End of Summer Dinner

Well, this is it. Its the final week of August and while it still feels like summer, it won't for long. The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting cooler and I'm starting to see pumpkin spice flavored everything on the grocery store shelves. In just a few short weeks I'll be putting my sandals and shorts away to make room for boots and jeans.

The end of summer also means the end of summer produce. No more garden tomatoes, no more fresh corn and no more inexpensive peaches and berries. I've been harvesting what I can and getting it processed for the winter. My basil and parsley plants have been tremendously productive this summer and they needed to get trimmed back. I also had a hell of a time last weekend trying to fit everything in my freezer and I decided to cook some of my stored stuff to make room for more.

Our garden was a bit of a disaster this year. Most of our tomato plants came down with late blight and one of them was a variety that was developed specifically for the Heinz company. It is a super Roma that is quite fleshy and has very few seeds, so it is perfect for thick sauces. Before the plant succumbed to blight, it has started to bear fruit and there were about 30 green tomatoes on it. I left the plant alone and let most of the tomatoes ripen. Once they were ripe, I blanched them in hot water, shocked them in ice water, peeled them and put them in containers in the freezer. I had two quarts of those special Roma tomatoes taking up space in the freezer and I also had a huge amount of fresh basil and parsley still growing in my garden. Based on those ingredients, my game plan was to make tomato sauce and fresh pesto for some kind of Italian dinner. After a brief discussion with my husband, we settled on chicken Parmesan and angel hair pasta.

I started with the tomatoes. I'd never grown this variety before, so I wasn't sure how they would taste. I left them to defrost on the kitchen counter for a few hours and as they defrosted I noticed that water was collecting in the bottom of each container. Normally tomatoes put off some juice, but it is typically red just like the tomatoes. This liquid was completely clear, but it had the flavor of sweet tomato juice. I chopped half a yellow onion and sauteed it in olive oil with a little salt, pepper and oregano until it was just starting to brown, then added two cloves of thinly sliced garlic. As soon as the garlic started to brown ever so slightly, I dumped in that clear tomato water and let it reduce for a few minutes to concentrate the flavor. Then I added the still partially frozen tomatoes and let that all simmer together until the tomatoes were completely defrosted. I mashed them a bit with a potato masher and left it to simmer over low heat for about an hour to let some of that liquid reduce. Finally, I used my immersion blender to make a chunky sauce. I was surprised at how sweet these tomatoes were and how much body the sauce had given the amount of juice there was. I set this yummy sauce aside and moved on to the pesto.

I made the pesto following the directions from Tami Dixon who'd made pesto in my kitchen just a few weeks earlier. I wanted to recreate that rough and chunky pesto that Tami made, so I filled my food processor with basil and parsley leaves, added some pine nuts, walnuts, three big cloves of garlic and just pulsed the processor a few times to break everything up. Then I added the olive oil, cheese, salt and pepper and pulsed it just until it was blended. It was chunky and bright green and fragrant just like Tami's. There was quite a bit of pesto and some went directly in the freezer for a future preparation. Once the sauces were made, I moved on to the chicken. I sliced a couple of chicken breasts into cutlets and pounded them out to about half an inch thick.  Each chicken breast yielded four cutlets and I floured them lightly, dipped them in beaten egg and then pressed them into a dish of seasoned Panko breadcrumbs. I pan fried them until they were golden brown and set them on a sheet tray. Once they were all cooked, I covered each one with a healthy dollop of tomato sauce and some shredded provolone cheese and popped them into a 350 oven. After about 10 minutes, I turned the oven off while I boiled the angel hair pasta. When the pasta was cooked, I tossed it with a couple of big spoonfuls of pesto and the rest of the tomato sauce.  I served this delicious dinner with a salad on the side.

The tomato sauce had a very bright, sweet flavor and the tomatoes maintained a nice texture during cooking. If I'd had more of them, I may have cooked a giant pot of tomato sauce and let it boil down to a deep red, rich consistency. Perhaps I will grow them again and next time I will have a bigger yield. The pesto had just the right texture and still had little bits of crunchy walnuts and pine nuts floating around in it.  The earthy and herbaceous flavor of the pesto blended beautifully with the bright tomato sauce and the contrast in texture between the crispy chicken and the soft pasta was a marriage made in heaven. It was simple fare, but made with love from things I grew in my own backyard. You just can't get that kind of fulfillment from a jar or can. When you grow it yourself or buy from a local farmer, you can always trust the quality of your ingredients and your meal will taste that much better when you know where your food came from.

