Using up the Zucchini

Even though we’re still only in February, every time I visit the local market, there are zucchini abounding. Zucchini is one of those summer vegetables that simply procreate to the point where you cannot give them away. When I was growing up, if you took a drive along the old farm roads, there would be bushels of zucchini sitting at the end of driveways, free for the taking. Unfortunately, everyone else was in the same position, so more often than not, they would simply rot away. Many a hog was fattened on summer squash.

It’s always a fun challenge to create new recipes in efforts to use up all the zucchini. A while ago, I read about a chocolate chip cookie recipe that has shredded zucchini in them, and I plan on giving those a try in a couple months. And even though this recipe is slightly ahead of the normal zucchini season, I was making them for a cocktail party tonight and couldn’t help writing about them. They are the perfect little mouthful. Just one bite of zucchini goodness, in the shape of a mini muffin, which makes them fun as well.



Zucchini Fritters

2 Tbs unsalted butter, melted
2 Tbs heavy cream
2 Eggs
3 Tbs whole grain mustard
1 tsp kosher salt
1 Tbs minced garlic
1 medium onion, diced
1 Tbs chopped fresh basil or parsley
1 cup all purpose flour
¼ cup cornmeal
½ tsp baking powder
3 medium zucchini, grated
6 oz gruyere or swiss cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray 2 mini muffin pans with non stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine first 8 ingredients (through basil or parsley) and whisk to combine. Mix in flour, cornmeal and baking powder and mix gently. Add grated zucchini and cheese and stir with a spatula to evenly distribute all ingredients. Spoon heaping tablespoons into each mini muffin cup and place trays in oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until deeply browned on top. Let cool in pans for 2 minutes, then invert onto a large plate. There should be enough batter to repeat the process once more. Serve warm or let cool completely, then package in airtight containers and store in fridge. Reheat in microwave or on a sheet tray in a 300 degree oven for 10 minutes. Makes approximately 40-50 mini fritters.

Circumventing the Anger

Granola bars make me angry. It is constantly hammered into our brains that eating oats is ideal as part of a healthy diet, making kids, and the grownups who force them, eat bowl after bowl of yummy gruel-like porridge as our breakfast. I happen to not be one of those who feels forced, I actually really enjoy my oatmeal breakfast, but it can be said that a fair amount of people consider a bowl of oatmeal to start the day as a good meal; for a horse. Yet, they endure, forcing the slop between their reluctantly parted lips, saying to themselves, healthy healthy healthy!

When the invention of granola and granola bars came along, shoppers flocked to their nearest store, in hopes of obtaining the oat health factor in a package that tasted like dessert. Now that there was a way to eat oats without having to bribe your child, or force it down in gulpfuls, chased by sugared coffee or orange juice, everyone forgot about the virtue of a bowl of oatmeal to start your day. But we all forgot to read the labels now, didn’t we? An average granola bar contains sugar, high fructose corn syrup and more high fructose corn syrup. Yes, it still has the oats which we all need in our diet, but they are completely overshadowed by the artificial ingredients that make up the majority of the product. So an average person is possibly under the impression that they are making a smart food choice by consuming granola bars, when in fact they may not know the hidden ingredients that aren’t such a good choice. Hence, my anger.

Homemade granola bars were my way of venting my frustration with commercial products. I made them out of spite and discovered that they were so delicious and easy to make, there was no way I could be angry with the granola bar any longer. As long as I made them my way. The Barefoot Contessa gave me the basic idea; from there I expanded to make it my own. These bars are full of yummy dried fruit, heart healthy oats, almonds and flax and local honey in place of corn syrup. They still have sugar in them, don’t get me wrong, but I tried to keep in minimal, and they really don’t need much. Store bought granola bars; eat your heart out.



Granola Bars That Don't Make Me Angry

1 ½ cup old-fashioned oats
¾ cup sliced or slivered almonds
¾ cup shredded coconut
¼ cup flax meal
2 Tbs unsalted butter
½ cup plus 2 Tbs honey
2 Tbs canola oil
¼ cup brown sugar
Kosher salt
½ cup chopped dried apricots
½ cup chopped dried cherries
½ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup cocoa nibs (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350. Lay a piece of parchment into a 8x8 baking dish and press into corners.

