Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Torte

Not so beautiful, but it was yummy and filling!

My farm share really likes loading me up with summer squash so instead of the normal old bake or sauté way of cooking it (bleh, borrrring!) I decided to hunt around for something more fun. Alas! A torte! I found a great recipe from fellow food bogger Deb at Smitten Kitchen. While she said her torte wasn’t winning any beauty contests I disagree, the picture looked scrumptious and I just had to try it. Note: If she thinks her torte “isn’t winning beauty contests” mine looks like roadkill. *sigh* But anywho, it’s not about the beauty of the thing, it’s the taste.

Layered summer squash in the pan

And oh boy was it tasty! I didn’t have two round dishes to make the torte so I just layered everything in a big glass casserole dish and it still came out wonderfully. No, it wasn’t beautiful, BUT it was delish. My torte was probably thicker than normal, especially because of my lack of mandoline (see below) and it didn’t really stick together well when it came out of the pan -– but I’ll overlook that because it was so tasty. It was also amazing to heat up and eat the next day, and the day after that since this recipe was huge -- you might be interested in cutting the recipe in half if you don’t want to be eating torte for a week. While the recipe didn’t call for it, I served my torte with a big dollop of sour cream. YUM!

Now that we have the actual "cooking/recipe/eating" portion of this post out of the way, let me tell you about the mandoline: As I mentioned, my kitchen is a little sparse when it comes to gadgets and cooking utensils. I pretty much use just one knife for every kind of cutting and chopping (*gasp*!) and occasionally my little food processor for meal prep. My trusty old knife made the task of thinly slicing 5 potatoes and 3 summer squashes pretty tedious.


After the torte was in the oven baking I decided to read some of the reviews. Silly, I know, I should have read them BEFORE cooking. But, I’m a fool. Someone asked “What’s the best way to slice the potatoes and squash if I don’t have a mandoline?”


“A mandoline?” I asked myself. “Surely this person is bonkers. I know what a mandoline is, it’s the funny little string instrument my boyfriend owns.” Yes, that is indeed a mandolin, but add an “e” and it becomes a marvelous kitchen gadget that I didn’t know about but MUST. HAVE. IMMEDIATELY! Check out this wonderful one from William Sonoma – even comes complete with a tutorial video you can watch! http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/oxo-v-blade-mandoline/


While I enjoy slicing veggies I’m not very good at it, maybe because I fear slicing the top of my finger off and turning my meal preparations into a trip to the emergency room. I tried so very hard to slice my potatoes and squash thin like the recipe suggested – and really, for the most part I was very successful, though it took me about a half hour of slicing patience. Had I had this wonderful mandoline gadget I bet the torte would have come out even better. I am definitely putting mandoline at the top of “cooking gadgets to buy” list for when I move to a bigger apartment in 3 weeks.


PS: I am getting REALLY far behind on posts, yikes! Be on the lookout for some great recipe posts coming next week! Cheers!


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Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Tort (adapted from Smitten Kitchen (adapted from Bon Apetit))

Makes 8 servings


Ingredients --

• 1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/8-inch-thick rounds
• 12 ounces yellow crookneck squash or regular yellow summer squash, cut into 1/8-inch-thick rounds
• 6 teaspoons olive oil
• (Jill's note: I also threw some parsley in here because, you know, I had it on hand)
  

