Greek Baked Vegetables

I enjoyed the article in the NY Times food section this week that had several variations on ratatouille. I had already made a “layered” ratatouille a couple of weeks ago, with grilled eggplant and squash, more or less based on a Chez Panisse recipe, and a “Layered Vegetable Torte,” also from the Times, cooked in a spring-form pan and then unmolded was terrific too.

Last night, however, I tried one of the new recipes from the Times—a Greek Briam. I couldn’t resist altering it somewhat, and it turned out great—and is quite a bit easier than a traditional ratatouille, since the vegetables don’t all have to be browned. Here’s the recipe, as I made it; it would serve four as a main course and 6 or more as a side dish.

1 small eggplant, halved lengthwise and then sliced ¼ inch thick.
1 medium onion, sliced
1 large garlic clove finely chopped
½ pound red potatoes, sliced ¼ inch thick
½ pound summer squash, sliced ¼ inch thick
1 red bell peppers, seeded and sliced
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, or more to taste
10-12 ounces tomatoes, chopped, or a 16-ounce can, drained
Salt & freshly ground pepper
¼ pound sliced mushrooms
2-3 Tb. chopped flat-leaf parsley
2Tb. chopped marjoram or oregano, or 1 tsp. dried.

1. Sprinkle the eggplant with salt and put on paper towels for 30 minutes. Thinly slice the onions, peppers, and mushrooms and chop the garlic. Cut the potatoes and squash into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Squeeze excess water from eggplant and pat dry.
2. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet and add the onions. Cook until tender and translucent, about 6-8 minutes. Add a salt and pepper, then stir in the garlic, peppers and mushrooms. Cook for another minute or two, until mushrooms are lightly browned and peppers begin to soften. Sprinkle herbs on top of mixture, reserving about 1 Tb for the top.
3. Lightly oil an earthenware baking dish or a Dutch oven. Put the tomatoes in a bowl and season liberally with salt and pepper. Stir 2 Tb. of olive oil. Spread a thin layer of tomatoes in the baking dish or Dutch oven and top with one-third of the onion mixture. Top with half the potato slices. Layer half the zucchini slices over the potatoes, then layer on half the eggplant. Season with salt and pepper between layers. Layer another third of the onions over the vegetables and top with half of the remaining tomatoes. Repeat the layers with the remaining vegetables, ending with a layer of the onion mixture topped with the remaining tomatoes. Sprinkle the top with any remaining herbs. Pour any juice from the tomatoes over the mixture and add additional olive oil, if desired.
4. Cover with foil or a lid and bake for 1 hour. Press the vegetables down into the juice and bake another 30 minutes, or until all the vegetables are thoroughly tender. Let stand for ten minutes or cool until warm before serving, or refrigerate overnight and reheat

Herbed Olive Oil

A couple of weeks ago I decided to make some herbed olive oil, with basil, rosemary, thyme, and sage from the garden, along with some of Costco's extra virgin olive oil. It tasted good, but it doesn't keep well (vinegar would work much better), so I had to use it up quickly--the basil for salads mostly, and the others for marinades, green sauce, etc. But don't they look pretty?

Strange Mushrooms In the Garden

Some very strange mushrooms have appeared in one section of my vegetable garden, close to where the squash and cucucumber plants have been growing. We've looked them up, but it seems highly possible that they are toxic, so we're not eating them. Too bad, because they look like they would be delicious. This is the second crop! I pulled a bunch out last Saturday, and by Tuesday they had returned. We are puzzled, and wish we could consult with our old friend Richard Koppel, a self-taught mushroom expert.

A16 Food and Wine

Summer really is over now, but with temperatures in the 90’s today, and more than 100 yesterday, we are still eating dinner on the patio most nights—now in the dark. Our daughter Laura visited two weeks ago, along with her boyfriend Weston, and after they returned to NY, Weston sent us the cookbook A16 Food and Wine, by the restaurant of the same name in San Francisco (unfortunately closed, when they tried to dine there).

