FLASH IN THE PAN!

The heat is on and I can’t get too excited about slaving over a hot stove. So I go for foods that cook in a flash, foods like boneless chicken breast, fish, shellfish, pork tenderloin, lamb chops or kebabs, ground meat, eggs, cooked ham.

Fast foods--pan-grilled fish steaks, blender soup, quickie olive sauce. Potatoes and beans cook in the same pan.

I add salads and quick-cooking vegetables, ready-to-serve starters and side dishes, fast and flashy sauces and, for dessert, either fresh fruit or store-bought ice cream, cake, pudding.

I couldn't cook without a blender and/or food processor, which make short work of smooth and cool summer soups; grated or sliced veggies for salads; fast-chopped ingredients for  sauces.  A microwave also saves time and, better yet, keeps a cool kitchen. 

Precooked foods save time at meal times. For example, in the summer, I like to keep on hand potatoes, boiled in their skins and well-chilled.  These can become instant potato salad, Spanish potato tortilla, fast fries, or, be slathered with garlic and olive oil for grilling.  Cooked rice, macaroni, green beans, garbanzos and other legumes are equally useful, hot or cold.  When you grill, take advantage of those dying coals to roast peppers, leeks and eggplant to be served, marinated, with the next day's meal. 

Summer meals needn't be served hot, hot.  Cook the food and let it set until folks are ready to dine.  Add sauces, garnishes and side dishes at the last minute.  If food gets cold, don't sweat.

I put together three flash-in-the-pan meals, ready in 30 minutes. My menus are inspired by Mediterranean foods and, especially, by what’s in my garden right now—terrific tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and green and yellow beans.

Menu #1: a starter of chilled cucumber soup, fish steaks with olivada sauce, potatoes, beans and garden tomatoes.

1. Chilled cucumber soup; grilled albacore steaks with olivada sauce; potatoes, beans and sliced garden tomatoes.

2. Tomato-cheese salad, pasta with shrimp and zucchini.

3. Watermelon salad, breaded chicken cutlets with red pepper mayonnaise, cous cous taboulleh, microwave zucchini.

Ready, set, cook! Ingredients for a starter (cucumber-yogurt soup), main (pan-grilled albacore with olive sauce) and sides of beans and potatoes. All ready to serve in 30 minutes.

Menu 1. Cucumber soup, grilled albacore tuna with olive sauce, potatoes, beans and tomatoes.

Bring a pan of water to a boil. (You can save a little time by starting with hot tap water and covering the pan. Add salt once the water boils.) Add 4 medium potatoes (one per person). Cook them, covered, until almost tender, about 18 minutes. Add ½ pound green beans to the pan and cook until they are crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Drain the potatoes and beans and refresh with cold water.

Once the potatoes are cooking, make the cucumber soup. Then start the albacore tuna steaks. While fish cooks, use blender to make the olive sauce.

Serve the cucumber soup as a starter. Peel and slice the potatoes. Serve with the tuna, beans, sliced tomatoes and the olive sauce.

Cool as a cucumber! Chilled soup is garnished with fresh mint.

Chilled Cucumber-Yogurt Soup

Serves 4.

1 large cucumber (12 ounces), peeled
1 ½ cups plain Greek yogurt
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Mint leaves
½ cup ice water

Cut the cucumber into chunks, saving a few slices for garnish, and place in blender or food processor with the yogurt, garlic, oil, ½ teaspoon salt, pepper, lemon juice and a few mint leaves. Process until smooth. Taste and add more salt, if desired. Stir in ice water.

Serve garnished with thin slices of cucumber and chopped mint.

Slather the olive sauce over tuna, potatoes and beans.

Albacore Tuna with Olive Sauce
Bonito del Norte con Olivada

Have the albacore (bonito) steaks cut at least 1-inch thick. I used three good-sized steaks, weighing more than 2 pounds, because I wanted leftovers for making Niçoise salad for lunch the next day. 

Tuna steaks (4-6 ounces per person)
Salt
Pepper
Thyme
3 tablespoons olive oil

Flash in the pan! Thick steaks of albacore tuna are cooked medium rare in the time it takes to brown them on both sides. Cook them whole and remove skin and bones to serve.

Sprinkle fish steaks with salt, pepper and thyme. Heat oil on high heat in a large, heavy skillet (such as cast iron). Add the steaks and cook until browned on the bottom, about 4 minutes. Turn and cook until medium-rare, about 4 minutes.

(More recipes for albacore tuna here.)

Cooked medium-rare, white albacore tuna stays moist.

Quickie Olive Sauce
Olivada

This sauce, which is somewhat like tapenade, is super quick to make. Slather it on the grilled fish, the potatoes, the beans. (Another version of olivada is here) Wild fennel is blooming near my garden patch, so I’m sprinkling some of the pollen on this sauce. (More about fennel pollen  here ) This sauce needs no additional salt, as the brined olives with anchovy contribute the seasoning. If you wish, thin the sauce with some of the drained olive brine.

By the way, if you’ve never tried anchovy-stuffed olives, you really should get some right now! They are totally addictive. (Here’s a mail-order source in the US .)

1 (350-gram/ 12-ounce) can anchovy-stuffed olives, drained
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ cup flat-leaf parsley
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Fennel pollen (optional)

Put all the ingredients in a blender and process until fairly smooth. Keeps, refrigerated, for up to a week.

Tune in next week for Menu #2. 

 

More of these to come from the garden!

MENUS FOR A VEGETARIAN WEEK

My nine-year-old grandson, Leo, is staying with us this week. He recently announced himself as “vegetarian.” Although he’s not a strict fundamentalist about it, he’s mainly not eating meat, poultry or fish. So, I planned the week’s menus to honor his inclinations.