A Very Special Dinner

It was a boiling hot Friday in August and I was hosting a dinner party at my house. This wasn't just any dinner party.  I had donated the use of my house for this dinner party as a silent auction item to benefit Bricolage, a most wonderful and unique theater company in Pittsburgh. Bricolage is the brain child of two extremely talented and creative people, Jeffrey Carpenter and Tami Dixon, and after seeing a few of their stellar productions I jumped at the chance to serve on their board. As it turns out, Tami also loves to cook. So, on this particular Friday in August, Jason and I opened our home to the winning bidders and two of their friends and Tami and I cooked them a wonderful meal. This was truly a special evening.

Once we set a date, Tami and I discussed the menu. I told her I had a pasta maker and an ice cream machine and that was all she needed to hear. Tami's menu included a huge salad, homemade pasta with pesto and mint ice cream, all made with greens and herbs she'd grown in her garden. She also planned a special cocktail to go with appetizers and chose grilled steak to serve along side the pasta. The mint ice cream would be served with angel food cake and berry compote. It was a fabulous herb-based menu featuring simple yet stunning food and we had our work cut out for us. 

Tami arrived at my house at about 2 pm, our guests were set to arrive at 6:30 and dinner would be served at 7.  Knowing it needed time to chill, churn and set, we started with the ice cream. 

Tami's Mint Ice Cream

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

2/3 cups sugar

About a cup of mint leaves (basil would also be nice)

6 egg yolks

a pinch of salt

I've made ice cream many times, but never with fresh mint. Tami had never made ice cream before, so I'd sent her a link to a recipe I'd found online.  It called for making mint sugar, which is an excellent technique that allows the essential oils of the herb to permeate the ice cream. Tami jumped right in and made the the mint sugar while I separated the eggs. She combined the milk and cream in a pot, added the mint sugar and the salt, then put it over medium low heat. While the cream was heating up, she beat the egg yolks with a whisk. This being her first time, I coached Tami as she drizzled the hot cream into the egg yolks while whisking, tempering them like a pro, then adding them back to the pot with the rest of the hot cream. The mint added quite a lot of green color and we could see lots of lovely little flecks of mint leaf floating around in the custard. The custard must be heated slowly and stirred constantly so the eggs don't scramble. I stirred while Tami made the pesto. 

Tami's Double Garden Pesto

A lot of fresh basil, enough to pack the bowl of your food processor to the rim 

Two or three cloves of garlic

about half a cup of pine nuts

1 1/2 cups of good quality olive oil

a good handful of grated Parmesan and Romano cheeses

Salt and pepper

We both had basil in our gardens, so Tami combined them into her "double garden" pesto. I've made pesto before but I usually overdo it in the food processor and it tends to be smooth and runny instead of thick and chunky. Her technique is to barely pulse the food processor, starting with the basil, pine nuts and garlic, then adding the olive oil and cheeses making sure not to blend them all too finely. The texture of Tami's pesto was perfect. She added salt and pepper and put it in the fridge while I strained the thickened ice cream base and cooled it down in a bowl over ice. 

With the ice cream base cooling, Tami made a quick marinade and got the steaks into the fridge, then turned her attention to her bountiful salad, brimming with kale and peppery arugula she'd grown in her garden.  By 3:30 pm, the ice cream base was cooling, the pesto and salad were done, the steaks were marinating and we were able to sit down and take a break. It was so pleasant and relaxing to sit in the living room on that hot afternoon in August, watching the thunderstorms roll in and enjoying an easy and comfortable conversation with a new friend. 

When the rain stopped I ran out for a bag of charcoal and, of all things, a jar of maraschino cherries for the cocktails. I must have been the only person in America without a jar of maraschino cherries in my fridge - not any more! When I returned from the store, we got back into the kitchen to make pasta and we used the recipe I posted here. I think this was the most fun part of the day, getting our hands in the dough and taking turns kneading it until it was smooth and pliable.  We worked as a team to roll the dough into thin sheets, Tami cranking and me feeding the dough into the pasta machine. We rolled the sheets of pasta into logs, cut them into thin ribbons and set them under a damp towel until we were ready to cook them.

