Weekend Herb Blogging #246 recap

I'm excited to be hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week, and once again I'm amazed by the variety of fruits and vegetables that were featured this week, and the creative ways that everyone used them.  Without further ado, here are the entries that I received, and please let me know if I missed anyone or need to make any corrections.

Janet from The Taste Space gives us a recipe for Lebanese Eggplant with Pomegranate Molasses (Batinian Bil Rumman), a very versatile dish using pomegranate molasses and seeds:

Rachel from The Crispy Cook found a creative way to use up some of her zucchini and made Bread and Butter Zucchini Pickles:

Stash from The Spamwise Chronicles tells us more about okra (one of my favorites!), and gives us a recipe for Okra, Shrimp, and Tomato Curry:

Anna from Morsels & Musings tells us about a Spiced Cherry Pie that she made for her dad's birthday:

Soma from eCurry tells us about a popular chilled soup in India, Aamer Ombol - Chilled Green Mango Soup or Cooler:

Oz from Kitchen Butterfly tells us about picking blackberries (a sometimes painful undertaking), and several ways to use the berries, including a Blackberry Granita:

Haalo from Cook (almost) Anything at Least provides a unique way to use spaghetti squash in her recipe for Stir-fried Spaghetti Squash with Pancetta and Leek:

And finally, I contributed a recipe for fig gelato:

Thanks to everyone who submitted entries this week and, as always, thanks to Haalo for organizing this event.  Next week Marija from Palachinka will be hosting, so check out the rules and send her your entries.

Fig gelato recipe

I'm not generally a fan of fruit-flavored ice cream because it usually has a fake, chemically taste to me (unless we're talking about fresh peach ice cream from Dickey Farms).  But gelato is another matter.  I've had my fair share of gelato (while backpacking through Europe in college, I lived off of bread, cheese, peanut butter, and gelato for 10 weeks), and I always prefer the fruit flavors.  My favorites are apple (I remember a particularly good version in a gelateria in Rome) and kiwi (strangely, the first thing that comes to mind is a train station in Vienna).  I don't recall ever having fig gelato, but I was excited to find this recipe.  I don't know that it lives up to the best gelato I've had in Italy, but it's definitely the best I've ever made.  I might reduce the lime juice by half next time (it was good, but hid the fig flavor a little bit), but otherwise it was fantastic.  I'm submitting this dish to Weekend Herb Blogging, which is organized by Haalo from Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once.  I'm hosting this week, so make sure to send me your entries by Sunday (check the rules for details).

Fig gelato (adapted from About.com)
(Printable version)

1 lb fresh figs, stems removed (you can peel them if you want, but I didn't)
juice of 1 lime (next time I'll only use half)
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp honey

Combine the figs and lime juice in a blender and blend until smooth.  Then add milk and honey and blend briefly, just until combined.  Freeze in an ice cream maker, according to manufacturer's directions.  Serves 3-4.

Light summer squash casserole recipe

One of my favorite southern foods is squash casserole.  The squash is mushy (in a good way) and almost melts in your mouth.  It must be a family favorite, too, because Mom always made one for Thanksgiving until I took over the cooking duties and tried to focus on more seasonal concoctions (I may have to give some of the responsibility back this year, though...).    Most squash casseroles are full of butter, cheese, sour cream, and bread/cracker crumbs, and although there's not anything wrong with that, I wanted to make a lighter, everyday version.  I loved the taste of this casserole, and I didn't feel bad eating half of the pan.  I didn't miss any of the other ingredients, which honestly surprised me.  And with all of the squash that I inherited from my grandmother's freezer, I can make this all winter!


Light summer squash casserole (adapted from Vintage Victuals)
(Printable version)

1 1/2 pounds yellow summer squash, sliced thinly
1 small onion, chopped
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp butter
pinch of salt
freshly ground black pepper

Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan, then add squash and let cook until it's tender (about 10 min).  Drain the squash and return it to the pot.  Then add the onion, egg, butter, and salt and pepper, and mix well.  Pour mixture into an 8x8 baking pan and cook at 375 for 45-60 min, until the edges are brown.  Let cool for 10 min before serving.  Serves 2-3.

Georgia food adventures

You're probably tired of hearing me talk about all of the wonderful food I've been enjoying since the move.  Too bad, because I have to share more.  One of my favorite luxuries of living near Atlanta is being able to make occasional trips to the Dekalb Farmers Market.  I remember stumbling into this place while I was in college and being completely blown away.  The name is misleading because it's not your typical farmers' market, it's more of a store... but unlike any store I've ever seen. It does have tons of produce, some local, some not so much (at least everything is very clearly identified).  But my favorite two sections are the grains and spices.  They buy everything in bulk and then package it themselves, so their spices are incredibly cheap (some less than 10% of what you would pay in a typical store).  And they have every grain I've ever heard of (including sorghum, not that I have any desire to buy any).  The meat, seafood, and cheese sections are amazing, too, but I'm usually too cold to stay long once I get to those sections (I'm pretty sure they keep the store at around 50 degrees, and I can never remember to bring extra clothes).  Every time I go to this place, I leave with a huge smile on my face.  Not only is it a fun shopping experience, but it's so cheap (but incredible quality) that I always feel like I've won something.