Combine the oats, almonds and coconut and spread onto the baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, shaking the pan once, until light golden in color. Remove from oven, pour into a large bowl and mix in the flax meal. Set aside.



Lower oven to 300 degrees. In a small sauce pan, combine butter, honey, canola oil and brown sugar and bring to a low boil. Cook a minute or two then pour over the oat mixture and stir to combine. Add the fruits, cocoa nibs and a pinch of salt and mix well. Pour into prepared pan and using your hands, press the mixture down into the pan so that it is evenly distributed. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool in pan for 2 hours, and then remove using parchment as handles. Cut into bars or crumble to make granola. Store in an airtight container for several days. Makes around 10-12 bars.

Note- this recipe is easily double, simply use a large rimmed baking sheet instead of an 8x8 dish.

A Healthy Way to Catch the Sauce

I am a true believer that one of the best parts of a meal is the sauce. I don’t make a lot of food with sauces, but when I do, it is far and away the best part. I once had a client offer me $100 for the recipe to a port reduction sauce I had made for a dinner party at her house. After a quick giggle, I gave it to her for free. That's how I roll. A thick, rich sauce swimming around a plate, soaking it’s wonderfulness into anything that dares block its path; heaven. The best vessels for catching stray sauce, beyond the meat it was designed for, are mashed potatoes and polenta. Relatively neutral and textural perfect to take on whatever flavor the sauce carries. However, as delicious as these side dishes are, there is not a lot of nutritional value in them. I wouldn’t go as far as to say they are unhealthy, for that is not the case, but I thought there had to be healthier options that delivered the same. Cauliflower puree was a great substitution, but cauliflower is one of those vegetables that many people are adverse to, so I wanted to find something else that would work.



Enter the celery root and the parsnip. Celery root, or celeriac, is the extremely odd looking, knobby vegetable you may have seen and pondered next to the carrots and celery. It has a sweet subtle flavor that is something between a potato and celery, with hints of fennel. Parsnips are the long white vegetables masquerading as albino carrots. Both are root vegetables that have the texture of a potato, but each more flavorful and packing more nutritional value than one. I didn’t stop there either; I added golden delicious apples and then added a potato for a thickening agent. Cooking in water didn’t quite do it for me, so I cooked them in apple juice instead. Yum. Finishing the dish with cream added a bit of a splurge, but gave the puree the creaminess that a great mashed potato would have, so I figured it was worth it. The finished product impressed two meat-and-potato guys, so I figure that is always a good sign. I have to admit I was pretty proud of myself with this one, and in the end it didn’t even need a sauce to be a new favorite of mine.

Celery Root, Parsnip and Apple Puree

1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1Tbs unsalted butter
1 pound of celery root, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 pound of parsnips, peeled and cut into large chunks
2 golden delicious, peeled, cored and cut into large chunks
1 medium yukon gold potato, peeled and cut into large chunks
½ cup good apple juice
½ water
½ heavy cream
Kosher salt

Add oil and butter to a heavy bottomed sauce pan set over medium heat. Add all vegetables, a pinch of salt and cook for about 5 minutes. Add apple juice, cover and lower heat to maintain a simmer. Cook approximately 30 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Check occasionally to make sure there is still liquid in the pot. If not, add some more apple juice or water. Remove from heat, stir in cream, and process with an immersion blender or in a food processor. Return to pan and add a bit of liquid of choice if too thick. It should be texturally similar to mashed potatoes. Season to taste. Serves 4 large side portions.

Take That Bill Cosby

I am a sucker for nostalgia. I had a pretty cool childhood, especially in retrospect, and I enjoy partaking in foods that bring me back to that time. Cooking the chicken and dumplings that my mom use to make us, or spending hours making gnocchi, just like my Nona used to do, puts me back to a time where the days were lazy, I would ride my horse for hours in the mountains, and modern technology was all of 3 channels, if we moved the bunny ears just right.