By this time, it was about 5:15 pm and things started to move really quickly. Jason got home from work and jumped into the kitchen to take care of the appetizers. Jeffrey arrived at about 6 pm and jumped into the kitchen to make cocktails. I started the charcoal for the steaks and somewhere in there I churned the ice cream and put it in the freezer to set. It was a whirlwind of activity!  And of course, there was the cocktail.

The Dirty Shirley

1 jigger vodka
squeeze of lime
Splash of Izzy cherry soda
Serve over ice
Lime wedge and maraschino cherry in the glass

Our guests, whom I'd never met before, arrived right on time. They were delightful, intelligent, passionate supporters of theater and the arts. While Jeffrey mixed cocktails for everyone in the kitchen, I grilled the steaks and by the time they were done, everyone had settled into the living room for an assortment of cheeses, sausage, olives, crackers and other tasty nibbles. The last thing to cook was the pasta, which we did just before we sat down at the table. I dropped the pasta into a big pot of boiling salted water, cooked it until it was al dente and dropped it into a big bowl with pesto in the bottom. Using tongs I rolled the pasta around in the pesto until it was all fully coated, Tami topped the bowl with chopped tomatoes and dinner was served.

Jeffrey, Margie, Abby and Linda in the front,
Alan, Jay, Tami and Jason in the back. 

Its hard to explain just how delicious your own fresh pasta tastes until you've tasted it and this one was especially good because of the amazing teamwork that went into making it. Dinner was a resounding success and Tami knocked it out of the ballpark with that mint ice cream. It was smooth and creamy and surprisingly herbaceous. We served it while it was still a little soft with angel food cake and berry compote for a refreshing end to a hot August evening. It was simply yummy. Everything was yummy. The conversation was excellent and our guests were having such a great time they didn't leave until after 11 pm. Jeffrey insisted on washing the dishes before going home. I finally dragged myself to bed at midnight, feeling incredibly proud of our accomplishment and honored to have played host to such a unique evening. Tami and I shared a pretty incredible day and we had a fabulous dinner for a generous Bricolage donor to show for it. That jar of maraschino cherries will probably still be in my fridge fifteen years from now and every time I see it, I'll think of this special dinner and smile.

  

10 Parsley Recipes

Every summer I plant an herb garden, usually in small pots that sit right outside my kitchen door.  I typically grow basil, thyme, dill, chives, oregano and parsley. This year I ended up with two pots of parsley and they have really taken off. I have found myself with more parsley than I know what to do with. In an effort to maximize this year's crop, I offer the following 10 recipes for parsley.

1. Tabbouleh salad - This traditional Lebanese dish is made with bulgur, cucumbers, tomatoes, green onions and lots of fresh herbs with parsley playing a starring role. Bulgur is dried cracked wheat made from the groats of any number of different wheat species. It is a whole grain, which means it is full of fiber and very good for you. It has a nutty, earthy flavor which is excellent when combined with fresh herbs, veggies and lemon vinaigrette. Most packages of bulgur will have a recipe for tabbouleh salad, but in case you can't fine one, here is a simple preparation. Put one cup of dry bulgar and one teaspoon of salt in a bowl and pour over one cup of boiling water. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for at least half an hour until all the water is absorbed. Mix together 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 1/4 cup of good olive oil. While the bulgur is still warm, pour the dressing over it and mix it in, Cover it and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours. The dressing will soak into the bulgur and make it delicious.

tabbouleh salad

When the bulgur is chilled and the dressing is absorbed, add the rest of the ingredients: 1 cup of chopped parsley, one cup of chopped mint, one cucumber (peeled, seeded and cut into small pieces), two medium tomatoes (poke some of the seeds out so your salad isn't too watery and cut them into small pieces), two or three chopped green onions and salt and pepper to taste. Mix everything together and put it back in the fridge for an hour.

2. Chimichurri sauce - This thick, green sauce is an Argentinian invention designed to go with grilled meat. The main ingredient is parsley and it is enhanced by red wine vinegar, garlic, red pepper flakes, shallot and olive oil. You can also add fresh oregano or cilantro if you desire, but its fine with just parsley. Basically, a cup of finely chopped parsley is moistened with 1/3 cup of oil, 1/4 cup of vinegar and seasoned with a minced clove of garlic, a small chopped shallot, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. You can even puree it in the food processor of you want a smooth sauce. I like mine chunky. Its best after it sits in the fridge for a couple of days, which allows the garlic to mellow and the flavors to come together. It can be used as a marinade or just spooned over grilled beef, chicken, pork or lamb. It is also delicious served over grilled mushrooms and veggies.

