Lemon Zucchini Bread

There's been a sad lack of content here these days but that doesn't mean the little kitchen has been inert. In fact, productivity is at an all time high, thanks to the little sister kitchen joining forces with me for a while. It's usually technical difficulties or just plain laziness that inhibits post production. I can't manage to get from the kitchen to the computer, well that's a lie. I get to the computer just fine. Here I enjoy my favorite OCD/ADD procrastination activities along with homemade baked goods. I came home from work last night to a batch of biscotti.

I'm way too easily sucked into that vortex known as Pinterest...not that there's anything wrong with that because that's where I found this little gem at one of my faves, My Baking Addiction. I saw the words lemon & zucchini in the same recipe title and well...the brain went into overdrive thinking about two ginormous lemons one of my co-workers brought me from his tree and that zucchini sitting in the veggie drawer ready for my next round of fritters.

I managed to make it home and make this beautiful bread and it blew me away because it's a rare, rare occasion when I get my mitts on lemons this fresh. I've always been a city girl and small apartment renter. Lemon trees? When was the last time I saw one of those? I don't get out much-but when I come across a recipe that inspires me to commit it to paper right then and there-then it manages to exceed my expectations AND teach me a lesson...well, in my little world, it doesn't get any better.

I learned a lesson about lemons-well, more of a heightened awareness because of course I know that fresh is best. I have this weird thing about lemons. I love them and I always want to have them because I never know when I'm going to be in the mood for popcorn or salad dressing or a spritz in my sparkly water, but every now and then-sad to say-I'll wind up with a lemon or two teetering on the edge of petrification. I've been known to zest up some sad, sad lemons even though they're dry as dirt. 

This was the polar opposite of that.

one ginormous lemon=2 tablespoons zest.

The AHA moment: working the zest into the sugar with my fingertips. The fragrance was out of this world.


Lemon Zucchini Bread

Adapted from allrecipes via My Baking Addiction

Yield: 1 loaf

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons lemon zest (about 2 medium lemons)
1 large egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (packed and undrained)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Glaze:

½ cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray an 8x4 inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar and lemon zest, mixing with your fingertips until fragrant. Add the egg, vegetable oil and vanilla and whisk to combine. Stir in zucchini. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder and cinnamon. Stir the flour mixture into the zucchini mixture until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

3. Bake 50-55 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. Remove pan to wire rack and cool in pan for about 10 minutes before turning out onto the wire rack to cool completely.

4. Once bread is cooled, prepare the glaze. In a medium bowl, whisk together the confectioners' sugar, lemon juice and vanilla. Drizzle the glaze over the bread.

Notes:

Bread will store in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 days-if it even lasts that long.

Make this ASAP!! You'll be so glad you did.

Zucchini Fritters

I can't get enough of these tasty little fritters-so simple and they're a great do-ahead. Topped with a poached egg...well, they are just the thing.
This recipe is a mash-up of two recipes I love. One from Smitten Kitchen and the other from The Longevity Kitchen Cookbook.

I've made these several times over the last two weeks. I've been playing around with spices. I like to add several grinds of Trader Joe's Everyday Spice Blend to the egg mix. I didn't put it in the recipe because it's not really necessary-I just like using those grinders.  The parsley, cilantro, mint medley came to mind as a really nice herb combo, one I had gleaned from the zucchini burgers I made from Jerusalem. I didn't have any mint though.


Zucchini & Sweet Potato Fritters
inspired by smitten kitchen and The Longevity Kitchen Cookbook

2 medium zucchini

1 small sweet potato-about the same size as the zucchini

1 small yellow onion

1 finely chopped scallion-green part only
1 heaped teaspoon coarse or Kosher salt, plus extra to taste

2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
Freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup chopped fresh herbs (I used parsley & cilantro-mint would be good here too)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
sunflower oil for frying

Preheat oven to 200 degrees and place a sheet pan inside.

Trim ends off zucchini, peel the sweet potato, slice the onion in half and peel.  Grate everything either on the large holes of a box grater or in the food processor.

