BOOKING AND COOKING!

Hank Phillippi Ryan:

 

First, fanfare fanfare, BOOKING first. The trade paperback of THE HOUSE GUEST is available today! I always wonder how much difference that makes in anyone's lives, but I hope it does!

 

 And I am going on a tiny little whirlwind book tour to make sure everybody knows: tonight I will be at Brookline Booksmith with the superb Shari Lapena!  Whoa. If you have not read her book EVERYONE HERE IS LYING, it is an absolute page turner. Honestly, if I hadn't had to make dinner yesterday, I would not have budged from my chair. (SO fun to have my paperback launch day be with such a superstar--and we get to talk about HER book! Perfect.)

 

Wednesday I go to Jacksonville, Florida to appear at the Jacksonville Public Library.

Thursday off to Atlanta, for the Atlanta Authors series at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center.

Thursday, still in Atlanta, at the Sandy Springs Library.

Saturday, racing back to Massachusetts to appear at the Barnes & Noble Hingham. (With some names you will recognize!)

 And then Sunday, in Plainville, at An Unlikely Story Bookstore, with Patty Callahan Henry to talk about her brilliant THE SECRET BOOK OF FLORA LEA.

And then zooming back home to zoom for The Back Room, with Kathy Reichs, Polly Stewart, Tosca Lee and Don Bentley!

 

Whoa. And you can get all the deets here.

 

But on to COOKING!  Last week we went to get our farm shares, and we got zucchini and eggplant and golden yellow squash, which meant... make something up.

Something Parmesan? Something Ratatouille?

 

 So here's what I did.

 

I sliced the zucchini and eggplant and squash and salted them liberally, and left them for two hours so the water would come out. So much water comes out, and that makes a huge difference.  (I cut the eggplant  and golden like coins,  and the zucchini in strips. Whatever.)

 

Then I roasted the zucchini and eggplant and squash in olive oil till they were brownish around the edges, then I topped that with parmesan cheese and popped it under the broiler until the cheese browned.

 

Then I took the whole thing out of the oven.

 

Then I lightly olive-oiled a LeCreuset enamel oval pan, put the cheesy veggies carefully along the bottom. Then I sprinkled that with halves of cherry tomatoes from our own garden, then tiny bits of mozzarella cheese, then sprinkled with parmesan cheese, then bacon bits, then snipped basil and fresh parsley from our garden. Popped that back into the oven until the cheese burbled--you can tell it's done.

 

 And wow wow wow it was delicious. Here's a picture.

 

And then –although it was completely unnecessary, I served it with sautéed shrimp.

 

BOOKING AND COOKING! Reds and Readers, either of those things on your schedule this week?

(And oh, because it's August 1, "rabbit rabbit." SO much to remember!)

Sunday Recipe: Summer Cherry Tomato and Zucchini Tart

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Readers, you're in for another delicious treat as our friend Celia Wakefield presents the best possible way to eat all those zucchini and tomatoes overflowing your garden and filling up the farmers' market. I got to have this at a luncheon following a home Eucharist led by the Reverend Canon Eleanor Prior, who only looked a little bit taken aback when we started peppering her condensed sermon with comments and questions. 

With or without an accompanying religious celebration, this savory tart will put the essence of September on your palate. 

 

 

Good morning my dear Reds and readers. I love it when Julia’s turn comes around and she asks me for a recipe to share. I wanted to check up on how long I have been writing for JRW on Julia’s page, but went down the site search engine rabbit hole and realized this was a task to put down. How am I? Happy to say much, much better over this time last year. My beloved, who will attain his 95 birthday this month, is so much improved in his health, though at his age there is concern on long term issues. Still enough of that, all is well right now. 

 

What have I been cooking, same old, same old, same boring! I needed a brain jolt, which I got a couple of weeks ago when Sam Shifton, NYT cooking head honcho, chef, and bottle washer wrote about no recipe recipes. I only read the Cooking section emails as I have refused on principle to pay for a second subscription. Plus one can get plenty of ideas from reading the articles, not to mention that Sam (or his crew when not washing up after him), usually adds in a non cooking article which just cries out to be read, and I have not been disappointed there yet.This gave me a new lease on my cooking life which added to having some real  activities to look forward to, in addition to enlarging our social circle of two, would involve bringing food.

