A couple weeks ago my housemate Tim scored a bunch of free nectarines from the research orchard near campus. He froze as many as would fit in the freezer, but that still left boxes of ever ripening nectarines for us to eat as quickly as possible. Believe me, there are worse plights in life than being surrounded by an abundance of fresh fruit. For a whole week I had sliced nectarines with cottage cheese, one of the most delicious snacks on the face of the planet. But at a certain point your body begins to protest at the inclusion of nectarines in EVERY meal you eat, and you begin to lag in the race to keep up with the rotting fruit. This is why I was thrilled when some friends had a bbq and I got an opportunity to make a nectarine dish that I could at least partially pawn off on OTHER people.
I could have made a pie or a cobbler or something else sweet, but I wanted to try something a little different. Finally I found a salsa recipe that paired nectarines with yellow tomatoes and arugula and decided to give it a go. The chopping and slicing took a while, but the end product was worth the effort.
We served the salsa with chips and used it to top our grilled fish tacos. It was delicious! The next night we used the leftover corn tortillas and salsa to make chicken tacos. Equally delicious! I’m sure you could substitute peaches or mangos for the nectarines if you find yourself with an overabundance of one of those. Bottom line, if fish tacos are on your menu in the near future, I really encourage you to use this salsa. Top it with some feta, avocado, and cilantro and experience heaven.
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Nectarine salsa
from Bon Appétit
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups 1/3-inch cubes pitted white nectarines (**I used yellow nectarines and removed the peel)
1 1/4 cups chopped yellow or orange tomatoes (8 to 9 ounces)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped arugula
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 3- to 4-inch-long serrano chile, seeded, minced
Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
This summer I’ve had the worst luck EVER with airline flights. One example: A few weeks ago Vicken and I flew to Vermont for a wedding (he from Montreal and me from Sacramento) and we both got stuck in our connection cities with cancelled flights. I was in Chicago and spent the night freezing cold, trying to get comfortable enough to sleep on the airport chairs with not much luck. Vicken spent the night in the Detroit airport. THEN on the way back we got stuck in Chicago again, this time for 24 hours! We were ready to be home so we were pretty bummed, BUT several things happened that made this detour worthwhile.
1. We spent the next day exploring downtown Chicago, a place where neither of us had spent any time. We listened to the Grant Park Orchestra practice in Millennium Park, went to a farmer’s market downtown, and walked a LOT. It beat the hell out of hanging out in an airport.
2. We met up with my cousin, who lives in Chicago, for dinner. I hadn’t seen her in 4 years and got to meet her 2 daughters for the first time. Her youngest was asleep the whole time, but her older daughter, Clara, was full of energy. She was a blast to hang out with.
3. We ate Chicago-style pizza for dinner (at Gino’s East) and I had the BEST pizza I have ever eaten in my entire life! And no, I’m not exaggerating!
We got deep dish spinach pizza and it was amazing. They make an amazing cornmeal-based crust and the pizza toppings were proportioned perfectly. First of all, they didn’t overdo the cheese, which (in my opinion) is the easiest way to ruin pizza. The cheese was the bottom layer of the toppings, followed by sauteed spinach, and then a fresh tomato sauce. The spinach tasted amazingly fresh and they put a hefty portion of the tomato sauce (my favorite!) on top.
I wish I could have savored every bite more, but we were in a rush and afraid to miss our flight, so we had to eat quickly. As soon as we left I started dreaming about recreating that pizza. It took a while, but I finally looked on epicurious.com and found a recipe for a deep dish sausage pizza with a cornmeal-based crust. The tomato “sauce” in this recipe had one pound of sausage to one small can of diced tomatoes, which sounded a little too sausage-y and not tomato-y enough for me. When I made it I cut back on the sausage a bit and added sauteed spinach to at least attempt to copy the Gino’s masterpiece.
All in all, the pizza was really good. My only complaint was that the recipe gives you enough dough to make TWO 10-1/2 inch pizzas instead of one. The dough rose a lot so the crust was way thicker than I prefer it. If you like thick crust pizza though, this is the crust for you. I’ve made the pizza again and literally halfing the recipe or splitting the dough between TWO 10-1/2 inch pizzas is perfect. I drained the sauteed spinach and garlic and the tomato sauce was also really dry, so we didn’t end up with a soggy pizza like I was afraid we might. I made a few suggestions to change the recipe below, so feel free to try those if you give this pizza a shot.
I feel like this is something I’m going to keep making over and over until I get it just right. I can only dream that I’ll eventually make something as good as what we had in Chicago. If that never happens, maybe I’ll just drop out of grad school, move to Chicago, work in the Gino’s kitchen and get their recipe. Until then, on with grad school…
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Deep dish pizza with sausage and spinach
Adapted from Gourmet
Ingredients
½ teaspoon sugar
1 cup warm water (110° – 115° F)
a ¼-ounce package (1 ½ teaspoons) active dry yeast
2 ¼ to 2 ½ cups unbleached flour
½ cup yellow cornmeal
¾ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil plus additional for oiling bowl
½ pound Italian sausage, casings discarded
28-ounce can peeled whole tomatoes, drained and chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
½ teaspoon crushed chili pepper
1 bunch spinach, washed, stems removed and coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup grated whole-milk mozzarella cheese (about 1/4 pound)
Directions
1. In a large bowl dissolve sugar in water. Sprinkle yeast over water and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Stir in 2 ¼ cups flour, cornmeal, salt, and 2 tablespoons oil and blend until mixture forms a dough. Knead dough on a floured surface, incorporating as much of remaining ¼ cup flour as necessary to prevent dough from sticking, until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.
