Cod on the Grill

Craig went fishing on Sunday, but did not get any fluke above the legal limit, so we cheated and walked down to the fish market. We got a chunk of cod, which I wrapped in foil and decorated it with farmer's market cherry tomatoes (greenhouse--almost as good as garden), fresh thyme, olive oil, and salt and pepper. 10 minutes on the grill--a little longer than I'd anticipated it taking, but it was a thick piece. This is the fish right off the grill:

We served it with a wild/brown rice mix and our own garden beans, which are exploding and need constant eating right now. Kurt gave us some of his garden sugar snap peas, so I threw those in to the saute as well and added a little crushed red pepper for some spice:

And because I'm so proud, here's where we're getting those wonderful beans. The runners we're leaving until they're big enough to shell and dry, because we have so many pole beans--green, yellow and purple. The hummingbirds love the runner bean flowers!

Peach Barbecue Pork Chop

Last week we got our first green beans from the CSA, and I made a very specific Friday night dinner request of Craig. I asked for green beans and pork chops and grilled sweet potato. Craig took that and ran with it. He made a Bobby Flay recipe for the pork chops, rubbing them with coriander and black pepper and cumin and allspice, and topping them with a peach-tomato sauce that was so good I'd drink it out of a glass! The beans were sauteed with mushrooms, and for the finishing touch, Craig grilled peaches--my first grilled peaches but definitely not my last! A meal like that called for good wine, so we drank a bottle of La Grola 2004 Allegrini, which was also amazing.
I'm going to use the leftover peach-tomato sauce with rice in my quick weeknight dinners, but I think it would be really good on top of pancakes, especially if you tweaked the pancake recipe a little and added cornmeal or something savory.

Summer Food

Mom says "I love summer food. It's so easy." I agree, and in the summer we're on the go so much and the kitchen is so hot, it's gotta be easy. These are three meals I've made in the 80-90 degree weather of the past several days:

This is a classic post-ride meal. Craig and I did a good 43 miles on Saturday, starting at noon so we'd be sure to be really sweaty and disgusting by the time we finished. Dinner that night was frozen tortellini from Putney Pasta and pre-cooked apple chicken sausages. I sauteed some tatsoi from the CSA and topped the tortellini with roasted red peppers and chevre left over from those awesome sandwiches Craig made. The tortellini were sundried tomato flavor, and I thought they were a little too rich, but this was a great quick meal.

Sunday's dinner. It was going to be tabouli, then I read in Tara Parker-Pope about how good raw beets are for you, plus between the farmers' market, the CSA, and our garden, we have about a gajillion beets. So it's similar to tabouli in that it has bulgur wheat, lemon juice, olive oil, and mint. It also has grated raw beets, sliced haruki turnips (CSA), carrots, preserved lemon peel (awesome), and toasted walnuts. It was really really good! I am definitely going to make it again. Craig suggested raisins, I think he's right, or maybe currants.

Date night dinner last night. Mark Bittman had a cold avocado soup recipe in the NY Times that I really wanted to try and Craig agreed to at least taste (he's a little weird about avocado). It's just ripe avocado pureed with whole milk, salt, and cayenne. I topped it with chopped shrimp and cilantro. It was pretty good--very filling though. Behind it you can see the two things I'm really proud of. The beets are just raw beets and some harukei turnips tossed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, then at the last minute I got inspired and tossed in some fresh thyme and the rest of the chevre. Super! I served it room temp and would have preferred it cold, at least last night (93 degrees at 7PM), but was really impressed. Also on that plate is what was going to be Ute's flatbread, only made on the grill pizza stone. I started it in the morning and put it in the fridge, and I guess the yeast had a good time, because once it was on the grill it really puffed up! I had added sun-dried tomatoes and fresh rosemary, so it really was like grill foccacia, and a pretty tasty accident. Definitely a recipe I'm going to have to perfect, and a great way to keep baking bread in the summer! Wonder what else I can make...

Happy Birthday!

Thursday was my birthday and Craig took me whale watching to celebrate.  Before we could set out, however, he needed to prepare delicious sandwiches to eat on the boat.  He used a good baguette from Seven Stars, my favorite bakery, and filled it with prosciutto, chevre, roasted red peppers, red onion, and roasted red pepper dressing.  They were delicious and all the other whale watchers swooned in envy.

We worked up an appetite watching all those whales swim around, so we found a coffee shop on Beacon hill to relax in.  The lemon blueberry tart was so good, very lemony and not too sweet.

For dinner we met Cora and Allen at Jacob Wirth's in the Theater District.  I feel too weird taking pictures in restaurants, but that place is great!  A bajillion beers, mainly imports, pretty good prices, and great food.  Craig and Allen had the smoked pork chop, which came on some delicious red cabbage, Cora had the boursin burger, and I had crabcakes and gazpacho.  Everything was delicious!  What a great birthday.

Clambake

Craig's sister Lisa hosts a clambake every year to celebrate the 4th of July.  Everyone in the family helps out, and Craig's job is to catch the fish.  The past couple of years, though, he's had a tough time getting the catch, so this year he decided to bring in the big guns.  Thank goodness Dave came through!

My contribution to the party.  The Jicama was a huge hit, as was the Caesar dip.  Now that it's all been eaten, I can give it away--there were anchovies in it!  See, they're not so gross.

And finally, the meal we wait all year for.  The lobsters were delicious, as was the corn and the sausage and the clams and of course the fish.

That was a whole lot of rich food though, and Sunday night Craig and I had Penance Dinner, grilled veggies in a wrap.  Not a bad way to pay for your sins.

Fish Tacos!

As promised, we made the leftover fluke into some awesome tacos on Wednesday night.  We accessorized our tacos with yogurt mixed with garlic scape pesto and lemon juice and with a chopped mixture of herbs and cherry tomatoes (our garden) and radishes (CSA).  A little rice and they were perfect, especially after we heated the tortillas on the grill.  Behind the taco is grilled yellow pepper, onion, and portobello mushrooms.  Gin and tonic and a beautiful hot evening made it perfect.

Fresh Fish

On Saturday Craig went fishing and was very successful.  The new limit for fluke (summer flounder) is pretty big, so even one keeper is a lot of food.  On Sunday evening I grilled one of his fluke.  I sliced green garlic from the CSA and heated it gently in olive oil, then covered the fish in the oil.  I then placed a buttered sheet of foil on the grill and set the fish, skin side down, on that.  It worked pretty well, although I would have preferred something sturdier (and more reusable) than foil.  Here it is just off the grill:

And on the plate.  The garlic was delicious!  I served it with stir-fried tat soi from the CSA and snow peas from our garden, and over brown rice tossed with a garlic scape (CSA again) pesto.  And we had enough fish left over to make fish tacos tonight!