Chocolate pudding is one of those memory-inducing foods, not so much for its ingenuity, but because it was and is a dish that is incredibly easy, requires few ingredients (box of pudding mix, milk) and satisfies those intense chocolate cravings I must satiate from time to time. We always had a box of Jell-O pudding mix around the house, and on those occasions when there was no milk, we would use water. It works fine. When I starting working in the food industry, there were times when I would make pudding out of the box and silently berate myself for taking the easy route. I mean, didn’t I spend a small fortune on culinary school? Shouldn’t I be able to make pudding from scratch?

I finally did come around, but admittedly, it was a client that made me a convert. I had a request for something rich and chocolaty, and they are mostly gluten free, so that eliminates many options that would require flour. I realized that my opportunity was there, and I must, against my own resistance, make pudding that didn’t come out of a box. They are not paying me to make things out of a box. So I took the plunge, borrowing a basic outline from my good friend, the Barefoot Contessa. I expanded on a basic chocolate pudding recipe and made it a bit more unique with the addition of orange, but the pudding is wonderful on its own as well, without flavorings.

There really is no comparison to the real deal, it is so wonderfully smooth and rich and decadent, without being heavy or dense. And even though it certainly isn’t as easy as adding milk to a powder and stirring, the whole process takes about 20 minutes and there are few ingredients. But, while this recipe is altogether very simple, it does take a bit of patience, since it is important to constantly stir the mixture over low heat, until it begins to thicken. I put on the Glee soundtrack and dance around at the stovetop, it’s ridiculously amusing to see, I imagine. I can just picture my neighbors glancing through the dining room window and seeing me in my sweatpants, rocking out to Don’t Stop Believing, and stirring a pot on the stove.


Chocolate Orange Pudding

2 cups 2% milk
6 large egg yolks, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup cocoa powder (I use Ghirardelli)
¼ cup corn starch
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ cup chopped, high cacao, bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
2 tbs unsalted butter
1 tbs grand Marnier, triple sec (optional)
2 tbs heavy cream
½ tsp grated orange zest

Bring the milk to a low simmer in a medium saucepan. Take care to heat the milk slowly to avoid scorching.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment until light in color and tripled in volume, about 3 minutes. With the mixer on low, add the cocoa powder, corn starch and salt and mix to combine. Carefully pour the hot milk into the mixer, combine thoroughly and the pour the mixture back into the saucepan.
Over low heat, cook the mixture, stirring constantly until thickened to pudding texture. It takes 10-12 minutes (or about 4 songs on the aforementioned soundtrack) for the mixture to thicken. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining ingredients, stirring until the chocolate has melted.



Pour into individual serving containers and cover with plastic wrap. Press the plastic wrap directly on the top of the pudding (this prevents it from forming a “skin”). Chill at least 2 hours. Serves 4.

The Importance of Salt

Salt is a tricky substance. Often hailed as a pariah of the culinary world, the cause of all things bad and unhealthy, the mastermind behind hypertension and high blood pressure, and marketed to avoid at all costs. Overuse it and food becomes instantly unpalatable. Underuse it and food is often bland and not very enjoyable. After working in the culinary industry and knowing just how much salt (and butter and fat) is used, especially in restaurants, I definitely had moments when I debated the health benefits of what my sodium intake was. But salt is a necessity. It brings out the flavor of everything and makes food taste delicious.

I have found that the key is, as with most things, balance and moderation. There is no need to shy away from using salt to season your meals. In contrast, it is actually more conducive to use a good amount to properly season your food, because I have found that when something is under seasoned, I tend to eat more of it, trying to quench my palate’s need for taste. If an item is seasoned properly, I eat smaller portions, therefore reducing my sodium intake in the long run. A great trick is to season and taste as you go, eliminating the need for a huge addition of salt at the end to bring out the taste of the food. I always recommend using kosher salt over table. Kosher salt has more flavor and the grains are bigger, which means they are covering more surface area of the product being seasoned and you can use less with the same result as table salt. There are also wonderful specialty salts available at most grocers, which are fabulous as “finishers”. These are the ingredients I use right at the end of a dish, when it is about to be plated and just needs a dash of something (lemon juice, parmesan) to complete it. A pinch of fleur de sel, deliciously potent French sea salt, adds a great punch of flavor to a dish.

