Grilled Balsamic Zucchini Bites

Is it just me or does everything taste better with balsamic on it? Seriously, I use it for everything from salad dressings to marinades and sauces, and it always adds just the right flavor. For example, one simple grilling trick my brother taught me is to marinade vegetables in balsamic before throwing them on the grill.

One variation of this that results in a delicious side dish is zucchini sliced into thin strips lengthwise, dipped in balsamic, and grilled. (By the way, I still have yet to find a reasonable way to cut zucchini into thin strips lengthwise without occasionally putting my fingers in danger. Please enlighten me if you know how.)

I was making this zucchini dish the other day when we were grilling burgers and was trying to think about how I could make it more fancy - like something you could do as appetizers at a party. It definitely needed more color and I thought it would be nice to have an additional flavor that would compliment the balsamic flavor.

I decided that goat cheese and roasted red pepper would do the trick. Since we already had the grill running, I did a roasted red pepper on the grill. To make it easier to eat, I rolled the zucchini up around the cheese and pepper and stuck a toothpick in. The result? Excellent! The goat cheese and balsamic flavors really go together very nicely. The roasted red pepper added color, without taking away from the other flavors.

One thing that I might try next time is to actually blend some roasted red pepper and some other spices with the goat cheese to make a spread. Also, since it's a little time consuming to roll each appetizer, next time I'll try to have everything portioned out and ready to roll before the zucchini comes off the grill.

Here's what it looks like:




And here's the recipe:

Grilled Balsamic Zucchini Bites
(makes appetizer potion for 4)

Roasted red pepper:
1 red pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil

Grilled zucchini:
3 zucchini, cut into thin (1/8 inch thick) lengthwise slices
balsamic vinegar, enough to coat zucchini, about half a cup
salt and pepper, to taste

goat cheese, one small package
toothpicks

For the roasted red pepper, poke some holes in the pepper with a fork. Then coat the outside with olive oil. Finally, put on the grill, rotating periodically, until the outside is fully blackened. It will take about 15-20 minutes.

After taking the pepper off the grill, put it in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it sit for 5 minutes. After that, the skin will peel off easily. Cut it in half, removing the seeds and the skin. Then cut into thin strips. Cut the strips into pieces so that each piece is about the width of the zucchini.

For the zucchini, line up as many slices as you can fit on a plate. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and make sure they are fully coated by flipping them over a few times. Season all slices liberally with salt and pepper, flip, and do the same on the other side. Stack these slices on the side and repeat with another layer until all slices are done.

Grill the zucchini slices for a couple minutes on each side, until they develop a nice golden color. Adjust the cooking time to the thickness of the slices. They should be very soft, but not blackened.

Prepare all the ingredients in an assembly line to put together the rolls. Take each piece of zucchini and place a piece of red pepper and a dollop of goat cheese at one end. Roll the zucchini starting at that end. Finally, stick in a toothpick to hold it all together.

Enjoy!

Egg Express: Breakfast on the go

When I'm in a hurry, one of my favorite things to have for breakfast is an egg sandwich. Often I'll stop by the local bagel shop and grab an egg and cheese on a bagel. However, there are a few things that I dislike about the store bought sandwich, which led me to create my own version.

First of all, it's really upsetting that the vast majority of places that I've been to in San Francisco dump the egg in the microwave. Too often this leads to a thick, flavorless mass of rubbery egg. Tell me what is so hard about having a grill in a bagel shop! :-)

Another problem is that often the bread-to-egg ratio is way off (a sentiment echoed here). Either the egg is falling out the sides or the bagel dwarfs the egg. Many times I feel that it ends up being way too filling for my taste.

For my version, I use a honey wheat English muffin, which adds a subtle sweet flavor to balance out the savory flavors. Add one fried egg, seasoned generously with salt and pepper, plus a slice of cheese, and sprinkle with any garnish leftover from last night's dinner (in this case it ended up being scallions). Perfect bread to egg ratio and plenty of flavor. Yum.