Directions -- 

• Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter two 8-inch-diameter cake pans. (Jill's note: I had only a large casserole dish, so what you see in my pictures is much thicker than probably intended.) Set aside 1/4 cup sliced green onions. Toss remaining green onions, cheese, flour, thyme, salt and pepper in medium bowl to blend.
• Layer 1/6 of potatoes in concentric circles in bottom of 1 prepared pan, overlapping slightly. Layer 1/4 of squash in concentric circles atop potatoes. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon oil. Sprinkle with 1/6 of cheese mixture. Repeat with 1/6 of potatoes, then 1/4 of squash and 1 teaspoon oil. Sprinkle with 1/6 of cheese mixture. Top with 1/6 of potatoes. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon oil. Sprinkle with 1/6 of cheese mixture and press gently to flatten. Repeat procedure with second cake pan and remaining potatoes, squash, oil, and cheese mixture. (Jill's note: If you find it confusing it might be easier to think of it like this if you're making just one pan of it. Layer like this: potatoes, squash, oil, cheese mix, potatoes, squash, oil, cheese mix, potatoes, oil, cheese mix.)
• Cover pans with foil. Bake until potatoes are almost tender, about 40 minutes. Remove foil; bake uncovered until tortes begin to brown and potatoes are tender, about 25 minutes longer. (Can be made 6 hours ahead. Cool. Cover with foil and chill. Rewarm, covered with foil, in 350°F oven until heated through, about 30 minutes.)
• Cut each torte into wedges. Sprinkle wedges with 1/4 cup green onions; serve. (Jill's note: Serve with a dollop of sour cream, too, if you wish!)

A Lobster-tastic 4th of July Feast

What better way to honor our fine nation’s independence than with a truly American backyard feast? And nothing compliments America more than lobster. (Yeah, I know you could say burgers, or hotdogs, or something like that, but for we were going for being classy this 4th of July and there’s nothing classier than lob-stah.)

It’s funny to think that years ago people thought lobsters were the scum of the sea and they were served to prisoners who complained about the copious amounts of lobster they were fed: “MORE lobster? Can’t we just get some plain old bread and water or something? Geeze.” And now lobsters are a delicacy, oh how times change.

I ate my first lobster (in its pure un-cracked, un-bisqued, un-anything-elsed form) back in January –- you know, when they plop a big red lobster down on your plate and you have to actually DO something to it before you can eat it. I was terrible at cracking it open and I made quite a mess, but, a mess that was well worth my effort because lobster is DELICIOUS. With those sentiments, we settled on 10 lobsters for our America feast. Before you call me a glutton, I must tell you that these 10 lobsters fed 7 people and I personally ate one and a half. Feel better?

Our original intent was to cook the lobsters ourselves (something that I am completely terrified of doing). I like animals, A LOT. I feed stray cats and throw bread to pigeons and name raccoons that crawl up onto my fire escape. My biggest worry was that once I brought home a lobster and saw him crawling on my floor that I would start to do silly things like give him a name (Mr. Pinchers), make him race the other lobsters, etc. And then I would no longer have dinner, I would have a friend… and nobody wants to drop their friend into a boiling pot of water. But, thank goodness, the Star Market will steam them for you while you wait so you don’t have to deal with the potential of be-friending your future dinner.

What I love most about grilling/barbecues is the aspect of all day eating. From 2pm until 9pm the food never really stopped. Something goes on the grill, something comes off, and something replaces it on the grill. It’s a wonderful cycle of deliciousness.

Here’s what our feast looked like:

• 10 lobsters (pre-steamed)
• Veggie kabobs with red, yellow, and green peppers and a Vidalia onion (pictured to the right)
• Potato Packets: Diced red and russet potatoes (1 inch cubes) which I brushed with olive oil and then sprinkled with garlic powder and kosher sea salt. I wrapped the potatoes up in aluminum foil packets and put them on the grill for approximately 15 minutes. These potatoes were so yummy and so easy to make that I want some right now as I write this. I received both types of the potato from my Enterprise farm share and I’m eager to get more soon since this was a great accompaniment to any backyard grilling. (pictured above)
• Sliced and grilled zucchini (pictured to the right)
• 10 ears of corn (pictured to the right)
• 2 pounds of clams baked on the grill: Just stick them on the grill on medium heat and they pop open when they’re done. 
• Grilled leek
• Homemade garlic butter: Crushed garlic mixed with softened butter. This went really well with the lobster and clams.
• Homemade chili-lime butter: I asked Byron to pick me up limes at the supermarket and he came home with a bag of key limes. Little did I know using key limes made this butter all the more tasty! The key limes added a tang and sweetness that made this butter perfect for the grilled corn. (pictured to the right)
• Sliced cantaloupe melon
• Skirt steak
• Another steak

Wow, is all I have to say... the day ended with fireworks and a very happy tummy. I can’t wait for another holiday to do it all over again… National Teddy Bears Picnic Day on July 10th anyone?