A huge topic of sodium-worthy note is the use of prepackaged goods. Unfortunately, these items tend to be laden with salt and even small amounts can add up to equal your daily recommended sodium intake very quickly. It is advised that no more than 1 teaspoon, or around 1300 to 1500 mg, be consumed per day, which can be easily exceeded if only premade goods are incorporated in daily meals. I believe these items are a huge factor in how we view salt and it’s bad reputation. It is important to check labels, especially when buying low fat items, which can have much higher levels of sodium and sugar to add flavor. Again, everything in moderation, and I realize the impracticality of eliminating premade goods. Using whole foods when possible is the best way to control sodium intake, and always allows you to know exactly how much salt is going into a meal.

So when all is said and done, fear not the flaky white substance. As long as premade items are kept to a minimum, you really have no need to worry about salt intake. If store bought goods are a large part of your life, simply try to read the nutrition labels and adjust portions accordingly. If you are a big home cook, feel free to season your food liberally, remembering that the taste of something is an important, if not The most important, part of the culinary experience. Steamed green beans with no salt will not likely be a memorable dish, and you won’t want to eat them again. But adding a pinch of kosher salt and bringing out all the flavor that a bean has to offer will make a huge difference to your palate and you will most likely remember it tasting delicious and want to eat it over and over

What To Do With Superfluous Beer

I have the luxury (and occasional downfall) of living with a man who works for Budweiser. While this ensures that we will always have plenty of beer in our fridge, this also means we always have plenty of beer in our fridge. Taking up valuable space in our fridge more accurately. I am certainly not one to complain about always having a beer to offer guests, or to enjoy during a Sunday football game, however, we always have more than we can possibly drink, and I just don’t seem to have enough willing participants to take it off my hands. I thought it would be easier to give away premium lager, but it just comes in faster than we can give it out. Enter my opportunity to be creative in the kitchen and find new ways to incorporate beer into dinner, only on the plate instead of in the glass.

I have used beer in many recipes before, my favorite being a beer braised cabbage. I have used it as a simmering liquid to poach chicken, and I even tried it in place of wine in risotto once. That one didn’t turn out so great. Another way I have been known to use it, and listen up here curly-haired sister friends, is to wash my hair. Yes it sounds weird, but it was recommended to me in my teens and it actually does help with the frizz factor. But I digress; this is a cooking blog, not a hair care blog. Back to the kitchen. This recipe was inspired by a cooking competition I saw on food network years ago. I put a whole bunch of kitchen staples in a pot together with a bottle of beer and let it cook down into a lovely thick syrupy glaze, then added some shredded chicken. This is not a recipe that needs to be followed to a T either, some of the ingredients are specialized, so don’t feel pressure to go out and buy pomegranate molasses. Tweak as you see fit.

Beer BBQ pulled chicken

2 bone-in skin-on chicken breasts
1 tsp olive oil
1 bottle of good quality beer, not mexican (I prefer German lagers, pale ales, or Belgian wheats,)
¾ cup ketchup
2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbs BBQ sauce
2 Tbs cider vinegar
2 Tbs pomegranate molasses (optional or you can substitute cherry preserves)
¼ hoisin sauce
½ tsp Chinese five-spice powder (a bit of cinnamon, cloves and ginger can replace this)
¼ cup orange juice
Juice from 1 large lime
1 minced garlic clove
½ tsp ground ginger
2 Tbs brown sugar
2 Tbs honey
Kosher salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Place chicken breasts on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 35 minutes and then set aside to cool slightly. When cool enough to handle, remove and discard skin then shred the chicken with your fingers. Set aside.