Here is the finished product:


And here is the (very simple) recipe:

Egg Express
(Serves 1)

1 egg, room temperature
1 honey wheat English muffin
small pat of butter
1 slice of cheese (I have to admit that I tend to use American cheese for this because it is so fast to melt. But really any cheese would work.)
salt and pepper
ketchup/extra garnish, if desired

Take a small non-stick pan and heat on medium low. You don't want to cook fried eggs over too high of a heat - otherwise they will cook too quickly and will have a tough texture. Add butter to lightly coat the bottom of the pan.

After the pan is completely heated, add your egg to the pan. One trick to keep the egg from spreading all over the pan (courtesy of Alton Brown) is to crack it into a bowl first, and then gently pour it into the pan.

Liberally season with salt and pepper. Since the top is still uncooked, it absorbs the seasoning nicely. Start toasting the English muffin while the egg cooks.

When the thickest part of the egg has turned from clear to opaque, it is ready to flip. If desired, you can pop the yolk a few seconds before turning. This spreads the yolk flavor a little bit through the sandwich and ensures that it won't be too runny in the finished product.

After flipping, season again with salt and pepper. Take the slice of cheese and place it on top of the egg, so it begins to melt. It shouldn't take much time on this side to complete cooking - less than a minute.

Place the egg on the toasted English muffin, folding or cutting as necessary to fit the shape. At this point, if the cheese still isn't fully melted, you can stick it in a toaster oven for a few seconds. Top with your favorite garnish and ketchup, if desired.

So simple, but delicious!

Not-so-red Velvet Cupcakes

I have to confess that I have been a bit obsessed with cupcakes lately. It started when I went to the local bakery and had an amazing carrot cupcake. Then I had a very tasty vanilla cupcake at Kara's Cupcakes in Ghirardelli Square. I even made a special trip to Magnolia when I was in New York City about a month ago, just to see why it is so popular. (Honestly, I still don't get why Magnolia is so famous - they weren't my favorite, although the icing was good.)

Then I saw a Paula Deen show on red velvet cupcakes. Paula Deen is a food network personality who is well known for her southern comfort food recipes, many of which involve a stick of butter or a package of cream cheese. Most of her food is too rich for my taste, but I figured that if anybody would know how to make a decadent dessert, it would be her. So, I decided to try out her recipe for red velvet cupcakes.

The result? The cupcakes were fluffy and moist, and the icing was just sinful. However, I couldn't taste the cocoa in the cake and they left me with a bit of a greasy/oily feeling. (As a side note I also noticed that they left a sizable puddle of oil in the cupcake pan, which is not all that surprising considering how much oil is in the recipe.)

Upon offering some of the cupcakes to my friends, they were generally well received, but I inevitably heard "Wow, what makes them so red??" and was somewhat ashamed to admit that it involved food coloring.

All of this left me thinking that I could probably improve upon the initial recipe. I've always been afraid to experiment when baking though. I mean, when you are cooking something savory, no big deal. Double the garlic, throw in a few extra spices, swap some ingredients, it all works out in the end. But with baking, I'm always afraid that I'll end up with a dense cake that doesn't rise.

I decided to give it a shot, while trying to be conservative about how much I changed in the recipe. I reduced the oil by 1/3 and added a couple of tablespoons of butter instead, hoping that this would give it a less greasy feel. I also decided to increase the cocoa powder, to allow for more of the chocolate flavor to come through, and I doubled the vanilla extract for more flavor. Finally, I ditched the food coloring, deciding that despite the southern tradition it was pretty unnecessary. Instead I topped with red crystallized sugar.

The result? The cupcake was definitely less oily and didn't leave me with a greasy feel like the original recipe. The cake did lose a bit of the light, airy feel that the original version had, though. This is possibly because of the butter substitution and possibly because I reduced the overall proportion of wet ingredients in the recipe. I think I might continue to experiment with this one, but not half bad for a first try! Any advice from baking experts out there??

