A perfect recipe for late summer

This is the time to make a big pot of GUMBO. All the veggies you need for this recipe are bounteously available at your local farm market or farm stand.


 

Shrimp, chicken and sausage gumbo

Seafood and Chicken Gumbo
Fresh okra is seasonal (late spring until first freeze), but you can also use frozen okra in this recipe. If so, eliminate step 1 below and add frozen okra in step 3.
(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:
1 lb. okra, trimmed and sliced (about 4 cups)
4 T canola oil or butter, or a mix, divided
2 andouille sausages, made from pork or chicken (optional), sliced
1 medium green pepper, diced (1 cup)
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 small onion, chopped (1 cup)
2 T flour
4 cups chicken stock, heated
2 cups chopped tomatoes
2 T each chopped fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried) and parsley
1 large bay leaf
½ teaspoon salt, or more to taste
1 lb. uncooked shrimp (peeled and deveined), crabmeat, or chicken (boneless, skinless, cut into bite-size pieces), or a combination
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1 T Tabasco or other hot sauce, ore more to taste
Instructions:

1.      Heat 2T oil/butter over medium-high heat in a skillet. Add okra and sauté, stirring often, for about 8-10 minutes until “roping” (thin strands of white substance) subsides. Set aside.

2.      Heat remaining oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add sausage, if using, and cook until just beginning to brown. Stir in pepper, garlic and onion and sauté until veggies turn translucent, about 5 minutes.

3.      Stir in flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add chicken stock, tomatoes, herbs, salt, and reserved okra.

4.      Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

5.      Stir in shrimp, chicken and/or crabmeat, cover and cook another 5-10 minutes until meat is tender. Be careful not to overcook shrimp.

6.      Remove from heat. Discard bay leaf, stir in lemon juice, Worcestershire and hot sauces. Add more salt if necessary.

7.      Ladle into bowls over white or brown rice. Pass more hot sauce at the table.

Without sausage, a lighter dish

Cooking from the farm

Here's what we're eating these days: pan-seared fish (at left is sea bass, at right is albacore tuna) with fresh tomato salsa and a side of green veggies with their own veggie-based sauces.
For the salsa, I've been using so-called cherry tomatoes of different varieties, my favorite being the super sweet, orange Sun Gold. After searing the fish and removing it from the pan, I briefly cook a little minced garlic, perhaps onion or shallot, chopped jalapeno or a dash of cayenne pepper for kick, a handful of herbs and the tomatoes just until heated through. Spoon over the fish.
For sides, in these photos it's either broccolini or tiny green beans, locally grown if possible. I sauteed some diced red bell pepper and very thinly sliced fennel bulb to go with the green beans, while the broccolini just got some of the tomato salsa.
We usually include a thick slice of crusty bread from our local artisan bakery (Blue Oven is its name) and a glass of white or rose wine.
All hail the bounties of summer!

Early summer treat: Wheatberry Salad

Bulghar wheat provides the high-fiber, whole grain base for a refreshing salad. Use cucumbers for crunch, olives for salty tang, the first tomatoes of the summer for juicy goodness, and lots of lemon and parsley to pull it all together. If I am mistaken in thinking that wheatberry and bulghar are the same thing, my apologies. Although you can substitute many grains in this recipe -- including quinoa or rice, even wild rice -- my intention is to use bulghar, the grain in the middle Eastern dish taboulleh.

Recipe: Wheatberry Salad with Tomatoes, Cucumber and Parsley
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
1 cup bulghur wheat (toasted for 10 minutes in a dry saucepan, if desired)
1 cup boiling water
1 large or 1-2 small seedless cucumbers, cut in half lengthwise and very thinly sliced
1/2 to 1 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Juice of one lemon, divided
1/4 cup high-quality olive oil
2 T chopped green or black olives
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes, preferably unpeeled
Salt, pepper and garlic powder, to taste

Instructions:
Place bulghur in a medium mixing bowl, pour boiling water over grains, cover bowl and let sit for 20-30 minutes
Fluff grains with a fork and add a little salt and juice of half the lemon. Stir in remaining ingredients, adjusting seasonings as needed. Add remaining lemon juice.


Salad may be refrigerated and served chilled, or served at room temperature.

Figs!!

Yes, it's that time of the summer when you actually can get fresh figs in Cincinnati. I don't know of any local sources--the ones I see all come from California--but I'll be looking at Findlay Market this weekend and hoping to see the fruits of some intrepid area farmer's fig tree.

However, I scored my first carton of these precious gems at Trader Joe's this week.

[Thursday, I saw three varieties of fresh figs at Whole Foods, on sale for $2.99 a carton]

I used about half of the TJ carton to make the salad pictured above.

Recipe: Fig and Chicken Salad on Arugula (Serves 2 as an entree, 4 as a side)

Ingredients:

1 skinless, boneless chicken breast (preferably free range, organic)

Chicken stock or broth

1 large garlic clove

1 bay leaf

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

6 cups arugula (or other mixed greens)

1 cup cooked green beans, and an equivalent amount of any other leftover cooked veggies on hand

6-8 fresh figs

Salad dressing of your choice

Shredded mozzarella cheese or crumbled goat cheese (optional)

Instructions:

1. Place the chicken in a saucepan and cover with chicken stock, or a mixture of chicken stock and water. Add garlic, bay leaf and seasonings. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and cook gently until chicken is just done (about 5 minutes, depending on thickness of breast).

2. Remove pan from heat, take chicken out and let rest on a cutting board. Save broth for another use, or discard (if saving, put through a strainer and discard garlic and bay leaf).

3. When chicken is slight cool, slice into bite-size pieces and cover with some of the salad dressing you are using.

4. (Optional) Spray a shallow frying pan with cooking spray, add figs and cook on medium heat, turning often, to heat and slightly cook (caramelize) the figs.

5. Cut the figs (warm or uncooked) into quarters.

6. In a large mixing bowl, toss together arugula, figs, chicken in its salad dressing, vegetables and figs.

7. Drizzle more salad dressing over all, season with salt and pepper, if desired.

8. Divide into large, shallow bowls and serve. Pass cheese at the table.

A farm-fresh dinner

From the weekend's haul at Findlay Market, supplemented by pantry staples:

Sliced tomatoes with salt, pepper and a little bit of high quality Balsamic vinegar;

A skillet dish of corn cut off the cob, a few steamed Brussels sprouts, diced red pepper and shallot, sauteed in canola oil and a touch of butter, with salt, pepper and 1/4 cup chopped herbs from the garden (in this case, parsley and thyme);

Fettuccini tossed with a simple mushroom sauce.

My husband also had some multi-grain bread with olive oil.

Healthy, vegetarian, locavore, filling and YUMMY. Hooray for summer!!