Unfortunately they don't let you take photos in the store (I can't figure out why), but here's what I got:

Notice the plethora of grains (in the tall, stacked containers and the bags in front) and spices (the short containers).  I tried to control myself because I went two days before I left for Toronto, so I couldn't buy many perishable foods.

My favorite part about the produce section is that I've never heard of about a quarter of the items they sell.  It's the perfect place to find strange ingredients for recipes, but I'm also excited about trying something new each time I go.  This time I didn't go too crazy, but I decided that I needed to finally eat a dragon fruit.  The descriptive sign above them went into detail about their laxative effects, so I was a bit hesitant about eating it the night before my trip, but I was brave and suffered no consequences.  I really enjoyed it, and was excited to see some at the opening reception at my conference a mere two days later.

My favorite part of my new food adventure has been enjoying all of the fruits and veggies from my grandma's garden.  I have an amazing family (and am completely spoiled), and my mom and great aunt and uncle pick food specifically for me whenever Mom will be making a stop by my place on her way home from Grandmother's house.  It might not be that exciting for those of you with great gardens, but it's wonderful when you're stuck in an apartment with no place to grow anything.  Here's what Mom brought last weekend:

(okra, butter beans, millions of tomatoes, and butternut squash)

(a mess of green beans)

(figs galore)

Plus I have more blueberries, but I forgot to take a photo.  How can you be sad when your dining room table is filled with amazing produce?  I going to experiment with drying some of the figs in my oven this weekend - does anybody have any tips?

And to top it all off, I had the experience of my life the other day.  Every year my grandparents would take a field trip to Dickey Farms in Musella, GA.  After hearing tons about this place, I convinced one of my friends that we should venture out there, and now I completely understand why they love Dickey Farms.  It's not a huge operation, but I was mesmerized by the washing/sorting/packing machines.  If you go in the middle of the day, you will find dozens of retired people sitting on the porch in rockers eating peach ice cream.  And if you go out back, little old ladies are frantically piling the "reject" peaches into 1/2 bushel boxes.  While we were there, a church van pulled up with tons of excited ladies, and I can only imagine the pies and cobblers that they made when they got home.  We happily joined in to fill our box for only $5.  Yes, you read that right.  Five dollars.  And we had well over 30 pounds of peaches in our box.  The entire process was fun - I was trying to catch the peaches as they flew off the conveyor belt (but felt like Lucy in the chocolate factory).  Many of the "rejects" had a soft spot, but plenty were fine - just too ripe to ship to stores.  We split the box, but I was still exhausted after freezing my half.  A big part of me wants to go back next week, but I'm not sure what I would do with more peaches.

Somehow between shelling beans and going to the peach farm, I've been able to get a lot of work done in preparation for my fall classes, but that's less fun to talk about :).  Have any of you had an exciting food adventure recently?

Trinidadian chicken curry recipe

Just after getting my cooking mojo back last week, I headed to Toronto for a conference.  Toronto is a great place to eat because you can find authentic food from all around the world within a few blocks (I ate at Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, and Greek restaurants all right around my hotel).  After recovering from the trip (lots of science + lots of late nights catching up with friends = a very tiring week), I was finally ready to do some cooking last night.  I was in the mood for chicken, and decided that I should finally make the Trinidadian chicken curry I noticed on The Pioneer Woman a while back.

I've been extraordinarily happy with every one of Ree's recipes that I've tried (especially the peppers and mushrooms I made for Mom's birthday party last month), so I had faith that this wouldn't disappoint me.  I was correct.  As soon as I smelled the marinade, I knew this would be delicious, and it only got better from there.  This dish has bold flavors, and I never would have thought of the combination of mustard, pico de gallo mixture, and curry powder.  This will definitely become one of my staple dishes, especially when I'm cooking for meat lovers (Dad, this means you).


Trinidadian chicken curry (adapted from The Pioneer Woman)
(Printable version)

1 1/2 pounds chicken (I used boneless, skinless breasts, but any skinless cut will do)
sprinkle of salt
2 tsp yellow mustard
1 tomato, quartered
1 onion, halved (and divided)
2 handfuls of cilantro
5 garlic cloves
freshly cracked black pepper
2 Tbsp curry powder
2 tsp turmeric
3/4 cup water
1 Tbsp olive oil

Sprinkle the chicken with salt, and rub it with the mustard.  Combine the tomato, half of the onion, cilantro, garlic, and black pepper in a food processor and pulse a few times until the veggies are very finely diced.  Pour this mixture on top of the chicken, mix well, and let the chicken marinate for at least 2 hours.

When you're ready to cook the chicken, mix the curry powder, turmeric, and water together in a small bowl.  Heat the oil over medium heat in a large saute pan, and then stir in this spice/water mixture.  Continue stirring until the sauce thickens and turns darker (about 10 min).  Then dice the other half of the onion, and saute it in the sauce until tender (about 5 min).  Next, add in the chicken and all of the veggie marinade, loosely cover the pan, and cook for 5 min.  Stir everything around in the pan, cover, and continue to cook for 20-25 min, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is done and the sauce is thick (you can remove the cover for a few minutes if the chicken is done before the sauce thickens).  Serves 4.