In a large bowl, toss the shredded vegetables with 1+ teaspoon coarse salt and set aside for 10 minutes. Line a colander with a clean tea towel and transfer the grated vegetables into the middle of the tea towel. Gather the ends and twist and squeeze out as much liquid as you can-there will be a lot.

Return the grated vegetables to a large bowl and loosen the compact ball with two forks and stir in your chopped herbs. Taste to see if you need more salt. To the beaten egg add stir in some freshly ground black pepper, then add to the shredded vegetables. In another small bowl, stir together flour and baking powder, then stir the mixture into the veg mix as well.

In a large heavy skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. I like to use two forks to form small dollops of the veg mix into the skillet so there’s space between each pattie. Lightly press them flatter with the back of the fork. Cook the fritters over moderately high heat until the edges underneath are golden, about 3 to 4 minutes. If you find this happening too quickly, reduce the heat to medium. Flip the fritters and fry them on the other side until browned underneath again, about 2 to 3 minutes more. Drain briefly on paper towels then transfer to baking sheet and then into the warm oven until needed. Repeat process, keeping the pan well-oiled, with remaining batter. The fritters should continue to cook in the warm oven for another 10 minutes to finish setting and get a little more crisp.

Stack them up and top with a poached egg.

These fritters keep well, chilled in the fridge for a couple of days though they never last that long.They can also be frozen-place a sheet pan in the freezer, place the cooked fritters on the chilled sheet pan and freeze until solid, about an hour. Transfer the frozen fritters into a freezer bag and drawing or pressing out as much air as possible.

When you’re ready, bake them on a sheet pan, in a 325 degree oven until they’re hot and crisp.

shaved vegetable salad

shaved vegetable salad, originally uploaded by michele wynne.

One of the most valuable lessons (so far) I learned in cooking class at 18 Reasons (or The Big Kitchen as like to call it), is the layered salad. This taste-bud tantalizing method of salad building can turn a mountain of veg into an empty plate and a full belly in no time. I never tire of these.

The beauty of this method is that the variety of textures and flavors make each bite taste different- your palate is continuously engaged, as opposed to tossing everything together with your dressing resulting in a salad that can get boring before it's been finished. This is insanely good. By the time I finished building this it was mountainous. I was reading a book while eating and it seemed quite suddenly my plate was empty.

This Shaved Fennel Salad was a riff on the Buttermilk Farro Salad (link below) I made last week from 101 Cookbooks. I had some of those same veggies left and lots of the buttermilk dressing to use up (which I mixed with a little home made mayo). Build the salad on a large plate or a platter, using 1/2 of each ingredient then repeating the layers. This particular salad went down like this:

arugula

shaved fennel

shaved black Spanish radish

shaved French breakfast radishes

shaved zucchini coins

sliced toasted almonds

chopped dried cranberries

crumbled goat cheese

buttermilk dressing
salt
pepper

Depending on whether the salad is dinner for one or one course of a larger gathering you can scale the number of ingredients up or down.

-Some kind of green: arugula, baby spinach, kale, little gems, spring mix

-2 or 3 (at the most) shaved, thinly sliced or grated vegetables

-toasted nuts

-fruit for sweetness-golden raisins or other dried fruit or mangoes or apples or mandarins

-cheese-goat, feta, shaved parmesan or blue cheese...I like salty cheeses

-salt

-pepper

-dressing drizzled lightly-lemon juice & olive oil work just fine.
Remember to build the salad in two layers.

I've also added avocado or sliced hard boiled eggs to make this a meal.

Ottolenghi's Turkey Zucchini burgers

Ottolenghi's Turkey Zucchini burgers, originally uploaded by riptideredsf.

OCD'ing on OTZ burgers~Oh. So. Good.

I've been sitting on this recipe for awhile now. It's from Ottolengi's Jerusalem and I knew it would be great in spite of my reservations with ground turkey. So, when I realized I had to kick up the healthy cooking a notch (again), I figured now was as good of a time as any to give ground turkey another chance (again).

