Pumpkin Seed Zucchini Fritters with Roasted Tomato Sauce

I know zucchini season is starting to die down. Tomato season is still in full swing though, and I am about to order 50 pounds of roma tomatoes to oven roast and then freeze for the winter. I have sauteed the heck out of all my squash this summer and today I tried something new. Fritters. Who doesn't like a good fritter? I roasted some slicer tomatoes last night with olive oil and garlic and knew a zucchini fritter on top would be a lovely lunch. But it had to be light and easy. I used low fat greek yogurt to bind everything together. I decided to add saffron to the yogurt which I thought would match well with the roasted tomatoes. Let it sit for about 30 minutes and then added it to grated zucchini and chopped pumpkin seeds. Eggs and milk seem to be the binders I see over and over again in fritter recipes. Why not buck the system? And pumpkin seeds? Well, that was a risky move which turned out great! It gave it a fun crunch and mellow flavor.  I sauteed the fritters in olive oil for about 4 minutes on each side.
You can use any kind of tomato sauce you have on hand, or make your own. I will be making these again on friday night when we have guests coming over. Kids will love these too!


Fritters
makes around 10 fritters

1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1/4 cup chopped roasted pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup low-fat greek yogurt
1 small pinch saffron
1/2 tsp vinegar
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tbls. finely chopped onions
2 tbls olive oil 
a big pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce

Put yogurt in a bowl and add saffron. Let sit for 30-40 min. and come to room temperature. Mix well.

Squeeze any juice out of grated zucchini with you hands and add to a bowl. Add pumpkin seeds, olive oil, onion and cornmeal.  Add yogurt mixture, salt and pepper and mix well.

In a cast iron skillet, add a couple tablespoons of olive oil. When pan and oil are very hot (but not smoking because that is too hot) add a heaping tablespoon of fritter mix. Cook about 4 min. on each side. Remove from heat and transfer to a plate to cool.

Making Roasted Tomato Sauce
makes around 3 cups of sauce

slice three pounds of roma tomatoes in half. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt and lightly pour olive oil over tomatoes to coat (about 1/2 cup olive oil for three pounds). Crush 4-5 cloves of garlic and lay on top of tomatoes. Roast in oven for about 90 minutes at 350 degrees. After cooking use a food mill to remove skins. Let cool before freezing.

Sprouted Rice Flour Peach Scones

I joined a grain CSA this year. My first pickup was two weeks ago. Everything came in recycled old shirts fashioned into groovy grain sacks. Pickup is once a month until next spring! There were lots of goodies in my share like jam, whole grain bread, pumpkin seeds, dried beans and their famous breakfast cereal. Everything is grown at their their biodynamic farm just a short distance from my town. I have been a bit obsessed about the breakfast cereal though. Amaranth, corn, millet, barley all mixed together that cooks into an outstanding bowl of whole grains to start the day. I have been putting a bit of cardamom ghee and maple syrup on mine. Today I fashioned scones around fresh peaches, sprouted rice flour and this wonderful cereal. I think the lack of gluten in the rice flour kept the scones soft and fluffy. The cereal gave crunch and texture and I added powdered ginger for spice.

To substitute the breakfast cereal, you can mix equal parts oats, millet and cornmeal. If you have amaranth or poppy seeds add a small bit to your mix too. You will need a total of 1/2 cup of your homemade mixture, so I bet if you go hunting in your pantry right now you will come up with something that works! I am planning on using these for breakfast for next couple of days. My little girl is now six, and she is working her way through trying on 4-5 outfits every morning before school. I tried to have her pick out her outfit the night before, but that is not helping. So, by the time it we should be leaving for school, we are rushing out the door, eggs and toast cold. I am looking forward to not cooking a hot breakfast tomorrow while we feast on peach scones!


Sprouted Rice Flour Peach Scones
makes 8 scones

1 1/2 cups sprouted rice flour
1/2 cup whole grain mixture of your choosing (see above)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup apple sauce
2 Tbls. raw almond butter
1/2 tsp. salt
5 tbls. cold butter chopped into pieces
1 cup fresh chopped peaches
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 tsp. ginger powder
3/4 tsp. baking powder

In a bowl mix salt, grains, flour, baking soda and ginger powder. Add butter and work in with your fingers until the mixture looks a bit like wet sand. Add baking powder, lemon zest, apple sauce, almond butter, maple syrup and stir together carefully by hand. Lastly add peaches and mix lightly. Scoop batter with a spoon onto silpat or parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 min. or until edges are brown.

