Potato and Sweet Corn Soup & Tamales

The Food Nanny
July 27&28, 2009
Meal 1: Potato and Sweet Corn Soup, Rustic Rolls, Cucumber and Eggplant Salad
· Warm the soup on the stovetop, or perhaps eat it chilled.
· Warm the roll.
· Serve the salad chilled. Be sure to season it with salt as this ingredient was omitted to prevent wateriness.

Meal 2: Pinto Bean Tamales, Black Bean & Rice Salad, Mixed Greens
· Heat the tamales in a microwave or in the basket of a steamer insert. It should take about 5 minutes.
· Enjoy the rice either at room temp or warmed in its casserole dish. Alternately you can warm it in a pan with some oil and a dash of water.
· Dress the greens and serve.

Local Notes:

Technique:

Cooking Egplant- is terribly imortant. There is, to my knowledge, no great recipe calling for undercooked eggplant. It is a volatile plant so my experience in technice comes with a caveat. But here's what I do: Cut the fruit appropriately and salt it generously. Allow it to steep as long as you may, but not more than an hour is necessary. Next, rinse the eggplant pieces in a collander and shake them off. Dress them with oil and perhaps some seasoning and prepare to grill tem or pan roast them. To pan roast them do use some oil but generally allow the pieces of eggplant to toast being sure to cook them through with one turn.

Pad Thai & Veggie Tacos

The Food Nanny
July 21&22, 2009
Meal 1: Sweet Potato Noodle Pad Thai, Cucumber Salad, Grilled Sticky Rice Package
· Warm the rice package in the oven at 350 for about 7-10 minutes or use a steamer, or even the microwave. Unfold it and eat the rice inside the banana leaf wrapper.
· Serve the cucumber salad chilled and season with fish sauce if you have it.
· Rinse the noodles very well in a colander. Drain them very,very well. Add some oil to a nonstick pan and when it is hot slide in the drained noodles being very careful to not splatter yourself. Stir fry them a minute of two and then add the veggies and sauce. Toss everything to combine and season with a little fish sauce if you own some. Serve immediately.

Meal 2: Corn Tortillas with Grilled Zukes and Tomato, Sweet Corn, and Latin Slaw, Frijoles Rancheros, Yellow Rice Salad
· Remove the slaw to a bowl and warm the veggies in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes or until warm.
· Heat the beans in a saucepot.
· Serve the rice at room temp or heat it in a sauté pan with a little oil and a dash of water, or in the microwave.
· Warm the tortillas in the microwave with a towel covering them, or warm them in a dry, hot pan, or directly over a gas burner, turning them to warm evenly. If warming in pan or over a flame, transfer them to a plate with a towel to cover while you warm the others. Assemble your tacos and enjoy with some yogurt or cheese if you like

Local Notes:

OK, it is officially summer: tomatoes taste like tomatoes. I'm sorry we do in fact live in a world where that is not a ridiculous statement; but, the season is here for naturally sweet, fertility flavorized tomato fruit. We even got our first home garden cherry tomatoes today.

These big, market reds from Blue Moon have the professional advantage of an early start and a favorable culturing environment. Those same plastic hoophouses that ensure that beautiful, rich spinach is protected all winter lend their talents to keeping those subtropical, New World delights hot and arid regardless of what our stochastic locale delivers us. One way or another we will usually get 1m of rain annually here which is great for a lot of things, but is over generous for tomatoes which not only are susceptible to fungal and bacterial infections, but are unable to produce sugary fruit when water in excess dilutes the fruit. Like wine grapes.

I was delighted to taste that flavor again, for the first time this year. And grateful, for first fruits.

Technique:

Steam Then Grill

Heres how to make sticky rice.

Buy some sweet Thai rice, synonymously called sticky rice.

Soak the rice overnight in plenty of water.

Line a steamer basket of some kind with muslin or best yet some banana leaf and steam the rice for 10 -20 minutes. To check for doneness just pick off the lid and taste test some. It should be yielding and not starchy.

Heres how to make sticky rice nummy.

Add a can of coconut milk to the cooked rice. Now add condensed milk and mango for a dessert. or add chiles, fish sauce, and herbs for a savory side dish.

Special thanks to street food for inspiring this weeks experiment of wrapping the rice in banana leaves and then grill roasting it. I was pleasantly surprised to taste how much the banana leaf flavor infuses the rice. Thanks to our members to letting us expand our knowledge in this way

Lebanese Pasta Salad & Summer Pot Pie

The Food Nanny
July7&8, 2009
Meal 1: Lebanese Pasta Salad, Grilled Vegetables, Whole Wheat Batard
· Heat the vegetables in the oven at 350 until hot about ten minutes.
· Warm the batard in the oven too – about 5 minutes.
· Season the pasta with salt as this ingredient was omitted to prevent wateriness, then serve. Meal 2: Biscuit-Top Vegetable Pot Pie, Mixed Greens, Three Bean Salad
· Add a small amount of water(2-3T) to the pot pie and incorporate it by stirring. Heat the pot pie at 350 until beginning to bubble – about ten minutes, then place the biscuit top on and heat a few minutes more. Serve!
· Serve the three bean salad at room temp and dress the salad to serve.

What makes pasta Lebanese you may ask, well it is the unique combination of cool and hot: cucumbers and chili paste, sesame and lemon. I like this salad. It surprised me, usually I like it with orzo as a side dish. It needed a more robust shape when placed center stage.