 

The first outing was to an annual barbecue for the St. Luke’s volunteers who work at the Preble Street Soup Kitchen in Portland. St. Luke’s is the Episcopal cathedral in Maine which both the Hugo-Vidal and Wakefield families attend, when not sheltering from the plague. There is no more soup kitchen work per see, that’s now in our past life, but they do still need volunteers so St. Lukes is still involved. However our hosts brines, marinades and smokes briskets, pork and chicken each year and invites us to feast at their lakeside camp. We bring the rest. Today’s recipe was my offering and more on that later.

 

 

I’m not sure if there is a corner of the world that hasn’t experienced some topsy turvy weather this year. We certainly have up in our NE corner. August usually arrives with beautiful sunny days, hot enough to be outside in comfort after the swelter of July. Not this year. We have had swelter day after day. We retreated indoors to our Heat Pump providing dry, cool air, which does defeat the outdoor point of summer. But it was time to think up non heat generating food and as there is plenty of zucchini and tomatoes on the farm stands that gave me the idea of todays recipe for a Zucchini, Cherry tomato tart. I made it as finger food for the barbecue and cut it into bite sized pieces. It was most successful.

 

Let’s make it again. My cousins were visiting Maine from Vermont. We invited them to lunch and I wanted something easy so that I spent the time with them, not with the kitchen. I wasn’t sure what the weather would produce, but the tart plus antipasti from our Portland Italian store, Mucicci’s gave me necessary freedom with all food prepped for service in advance. Our trip through the summer social circle concluded with more friends for whom I made a seafood salad of mussels, shrimp, tiny potatoes and shucked corn.The salad was a great success, but a request for the dressing from one of the guests left me searching for the original recipe which I adopted for our meal. As I cook without recipes, creating some accuracy on amounts was needed, and here is part of my reply to the request.

 

Dressing, Well my recipe measurements are always a bit vague, however here is the recipe from which I worked!  

https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/mediterranean-potato-salad-with-shrimp-feta

I used at least a 1/4 C of olive oil, about a Tbsp lemon (half a large lemon), 1 tsp Dijon mustard approx, 1Tblsp frozen basil which had been prepped for pesto, 3-4 cloves baked garlic, (I bake several garlic heads in foil with olive oil at a time and store in the fridge), good squeeze of TJ'c Balsamic glaze instead of the sugar. (You can get Balsamic glaze in WhF too). I hope this helps.

I used tiny potatoes which I boiled, an ear of shucked fresh corn, about 2 C tiny frozen shrimp, which I cooked in vermouth and water with parsley and 5 Spice powder, and of course the mussels.

 

My guests came with six pounds of mussels which we cooked with vermouth plus seasonings, let them cool and mixed them with more dressing into the potatoes, corn and shrimp. There’s no photo as it really was a one color dish with some freshly chopped parsley on top. The vermouth is an old Julia Child trick. In Mastering the Art .  .  She wrote that is no white wine was opened or available use vermouth instead. And it works.

 

 

 

 

But back to my original tart recipe, having written the back story already. I know that tart conjures up baking, but for once I bought my tart pastry ready made. I won’t bore you to death with how I am not THAT baker, but I can make pastry however it was the 90+degree week and way too hot to make pastry so I bought frozen pastry shells and defrosted one. A rectangle is easier to work with for finger food and the pastry allowed me to remold and roll out to a rectangle. Once rolled it went into a foil lined pan. Then I pricked the rectangle all over, covered it with parchment paper, (foil works too), and sprinkled it with metal pastry weights. Into the oven for ten minutes, remove paper and weights, being careful not to burn oneself. Sigh! Return to the oven for five minutes plus just to finish. Buy or make some bread crumbs. I choose to make mine but Panko will work well.

