Corn and summer squash stew - Recipe Marathon #2

I had some squash left over and I used them for the following mixed vegetable dish. It was served with rice, and sauted turkey sausage slices on top.

Corn and summer squash stew

3 small summer squashes
1 cup (after chopped) mushrooms
2-3 tbs oil
4 cups corn
1 cup tomato sauce (I used RAGU original)
1 tbs chopped fresh basil
1 tbs dill (less if dried)
salt, pepper to taste

Slice the squashes very thin, chop the mushrooms, then saute the two in the oil until softened. I used a flavoured oil that I kept from a jar of Italian antipasto of mixed mushrooms, five different kinds they were if I remember well. It definitely added to the total experience. Now add the corn, a bit of water if necessary and let it simmer a while. Finally add the tomato sauce, the fresh basil, adjust the taste (sometimes a little sugar helps, too) and let it simmer until the sauce thickens and the flavours meld.

If you don't have ready made tomato sauce at hand, you can first saute some chopped onions and garlic, and instead of the sauce then use diced tomatoes. A little extra rosemary and thyme will add to the aroma as well.

Squash stew for the Recipe Marathon

I love food blog cruising! It is such a delicious pursuit, almost bordering on the naughty. Why? Because I feel like a "peeping Tom", or whatever the female version of it might be called, looking into other people's kitchens, checking out what they are up to, "stealing" some of their cooking secrets. Do you see what I mean? And because I myself do not have that much time to cook, I satisfy my hunger for choice and variety by looking through food blogs for about 10-15 minutes daily, looking at the pictures, reading the recipes, almost feeling the tastes in my mouth. Sometimes I like something so much that I am compelled to find the time and prepare it.

I was cruising a bit again this morning when I chanced on this cooking challenge, the Recipe Marathon. This prompted me to try and find the time to either participate or just "parallel run". :) And if not every day, but at least doing an "off and on" marathon.

So today I ran over (it's a marathon after all) to the veggie store and got these lovely small baby squashes. I would usually make the recipe below with larger summer squashes and stuff them with the ground beef mix. But these baby ones did just as well, although I only stuffed a few, to have one per person, the rest I just chopped up.


Squash with ground beef stuffing

2-3 medium sized summer squashes (or large zucchinis, or several small ones)
1 lb ground beef
1 onion
2 tablespoon oil or butter
1 egg
2 slices multigrain bread, ground into crumbs in a blender
1 cup cooked rice
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
salt to taste
For the sauce:
1 can basic tomato sauce or 2 cups homemade
herbs and spices to your liking

Peel the squashes and scoop out the insides. Arrange the scooped out flesh at the bottom of the pot in which you will cook the stew. If the squashes or zucchinis are too small, you can just cut them into cubes, and from the meat mixture make meatballs. Otherwise proceed the same way with the recipe.

Chop the onion finely and saute it a bit in the oil or butter. Grind the two bread slices into crumbs in a blender or food processor. In a bowl mix together the meat with the rest of the ingredients, stuff the prepared squash boats with some of it, and if there is more, form meatballs. Tightly pack these on top of the scooped out stuff, then pour water over it to just barely cover it. Bring it to boil. At this point I like to sprinkle a little chopped dill in the water and add a spoonful of chicken soup powder.

Cover the pot and let it boil for about 20 minutes. By that time the water should have reduced somewhat. Pour in the tomato sauce and add some spices, like coriander, garam masala, some chopped green chilies, chopped green parsley or coriander leaves, whatever your family likes. Now slowly simmer it until the sauce thickens. Taste it, adjust the seasonings. I usually add a little sugar at this point if the sauce tastes a bit too acidic.

Spicy chicken with corn

You may have noticed that this blog is all about speedy dishes. Today I again managed to throw together a nice - and fast! - dinner. For the main dish I made this easy chicken dish, while a pot of pasta was cooking in the background, and my older son chopped up a bowl of salad ingredients. For dessert we had the apple squares featured below, which is another fast and tasty favourite of my family.