Last night I tried out a couple of the recipes, one for sardines and the other for a salad. I had most of the ingredients for the sardine recipe (“Roasted Sardines with Bread Crumbs, Green Garlic, and Mint”), but substituted green onions for the green garlic, which is not in season. They turned out great, though the bread crumbs on top were a bit small (and not as orange as in the picture). I had to improvise a bit more with the second recipe, since it called for cauliflower and I had only broccoli. But “Roasted Potatoes and Broccoli (instead of cauliflower) with Red Onion, Capers, and Chiles” also turned out well—and it may have been more attractive, with the green broccoli. I will be cooking some more things from this terrific new cookbook, as soon as I do a bit of shopping.

We made another tian a few nights after the first one, this time with potatoes, eggplant, onions, herbs and some feta cheese, as well as parmesan. It was good too! I really recommend this method of vegetable-cooking.

Summer Garden A Bust!

Our summer garden was a bust this year, with small plants and few veggies. We planted 5 tomatoes this year, and even the cherries are doing poorly--barely enough for our salad each night. Luckily, Davis has a fantastic farmer's market, so we've been regular visitors. Our squash and cucumber plants, three in all, appear to be dead or nearly so, and though the tomato plants still have a few tomatoes, they are pretty pathetic. Clearly, we will have to do some major soil amendment next year and maybe rethink our watering system. I'm really not sure what the problem is. That healthy-looking plant spilling over the side is tarragon--much more than we could ever use!

We will probably have basil for a couple more months, but even those plants are much smaller than last year. Four small eggplants may be ready for the weekend, but that plant too is far less hardy than last year's. It's been disappointing, to say the least!

Salmon with Herb Butter

Here's the cooked tian (the other photo is before cooking), along with the salmon. It was WAY too much salmon, but I managed to eat it all!

Summer Food

I can't believe I've let the summer go by without a post! But though summer’s almost over, temperatures here in Davis are in the mid-80’s, so we’re still grilling most nights and eating dinner on the patio. Last night we used only our oven for baked salmon with herb butter and a vegetable tian. I started making tians more than 20 years ago, when I discovered some recipes for them in Martha Stewart’s “Quick Cook” series. Last night I combined leeks, squash, potatoes and tomatoes, but eggplant works well too. Here’s what I used, which made about 3 generous servings; if you double the recipe, you will need a somewhat larger sauté pan!

¼ cup of olive oil, plus more for top
1 medium leek, sliced, with about 2-3 inches of green
2 small potatoes, 1 red and 1 Yukon gold, thinly sliced
1 medium round green squash (zucchini would work too), sliced
½ of a yellow squash, sliced (the other half was no good!)
2 small heirloom tomatoes, sliced
Ground pepper and salt (Costo’s grinders are terrific for the kitchen!)
¼ cup of grated parmesan

Preheat the oven to 425º.
Sauté the leeks in the olive oil in a medium oven-proof sauté pan until slightly wilted, and move to one side if you plan to cook the tian in the pan.
Arrange vegetables in the sauté pan, or a pie plate or a shallow baking dish, overlapping and alternating them (but don’t worry about have equal amounts of each). Sprinkle the leeks on top.
Grind black pepper and salt over the dish and sprinkle with the grated parmesan. Drizzle another tablespoon of olive oil over the top, if desired.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Serve immediately or at room temperature.

The salmon with herb butter is a variation on a dish I usually make with an olive butter. The herbs included about 2 Tb. purple basil, a small amount of marjoram, 6-8 chives, and about 2-3 Tb. of chopped parsley, but garlic could have been added as well. I added about 3 Tb. of softened butter to the chopped herbs and dotted the fish with about half of it—I saved the remainder to add at the end. Before topping the salmon with the butter, I ground pepper and salt over it and brushed it with olive oil. The salmon can cook in the same over as the tian, for about 10 minutes at the end.