A Tale of Two Squash

I believe I've mentioned it before, but Mr. Lemon and I have found the equivalent of an overflowing garden patch here in the big city. It's the bargain bin at our local gourmet market and our veggie bin-ges lead us down some interesting paths.

What we end up with for $1.50 is a large quantity of one vegetable--one vegetable that we wouldn't normally buy in such quantity or might not even purchase at all. But it's a fun challenge that spurs creativity and usually a new healthy side dish or entree. The key is to diversify your veggie product or make one big batch if it will freeze well.

But sometimes, the veggie binge goes off the rails. This is the frightening story of the two squash--one very good and one very naughty. Read on, if you dare.

Our story begins with a large bag of yellow squash. Now, yellow squash when sauteed has to be carefully watched so as not to go slimy--it's all those seeds, I swear. But when battered and deep fried, yes I said DEEP FRIED, it becomes a very fine summer treat of silky sweet goodness wrapped in a light crispy shell. Deep Fried is a dirty word in these parts, so I break out the veggie oil about once a summer for this delicacy that I picked up from a Southern friend (and one of the best cooks I know!) Bless you, Nicki, for sharing your squash-frying wisdom.

Fried Yellow Squash

Vegetable oil, about 3 cups

2-3 medium sized yellow squash

Salt and pepper

1 cup flour

About 1/4-1/2 c. skim milk

In a deep sided pot or dutch oven, heat several cups of vegetable oil.

After removing the top of the squash, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices, lengthwise. Salt and pepper well on both sides and set aside.

Set out a plate with 1/4 cup flour. In a bowl mix about 3/4 cup flour with skim milk. Add the milk slowly and whisk. Once the batter starts to look like a smooth paste, stop. You've got your batter. You don't want it to be too liquid-y, or it won't stick.

Check that oil. It should look kind of shimmery and if you carefully slip in some of the batter or a piece of bread (which I never have), it should hold together and have little bubbles all over it. That means your oil is ready. No bubbles? Not ready. And please BE VERY CAREFUL! Hot oil is no joke and you want to avoid splatters.

Dredge the squash slices (dip on both sides into plain flour and shake off excess.) Dip slices one at a time into batter and slide into the hot oil. The squash will float and sizzle. Only cook about 3-4 slices at one time so the oil can maintain it's heat.

Now here is the Nicki Wisdom: only flip your squash once. In fact, never turn any deep frying lovely more than once, ever, ever. This prevents sogginess.

When the batter starts to look light tan/brown on one side, gently flip the squash and allow the other side to crisp up about 2-3 minutes. Remove the squash and place on paper towels or a brown paper bag (way to recycle!) to drain off some oil. Serve immediately. Delicious as a meal all by itself. And don't they kind of look like fish?

So what about the rest of that squash? A healthier take:

2-3 squash cut into half moons + 2-3 Tablespoons fresh oregano minced + 8 leaves basil cut into a chiffonade (Roll it and slice thin) + 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Makes a great slightly rich-tasting side dish for some leftover pork and, of course, green salad.

Tally:

One bargain buy, two different dishes, naughty and nice

Deep fried but inexpensive summer treat

Healthy summer side dish spruces up leftovers

$1.50 can't be beat.

A Date with Soup

This soup has all the features I'm looking for in a meal: fast, full of veggie goodness, thrifty ingredients, filling. In short, my perfect lunch date.

** This photo looks like yellow mush. It's really more like orange mush. I tried.

Carrot Soup

Serves 1 nicely

1/2 small onion, finely chopped

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1 c. baby carrots, sliced

1 c. chicken stock

1/2 pink grapefruit, membrane removed

Salt and pepper

In a saucepan, cook onion and ginger in olive oil over medium heat. When they start to smell great and look a little cooked, add carrots (I used baby carrots because that's what I usually buy for $1) followed by chicken stock.

A note: I make my own chicken stock not to be fancy pants about it, but as part of my no ingredient left behind program. That chicken I was picking apart last week? Its last bits and bones went into the stock, which I'll post about later. I like to freeze the stock in ice cube trays or in one cup measurements, since I rarely use one whole pot but rather throw it into multiple dishes.

Let the carrots simmer and when they are almost fully tender add the grapefruit. This is a subtle flavor, so you could try adding more, but I don't like overwhelming the carrots and ginger. Or skip the grapefruit altogether.

When the carrots are fully tender, turn off the stove and let the soup cool a little. Then transfer to a blender and puree or liquify. Me? I puree since I'm ok with a little more texture.

Return the mixture to the pan and simmer, adding salt and pepper to taste. I walked away and it thickened more than I wanted. Solution? I added about 1/4 c. water to the blender, ran it to gather up some of the soup that was left behind and added it to the saucepan. Bonus: the blender was that much easier to clean!

And then I got fancy...