I've never been a fan of ground turkey, except for the time I made an Ellie Krieger recipe for Big Fat Greek Turkey Burgers. I'd always found the gamey smell, insipid flavor and mushy texture a huge turn-off. What I know now is that there are endless ways to flavor it up and give it great texture. It's a blank canvas.

These amazingly flavorful meatballs or slider sized burgers are packed full of zucchini, fresh herbs, scallions and spices. The sour cream and yogurt sauce is enhanced with sumac, a middle eastern spice that comes from dried sumac berries. Sumac is a deep red powder with a tart lemony flavor. It creates a pink creamy sauce that is so gorgeous and fresh tasting. I made these twice last week. The first batch disappeared before I could get a picture off. The second batch was about to go the same way so I dashed this pic off in the murky light of the night time kitchen. I have to keep reminding myself that it's ok that I'm not smitten kitchen or 101 cookbooks with my low rent cell phone cam and generic blogger template, hence the link to the recipe above. I aspire to its inspiration.

Zucchini & Spaghetti Squash Lasagne

Zucchini & Spaghetti Squash Lasagne, originally uploaded by riptideredsf.

This is an off-the-hook cheezy veggie layered bake that began its journey as a mash-up of two recipes that collided in my ADD-led brain as I managed to fritter away the better part of my morning yesterday on Pinterest.

I would have gladly spent all day at it if it meant finding this at the end of it all: Green Lite Bites my new happy place for some awesome vegetarian inspiration where I was then drawn to this. Two recipes. Similar...but different. I love the look of zucchini sliced whisper-thin and was intrigued by the spaghetti squash. Then again there's always something going on in that fridge that needs to find it's greater purpose stat! So this is how this all went down. I slam the computer shut and run to the produce market...because I'm also making a quinoa corn chowder that needs potatoes and I must get all that going in the slow-cooker. Anyhoo...

I started by cutting the spaghetti  squash in half, removing the seeds and then sprinkling the cut side with salt and pepper and a splash of olive oil. I turned the two cut halves down on the flattest plate I had, jabbed the skin a few times with a fork and nuked it for about 12 minutes. You'd almost think I was a pro at this right? Well...no. This is the first time I've ever prepared or voluntarily eaten a spaghetti squash (I was squashaphobic until about 2 years ago). While the squash was cooking I made

 Five Minute Tomato Sauce (from 101 Cookbooks) :

heat up 2 T. olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add a smashed clove of  garlic, a couple of pinches of kosher salt and about 1/4 t. of red pepper flakes and cook for a couple of minutes until the garlic becomes fragrant. Add a can of crushed tomatoes and cook on medium for about 5 minutes until the sauce is hot. Cover, remove from heat and set aside.
I sliced one large zucchini on a mandoline then tossed it in a bowl with a splash of olive oil, salt and pepper and let it sit a bit so it would exude a bit of water. Then I thinly sliced 4 plum tomatoes and tossed them with a splash of olive oil, salt, pepper, dried oregano, dried basil and dried tarragon and let those sit about 15 minutes to release some water. The spaghetti squash had cooked and cooled a little. Then with a fork, start shredding the squash. It looks like fine egg noodles. I was dubious about the texture, thinking it would be mushy. It was not. Even after baking in the lasagne for 30 minutes the squash had some "tooth". They were still a little crunchy.

I had some ricotta cheese that was teetering on the brink of the trash can, parmesan and some bulk white sliced American cheese (courtesy of my Test Kitchen Dummy) that in my world, should have turned on me long ago, yet it looked and smelled just like it did that day so many months ago when it appeared at my front door, and it tasted just fine...so fine, I had to resist the urge to shove whole slices into my gob.

I started with sauce on the bottom, then layered zucchini,  squash, tomatoes, a sprinkle of dried herbs, salt and pepper, cheeses and then zucchini, sauce...oh and some roasted peppers, just for the heck of it 'cuz I had them roasting for a different purpose but couldn't help but thrown those all in there. I probably didn't need the tomatoes and the sauce but the whole thing turned out so freakin' good that I don't feel like I'd change a thing.