Overall score: 10 out of 10.

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica

What is a beet? Is it just a nickname for that other red veggie known as the radish? But that leads us to another question… what is a radish? Are either of them actually veggies? Does Dwight actually own a beet farm? Enter all-knowing Wikipedia:

"Beet : The beet (Beta vulgaris) is a plant in the amaranth family (which includes beet, goosefoot, quinoa, and spinach.) It is best known in its numerous cultivated varieties, the most well known of which is probably the red root vegetable known as the beetroot or garden beet. The usually deep-red roots of garden beet are eaten boiled either as a cooked vegetable, or cold as a salad after cooking and adding oil and vinegar. A large proportion of the commercial production is processed into boiled and sterilised beets or into pickles. In Eastern Europe beet soup, such as cold borscht, is a popular dish."

"Radish : The radish (Raphanus sativus) is an edible root vegetable of the Brassicaceae family (includes Some examples of cruciferous food plants are the cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, turnip, rapeseed, mustard, radish, horseradish, cress, wasabi and watercress) that was domesticated in Europe in pre-Roman times."

Dwight Schrute : Dwight lives on his family's 60-acre beet farm, in a nine bedroom farmhouse (with one bathroom), with his cousin Mose where they grow table beets. Dwight also likes paintball, survivalism, Karate and weapons. Fact: bears eat beets (see shirt from café press.)

Note to self: All red veggies are not related. Either way, both beets and radishes are two things that I have never eaten before. The other distinguishing difference? My first farmshare basket from Enterprise Farms included 6 beets (and no radishes.) How do I know this? It was in their newsletter -- thank goodness, or perhaps I would have misidentified these suckers!

So how does one cook beets? I scoured the internet for something to make that has beets in it and is not borscht, which I will save for a later date. (Given my Eastern European background it really is quite surprising that I’ve never had borscht before, but it’s good to see that it makes numerous appearances in all four of my Polish cookbooks and my one Ukrainian cookbook. You know, in case I want to try out some different ways of making it.)

Have you ever felt like something was made JUST FOR YOU and nobody else? Well, I had that feeling earlier today while searching for a beet recipe. Really. I found a recipe for beets (which came in my farmshare), potatoes (which came in my farmshare), an onion (which came in my farmshare), and mint (my dad sent me a baggie of garden-grown mint about a week ago!) Talk about fate.

Of course, having never tasted a beet, I had no idea what to expect. What I learned: Beets turn everything red, including your fingers. Really, everything... including your cat's water dish when you accidentally drop in a beet chunk. (Sorry kitty.) Also, when peeled and chopped beets bear a striking resemblance to raw meat.

In general, this recipe was just a little too bland for my taste and I ended up spicing it up with some basil, salt, and pepper which helped it out a bit. It probably could have used some meat or something, but for my first beet experience I would say it went well. 

Lesson: Beets just taste like an earthy, less soft potato.... I'm no longer frightened of them.


IF YOU HAVE A BEET RECIPE THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR IT, LEAVE ME A COMMENT BELOW!

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Beet, Potatoes and Mint (recipe compliments of Lovetoknow.com recipes):

Ingredients

6 beets, peeled raw, diced small

4 potatoes, peeled, diced large

1 onion, peeled, chopped fine

2 cups water

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon mint leaves, chopped

Seasonings to taste 

Instructions

Put all ingredients, except the mint, in a stew pan.

Bring to the boil, then cover and lower heat to low.

Let simmer about 35 minutes.

Before serving, sprinkle with the chopped mint leaves. 

Overall score: 6 out of 10.

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PS: What else came in my farmshare this week? Blueberries, acorn squash, zucchini, lettuce, salad greens, and romano beans. YUM!