I thought about veggie soups I'd had at restaurants and how they get dressed up. The answer:

Chive Oil

8 chives

1 1/2 Tablespoons walnut oil

Salt and pepper

I had never made chive oil and I couldn't believe how simple this was going to be. A little internet searching turned up a recipe on the Oprah site (not where I usually go for recipes, but it had the easiest instructions). The recipe from a book called The Conscious Cook is here. Did I follow all the steps? Of course not. Too many dirty dishes for my laziness.

Here's what I did instead: I didn't blanch the chives, I put them in a strainer, balanced it on top of the already steaming soup mixture and covered the strainer with tin foil. I let it sit there for about 1 minute and then removed the strainer from the heat and ran it under cool water from the tap.

Cut up the steamed chives and put in a mortar. Add the walnut oil and salt and pepper and then grind away. I was surprised at how quickly the oil turns a pretty green shade. Strain and drizzle on top of carrot soup.

The chive oil added a nice contrast to the spiciness of the carrot soup, looked pretty and made this an omega-3 rich dish.

Tally:

Veggie-tastic lunch

Bunny food that's spicy and filling

Pretty way to use up carrots and other leftover ingredients

Fork, Knife, Spoon, Salad

In trying to keep us on The Fat Resistance Diet and its impressive number of fruit and vegetable servings, I've come up with one easy out: salad as place setting.

What I mean by this is I consider a salad a requirement for eating all the other food on the table. I (generally) wouldn't eat without utensils, and we usually don't dine without a salad.

I find this fitting because I had two very loosely-enforced responsibilities in my house growing up: set the dinner table and make the salad. A lazy cook from way back, I'd cheat and make the salad as quickly as possible, lobbying for iceberg not because I preferred the taste, but because it was faster. But no more.

Now, my salads have standards: variety, flavors that complement the main dish, multiple textures and--if I have it--a salty topping (think capers, olives, nuts). Here's a Latin-ish salad we ate alongside a chicken and black bean chili for lunch the other day:

lettuce, green cabbage, oranges, cilantro, onion, celery, Spanish olives + lime-cumin vinaigrette

Done.

Tally:

3 veggie servings down, 5 to go!

$10 to fill the veggie drawer = a week of no excuses

Making up for the recent dietary indiscretions=worth the chopping.

So fast and easy, you can make it while the main dish stews

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Hello, my name is Lady Lemon and I am a vegetable shopaholic.

I was just minding my own business (honest!), running out for some more yogurt, when I was blindsided by vegetable deals. So last night, the fridge overstuffed with green perishables, turned into a veggie night.

I'm a big meat eater, so veggies usually can't compete.What I like about the occasional veggie night is that I find I pay more attention to making our green friends more interesting. So here's the menu from last night:

Citrus-Celery Salad: grapefruit and orange sections + 1/2 small onion + celery hearts/leaves + olive oil + ground pepper + 1 teaspoon mustard + 1 T. rice wine vinegar (champagne vinegar would be great, too.) Refreshing and tangy. Tarragon or thyme would be a nice addition.

French (Bean) Fries: slim French green beans + salt & pepper + 1 T. olive oil + 1 T. water; 400F for 12 minutes on a foil-lined baking sheet; they will wrinkle and get brown and go slightly nutty.

Stuffed Mushrooms

I always look for good stuffed mushroom recipes, and they seem to inevitably include a lot of ingredients that I don't have. That's how this recipe came about because I prefer to stick with what's on hand. If you have red pepper, breadcrumbs, other herbs, cheese, etc -- all would be good to add.

Makes 10-12 mushrooms

1 package white mushrooms

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 T. olive oil

1/2 rib celery heart, finely chopped

1 T. parsley, chopped

3 stems thyme

1 T. flour

1/4 c. whole milk

Salt & Pepper

Wipe mushrooms and stems with a damp towel. Remove stems and mince (as small as you can cut them!). Reserve caps.

Heat olive oil in a small saute pan over medium heat and add chopped mushroom stems. Add garlic and celery and cook until vegetables soften and begin to look translucent. Add parsley and thyme and cook for a minute or two more.

Sprinkle mixture with flour and let cook 1 minute. The flour will start to absorb some of the moisture from the vegetables.

Pour in milk while stirring mixture. Add the milk a little at a time so it can be absorbed. The flour and milk combine to bind the mixture together. You will not have a white sauce -- just a sticky veggie mixture which is what you want to hold together in the mushroom.

Stuff the mushrooms with the mixture and place on a foil or parchment paper lined baking sheet for 20 minutes in a 375F oven.

The mushrooms will still be juicy and the stuffing is garlicky. If you want something less messy, add breadcrumbs.

Once again, my photography doesn't do the colors of this justice, so you'll have to take my word that this is a bright pretty plateful of green goodness.

Tally:

Satisfying meal that's low in fat

Lots of variety with mostly on-hand ingredients

More veggies than I can count