Battered, Pan-Fried Cucumbers

If you have a RIDICULOUS amount of cucumbers from your garden or CSA this week, check out a bunch of things you can do with them besides eat them raw.    I had 2 1/2 of Japanese Long Cucumbers leftover from this week and last, plus a bunch of little ones from our CSA and neighbors.  Too many!

So I made a cold cucumber soup, with some lemon balm leaves (also from our CSA!), some garlic, swiss chard thrown in just to use it, dash of cumin, salt, a splash of orange juice, and some yogurt for creaminess.  It tastes pretty good!  Just blend in a blender or food processor and season to taste!

But the yummy thing last night?  Battered and pan-fried cucumbers!  The nice thing about eating well 90% of the time is that you usually don’t feel any guilt when you try things like this.  ;-P

Ingredients:

cucumbers (depending on the size; whatever looks like it will fit this batter)

1 cup of milk

1 egg

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 heaping cupful of whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder.

Directions:

Peel cucumbers and cut into slices half an inch thick.  Beat the batter together, dip the cucumber slices into it, and drop, one at a time, into a hot pan that has a bit of butter melted in it.  Don’t mess with it or try to loosen it from the pan until the edges start to slightly brown after a few minutes!  Then you can flip it and brown the other side.  If they are sticking too bad, add more butter, olive oil, bacon grease, whatever.  Best eaten warm, but I’m going to try and freeze them and warm them back up in an oven sometime!

Flatbread for Passover

Last year I made flatbread for the first time.  I thought you were supposed to bake it in the oven.  I didn’t really like the way it turned out.  But THIS – this recipe was wonderful! I love the smokey look that the cast iron gave the bread.  And I had bubbles, just like in the movies!  That didn’t happen last year.  Maybe it was also from not rolling them thin enough?

I highly recommend this recipe!  I tried some with olive oil in the pan and that was tasty; you could also add seasonings like garlic or some kind of bitter herb, in keeping with tradition.  This also makes a quick tasty appetizer bread – imagine all the dips you could do with this!  Honey, yogurt, pestos, sour cream, etc….You could also make these wrap-size or use as tortillas!

Ingredients:

• 2-1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon oil or melted fat
• 1 cup tap water

Mixing by Hand: Get out a large bowl. In it combine the whole wheat flour and salt. Add the oil and water. Combine everything together to form a stiff dough. Mix it with your hands when it gets too stiff to mix with a spoon. If the dough seems dry, add a little more water, if it seems too wet, add a little more flour. Work and knead the dough for 10 minutes by the clock. All of this kneading is what makes a tender finished product. After kneading the dough, cover it with a dish towel or plastic wrap. Allow it to rest for at least 30 minutes. This will make it easier to roll out. You may allow it to rest over night if desired.

(I didn’t allow it to rest and it was good.  If you’re making it for Passover, resting kinda defeats the purpose.)

Rolling & Shaping the Dough: After the dough has rested, divide it into 8 or 10 pieces. Roll out each piece into a large thin circle. I roll mine out on waxed paper dusted with flour, or a square piece of clean muslin cloth dusted with flour. Make the flat-bread as thin as possible. Roll out all of the flat-bread before you begin to cook them if possible. This makes the work go faster. The thinner you can roll the dough, the more tender the finished product will be.

To Make Chapatis: After rolling out the dough, heat a dry iron skillet over medium-high heat. When it is hot, place one of the prepared flat-bread on it. Let it cook for about 10 seconds and then flip to the other side. Cook the second side for about a minute, or until it is brown and puffy. Flip the flat-bread again and cook the first side for about another minute. It will be light brown, tender and puffed with little bubbles all over.

To Make Fry-Bread: After rolling out the dough, heat about 1/2 an inch of oil in a large skillet. Get the oil very hot, almost smoking, or about 375°. Carefully slip a prepared flat-bread into the hot oil. Press it down gently with a pair of tongs so that it is submerged in the hot oil. The bread will bubble up and puff all over. Use tongs to turn it and brown the other side. Remove it and place it on a paper towel covered plate, or a brown paper bag to drain. Continue with the rest of the flat-bread, until all are cooked.

(I had Native American Fry Bread and it was soooo good!  But you could also make the Chaptis with a small amount of oil in the pan for that olive-oily taste without the waste and burn potential of actually heating that much oil.)

A Visit to Trolley’s

Matt & I went to Trolley’s yesterday for a meeting.  It was the first time we’d been there.  We started off by splitting the Downtown Nachos with our groupies.  It had white queso, onions, jalapenos, and sour cream on the side.  It wassupposed to have chicken on it, but didn’t, so we asked the waitress to bring it out so we could dump it on top.  The chicken didn’t taste that great…I’m not sure it was really seasoned, which is something you definitely have to do with chicken.  Even a little salt and pepper…?  But no.  They were also extremely skimpy on the queso, which was a shame because it was really good.  I think it had chili powder or taco seasoning in it.  Odd…but good.  Any ideas on how to get that similar flavor, but with fresh ingredients?

I then had the Philly Queso.  I know…it’s like the cheapest meat, but Phillys are soooo good.  There were green peppers and onions on it, with more white queso that had a different flavor than the nachos (I think).  I was disappointed in the amount of meat on the bun for the price.  I was also disappointed in the bun itself, which was practically like just a soft hamburger bun.  It really needed something heartier (especially at $8.95!), like a tangy, firm ciabatta.  Ohhh that would have been so delicious.  I asked for some horseradish sauce, but there wasn’t a whole lot of flavor to it.  It was mostly a tangy mayo-type sauce.  Bummer.

On the upside, they had some pretty decent sweet potato fries.  They were covered in sugar and cinnamon, which was kind of a surprise to me.  I kinda wished I’d put salt on them to get that sweet and salty combo, but I didn’t think of it at the time.  Matt put salt on his, like always, and…like usual, he liked it.  We’ve made them before but not like that (recipe below!).  I dipped them in the horseradish sauce….meh….didn’t do much…and Matt’s BBQ sauce, which was a pretty good combination because it was good BBQ sauce.

Overall, I wouldn’t necessarily reccommend Trolley’s for a fantastic, special place to eat, especially with all the other choices downtown.

So!  Here is our version of sweet potato fries.  They’re not really fried fries, but baked, mostly because frying scares me, it’s easier, and healthier.

Ingredients:
a couple of Sweet potatoes (don’t use old ones)
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Cracked pepper
Fresh basil

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and cover a baking pan with foil.
2. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them evenly into steak slices.  Put them on the pan in one layer.
3. Drizzle fries with olive oil and toss to coat evenly.
4. Sprinkle with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper.
5. Bake for about 15 minutes.
6. Place on a serving dish and sprinkle with fresh basil.

You could try it with the cinnamon and sugar combo.  Tell us how it turns out!