Place a section of microwavable plastic wrap over a small bowl. Spray the plastic wrap with cooking spray where you will be cracking the egg. Crack an egg into the plastic wrap so that the bowl helps hold the egg. Wrap the plastic wrap around the egg, twist and secure with a plastic clip (the kind you find on bags of bread).

Skewer the egg bundles through the extra plastic wrap on the tops with a long skewer. Gently lower the eggs into bowling water. Rest the skewer across the pot to keep the plastic from touching the hot bowl and melting.

Cook for about 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. Take the bundles out of the water and carefully unwrap the little bundles.

Lovely, perfect poached egg!

Golden Treasure - Obsession with Poached Eggs

I am obsessed with poached eggs these days. I guess I'm lucky I'm obsessed with them now while so many are on sale for Easter. I have spent hours researching all kinds of recipes featuring poached eggs: salads, rice dishes, pasta dishes, ragouts, eggs on toast... There are so many. Since I am out on Spring Break this week, I have time, opportunity, and energy to try several different recipes this week. I will let you know how they go.

Here are my top picks I will try this week:

Peppery Pasta Carbonara with Poached Egg
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Peppery-Pasta-Carbonara-with-Poached-Egg-355422

Poached Egg and Bacon Salad
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/poached_egg_and_bacon_salad_-_salad_lyonnaise/

Caesar Salad Topped with Poached Eggs
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/08/caesar-salad-topped-with-poached-eggs.html

Bibimbap
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/03/dinner-tonight-korean-bibimbap-recipe.html

The next crucial question is, how does one poach an egg? There are a ton of methods, tips, techniques, and ideas. I've tried a few but none I am really satisfied with. The basic crack-egg-into-simmering water method came out to watery, runny, and not very flavorful. The egg was just kind of a mess. I tried the trick of adding a touch of vinegar to the water, but it added a vinegar taste to the egg; I didn't like that much. Another technique involves cracking the egg into a small cup and dropping the whole cup into simmering water. That was okay, but still just didn't quite do it for me. In researching methods, I came across this website: http://www.b3ta.com/features/howtopoachanegg/. There I discovered a new idea, crack the egg into plastic wrap and boil the little plastic wrap baggy.

This morning, I attempted this new method. It was reasonably successful. I found that the egg stuck to the plastic wrap when I tried to turn it out after poaching. Next time I will spray the plastic wrap with cooking spray first to see if that helps. However, it cooked well. It tasted good, not watery or vinegary. And, I made a delicious breakfast stack with the poached egg. Leftover ham, topped with sliced heirloom tomato, topped with a lovely poached egg.