Here is the finished product:


And here is the recipe:

Not-so-red Velvet Cupcakes
(makes 12 cupcakes)

Cupcakes:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 large egg, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/2 lb. cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted

red crystallized sugar, to top

For the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake papers.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, melted butter, buttermilk, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pan once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
Be sure all your ingredients are at room temperature! That means leaving the butter and cream cheese out for at least a couple of hours. In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy. You'll see the the icing lighten in color and increase in volume.

Frost the cupcakes, sprinkle with the crystallized sugar, and enjoy! The frosted cupcakes will keep in the fridge for several days.

Dad's Kifta Kebabs

This is one of the dishes that I beg for when I visit my parent's house in New Jersey. My dad is from Syria and I grew up enjoying many Arabic dishes that he cooked, like this one. This year I grilled these kebabs on my balcony in San Francisco for the fourth of July.

Kifta kebab is made with ground meat, usually lamb, which is mixed with spices, onions, and parsley for flavor. Do not confuse this with shish kebab, which is more common in the US and usually consists of chunks of meat and vegetables on a skewer. In my opinion, often the marinade used to make shish kebabs never quite penetrates to the center of the meat, and as a result they are far inferior to kifta kebab.

Usually the meat for kifta kebab is wrapped around a skewer for grilling. However, relatively recently my dad started making them in the same shape, without the skewer, like a fat hot dog or sausage. I've been told that the meat stays together better this way. There is also less cleanup, and as far as I can tell no compromise on taste, so I prefer this method.

The spices in kifta have a generally mild flavor, but they compliment the lamb perfectly. My dad serves with pita bread, a garlic yogurt sauce, and parsley or cilantro for sprinkling on top. (Actually he likes to sprinkle parsley and cilantro on top of pretty much everything but I think it works well in this case :-) ) I like to make a little pita bread sandwich out of it all.

Replicating a recipe from my dad is always interesting, as he has been cooking these dishes for years on feel, without actually measuring how much of each ingredient is added. I've estimated the amounts that I used when barbecuing last Wednesday, but feel free to experiment and add more or less of whichever ingredient is your favorite.

We enjoyed the kifta with a pilaf from one of my favorite food blogs and a tomato and cucumber salad

Here is what the kifta looks like:


And here is the recipe:

Dad's Kifta Kebabs

(Serves 4)

Kifta:
2 lbs. fatty ground lamb (or 50/50 ground beef and ground lamb), either way is delicious
1 Tablespoon allspice
1 Tablespoon paprika
1/4 cup parsley, cut very fine
1/4 cup onion, cut very fine
salt and pepper

Garlic Yogurt Sauce:
1 16 ounce tub of yogurt
1/4 cup cucumber, peeled and diced
1 garlic clove, crushed in a garlic press or very finely diced

Whole wheat pita bread
Chopped parsley or cilantro to garnish

For the yogurt sauce, mix the yogurt, cucumber, and garlic, and set aside for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to blend.

Mix the lamb and spices and form into kebabs, approximately 5 inches long and just over 1 inch wide. Grill until the outer surface just begins to blacken, or until cooked through.

Heat the pita bread on the grill during the last minute of cooking. Then place the warm bread on a serving plate. Remove the kifta from the grill and place immediately on top of the warm bread, to allow the bread to absorb any excess juices from the meat.

Serve with the yogurt sauce and extra parsley or cilantro for garnish.

Crispy Salmon with Warm Lentils and Balsamic Essence

I found this recipe in a cookbook that I picked up from the bookstore the other day. The cookbook is called "A New Way to Cook" and it caught my eye because it features a philosophy that appeals to me: cook healthy without compromising on flavor. I've only tried a couple of recipes from it so far, but they have both been amazing.

This dish consists of three components: the lentils, the salmon, and the balsamic based sauce.

The lentils I used are the Lentilles du Puy (or French green lentils), which are said to have a richer flavor than the standard brown lentil. I really enjoyed them and found that they have a nutty taste and a nice texture. The great thing about lentils of any variety is that there is no pre-soaking necessary and they cook relatively quickly.

