Oven Roasted Tilapia with Baby Portobello Sauce

Sweet 31.  Yeah, I've never cared much for my birthday, but the reality is, damn. I am in my 30s now. And not so fired up about it.  Before you go concluding that I am a vain, crazed woman, please allow me to clarify. It's not a fear of wrinkles.  It's just that I have so much crap I want to do in my life that I am a bit panicked by the prospect of cramming it all into the next 60 years. How is one lifetime ever enough?? 

Sigh.  But, at least things are pretty amazing while you are trying to cram it all in. 

This was breakfast one day on our break from the world.  Divine. Not too much cooking occurred while we were away, because honestly, how much can you cook white wine and Cambozola ?

While I was busy not cooking, I read a lot, and also watched copious amounts of Robert DeNiro movies. That wasn't so much by design, more just what the Netflix overlord decreed for the week.  Consequently, by mid-week, my tough guy accent was pretty appalling.  Husband was a good sport about it.  The accent and me waking up at five a.m. expecting a home invasion. 

I arrived back home to find the garden in somewhat of a stage of mutiny.  My god forsaken tomatoes seem to have taken the summer off.  The beans and eggplant however luckily got the memo that their only job in life is to grow, and have been complying. 

Here are some very festive squash: 

Oven Roasted Tilapia with Baby Portobello Sauce

Ingredients: 

cooking spray

1 lb Tilapia

1TB olive oil 

1/4 white onion, chopped

5 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/2 lb baby portobello mushrooms, quartered

1 TB tomato paste

red wine vinegar 

red pepper flakes 

salt and pepper to taste

Preparation: 

Season both sides of tilapia filets with salt and pepper.  Spray a foil-lined baking sheet with cooking spray and then arrange the tilapia on the sheet.  Roast tilapia in a preheated 450 oven for about 8 minutes, or until fish flakes easily.  Set aside.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic, and saute until soft.  Turn heat down to medium-low and add mushrooms to skillet. Saute for five-ten minutes, until mushrooms have released liquid and are soft.  If needed, add small amounts of water to mushroom mixture to prevent it from sticking to skillet while sauteing.  

Remove skillet from heat.  Add tomato paste and a splash of red wine vinegar to the mixture and stir to combine.  Season with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste. Serve tilapia with mushroom sauce on top.  Serves 2.  

Pasta with Garden Vegetable Sauce

I do apologize for being so out of touch! I've been by the sea, and other fun fabulous locales. This lazy summer afternoon finds me at the Cocoa Bar in Brooklyn- I highly recommend it. Lovely garden behind the shop and very tasty iced coffee. Perfect.

In my absence, my trusty garden has been hard at work. I overcame my doubts and finally plucked my one eggplant. Now I know how only children must feel- so much pressure. Anyway, the eggplant shined, it was only my heavy-handedness in picking it that caused the jewel distress. The stems of eggplants are very reedy and woody, and apparently snap if you twist them. Who knew! So, the plant did sustain some trauma (the branch the eggplant was on split in two) but hopefully, it will knit itself back together.

Thank you now for indulging in my cheesy vegetable-scape:

These were all the veggies I found waiting for me when I returned from my eastern seaboard adventure. Those vaguely albino looking fellows are yellow peppers. And the squash in front is a mutant pattypan, grown beyond all reason.

With these vegetables, I made a lovely pasta sauce:

Pasta with Garden Vegetable Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 lb pasta

1 TB olive oil 

1/2 onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 large eggplant, cubed

2 peppers, any color, chopped

2 lbs assorted squash, cubed

1/2 c water

2 TB tomato paste

2 TB capers

1/4 cup chopped Kalamata olives

Freshly ground black pepper

salt to taste

Preparation:

Cook pasta according to directions, in salted water.  Drain and set aside.  

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add onions and garlic and saute until soft, about four minutes.  Add eggplant, peppers, and squash to pan.  Turn vegetables to coat with onions and garlic.  Saute for two minutes, stirring often.   

Turn heat to low, and add 1/4 cup water to skillet, and cover. Add more water periodically as needed to prevent vegetables from sticking to bottom of pan.  Cook until vegetables are soft, about five- seven minutes.  

Uncover mixture and add tomato paste, olives and capers.  Combine thoroughly and cook over low heat for two minutes to allow flavors to combine.  Season with pepper. Season with salt to taste. (Note: salt may not be necessary as the olives and capers bring much saltiness to the sauce.) 