Peach & Fig Tart with Fennel Honey

This tart was brilliantly simple. I really wanted to make a rustic tart with minimal effort and no refined sugar. I also wanted a crust that was nutty and easy. I have been using local whole wheat flour on the rare occasions I have baked lately. A friend of our family has started his own grain CSA and the local coop sells his flour! The difference in taste between fresh flour and traditional store bought flour is almost startling. Freshly milled wheat has a toasty, almost nutty flavor; a pleasant surprise. I decided to mix wheat flour with almond flour and add some almonds to give it texture. I added butter to my crust, but thought about using coconut oil at first. I am sure that would work as a stand-in quite well.

The fennel honey I had been thinking about this past week. Fennel seems provoke a love/hate relationship for a lot of folks. I really like fennel in all its forms. I wondered if fennel infused in honey would pair well with figs. My infused honey was quite mild and it added a wonderful herbal note that brought out the muskiness of the figs and the perfume of the peaches. And, it was easy to make. I used a mortar and pestle to grind my fennel seeds. A coffee grinder would work well also. I can imagine that this honey would be great for little belly aches or to add to warm tea on cold winter days.
After mixing the ground fennel into the honey, I let it sit for about 3 hours to infuse. Then I heated it up on the stove so it would be easier to strain out the fennel. I used a metal tea strainer from a japanese tea pot,  and poured the warm honey into a bowl. It worked really well and the tea strainer removed all the little bits of fennel better than a coarser metal kitchen strainer.
I did not bake the crust first, and I did not let the crust rest or chill before baking. I simply cut the fruit, arranged it in the tart pan and drizzled it with honey. Told you it was easy and rustic! I had two six year olds making manzanita berry tea and mud pies while I was trying to create this, so I took shortcuts to save time and it turned out working well.
One note: The crust recipe makes a bit more filling than my 9 inch tart pan could hold. I used that to make little free form tarts for the kids to snack on. They were very happy about that!
Last week I make some homemade peach ice cream that I wanted to serve with this tart.  My ice cream maker broke last year, so I tried making it by hand in the freezer. David Lebovitz has a great article about how to do this...It went very well with the tart!

Peach & Fig Tart with Fennel Honey

6 fresh figs cut into 8 pieces each
4 med. peaches cut into 1 inch long slices (about 8-10 slices per peach)
1/2 lemon zest
1/3 + 1/8 cup  honey (you will have some left over)
1 heaping tbls. fennel seeds roughly ground

Fennel Honey
Using a spice grinder or mortar and pestle roughly grind the fennel seeds and add to honey. Mix every 30 min. or so and let sit on counter for 2-3 hours. Pour into a saucepan and heat gently until the honey is warm. Pour through a tea steeper/strainer into a bowl and use a spoon to work any remaining honey out of the strainer and into the bowl. Set aside until you are ready to use.

Crust
1/2 cup skinned almonds (I used slivered and blanched)
1/2 cup almond flour
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbls maple syrup
7 tbls. cold butter
1/2 tsp. sea salt

To make crust, add all the ingredients in a food processor with pastry attachment and blend until it resembles wet sand. Add a little more maple syrup if it seems too dry. Press into tart pan about 1 inch thick. Arrange figs and peaches and zest the lemon over the tart. Drizzle about 1/3 cup of honey with a spoon over the tart. Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 min.

Tomato Bruschetta

Hot, dry wind is blowing around my house right now. A red flag fire danger day today. My house is closed up tight to keep the cool air inside.  I am having tomato bruschetta for lunch along with cleaning, laundry and talking to you. You know how when you had the stomach flu when you were a kid and the food you threw up  created a lifelong aversion? (mine is soggy iceberg lettuce, my twin sister's is Mexican corn) I actually have thoughts that if I were to ever have to cross tomatoes off my food list due to some unfortunate turn of stomach events, I would revolt. It would be unacceptable. But this summer has been a sick free one, and a cooler than usual one. Lucky us!