3. Herb cream cheese - This is one of my favorite things to have in the fridge. Its good on crackers, toast and bagels. In the food processor, mix a block of cream cheese and a small log of goat cheese with your favorite chopped herbs, a little lemon zest, a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. Parsley is perfect in here, as are thyme and chives.

homemade matzo balls

4. Matzo balls - To me, matzo balls just don't taste right without fresh parsley in them. I also like fresh dill, but dill takes a back seat to parsley in a matzo ball. I also use giant handfuls of parsley when I make chicken soup. Homemade chicken broth is not a necessity if you're craving matzo balls. Canned chicken broth will do in a pinch. Follow the directions on the package of matzo meal or matzo ball mix and add about half a cup of chopped parsley. When you make matzo balls, make sure you beat the eggs very well before you add the matzo meal and boil them covered in salted water. Once they are boiled you can add them to your soup. Trust me, your balls will be fluffy and perfect if you follow these tips.

5. Herb rice - Lemon and parsley go very well together and when they team up with rice, you have a versatile and yummy side dish. Put a cup of raw rice in a pot over medium heat and add a tablespoon of butter. Stir it together and toast the rice in the melted butter. Add a teaspoon of salt, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 3/4 cup of chicken broth, a handful of finely chopped parsley and cook covered over low heat until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender. I like to turn off the heat and let the rice sit covered for about 10 minutes before I serve. Fluff your rice with a fork.

6. Herb salad - We eat a lot of salads in the summer and they can get kind of boring.  Adding fresh parsley leaves to a salad really brightens it up. In this application, do not chop your parsley. Pinch the leaves from the stems and drop them right into your salad. Its a lovely surprise when you get that herbaceous flavor from a well placed parsley leaf.

7.  Shrimp and parsley - Parsley goes particularly well with seafood and shellfish. For a pound of shrimp, you'll need about half a cup of parsley. In a medium skillet, melt two tablespoons of butter and a splash of olive oil over medium high heat. When the butter is sizzling, throw in one minced garlic clove. When the garlic is just starting to turn brown, toss in your cleaned shrimp and saute them just until they are no longer translucent. Shrimp can overcook very easily so keep an eye on them and take them off the heat as soon as they look done. Then stir in the chopped parsley and squeeze in a little lemon juice. This is a great little appetizer with a glass of white wine.

ravioli with parsley pesto

8.  Pesto - Yes, traditional pesto is made with basil, pine nuts, olive oil, garlic and grated Parmesan cheese, but you might not realize that you can substitute any herb or nut that you like. Find your favorite pesto recipe and follow it just for the proportions, but try using parsley instead of basil and try using walnuts instead of pine nuts.

9. Stuffing - What is a holiday turkey dinner without stuffing?  In my opinion, its not a holiday dinner unless there is a bowl of stuffing on the table. My mother preferred bread stuffing and we always had a stash of end pieces and stale bread in the freezer waiting for her next holiday meal. This is another recipe that just doesn't taste right to me without parsley.  I can't share a recipe with you because I make stuffing using my senses, not measuring cups, but here is the basic rundown. Saute chopped onion, garlic and celery with a little paprika in a large skillet over medium heat until they are soft. Don't throw out the celery leaves, they are excellent in this recipe. Take your stale bread and pour just enough broth over it to moisten, but not to make it mushy. Add the moistened bread to the pan and saute it with the vegetables. Add a generous amount of chopped parsley. You can either stuff this inside the turkey or roast it in a pan in the oven until it is golden brown on top. Make sure you have plenty of gravy because this bread stuffing is best when its anointed with gravy.

10. Roast chicken - Want to add amazing flavor to a plain roast chicken? Stick a couple whole garlic cloves and a handful of fresh parsley inside the cavity before you roast it.  The parsley will break down in the oven and flavor the chicken from the inside.

Parsley is a pretty ubiquitous herb and there are hundreds of things you can do with it.  These are just a few ideas on how you can make it shine.