(Alternatively, dough may be made in a food processor. Proof yeast as described above. In the food processor process yeast mixture with 2 ¼ cups flour, cornmeal, salt, and 2 tablespoons oil until mixture forms a ball, adding more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, if too dry or some of remaining ¼ cup flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, if too wet, and knead dough by processing it 15 seconds more.)
2. Put dough, prepared by either method, in a deep oiled bowl and turn to coat with oil. Let dough rise, covered with plastic wrap, in a warm place 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.
(**If you prefer a thinner crust, pinch the ball of dough in half, reshape them into balls and put each in a separate oiled bowl. You will need to double the portions of sauce, spinach, and cheese to make two pizzas).
3. While dough is rising, in a heavy skillet cook sausage over moderately high heat, breaking up lumps, until no longer pink and stir in tomatoes, oregano, crushed chilies, and salt and pepper to taste. Transfer sausage mixture to paper towels to drain and cool.
(** I didn’t drain the tomato sausage mixture and instead cooked the sauce until all of the excess liquid had cooked off.)
4. In another large skillet heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over med-low heat. Add the minced garlic and cook until garlic is fragrant, but not browned, about 30 seconds. Add the chopped spinach and cook, stirring occasionally, until the spinach is wilted and most of the excess water has evaporated. Transfer spinach to a fine mesh colander and press to remove excess liquid. Set aside.
5. Preheat oven to 475° F.
6. Punch down dough and knead 4 times. In an oiled 10 ½-inch cast-iron skillet, press dough with oiled finger until it comes 2 inches up the side and is an even thickness on bottom. Let dough rise, covered loosely with plastic wrap, in a warm place 15 minutes.
7. Sprinkle dough with mozzarella and spread the spinach evenly over the cheese. Top with tomato-sausage mixture. Bake pizza in lower third of an electric oven or on floor of a gas oven for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400°F and bake 10 minutes more, or until crust is golden.
My field season is rapidly coming to an end. I officially moved out of the field station and back to Davis 2 weeks ago and I only have one more experiment to do later in August. Before I’m totally out of field-living mode, I wanted to share a recipe that I made a lot at the field station this summer.
This salad was inspired by Erin, the field assistant I lived and worked with over the summer. The girl pretty much lives on salads made of greens, some kind of grain, and other vegetables. Since I’ve been trying to eat a wider variety of grains anyway, I figured I might as well give her approach a try. I started with quinoa and played around with additions until I came up with a pretty good salad base consisting of quinoa, chickpeas, and feta cheese. I’ve done variations with whatever vegetables I happen to have around or whatever is in season and it has consistently turned out well. For this summer version, I used cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, and parsley. I even got to supplement the cherry tomatoes from the co-op with a few from the “garden” at Vicken’s house!!! I guess it’s a little pitiful how excited I got about this, but really! Aren’t they beautiful!?!
I add quite a bit of vegetables to this so that the quinoa isn’t the main component. I find it’s a great way to eat a big serving of vegetables without having to eat a boring green salad. You can add less vegetables if that’s your preference, or you could even serve this over salad greens with some extra dressing. The best thing about this salad is that you can make a big batch and then eat it for lunch for a few days. This assumes, of course, that you (like me) can stand to eat the same meal day after day. I used to think I was boring for doing this, but, in the spirit of positivity, I now prefer to think of it as “adaptive.” I am a broke grad student after all.
In case you’re curious, I’ve made a spring version of this salad with arugula, green beans, and green onions and another summer version with roasted zucchini and tomatoes. The possibilities are endless! Despite this, I figure it’s in my best interest to come up with a different type of salad or bulk meal to make before I get totally sick of this one… I’ll let you know when I find it.
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Quinoa salad with tomatoes and cucumbers
Ingredients
1 cup quinoa (I used red, but you can use white)
2 cups water
1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1 large cucumber, peeled, quartered length-wise, and sliced
4 green onions, green and white parts, sliced
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 can chick peas, drained
4 oz. feta crumbled feta cheese
1/3 cup olive oil
juice of 2 lemons
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
1. Combine water and quinoa in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain any excess liquid from quinoa and set aside to cool to room temperature. (You can make the quinoa ahead of time and refrigerate until you are ready to assemble the rest of the salad.)
2. Combine olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, salt and pepper in a jar and shake to combine. Pour the dressing over the quinoa and mix well. Add the sliced vegetables, chick peas, and parsley and stir to combine. Top with the crumbled feta and serve immediately.
**I’ve kept leftovers for up to 4 days in the fridge. It is great cold or at room temperature, and it makes a great light lunch.
cookery bookery 