I thought not to share this recipe at first. A part of me thinks "oh geesh, tomato bruschetta is so over done, so 1995"....Seems like everyone has their own special way of preparing this dish, but I am giving you mine in case you want to try a new way. I promise it is good. It is a highly requested dish my friends ask me to make. This dish relies heavily on very good quality olive oil and very vine ripe tomatoes. I also use sourdough baguette (are you gasping?). I just like the tang of sourdough over french baguette. I also think a skinny baguette poses a big risk of being too crispy..so look for a soft, fatter baguette. Also very important to my recipe is using garlic on the bread and not putting it in the tomato mixture. Lets the taste of garlic shine through, but not overpower the dish.
This week I topped my bruschetta with fresh burrata cheese which was just food craziness. If you eat cheese and have a place to buy burrata,  it will make this dish simply divine. And creamy. And gooey. And wonderful.
So go for it. It only took 10 min. to make this.

Tomato Bruschetta
(makes 4 servings)

1 soft sourdough baguette cut into 1 inch slices
3 cloves garlic sliced into three pieces each
1 cup of extra virgin olive oil (ok, you might not need this much!)
sea salt (I use Himalayan Pink Sea Salt)
3 medium ripe tomatoes

Lightly toast baguette slices.  Take a piece of garlic and wipe each piece of baguette with a garlic slice.

Slice tomatoes in half. Gently squeeze the seeds and juice out. Discard. (or save and use for sauces) Slice tomatoes and then dice. Add to a bowl and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil for each tomato in the bowl. Add one or two pinches of salt. Taste for salt.

Put a spoonful of tomato mixture onto each baguette slice and arrange on a plate. Spoon a drizzle of olive oil on each baguette and then serve immediately.

Dining in the Field....

Whew. Life has been busy. School started last week. Little M is starting her second year of Waldorf kindergarten. I have been working my way through summer eating heirloom tomatoes on sourdough toast drizzled with olive oil. For breakfast I have topped it with a fried pasture egg. What is your favorite way to eat heirloom tomatoes? My friends mother makes a sweet tomato conserve with her summer tomatoes. Tomatoes, sugar, vinegar and salt stewed until it is a compote and then canned. Her son Cedar and his wife Ruby have been serving this delicious jam at their glorious Off Grid Dining meets Farm to Table Movement dining event all the weekends in August at their farm. A spectacular feat they are pulling off. Ruby is a master gardener, CSA owner and local seed cooperative organizer. The food is showcasing her beautiful farm bounty and local butchers and cheese makers. Cedar is a traditional Japanese carpenter craftsman and musician. He and Ruby built their house. Themselves. Yep. The kind of thing you just want to be a part of. Of course word has spread like wildfire and their dining event has sold out every weekend. Another reason to absolutely love where I live; things like this happen. And better yet, I get to be a part of it.
Locally raised chickens, beef, chevre and honey have all been served. Tamales (Ruby's hand ground cornmeal of course!) topped with chevre made from goats that live just down the hill. Ruby's "hippie" bread made with barley, local soft white wheat and corn. (I could have eaten a whole loaf of that bread by the way...) House cured olives, pickled green beans, handmade white peach sorbet. That is just a sampling what is coming out of their kitchen.
I became involved because they know I love all things food and asked me. I debated over cooking or serving for them. I decided to be one of their servers to make sure every person dining in my presence would have an experience they would not soon forget.  I have had years in my early 20's waitressing in various fine dining establishments and that my friends is a skill I still use every day. Well, mostly on a six year old, but I think it has helped her love food even more. I had a great time talking about the grapefruit driven sauvignon blanc going well with the garden zucchini fritters. It was a bit like being on vacation watching 20 or so people a night throughly enjoy themselves at Ruby and Cedar's farm. What a wonderful community event. Friends coming together to eat food they have grown. Passion for all things local. Loving where I live. A special place.

Ruby and Cedar...

My Brother-in-law Ralph the chef helping out!

Entrance to the garden

Ruby making white peach chutney

Local Celebrities...

Dear, dear friends came up all the way from town!

Figs with Vanilla & Balsamic Pickled Onions

Can vanilla be a pickling spice? Today I found out. Yes! Heck yes it can! Mixed with balsamic vinegar as a picking agent, it was delightful! I have mentioned before, that I buy ground vanilla beans. I have noticed in the past months they vanished from my local store shelves. But, it is back now (more expensive unfortunately). If you like vanilla and use it in any capacity, I highly recommend keeping a bag on hand. I can't imagine how I got along with just vanilla extract. And, this dish is a perfect example of how well it can work as a spice in savory foods.
And, like so many of the recipes I create, it is quite easy.
Don' forget the mint though..it really added a wonderful dimension and brightness.