To serve, top portions of pasta with sauce.  Serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese.  Serves four. 

Another Use for Parsley- in Pizza Dough

I know, I know, I keep talking about how hot it is in DC, and then I go and crank up the oven to make pizza.  You don't feel sorry for me anymore, I understand.

My love of pizza transcends the weather, what can I say.  This was an eggplant, red onion and olive pizza.  With a few pieces of pieces of prosciutto tossed onto husband's side for good measure.  

To avoid having the pizza become a watercolor lake scene,  I sliced the eggplant, salted it heavily, and let it drain in a colander for about an hour before putting it on the pizza.  Rinse the salt off thoroughly, and the eggplant is ready to go.  The salting process draws out the moisture before you put it in the oven,  avoiding the creation of a swampy mess on your pizza.

By the way, I am still carefully monitoring the progress of the one eggplant I have growing so far in the garden.  I feel like I should build it a house, or give it shoes or something, given how much time I spend worrying about it.  It's progressed from the size of a large grape to roughly the size of a soda can.  When do I pick it?? I am racked with indecision.  Who knows the answer?? Will it taste better if I pick it earlier?? Crazy city dweller, stressed about when to pick an eggplant, I know. 

Instead of eggplant bounty, I have more flat leaf Italian parsley growing in my garden than any reasonable person could safely incorporate into their dishes in a lifetime.  So, I've had to get stealthy.  I chopped several handfuls of parsley (and basil) and added them to the dough before baking.  The result was lovely.  The dough had a great texture, and the herbs made the whole pizza taste very fresh.  

Offering of Beets

Here are the last of the beets from the garden... what to do with them?

Linguini with Anchovies, Parsley and Capers

Sometimes you realize that you've lived near a major city for your whole life. Times like when you see an eggplant growing, and are surprised that it's actually purple. For some reason, I was pretty convinced they started out white. Like how some kids' eyes start out blue, and then turn darker. Anyway, turns out even baby eggplants are purple.

Here's the baby picture:

It's about the size of a large grape right now. Hopefully it'll make it out of infancy so I can eat it. While the garden incubates eggplant, it's turning out parsley in alarming quantities.

Hence, this quick and easy pasta features parsley. This is great for a weeknight, or any other time you're cooking from your pantry and have some fresh herbs to toss in the mix.

Linguini with Anchovies, Parsley and Capers

Ingredients:

1/2 lb linguini

8-10 anchovies in oil, oil reserved

1/4 onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, finely minced

red pepper flakes

2 TB capers

1 TB caper juice

2 c chopped parsley

1TB lemon zest

freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

Cook linguini, according to directions in salted water. Reserve 1c of cooking water, then drain, and set pasta aside.

In large skillet, heat anchovy oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes and sautee until soft. Turn heat to low-medium and add anchovies to skillet and sautee another 3-4 minutes, using spoon to break up the fish. Add capers, caper juice, and parsley and sautee for about a minute. Remove mixture from heat.

Combine anchovy mixture and pasta in skillet. Add pasta water as needed to achieve desired consistency. Stir in lemon zest. Season liberally with freshly ground pepper. Serves 4.

Lime Vinaigrette Salad with Rice Noodles, Marinated Tofu, and Peanuts

Sunday morning found me staring, longingly, across the breakfast table as my husband enjoyed pork dumplings. Alas, our Safeway (variously called the Soviet Safeway, and other flattering nicknames) was out of the veggie ones.

The good that came out of this torture was that the sauce he had concocted to go with the dumplings was so delicious that it inspired dinner. It was a simple mixture of soy sauce, red vinegar, and sesame oil, laced with sliced garlic. It was perfectly balanced, and very summery.

If you are not a lettuce fan, this dinner would also work served hot, without the salad. But as a salad, it is refreshing and satisfying. Feel free to add shrimp if you like, (I grilled about ½ a pound and marinated it with the tofu) but it’s certainly not necessary.

