Ok. The balloon has totally deflated on Top Chef for me. It just seems so, pre-ordained. Sarah N continues to be dumb. Hung continues to be jerky. CJ, the guy with the Mohawk and Brian seemed to be consistently on top. And my favorite, Tre, is on the downslide. Everyone else just feels like cannon fodder. What are your thoughts?
So we're well into our CSA and are now getting squash by the truckload and TOMATOES! Yay!!!! We are also picking flowers like there's no tomorrow (the sunflowers are now in bloom). It's frickin Martha Stewart at the DCfoodblog abode. One thing I am struggling with is the end of the week crush of vegetables that haven't been used. I am now having these standby dishes that use up end-of-the-week veggies. Here's what I've been making:
Stir fries
Curries
Vegetable pancakes (nothing tastes better than shredded veggies)
Breads (sweet zuchinni and carrot, savory squash bread)
And finally:
Sambussas! For those of you who may not live in a city with Ethiopian restaurants, sambussas are essentially overstuffed won tons with either a collard green filling, lentil filling, or potato filling. With the bounty of vegetables, I've grated things like squash and carrots, along with the huge number of greens that have been finely chopped for my sambussa filling. Think of this as a guideline not a recipe. This is really for throwing what you have in.
4 cups of shredded squash, carrots, zucchini etc.
2 cups of finely shredded greens (kale, collard, swiss chard)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 jalepeno peppers with the seeds and ribs removed from at least one of them (finely chopped)
2 tablespoons cooking oil (not olive)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup of bac-os (I cannot sing the praises enough. This is for vegetarians to get the smoking flavor of ham in their greens)
1 teaspoon honey
1 package won ton skins
1 egg (for egg wash)
Saute the onion and peppers in 2 tablespoons of regular cooking oil in a large pot until the onions are translucent. Add the shredded veggies, soy sauce, bac-os and honey and stir. Reduce heat to low and cover. Let the veggie mixture cook down for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let the mixture cool. Put a heaping teaspoon into a won ton skin. Brush edges with egg wash and seal to make a triangle. Fry until golden brown. These freeze beautifully!
BTW, Stef, Scotte and Jason, would you all want to see Butter, A Love Story that's playing as part of the Capitol Fringe Festival? Could they not have written a play more suited to us?
"What happens when you combine the evil genius of Paula Deen and the overblown vocals of Patti LuPone? You get Sandy Patti, TV's hottest new chef. Join her for this delicious take on TV cooking shows with comic songs sure to leave you with belly laughs and buttery dreams!"
It's playing:
Saturday, July 21 @ Noon
Sunday, July 22 @ 7:00pm
Tuesday, July 24 @ 9:15pm
Thursday, July 26 @ 8:00pm
Saturday, July 28 @ 8:30pm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Yes, Top Chef is in danger of sucking badly. I've acquired audition tapes from next year's "chefs".
The Sabussas guidelines sounds interesting, I'll try it. Hadn't heard of them.
No "bac-os" though.
Ha--I'm the one doing Butter: a love story at Fringe. I hope to see you there. Love your blog!
Sure, I'd totally be up for Butter! Email me offline and maybe we can recruit the other boys and find a date that works. Good idea!
This season's Top Chef is pretty bad (although i still love to watch them make those crazy dishes) and i find season one and two can't compare to the first season. The friction and competition seemed so much more real, and everyone seemed a little more mature.
Have you ever tried making Korean pancakes with julienned vegetables? It's a great way of using up your carrots and zucchini. Using 1 part tempura flour to 2 parts tempura flour also adds a great crispy texture to the dish.
Post a Comment