Zucchini Takes the Cake!

Here we go! I made Greek Zucchini Cakes, served them with sour cream and fresh dill, and a tomato salad!

Greek Zucchini Cakes

1 pound zucchini, grated
1 teaspoon kosher salt or 3/4 teaspoon table salt
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3 green onions, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup chopped pine nuts (I put these in a bag and smacked them with a meat mallet...my favorite way to chop nuts!)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill, or 1 teaspoon dried (I used fresh - probably 2T though...I love fresh dill!)
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano leaves, or 1/2 teaspoon dried (I used dried)
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon freshly milled black pepper
Olive oil

Combine the grated zucchini and kosher salt. Set aside for 5 minutes (no more, or it will be mush). Rinse in cold water and squeeze dry in a kitchen towel or press in a strainer or colander until dry.

Combine the cheese, egg, green onions, flour, pine nuts, dill, oregano, garlic, and pepper in a large bowl; fold in the zucchini. Form into 24 small cakes (about 2 tablespoons of mixture for each) and saute in olive oil, turning once, until browned, about 3 minutes on each side. (So, I made about 6 cakes instead and fried them up in olive oil.) Serve immediately.

I served this with a tomato salad:

2 boxes grape tomatoes - halved

A good chunk of feta - crumbled

6 big basil leaves (or more...or less...whatever you like!) - stack and roll them up like a cigar, then finely slice

1 clove of garlic - finely, finely chopped

Juice from ~1/2 a Meyer lemon (The more sour kind of lemon would be phenomenal as well! Whatever you've got! Or, if you're out of citrus, whatever vinegar is your favorite would be great as well! It just needs a little bit of acid.)

Drizzle with olive oil, grind a bit of black pepper (the feta gives this enough salt, I think), mix well, and enjoy!

What I Thought

These cakes are seriously delicious! The flavors are fantastic! But, these things were barely holding it together. I'm thinking either I've got to either squeeze the water out of the zucchini way better (I just pushed it out in the colander, but maybe actually squeezing it with a paper towel would be better), make the cakes smaller like the recipe actually calls for, or make a change to the recipe (like more flour and egg or something) if I want a bigger cake.
Besides that though, these were great! They really did not take long...a good weeknight/after work supper, and I made the salad while the cakes were frying, so everything was done at the same time!

Enjoy!

Chimi some more!

So, this week, the the new recipe I tried was Pork Tenderloin with Chimichurri Sauce. I made this with roasted asparagus, and a green salad.

Pork Tenderloin with Chimichurri

Ingredients

Chimichurri:

• 6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 2 jalapenos, seeded and minced – I used one
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• About 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• About 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh oregano leaves – I used fresh marjoram instead
• 3 limes, juiced
• 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns - I used regular ground pepper
• 2 pork tenderloins (about 1 pound each), trimmed of excess fat, patted dry – I made this with 1 tenderloin
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Lime juice, for drizzling
• Parsley sprigs, for garnish

Directions

Combine the garlic, jalapeno and vinegar in a bowl. Stir in the parsley, oregano, and lime juice. Whisk in the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Mix well and set aside at room temperature to allow the flavors to marry.

Reserve 1/2 cup of the chimichurri to serve and marinate the pork in the rest. (I made the full amount of the sauce, but only used one PTL, so I just put the pork in a Ziploc, and added sauce until it was well covered) Put the pork and marinade in a sealable plastic bag and set aside in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat an outdoor charcoal grill or oven broiler to high.

Remove the pork from the marinade, wiping off any excess (I did not do very much/any wiping). Season both sides with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and place on the grill (I did not drizzle, since I didn’t wipe the marinade off). Grill the pork on the hottest part of the barbecue for 4 minutes per side, until well charred. (I used my oven broiler…broiled about 4-6 minutes on each side…juicy and delicious!)

Allow the tenderloin to rest for about 5 minutes prior to slicing (Do this! I know it's tempting...). Spoon some chimichurri over the meat, drizzle with lime juice, garnish with parsley, and serve with the remaining sauce at the table.

Recipe courtesy of Tyler Florence, 2007 (Tyler’s Ultimate)

For the roasted asparagus - wash, trim, into a roasting pan, coat in olive oil, salt, pepper, roast at 400 until done (maybe a good 30 min or so) - get it out of the oven and immediately shred a bit of parmesan cheese on top! Mmm...melty!

What I Thought
Umm...delicious! I would absolutely recommend trying this recipe! I think not wiping off the marinade gave the pork some fantastic extra flavor. It really doesn't take that long to make, mostly just the time it takes to flavor the pork, but I roasted the asparagus in that time, and then it took about 15 minutes or so to finish supper (in which I made the salad)!