Figs with Vanilla & Balsamic Pickled Onions

1 small red onion (to equal a bit over 1/2 cup)
1/2 tsp. heaping crushed vanilla beans
1 tsp mustard seeds
6 juniper berries
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup water
4 large figs
2 sprigs fresh mint

Thinly slice red onion and place in a mason jar.  Add the balsamic, vinegar, mustard seeds, juniper berries, water and cover with lid. Let stand for no less than 2 hours. Shake gently or swirl every once in a while to blend the spices. The longer the better! Will keep in fridge for a week covered.

Slice figs into 1/2 inch slices and spread on plate (1 fig per serving) top each fig with a forkful of pickled onions and top with 4 or 5 small mint leaves.

Kale stuffed with Grilled Eggplant and Avocado Tahini Sauce

Barbie hair cut leftovers..and a fresh found doll who needed a trim

A photo of the fake press-on nails!!







Yesterdays vegetable box had the first of the season's tomatoes. A basket of sungold cherry tomatoes. Little bursts of sweet tomato goodness. I had to seriously examine my decision to roast them on the grill instead of eating the whole basket while checking my email. In the end I thought it not fair to keep them all for myself and decided to include them in the family dinner.
I started this recipe out wanting to make kale wraps stuffed with eggplant and tomato. I did eat mine like a wrap, but the avacado sauce starting oozing out and I ended up cutting it with a knife. I also wanted this dinner to be super easy. So I decided all the vegetables would be roasted on the grill with my most favorite, most seasoned, most attached to cookie sheet. It was a good decision. I turned on the grill and set my oiled baking sheet loaded with peppers, eggplant and cherry tomatoes and let it be. I did make sure to close the lid of the grill to assist in uniform grilling. Almost 15 minutes later everything was perfectly cooked and ready to fill the lightly grilled kale leaves. Along with the avacado tahini sauce, I was in fresh vegetable heaven.
And here is a funny bit about dinner. M was pretty much not into dinner. She will eat tomatoes in sauce, but will not eat them raw. I promised her these little pockets of sweetness were different. She did try one and said it "was better than she thought it would be". Then I asked her to try the avocado tahini sauce. Let me say first that M's first baby vomit was the night I gave her avocado. She avoids avocado under all circumstances. I did not tell her there was avocado in this sauce however just to see if she could detect it. She could not detect it, and really liked it. Really, this sauce could be smothered on almost anything and it would taste good. Sometimes I have noticed that tahini can be a tad bit bitter. The avacado smoothed out any bitterness and it turned out super creamy.
Other things we have (or rather the six year old) is systematically cutting all her doll's hair. I am posting the photo of her lasted hair cut....and wouldn't you know it was right after I had meticulously cleaned the whole bathroom! Last friday we did the big drive down the hill to the mall. M was given 7 dollars to spend on whatever she wanted. She bought press-on nails. Lord help me. We have been dealing with the press on nails for 4 days now. I am finding them in all the weird places you would expect a little girl to store nails. The bathtub drain, kitchen counter, shag carpet in the living room, the play kitchen sink. She cannot get enough of her nails. I had to take a photo to show you. I am very happy they are pretty short. She is way, way, way into them. Oh, and they turn bright pink in bright light. Lovely huh?

Avocado Tahini Sauce
Makes about 1 cup

1 medium avacado
2 tbls extra virgin olive oil
5-6 tbls. water
2 tbls lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup tahini (I used raw tahini)
Scoop out avacado filling, discarding pit. Add everything in a blender and mix until smooth (about 60 seconds). You may need to add more water depending on how thick it is. I would add the water one tablespoon at a time.

Vegetables

On a greased cookie sheet add 2 medium pepper cut into fourths and 2 small eggplants cut into 4 pieces each. Remove stems from cherry tomatoes and sprinkle with a tiny bit of sea salt. Grill on a medium high heat grill for about 15 min. with lid closed. Check on your cookie sheet every couple of minutes to make sure it is not burning and your pan is doing ok with the grill heat.

For kale, rub each leave with a bit of olive oil front and back. Grill on a low heat for about 30 seconds each side or until the edges start to brown and the color starts to become brilliant green.

Spoon about a tablespoon of the avocado tahini sauce with 2 pieces of eggplant and peppers. Top with grilled cherry tomatoes.