Chicken

2 or 3 large breasts
1 onion
2 tablespoon oil
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
2-3 cups frozen corn
1 cup canned tomato sauce
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) hot pepper

Cut the breast into small chunks, chop the vegetables. Fry the onion in the oil until it softens a bit, add the peppers and saute them together for a few minutes. Add the chicken and let the cubes fry with the veggies until all of them turn white. (I started to work on the dessert - see below - while this was going on.)

When I saw that the chicken cooked through, I added the corn and the tomato sauce, together with the spices, covered the pot and let the dish simmer until everything and everybody was ready.

For hot pepper I use hot Korean paprika, the kind they use for making kimchi. Very powerful stuff, but my family loves spicy food. I also have at home and use other heat producing substances, from ground American chili peppers to hot Thai ground chilies preserved in oil.

While the chicken was simmering away, I finished the dessert, shoved it in the oven, drained the pasta, dressed it, and finally mixed the salad with some salad dressing I keep in the fridge. We were just sitting down to the table when the squares finished baking, so I pulled the pan out, cut a few squares and set them on a large plate to cool while we had dinner. By the time we finished the main course, the squares cooled just enough so we could serve them. Some of the younger, sportier members added a little extra ice cream on top.

Apple coconut squares

Base
1/2 cup (120gr) butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
grated lemon zest
pinch salt (if the butter is not salted)

Topping
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup freshly grated coconut
2 1/4 cups thin slices of apples

Let the butter soften at room temperature for a while. Mix it well with the sugar and flour. Grate a little lemon zest into it, too. Now pat this into an appropriate sized pan (9x9 inches?) to form a thin bottom layer, and bake it for 10 minutes at 350F.

Meanwhile beat the eggs with the sugar, mix the flour with the baking powder and add to the eggs with the vanilla. Hopefully you have a helping hand around who in the meantime peeled and sliced the apples. Now mix those in also, together with the grated coconut.

When the base starts to get pink around the edges, take it out, let it cool a few minutes, then spread the apple topping evenly over it. Put the pan back in the oven and let it bake for about 20 more minutes, or until the top starts to gain a nice color.

Cool, slice, enjoy!

Well dressed veal

After a lengthy struggle with post-surgery problems (wisdom-tooth extraction with complications - see my Musingspace blog) I decided to get busy in the kitchen again.





I had a nice slab of lean veal, which I put in the freezer for a short while and then sliced it thin. I sprinkled each slice with a little pepper, then I crushed a big fat clove of garlic with half a teaspoon of salt and smeared a bit on each piece. I stacked them, covered them with plastic wrap and put them aside.

Next I chopped up half an onion finely, put it in a pan with a tablespoon of oil and let it saute slowly, stirring occasionally, while I peeled some potatoes. I grated these using the grater disk with the large holes of the food processor. When all in a bowl, I rinsed it in water, squeezed it as dry as possible and added it to the onions which tarted to turn golden here and there. First I put a lid on the pan and let it steam for a while, while I peeled and julienned a few carrots. I peeled a couple of apples, too (the green, sour variety is better then a too sweet kind), chopping them fine. When that was done, I checked the potato which was half cooked by that time. I raised the heat, added a bit more oil and fried it stirring constantly until it started to colour a bit, at which point I added salt and pepper to taste and put it aside.

Next I sauted the carrots with the apples over a tablespoon of butter (olive oil would do, too), added some salt, pepper, a teaspoonful of curry powder and a pinch of cinnamon, and kept stirring until started to go limp but was still crisp a bit. I would have liked to add some anise, too, but my husband doesn't quite like it. Nevertheless it turned out very nice and fragrant.

Now that the side dishes were ready, I kept those hot on lowest heat on the stove while I quick fried the meat slices.

I arranged the plates by spooning some of the potatoes in the middle, covering those with the meat slice, and then putting a neat pile of the carrot mix on the top. I planned to also place a sprig of parsley on the side for colour, but when I looked in the fridge I found that they were all old and yellow. Oh well...