Here’s what I’m cooking. Most of these entrees are by no means Spanish (the quesadillas are made with Mexican tortillas), but they are all made using Spanish ingredients—olive oil instead of other vegetable oil, pimentón (paprika) as a favored seasoning, Spanish cheeses (semi-cured Manchego is an all-round good one), piquillo peppers.

Quesadillas--smoked pimentón stands in for chorizo flavor.

 Monday. Quesadillas and guacamole. The recipe for quesadillas on the package of (Mexican) "tortillas with corn" calls for onion, chopped potato, chorizo and seasoning. I swapped canned pinto beans for the chorizo, threw in some finely chopped zucchini as well. While I was frying the onions and potatoes, I added a spoonful of smoked pimentón. Leo’s dad appeared in the kitchen and asked, “Are you cooking chorizo?” Smoked pimentón is what gives chorizo such a distinctive aroma. Grated semi-cured Manchego topped the filling before folding it into a tortilla and browning in a little olive oil. Cooking for a kid, I served chilies on the side and kept the cilantro out of the guac. This meal was a great success!

Melted cheese, oregano, give a pizza flavor to stuffed zucchini.

Tuesday. Courgette “Pizza.” Not really pizza, but lots of pizza flavors. Courgette is another name for zucchini. This was an enormous one from a friend’s garden. I cut it in half lengthwise, scooped out the seeds and baked the shells for about 15 minutes. I made a sofrito with chopped onions, mushrooms, chard, carrots and tomatoes, seasoned it with garlic and lots of oregano. I mixed the sofrito with cooked brown rice, an egg beaten with a spoonful of cream cheese and diced cheese (Mahón). I stuffed the zucchini shells with this mixture and topped them with grated mozzarella. Into the oven again until the cheese was melted and lightly browned. On the side were marinated cucumbers (Leo adores these) and a green salad. We all enjoyed this meal.

Huevos fritos, patatas fritas--a kid favorite.

Wednesday. Huevos fritos, papas fritas y pisto. Fried eggs, potatoes and vegetable pisto, a Spanish kid’s favorite supper. My son Ben did the cooking. I gotta say, he makes the best fries in the world, crisped in olive oil. We had huevos del campo, free-range country eggs. Pisto is a vegetable medley, a sofrito, with zucchini, onions, peppers, garlic and tomatoes fried in olive oil.

Rava dosas--crêpes--and curried vegetables.

Thursday.  Rava Dosas with Potato and Chickpea Masala. This recipe comes from Gourmet Weekday: All-Time Favorite Recipes (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), but I found it on Leite's Culinaria.  Rava dosas are thin crêpes, made with rice flour, semolina and plain flour. The masala is a vegetable curry. I omitted the jalapeño and cut down the quantity of curry powder to make it kid-friendly. (Chilies on the side.) With a side of chana dal (yellow lentils), this made a delicious vegan meal. Or, you could choose, as I did, to add a raita of chopped cucumbers, yogurt and mint. Leo loved it!

Best burger--it's juicy, with "meaty" texture.

Friday. Best Burgers. I have tried dozens of veggie burger recipes, and finally came up with this one. I think it’s the best of all. The rice makes it all stick together, so it doesn’t need egg. The mushrooms contribute the necessary umami whammy. Olive oil keeps the burgers juicy. Smoked pimentón adds that char-grilled essence. Carrots give some texture. I use TVP (textured vegetable protein, a soy product) in this, but coarse, dry breadcrumbs can be substituted.

Serve the burgers on toasted buns with eggplant fries (dust eggplant strips with flour and fry until golden in olive oil) and cole slaw with olive oil dressing. Leo likes his burger and fries with brand-name mayonnaise and ketchup. I like them with sauces such as mojo verde, green chili sauce, recipe here, and salsa de piquillos, piquillo pepper "ketchup" (recipe below).  Without the mayo, this is another vegan menu.

Best-Ever Veggie Burgers

Makes 6 burgers.

3 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup finely chopped carrots
½ cup finely chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups chopped mushrooms
½ cup TVP or coarse, dry breadcrumbs
1 cup drained, cooked or canned pinto beans
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon smoked pimentón
Additional olive oil to fry the burgers

Heat the oil in a skillet and sauté the carrots, onions, garlic and mushrooms until softened. Stir in the TVP. Set aside to cool.

Use a food processor to grind together the beans and rice with the salt and pimentón. Transfer to a bowl and add the vegetables from the skillet. Use the hands to mix all together.

Divide the mixture into 6 equal portions. Flatten them into patties and place on a baking sheet. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or, covered with plastic wrap, up to 6 hours.

Brush a pan with oil and fry the burgers until they are browned and crisped on both sides and heated through.

Salsa de Pimientos de Piquillo
Piquillo Pepper “Ketchup”

Piquillo "ketchup."

1 can (185 grams) piquillo peppers, drained
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons wine vinegar
¼ teaspoon cumin
Pinch of cayenne or pimentón picante
½ teaspoon salt

Put all of the ingredients in a blender and whirl until smooth and creamy.

Saturday. That’s today! Falafel with pita bread, tahina sauce, roasted eggplant purée (baba ganoush) and tabouleh made with cous cous grains. Another vegan menu—although I sometimes add a fresh yogurt-cucumber sauce.

Sunday. Broccoli quiche with a starter of fresh artichokes with mayonnaise—Leo’s favorite. I use store-bought pastry dough for the quiche, so it’s easy to assemble. However, as the temperature tomorrow is supposed to soar over 30ºC (90ºF), I may change my mind about turning on the oven. Perhaps it will be a crustless microwave “quiche.”