* Deborah Madison's recipe for chilled Sungold tomato soup. The tomatoes are
cooked with water, salt, and a chopped shallot, then put through a food mill
to remove the skins and seeds. That liquid is chilled, then mixed with salt,
basil or cilantro (I used purple basil), more chopped shallot, champagne
vinegar, sherry vinegar, and chopped avocado. It was tasty indeed, and a
nice start to the meal.

* Beef & zucchini kabobs: The beef was thinly sliced sirloin which was
seasoned and allowed to sit at room temperature for about half an hour. The
zucchini was cut into coins about three-quarters of an inch thick, salted,
and also sat for half an hour. The meat and squash were threaded onto
skewers and then broiled. The sauce for the kabobs was a mixture of
chipotles in adobo, orange juice, and puréed "giardiniera" pickled
vegetables (a handy trick I got from Taqueria Tech). We unthreaded the meat
and zucchini from the skewers, wrapped morsels in butter lettuce leaves with
sauce, and ate by hand.

* What was *supposed* to be mashed plantains with garlic and olive oil, but
which turned into a second sauce for the kabobs. Plantains are giving me
fits nowadays for some reason. In recent months I haven't been happy with
the texture of cooked plantains; they never softened adequately. So today I
cooked them at 400°F until they were *definitely* soft enough. Then I ran
them through a food mill and added olive oil, salt, and minced garlic.
Everything was fine at that point. But as the mixture cooled, it got firmer
and firmer, to the point of being unpleasantly waxy. So I put it into the
food processor with some buttermilk to soften it -- at which point it turned
into soup. Since the zucchini was a tad bitter and the plantain liquid was
a bit sweet, it made sense to use the plantain liquid as a second dipping
sauce for the zucchini and beef. Not what I had intended, but it worked out
anyway.

* One of the "101 Summer Salads" recently cited he Blueberries, shredded
carrots, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and sunflower seeds.

We had a half-bottle of "Shen Zin," a Zinfandel from California's Shenandoah
Valley, to accompany dinner.

I've got about 3 cups of the plantain glop left over, which will be combined
with ham, minced jalapeño, and some kind of liquid (maybe chicken stock,
maybe vegetable stock, maybe coconut water) to make a soup tomorrow night.
The remaining chipotle-vegetable sauce will be used to make enchiladas
tomorrow night.

Bob

Bob Terwilliger wrote:
> * Deborah Madison's recipe for chilled Sungold tomato soup. The tomatoes are
> cooked with water, salt, and a chopped shallot, then put through a food mill
> to remove the skins and seeds. That liquid is chilled, then mixed with salt,
> basil or cilantro (I used purple basil), more chopped shallot, champagne
> vinegar, sherry vinegar, and chopped avocado. It was tasty indeed, and a
> nice start to the meal.

It's a chilled soup and yet she has you cook the tomatoes? Huh. I'm
lazy and heat-averse so I make my cold tomato soup with raw tomatoes and
I confess, I don't bother with the seeds or skins. This recipe sounds
very nice indeed - is it from her big Vegetarian Cooking cookbook?

<snip kabob talk>

> * One of the "101 Summer Salads" recently cited he Blueberries, shredded
> carrots, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and sunflower seeds.

Ooooo, when I looked at that article, this was one of the first ones
that leapt out at me. How'd you like it? It sounds deeee-vine to me.

> We had a half-bottle of "Shen Zin," a Zinfandel from California's Shenandoah
> Valley, to accompany dinner.
>
> I've got about 3 cups of the plantain glop left over, which will be combined
> with ham, minced jalapeño, and some kind of liquid (maybe chicken stock,
> maybe vegetable stock, maybe coconut water) to make a soup tomorrow night.

Now that sounds tasty too! I've never thought about making plantain
soup before. I wonder how it would be without the ham and served ice cold?

> The remaining chipotle-vegetable sauce will be used to make enchiladas
> tomorrow night.

Yum! I just love your food talk, Bob :-)

TammyM

TammyM wrote:

> It's a chilled soup and yet she has you cook the tomatoes? Huh. I'm lazy
> and heat-averse so I make my cold tomato soup with raw tomatoes and I
> confess, I don't bother with the seeds or skins. This recipe sounds very
> nice indeed - is it from her big Vegetarian Cooking cookbook?

It's from _Local Flavors_.


>> * One of the "101 Summer Salads" recently cited he Blueberries,
>> shredded carrots, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and sunflower
>> seeds.
>
> Ooooo, when I looked at that article, this was one of the first ones that
> leapt out at me. How'd you like it? It sounds deeee-vine to me.

It was pleasant enough, but it might have gone with the rest of the meal
better if I'd added roasted cumin. Since this was my first time making it, I
didn't want to tamper with the original recipe.


>> I've got about 3 cups of the plantain glop left over, which will be
>> combined with ham, minced jalapeño, and some kind of liquid (maybe
>> chicken stock, maybe vegetable stock, maybe coconut water) to make a soup
>> tomorrow night.
>
> Now that sounds tasty too! I've never thought about making plantain soup
> before. I wonder how it would be without the ham and served ice cold?

I think it would be unpleasantly thick and starchy if served cold. The stuff
is kind of like gravy at this point. To make it palatable cold, I'd try
adding a LOT of liquid and some lime juice.


>> The remaining chipotle-vegetable sauce will be used to make enchiladas
>> tomorrow night.
>
> Yum! I just love your food talk, Bob :-)

Hey, you know where Lin and I live!

Bob

On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:08:26 -0700, "Bob Terwilliger"
> wrote:


Nice and just right for the season, I think.

EXcept for my DV condition, I would actually eat it.

Made chick-pea salad tonight, with parsley, red and
green bell pepper, celery leaves, scallions, lemon
vinaigrette, white pepper, cumin powder, etc.

Sinfully good.

Alex

Alex wrote:

> Made chick-pea salad tonight, with parsley, red and
> green bell pepper, celery leaves, scallions, lemon
> vinaigrette, white pepper, cumin powder, etc.
>
> Sinfully good.

Yowza! That sounds fantastic also -- and not sinful at all! I'll keep it in
mind for the upcoming dog days of summer.

Bob

On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:16:30 -0700, "Bob Terwilliger"
> wrote:

>Alex wrote:
>
>> Made chick-pea salad tonight, with parsley, red and
>> green bell pepper, celery leaves, scallions, lemon
>> vinaigrette, white pepper, cumin powder, etc.
>>
>> Sinfully good.
>
>Yowza! That sounds fantastic also -- and not sinful at all! I'll keep it in
>mind for the upcoming dog days of summer.
>
>Bob
>
I've never made it the same way twice. You're welcome to
whatever little input I can provide. I've spent some time in
the Middle East and sort of got a liking for those flavors.

Alex, a mediocre cook. Not a chef.