Place remaining ingredients in a medium sauce pan and bring to a low boil over medium heat. Cook for around 30-40 minutes, until mixture is quick thick. It should coat a wooden spoon or spatula and a line should remain when you run your finger down it. Season to taste, add chicken and stir to combine. Serve on buns or better yet, with sweet potato biscuits, which you can find the recipe for here.

An experiment gone awright

I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sneak in the kitschy title here simply because over the years I have had so many experiments gone awry. This time however, something quite magical came about. It all started because of the need, as many of us have, for dessert. A dinner party for one of my regular clients was looking like it was going to be a culinary success. Smoked salmon blinis and zucchini fritters; check. Butternut squash soup; check. Roasted fillet of beef with port reduction; check. And then, all of a sudden, 4 more guests arrived and those coconut macaroons I had made earlier were just not going to be substantial enough for the mood of the dinner party. With no form of chocolate anywhere to be found, I couldn’t do a nice soufflé or cake. What to do? Well, my first thought went to berries, I have a go-to cobbler recipe that is fool proof and doesn’t require much that isn’t in most pantries. However, since this was a fancy dinner party, we decided that a rustic cobbler wouldn’t be quite as appropriate as other options. Don’t get me wrong, a giant heap of cobbler dumped in a bowl, perhaps with a scoop of vanilla gelato, is top of my dessert list. We needed something a little more presentable for this instance though.

Bars were the next thing that came to mind, lemon to be specific. But alas, I had less than two hours until dinner with still quite a bit of work to do and lemon bars take a considerable amount of time and detail. Since the client can only eat blueberries, and there just so happened to be a Costco sized container of fresh blueberries in the fridge, I knew I had to go with that. I decided to make a blueberry bar, something I had never done before. I went with my standard lemon bar crust since it is 3 ingredients and takes about 2 minutes to prepare and get cooking. The berries I knew I would have to cook, so I threw most of the container into a sauce pan with sugar and some sliced lemons. Since I didn’t have time to let the berries cool enough for them to thicken properly, I threw in some flour and then added the remainder of the whole berries. Then I simply poured the whole thing over the crust, threw on a crumble topping and popped it in the oven, able to do nothing more than cross my fingers, and toes, that this would be an edible product. The tray was picked clean by the end of the evening, I guess I did alright.



Blueberry bars

For crust:
1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
Pinch of kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9 x 9 baking dish by either spraying thoroughly with non stick spray or laying foil to lift out. This makes for easy removal from pan and is highly recommended. To do this, take a long piece of foil and lay it lengthwise in the pan. Then take another piece and lay it crosswise in pan, then spray with non stick spray. This allows gripping the foil and simply lifting the entire concoction from the pan to let cool and then easily cut. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse about 10 times, until ingredients come together and mixture turns pale yellow. Dump into prepared pan and using the bottom of a glass or a measuring cup, pat mixture evenly over pan, pushing into corners and slightly up the sides. Bake for 20 minutes, until just starting to brown. Set aside until ready to use

For Filling and Crumble Topping

1 lb fresh blueberries
¾ cup sugar
2 whole lemons cut in half, seeds removed as best as possible
¼ tsp kosher salt
1 cup 3 Tbs all purpose flour, divided
¾ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
½ stick unsalted butter, cut into small chunks and softened

Place ¾ of the blueberries, the sugar, salt, 3 Tbs flour and lemons in a medium saucepan and add ¼ of water. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, until blueberries are broken down and sauce starts to thicken. Remove from heat and add the remaining blueberries, stirring to combine. Let cool 30 minutes. Combine remaining flour, brown sugar and butter in bowl and combine with fingers until ingredients start to come together and look crumbly. Pour blueberry mixture over crust and sprinkle crumble evenly over entire surface. Bake 30-40 minutes, until blueberries start to bubble and topping in browned. Remove from pan if using foil bed, or place pan on cooling rack. Let rest 15 minutes, then cut into squares and serve. Makes approximately 16 two inch squares.