Lime Vinaigrette Salad with Rice Noodles, Marinated Tofu, and Peanuts

Ingredients:

14 oz extra firm tofu, well drained and cubed
8 oz rice noodles, cooked, drained, and rinsed thoroughly with cold water to stop cooking process
About 15 oz romaine lettuce, chopped
2 thinly sliced carrots
Handful of basil, sliced
½ cup dry roasted peanuts

Tofu Marinade

Ingredients:

3TB soy sauce
2 TB red wine vinegar

1 tsp sesame oil
¼- ½ jalapeno, finely chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced


Lime Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

Juice of one lime
1TB olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

In a shallow covered dish or pan, combine tofu marinade and tofu. Let marinate for about an hour. Meanwhile, to make salad, toss romaine with lime vinaigrette. To assemble dish, place about 4 c salad mixture on each plate. Top with 2 oz of noodles. Place about 3-4 oz tofu mixture on top of noodles. Finish by sprinkling carrots, basil and peanuts on top of each plate. Serves 4.

_________

In other news, my beans rock the party. Literally. Something that I love about my husband is his unequivicol willingness to be really bootleg when need be. Hence, we made our climbing bean pole trellis with bamboo stakes (normal) and... speaker wire (not so). Come on out & get your groove on, little beans.

Finally, a lovely piece of summer. My friend, the consummate hostess, made this delicious drink this weekend. The drink featured cucumber, thyme, lime & other favorite flavors. It even made me reconsider (for like 5 seconds) my lifetime ban on gin. That is a seriously good drink.

Summer vegetables put in their place

After picking out the wee vegetable plants, we went to the garden to put them in their place. My husband is so hip that he gardens in a straw fedora.  Check this out:

Among the rows of lettuce which will be retreating in the next six weeks or so, we planted a variety of tomato, pepper, squash, cucumber and eggplant plants. Eggplant plants. haha. Anyway, we also planted lavender, mint, watercress and basil. 

There seems to be some debate as to whether seeds or plants are the way to go with gardening. I am in the dark. The only trend I can decipher is that it seems that cooler, more experienced gardeners use seeds, and folks like me go with plants.  I'm not sure why/if I should aspire to be a seed-head.  If anyone has advice, I'd love to hear it. Also, has anyone ever planted eggplant? I'm having trouble picturing how much room it's going to take up. But, too late now! They're all in the ground, patiently waiting for their moment to shine. 

Spaghetti with Fava Beans

Tonight we made spaghetti with fava beans, which no one told us was going to be sort of punishment-like, only not really that bad. I'm just dramatic. But, if anyone has better ideas about how to shells favas, I'd love to hear them.

We blanched them for @ 40 seconds, shocked them in a cold bath (you've been naughty little beans) and then peeled them. I guess I was expecting them to leap out of their shells like bears out of their winter caves in May... but alas. However, the manual labor was worth it.

A nice al dente spaghetti with enough garlic to kill the evil + basil + onions + parmesan cheese, you can't really go wrong. I did turn up the heat a little too high with the red pepper flakes, because I have a problem with red pepper flakes .. eg...I am obsessed. Sorry to just "e.g." you. Must work harder to banish lawyer sprite living in my brain. Be gone with you!

I must say though, the fava beans weren't the most exciting part of dinner. Lettuce from the garden was! Oh my goodness. I went today after work to snip some of the lovelies and it was really such an unexpectedly emotional process. It's my first garden of my own, and my first time eating things that I have grown. Harvesting was a powerful experience. One that I wish I could share with more people. My veggies (radishes, carrots, lettuces, etc) haven't been overly tended to, it's more just that they grew at all that blew my mind.

Here are some radishes from the garden.... quite spicy.

Spaghetti with Fava Beans

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. spaghetti

2 lb fresh fava beans (about 2 c shelled)

3 TB olive oil

1/2 white onion, chopped finely

4 garlic cloves, minced

red pepper flakes to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp)

salt and pepper to taste

handful of basil, sliced
grated parmesan
juice of 1/4 lemon 

Preparation:

To prepare fava beans: Boil large pot of salted water. Prepare ice bath for beans. Remove beans from outer shell. Put fava beans in pot, boil for about a minute. Strain, and place beans in cold bath. Remove hulls. Yield will be about 1.5- 2 cups. Set beans aside.

Meanwhile, prepare pasta according to directions. Strain cooked pasta, and reserve about a cup of cooking liquid.  Set aside. 

To prepare pasta: Heat olive oil in large pan. Add onion,  garlic and red pepper flakes. Saute until soft, about seven minutes.

Add cooked pasta, basil and fava beans to large pan, combine. Add parmesan and cooking liquid until desired consistency is achieved. Season with salt and pepper. Add basil, and drizzle fresh lemon juice on pasta right before serving. Serves 4.