Garden Snacks & Sheet Pan Nachos
This week the garden is flourishing, I'm making zucchini plans, spending time in the kitchen with the littles, and continuing my sourdough obsession. Plus a recipe for Greek Inspired Grilled Chicken.
This week the garden has hit its Summer production stride, and we’ve all been popping cherry tomatoes and little cucumbers from the vine as snacks. There is nothing more quintessentially summer than a handful of rust colored tomatoes still warm from the sun.
The little carrots have reminded me of the vast difference in taste between the grocery store variety and those planted and cared for with love. The zucchini are doing what zucchini does, which is to suddenly grow rapidly and in mass sizes and quantities. Next week, expect at least one zucchini recipe, but more than likely two. I’m thinking zucchini fritters, and chocolate chip zucchini bread.
What have you been making this zucchini season?
What I’m Cooking
I spent some more time in the bulk section of the North Country Food Co-op this week, where I picked up some pickling spices (to pickle some garden green beans, cucumbers and carrots), a Za’atar spice blend (I have my sites set on some pork chops in the freezer), more strong white bread flour (because this is my life now), some whole wheat bread flour (to add a little nutritional bump in some upcoming loaves), and a pouch of Dutch cocoa powder (because chocolate). Highlights in my kitchen this week were:
Something for Dinner
Simple Shrimp Quesadillas using leftover shrimp from the previous night’s dinner. These came together quickly by layering a little cheese, the already seasoned and cooked shrimp with a bit of chopped onion, tomato, and guac onto one side of the tortilla shell and folding them in half. Then, I put them into a pan with hot oil to get them nice and crispy. They only take a few minutes to melt the cheese on the inside and become golden on the outside. Dinner in snap.
Sheet Pan Nachos, both vegan and meat options. The vegan nachos were piled with crumbled tempeh and cashew queso, plus the typical nacho veggies—onion, tomato, lettuce, olives (maybe not typical), and guacamole. The meat nachos got the beef and cheddar treatment with all of the veggies and a few dollops of sour cream. I cooked the tempeh and beef simultaneously in separate pans, but seasoned them exactly the same way by eyeballing a mixture of cumin powder, chili powder, coriander, onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, smoked paprika, Spanish paprika, salt and tomato sauce and continuing to adjust the seasoning to taste. I also zested half of a lime into each pan. Right below are the vegan nachos, which the meat eaters in the house all enjoyed as well.
The next step was to simply spread an even layer of tortilla chips onto a sheet tray, all tucked in together nice and cozy without any tray peaking out from beneath. Then, the layering process begins. My layers were ordered with protein on the bottom, followed by tomato, onion and olives, then cheese. If there’s still more meat or tempeh you can add a second layer of chips and repeat the process. Sheet pan nachos spread out like this ensure that every chip gets all of the toppings, not just the chips on top. Here's a shot of the nachos with ground beef.
The whole sheet tray goes into the oven for 5-10 minutes, just enough to melt the cheese. I did this in an oven preheated to 350F, but I think if you put the sheet tray in while the oven is preheating that would be enough to melt the cheese and make everything stick together. Once it comes out of the oven, add your lettuce, guacamole, and sour cream, and dig in.
Last week, I made an even quicker version of this for lunch with my niece and nephew who helped layer all of the ingredients. We used a can of black beans for our protein and sprinkled the seasoning directly over all of the chips. They had fun helping make the meal, it was exceptionally easy and only required light chopping of a few vegetables, and it pleased all who ate it. Win, win and win.
Something Sweet
Peanut Butter Chocolate & Cranberry No Bake Granola Bars made with my 5 year old niece. As I mentioned last week, there’s a growing list of kitchen to-do’s coming from my nephew. This week while he went fishing with his Papa, his little sister spent the day with me and my mom. (She got her turn fishing with Papa later in the week, they both caught at least one fish and came home sharing tall tales about 70 pound Pike Fish and Orange Fanta.)
She and I took the recipe for my Salted Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares, and turned them into granola bars by adding oats, chia seeds, and dried cranberries. I measured all of the ingredients out before she was even in the kitchen, so she didn’t get bored waiting. She was easily and quickly able to help pour everything into a big bowl and try to stir the sticky, stiff mixture together, though she was mostly interested in licking all of the spoons.
Weekly Bread(s)
Everything but the Bagel Seasoned Sourdough This loaf came out beautifully, and has so far been the favorite of everyone in the house. I followed my typical process which is based on Elaine Boddy’s Master Recipe and adjusted to the environmental factors at my parent’s house. To that dough, I added 2 tablespoons of Everything but the Bagel seasoning. The extra salt in the seasoning meant that the dough took twice as long to ferment since salt slows yeast activity, but it was absolutely worth the wait.
Chocolate Sourdough A few weeks ago, when I still didn’t have a good handle on my bread making this chocolate loaf came through my feed. I knew I didn’t have the skill to experiment yet, but bookmarked it for later. This week the time finally came, and I’m confident enough now to start trying new things with my basic recipe.
My loaf was loosely based on that Instagram post, but I modified it as not to stray too far from my usual process. To my dough, I added 2 tablespoons of the Dutch cocoa powder from the co-op, and 10% sugar. The sugar adds a lot of moisture to the dough, and results in significant growth during the bulk ferment. During my third round of stretching and folding, I mixed in 20% chocolate chips.
This bread smelled incredible while baking, is not overly sweet, and has a very soft crumb. But if the speed at which these breads disappear is an indicator of how beloved each loaf is, this one was well liked, but not in the top three.
The one consistent issue I’m having with my bread is always getting a burned patch on the bottom, and the add ins on top also get scorched.
While a burnt chocolate chip doesn’t put me off, I’m wondering if you have any tips to prevent the little burnt bits on the top of the bread, as well as the burnt bottom?
Recipe: Greek Inspired Grilled Chicken Kabobs
Marinade is for 2-3 pounds of chicken
Last week I mentioned the chicken kabobs we had for dinner. Below is the recipe for the creamy, lemony, herby marinade. If you don’t have access to a grill, I used to make this chicken often for clients when I was personal chef-ing by cooking them in a pan sans skewers.
Ingredients
3/4 cup sour cream of Greek yogurt
1/4 cup olive oil
zest from 1 lemon
juice from 1 lemon
4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons oregano
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dill
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2-3 lbs chicken, cut into 2” pieces
Directions
If you’re using wooden or bamboo skewers, soak them in water for at least an hour before use. This will help prevent the meat from getting stuck.
In a large bowl combine all of the ingredients except for the chicken and stir until smooth. Add in the chicken and stir to coat. Allow to marinate for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours.
When you’re ready, slide the chunks of meat onto the skewers, leaving adequate room at the top and bottom to be able to flip them on the grill.
Grill each side for approximately 7 minutes.
Serve with hummus or tzatziki sauce for dipping.
Thank You
Thanks for spending some time with me on the internet! If you try any of the recipes please share what you think in the comments or reply to this email, and tag me on Instagram! Let me know what you loved (or didn’t!) and how you made it your own. If you like this newsletter, please share it with a friend!
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