The technique used to cook the lentils is to infuse flavor by simmering with potent ingredients in the cooking water, like garlic, bay leaves, and hot peppers. It works amazingly well and leaves me wondering what other dishes I could apply this to.

The recipe calls for cooking the salmon with skin on, but I prefer without. I also added some coriander to spice the salmon up a bit and to compliment the cilantro in the lentils. There isn't much to cooking the salmon, but be sure not to overcook so that you get a flaky texture inside. I went for a medium to medium-high heat, cooking only a few minutes on each side, until the color on the part of salmon that doesn't touch the pan lightens and appears uniform. I found it to be a bit fishy, so next time I would probably sprinkle with a little bit of lime before cooking.

The balsamic glaze is really very simple but it adds intense flavor to the dish. The recipe calls for adding either butter or olive oil to the glaze. I've tried both and didn't notice much of a flavor difference between the two, but it is harder to get the olive oil to incorporate into the glaze. By the way, I found that balsamic vinegar lets off some pungent fumes while reducing, so turn on your oven fan, or if (like me) you don't have a functional oven fan, stand back and open a window :-)

Here's a picture of the finished product. We enjoyed with a salad on the side.



And here is the recipe, from "A New Way to Cook", with my own modifications.

Crispy Salmon with Warm Lentils and Balsamic Essence
(serves 2-3)

A Bed of Lentils:
6 ounces lentils (3/4 cup), preferably French lentilles du Puy
4 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
1 serrano or jalapeno chile, cut lengthwise in half (one more if you are adventurous)
1 shallot, peeled and chopped into 2-3 large chunks
1 bay leaf
3/4 teaspoon salt, to taste

Buttery Balsamic Essence:
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter or extra-virgin olive oil

Crispy salmon:
2-3 5-ounce salmon fillets (or one larger fillet to split), skin off
1/2 teaspoon coriander (or enough to liberally season salmon)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more for some extra kick)
juice from 1/2 of a lime
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (or parsley as the original recipe specified)

To make the lentils, combine the lentils, garlic, chile pepper, shallot, and bay leaf in a medium saucepan with water to cover by 1 inch. Bring to a simmer over moderate heat, then reduce the heat to low. Cook the lentils at a bare simmer for 10 minutes. (Do not allow the lentils to boil, or they will become tough.) Add the salt and continue cooking until they are just tender but still hold their shape, about 10 minutes longer. (They will continue to cook as they cool.) Let the lentils cool for about 15 minutes in their cooking water.

To make the balsamic essence, bring the balsamic vinegar to a boil in a small nonreactive saucepan over moderate heat. Reduce the heat slightly and cook until reduced to 1/4 cup and thick and syrupy. Remove from the head and set aside. I found that this took about 15-20 minutes.

Sprinkle the salmon with the salt and freshly ground pepper, coriander, and cayenne, on both sides.

Add a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to a large heavy nonstick skillet. Heat over moderate heat (medium to medium-high) until very hot. Slide the salmon into the pan and cook 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the salmon fillets over and cook for 1 to 2 minutes longer, until the fish is opaque and a two-pronged kitchen fork inserted straight down meets with no resistance.

Meanwhile, drain the lentils, reserving 1 tablespoon of the cooking liquid. Remove and discard the garlic, chile pepper, shallot, and bay leaf. Return the lentils to the saucepan and stir in the reserved cooking liquid and salt and pepper to taste. Heat the lentils over moderate heat, stirring frequently until hot. Toss in the cilantro, cover, and keep warm.

Let the salmon rest for a minute or two.

Return the balsamic sauce to moderate heat and bring to a simmer. Add the butter and stir until blended.

Mound the lentils in the center of four dinner plates. Place 1 salmon fillet on top of each mound, then spoon sauce around the lentils.

Tip for making in advance: You can prepare the lentils up to 3 days ahead; cover and refrigerate. Warm gently in a covered medum skillet, adding a few tablespoons of water if necessary. Add the cilantro just before serving. The balsamic vinegar can be reduced several hours ahead, and left in the pan at room temperature. Add the butter at the last minute.