Since I only made one tenderloin, but made the whole bit of sauce, I had a bunch of leftover sauce. This is delicious on all sorts of things...roasted vegetables, a salad the next day, perhaps rotisserie chicken, if you're not feeling so much like cooking?...

A Quick Tip

For those who perhaps don't have much or any experience with pork tenderloin, let me just say this is one of my favorite cuts of meat to cook. They're super easy to make, and so so delicious!

They have a big piece of connective tissue called the "silver skin" running down the side. It's named such, because that's what it looks like! You will definitely see it. Just slide your knife under it, and cut it off...easy as that! But for sure get if off of there, cause if you don't and cook the meat, it's really tough, and will make the meat all curly on that end.

I usually buy the 2 packs of pork tenderloin, make one, then trim up the other one, wrap it good in foil, and pop it in the freezer. Then, you've got it pretty much ready to go (just thaw it up!), and you don't even have to clean the meat!

Enjoy!

Mo-roccan it!

Moroccan food and flavors? Delicious!

Here's the recipes I tried for this week:

Chicken Tagine with Lemons and Olives

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 1 chicken piece and 1/3 cup sauce)

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breast halves (about 1 1/2 pounds), skinned (I used 2 whole chicken breasts, and cut them into halves)
• 2 chicken leg quarters (about 1 pound), skinned (I used none of legs)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 3/4 cup pitted whole green olives (I used the jalapeno stuffed olives, cause that’s what we had…absolutely phenomenal! Also, I quartered them.)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

Preparation

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat. Add chicken; cook 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove chicken from pan.

Add onion and garlic to pan; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add chicken, broth, olives, cinnamon, and ginger; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 45 minutes. Turn chicken over; cook, uncovered, 15 minutes.

Remove chicken from pan with a slotted spoon; place 1 chicken piece on each of 4 plates. Add lemon rind, juice, cilantro, and parsley to pan; cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Spoon sauce over chicken. – I did not do this last part quite like they said. I shredded the chicken inside the pot (it was so, so tender), to make it more like a stew. Then I added the rest of the ingredients and mixed.

Enjoy!

From: Jessica B. Harris, Cooking Light, MAY 2001

And....

Moroccan Spiced Roasted Vegetables

Veggies

3 large sweet potatoes

4 parsnips

1 yellow bell pepper

2 large zucchini

- Chop these guys into good size chunks

Spice Blend

2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground red chile

1 tsp ground allspice

Mix these together.

Topping:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 yellow onion, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices, separated into rings

1/4 cup pine nuts

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon honey

Preheat the oven to 450. Toss veggies in olive oil to coat. Add spice blend and mix to coat, until there’s as much spice as you want on there.

Bake for about 30-45 minutes, until deliciously roasted. (Poke a thick sweet potato slice with a fork to see if it’s soft enough)

For topping:

Heat olive oil in pan over medium high heat. Add onion rings and cook until soft and slightly browned, maybe about 15 min or so. Add pine nuts and cinnamon, and cook for about a minute, until you can smell the wonderful cinnamon. Add the honey and cook until it gets melty and coats everything. Take off the heat.

When veggies are done, pour topping over them and mix well.

This will definitely serve 4, and you’ll probably get some spectacular leftovers to boot!

Adapted from: Roasted Vegetable Couscous with Chickpeas and Onion–Pine Nut Topping (Al Cuscus bil Khodar al-mausim), Amy Riolo, Cooking Light, JANUARY 2009

What I thought: These were both absolutely delicious! Please do try them!

For the chicken, I really liked the bit of spicy that the jalapeno in the olives added to the dish. Browning and simmering the breasts whole, and then shredding them at the end really kept the chicken juicy.

The spice blend on the roasted veggies got fantastic reviews from the folks who shared this meal (and from me)! I thought the topping with the little bit of sweet was just delightful with the spice!

Reviews about the leftovers (both dishes): "Delicious cold!" - Josh Huber

"I only had these the second night, and they were delicious cold!" - Carrie Sandahl

I also had these for leftovers (both recipes make a lot of food, and 4 folks were eating for this one the first go round), and indeed, they were great! I heated mine up... these both held up really well... great for work lunches!

Delicioustown. Population: everybody!

I love cooking! Cooking and eating are just about my most favorite things! One of my favorites besides sharing a delicious meal with friends and family!

Once a week, I'll be making a brand spanking new recipe I've never, ever tried before! I'll be posting the recipe, along with any changes I've made. Or, if it's changed a whole lot, I'll post the revised version.

The whole point is to give all you hungry folks new ideas to try(hopefully with delicious results)! If you try the recipe, and do something different you like more... post it! Or, if you have an idea that you think would make it even more delicious...post it! Or if you think of other dishes that would complement the originals...post it!

It's all about loving food, trying new things, and sharing some delicious times!