 

This can all be done in advance. Next step is the assembly and the baking. I chose small zucchini and cherry tomatoes of different colors for contrast. I found a tip for grating Mozzarella on Google. Put the ball in the freezer for about twenty minutes plus and it grates just fine. Because this is a no recipe tart, be ready to eyeball your tart as you assemble as the quantities are approximate

 

Summer Zucchini & Cherry Tomato Tart

 

INGREDIENTS

 

Packet of short crust pastry (the sort already in ready-made pie pans works well)

1 baking sheet at least 9”x13” for the pie tin pastry. 

Line your pan with foil for easy removal, and spray lightly with oil spray. A pan or baking tin with a small lip works well, but this can be made free form too. As we are using zucchini cut into lengths, a square or rectangle works best.

 

2 small zucchinis, cut into thin slices lengthwise

Green box of cherry tomatoes, mixed colors if possible

1 Cup grated Mozzarella ball

Cup of fresh toasted breadcrumbs or Panko crumbs

3/4 - 1 Cup Parmesan / Pecorino Romano grated cheese

 

Method:

You have 2 choices for pastry:

 

1)    Make a shortcrust pastry using1 3/4 cups Flour, 1 stick + 1Tblsp unsalted butter, 1 egg yolk,

    1/2 tsp salt, 2-4 Tblsp water to mix into dough*. I make pastry in the food processor.

2)    Buy frozen shortcrust pastry, defrost 1 pie pan if already rolled

    Fold pastry in four, and reroll into a rectangle or square to fit the pan.

3)    Chill the pastry until ready to blind bake it.

4)    Heat oven to 350 degreesF, cover pastry with parchment or wax paper and add pie weights

5)    Bake for 10 minutes, 

6)    Remove paper and weights, and bake another 5-10 until pastry is firm but not colored.

7)    Cool pastry until ready to assemble

Assembly

    Cover pastry with a thin layer of breadcrumbs. These keep the pastry from getting soggy as it bakes.

    Set the zucchini slices on the breadcrumbs in a single layer

    Cover zucchini with a layer of grated mozzarella 

    Cut cherry tomatoes in half across and add to the tart,

    Sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheeses

 

Bake in a 350 degreeF oven for 30-40 minutes, rotating once.

 

Serve warm or at room temperature. The leftovers are great, but heat in the oven. Nuking doesn’t improve pastry.

My pastry recipe is the one I have been making since I received these Robert Carrier Cookery Cards for my Twenty first birthday, and that’s a long time ago!

ENJOY!

 

 

Easy summer dinner: Garlic shrimp on shredded zucchini with Parmesan cheese & basil

HALLIE EPHRON: It's been so hot here in New England that whenever dinner time rolls around the last thing I want to do is cook, but then when I look at the takeout choices (pizza again? sick of Chinese), I'm driven back to my fridge to see what I can make out of what's on hand.

The other night I came up with a winner. Shrimp (I always have some in the freezer), quick fried with garlic, and served over a bed of shredded zucchini (overflow from Lucy's vegetable garden), topped with grated Parmesan cheese (always on hand) and fresh basil (growing in a pot outside). 

I served it with ears of fresh corn.



Garlic shrimp and zucchini à la Hallie
Serves 2
Cooking and prep time: about 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS
10 large frozen shrimp, defrosted, shelled, deveined, and soaked for about 20 minutes in water laced with about a tablespoon of baking soda
1 plump fresh garlic clove, minced 
1 medium zucchini, grated (use the largest holes)
1/4 cup (or more) of chopped fresh basil
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 T butter

1. Prep the ingredients.
2. Drain, rinse, and dry the shrimp.
3. Heat the oil and butter over medium/high heat in a 10" or 12" heavy skillet until butter stops spitting.
4. Quickly sautee the garlic for about 30 seconds and add the shrimp. Cook, turning until shrimp is cooked through (this is fast - maybe 3 or 4 minutes).
5. Remove the shrimp (but leave most of the garlic in) from the pan and immediately throw in the shredded zucchini - lower the heat a bit and cook, stirring until it's just tender. Just takes a minute or two.
6. Dump the zucchini into a serving dish. Top with shrimp. Top with a good handful of Parmesan cheese. Finally top with basil. 
7. Serve with icey Rose wine and crusty French bread. 
8. Enjoy!

What are your summer quickie meals.